Interesting moments from the history of fine art. "Feast of the Gods on Olympus"
Interesting Facts about painting
Some famous paintings have a very interesting, and sometimes even funny story creation. Facts will tell you something you may not already know about famous artists and their masterpieces.
1 Leonardo da Vinci for a long time could not find a sitter for the image of Judas in The Last Supper.
For many historians and art critics, Leonardo da Vinci’s “Last Supper” is greatest work world art. In The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown focuses readers' attention on some of the symbolic elements of this painting in those moments when Sophie Neveu, while in Lee Teabing's house, learns that Leonardo may have encrypted some great secret in his masterpiece.
“The Last Supper” is a fresco painted on the wall of the refectory of the monastery of Santa Maria della Grazie in Milan. Even in the era of Leonardo himself, it was considered his best and famous work. The fresco was created between 1495 and 1497, but already during the first twenty years of its existence, as is clear from written evidence of those years, it began to deteriorate. It measures approximately 15 by 29 feet. The fresco was painted with a thick layer of egg tempera on dry plaster. Beneath the main layer of paint is a rough compositional sketch, a study in red, in a manner anticipating the usual use of cardboard. This is a kind of preparation tool.
It is known that the customer of the painting was the Duke of Milan Lodovico Sforza, at whose court Leonardo gained fame as a great painter, and not at all the monks of the monastery of Santa Maria della Grazie.
The theme of the picture is the moment when Jesus Christ announces to his disciples that one of them will betray him. Pacioli writes about this in the third chapter of his book “The Divine Proportion”. It was this moment - when Christ announces betrayal - that Leonardo da Vinci captured. To achieve accuracy and lifelikeness, he studied the poses and facial expressions of many of his contemporaries, whom he later depicted in the painting. The identities of the apostles have repeatedly been the subject of controversy, however, judging by the inscriptions on a copy of the painting kept in Lugano, these are (from left to right): Bartholomew, James the Younger, Andrew, Judas, Peter, John, Thomas, James the Elder, Philip, Matthew, Thaddeus and Simon Zelotes.
Many art historians believe that this composition should be perceived as an iconographic interpretation of the Eucharist - communion, since Jesus Christ points with both hands to the table with wine and bread.
Almost all scholars of Leonardo's work agree that the ideal place to view the painting is from a height of approximately 13-15 feet above the floor and at a distance of 26-33 feet from it. There is an opinion - now disputed - that composition and its system of perspective are based on the musical canon of proportion.
What gives The Last Supper its unique character is that, unlike other paintings of its kind, it shows the amazing variety and richness of the characters’ emotions caused by Jesus’ words that one of his disciples would betray him. No other painting of the Last Supper can even come close to the unique composition and attention to detail in Leonardo's masterpiece.
So what secrets could he encrypt in his creation? great artist? In The Discovery of the Templars, Clive Prince and Lynn Picknett argue that several elements of the structure of the Last Supper indicate symbols encrypted in it.
Firstly, they believe that the figure is right hand from Jesus (for the viewer she is on the left) - not John, but a certain woman. She is wearing a robe, the color of which contrasts with the clothes of Christ, she is bending over the opposite side from Jesus sitting in the center. The space between this female figure and Jesus is shaped like the letter V, and the figures themselves form the letter M.
Secondly, in the picture, in their opinion, next to Peter a certain hand is visible, clutching a knife. Prince and Picknett claim that this hand does not belong to any of the characters in the film.
Thirdly, sitting directly to the left of Jesus (to the right for the audience), Thomas, addressing Christ, raised his finger. According to the authors, this is a typical gesture of John the Baptist.
And finally, there is a hypothesis that the Apostle Thaddeus sitting with his back to Christ is actually a self-portrait of Leonardo himself.
Zloty section" Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo's most famous work - the famous "Last Supper" in the Dominican monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan - was completed between 1495 - 1497.
Leonardo's brush captured the last joint meal (dinner) of Jesus Christ and the twelve apostles on the eve of the day ( Good Friday) Christ's death on the cross.
Leonardo prepared carefully and for a long time for the Milan painting. He completed many sketches in which he studied the poses and gestures of individual figures. “The Last Supper” attracted him not for its dogmatic content, but for the opportunity to unfold a big picture before the viewer. human drama, show different characters, reveal the spiritual world of a person and accurately and clearly describe his experiences. He perceived “ last supper” as a scene of betrayal and set myself the goal of bringing into it traditional image that dramatic beginning, thanks to which it would acquire a completely new emotional sound.
While pondering the concept of “The Last Supper,” Leonardo not only made sketches, but also wrote down his thoughts about the actions of individual participants in this scene: “The one who drank and put the cup in its place turns his head to the speaker, the other connects the fingers of both hands and with frowning eyebrows looks at his companion, the other shows the palms of his hands, raises his shoulders to his ears and expresses surprise with his mouth..." The record does not indicate the names of the apostles, but Leonardo, apparently, clearly imagined the actions of each of them and the place to which each was called borrow in overall composition. Refining poses and gestures in his drawings, he looked for forms of expression that would draw all the figures into a single whirlpool of passions. He wanted to capture living people in the images of the apostles, each of whom responds to the event in their own way.
“The Last Supper” is Leonardo’s most mature and complete work.
There are several legends telling about the great Master and his painting.
So, according to one of them, when creating the fresco “The Last Supper,” Leonardo da Vinci faced a huge difficulty: he had to depict Good, embodied in the image of Jesus, and Evil in the image of Judas, who decided to betray him at this meal. Leonardo interrupted his work in the middle and resumed it only after he had found the ideal models.
Once, when the artist was present at a choir performance, he saw a perfect image of Christ in one of the young singers and, inviting him to his workshop, made several sketches and studies from him.
Three years have passed. The Last Supper was almost completed, but Leonardo had not yet found a suitable model for Judas. The cardinal in charge of painting the cathedral was hurrying him, demanding that the fresco be completed as soon as possible.
And after many days of searching, the artist saw a man lying in a gutter - young, but prematurely decrepit, dirty, drunk and ragged. There was no time left for sketches, and Leonardo ordered his assistants to deliver him directly to the cathedral, which they did.
With great difficulty they dragged him there and put him on his feet. He didn’t really understand what was happening, but Leonardo captured on canvas the sinfulness, selfishness, and wickedness that his face breathed.
When he finished the work, the beggar, who by this time had already sobered up a little, opened his eyes, saw the canvas in front of him and cried out in fear and anguish:
- I've already seen this picture before!
- When? - Leonardo asked in bewilderment.
- Three years ago, before I lost everything. At that time, when I sang in the choir and my life was full of dreams, some artist painted Christ from me.
According to another legend, dissatisfied with Leonardo’s slowness, the prior of the monastery persistently demanded that he finish his work as soon as possible. “It seemed strange to him to see Leonardo standing immersed in thought for the whole half of the day. He wanted the artist to never let go of his brushes, just as he never stops working in the garden. Not limiting himself to this, he complained to the Duke and began to pester him so much that he was forced to send for Leonardo and in a delicate manner ask him to take up the work, while making it clear in every possible way that he was doing all this at the insistence of the Prior.” Having started a general conversation with the Duke artistic themes, Leonardo then pointed out to him that he was close to finishing the painting and that he only had two heads left to paint - Christ and the traitor Judas. “He would still like to look for this last head, but in the end, if he does not find anything better, he is ready to use the head of this same prior, so intrusive and immodest. This remark greatly amused the Duke, who told him that he was right a thousand times. Thus, the poor embarrassed prior continued to push on with the work in the garden and left Leonardo alone, who completed the head of Judas, which turned out to be the true embodiment of betrayal and inhumanity.”
2 It turns out that the term “miniature” has nothing to do with small sizes. This word comes from the Latin "minium" - the name of the red lead paint, which had the color of red cinnabar. This paint was used to write the initial letters of texts and to draw small illustrations in ancient and medieval books.
3 Marcelino Sanz de Sautola, whose daughter was the first to find cave drawings in the Altamira Cave, was accused of having forged the images. Allegedly primitive people could not create a masterpiece with such a complex composition.
4 Researchers, having studied dozens of paintings by great artists written from 1000 to 1800, came to the conclusion that during this period the amount of food depicted increased by 69%.
This conclusion was made by scientists who analyzed the dynamics of changes in portions of food depicted in the paintings of various masters...
Modern man eats twice as much as his ancestor who lived a thousand years ago. This conclusion was made by American scientists who analyzed the dynamics of changes in portions of food depicted in the paintings of masters of different eras.
Experts studied 52 paintings from the “Last Supper” series, which were painted from 1000 to 2000. The researchers compared the sizes of the plates depicted on the canvases and the volumes of food portions. The size of the heads of Christ's disciples was taken as a constant indicator on the basis of which the comparison was made.
It turned out that from century to century the volumes of food depicted in the paintings increased. In particular, over the past thousand years, the portion of the main dish has increased by 69%, a piece of bread has become larger by 25%, and the size of plates has increased by 66%.
Modern man gets fat not only because he eats more. Most modern foods are high in calories and have little nutritional value. Besides that modern people do not receive enough nutrients, kidney and liver cells can cope with the preservatives, dyes and leavening agents that current products are rich in. Therefore, the load on these organs increases and metabolism is disrupted.
Recently, the so-called cave diet has been gaining popularity. Its adherents believe that if you give up modern food, you can lose from 7 to 18 kg in 3-4 months excess weight and at the same time cleanse the body of harmful substances.
The amount of food in paintings depicting the last supper of Christ and the apostles has increased significantly over the last 1000 years. As a study of 52 masterpieces of world painting showed, this trend corresponds to the development of a consumer society that tends to eat more and more.
Two brother professors, nutritional psychologist and theologian Brian and Craig Wansink, worked together to analyze the amount of food depicted in 52 of the most famous paintings on Earth. biblical story Last Supper. It was then that Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I say to you, one of you will betray Me.” In addition, it was the last meal of Christ that became the prototype of the rite of communion, where bread personifies the body of the Lord, and wine his blood.
Scientists have researched paintings, created in the last thousand years. She measured the size of the food depicted and correlated them with the average size of the apostle’s head in each painting in order to obtain a certain specific value that did not depend on the size of the canvas. A curious thing emerged: the size of portions, the size of plates and the size of pieces of bread have been constantly increasing since the 11th century to the present day. Thus, the size of the main dish increased by 69%, the size of the plates by 66%, and the size of the bread by 23%.
Analysis of the paintings revealed a number of interesting moments. In the Middle Ages, the apostles were portrayed as ascetics. However, the meals appearing in paintings before 1498 (the year in which the world's most famous Last Supper, by Leonardo da Vinci, was painted) were quite large. The 16th century Mannerist artist Jacopo Tintoretto turned out to be the most “generous” with food: in his painting the plates are the fullest.
Scientists believe that the gradual increase in portion sizes in the paintings reflects the overall increase in consumption in the world. According to the authors of the scientific work, the paintings are only a reflection of “the impressive sociohistorical growth of production, accessibility, safety, abundance and cheapness of food.”
5 “Black Square” was not the first picture in similar style. Long before Malevich, Alle Alphonse exhibited his masterpiece “The Battle of Negroes in a Cave in the Dead of Night” - an all-black rectangular canvas - at the Vivienne Gallery.
“Black Square” was first painted not by Malevich, but by the French poet Bilot, calling the painting “Battle of the Negroes in the Tunnel”
In 1882 (33 years before Malevich’s “Black Square”), at the “Exposition des Arts Incohérents” exhibition in Paris, the poet Paul Bilot presented the painting “Combat de nègres dans un tunnel” (“Battle of Negroes in a Tunnel”). True, it was not a square, but a rectangle.
The French journalist, writer and eccentric humorist Alphonse Allais liked the idea so much that he developed it further in 1893, calling his black rectangle “Combat de nègres dans une cave, pendant la nuit” (“Battle of the Negroes in a Cave in the Dead of Night”). Not stopping with the success achieved, Allais then put out a pristine white sheet of Bristol paper entitled “The First Communion of Girls Suffering from Chlorosis in the Snowy Season.”
. Six months later, Alphonse Allais's next painting was perceived as a kind of “coloristic explosion.” The rectangular landscape “Tomato harvesting on the shores of the Red Sea by apoplectic cardinals” was a bright red monochrome picture without the slightest sign images (1894). Finally, in 1897, Allais published a book of 7 paintings, Album primo-avrilesque (April Fool's Album).
Thus, twenty years before the Suprematist revelations of Kazimir Malevich, the venerable artist Alphonse Allais became “ unknown author» first abstract paintings. Alphonse Allais also became famous for the fact that almost seventy years later he unexpectedly anticipated the famous minimalist musical piece“4′33″” by John Cage, which is four and a half “minutes of silence.” Perhaps the only difference between Alphonse Allais and his followers was that, while displaying his stunning innovative works, did not at all try to look like a meaningful philosopher or a serious discoverer.
6 Abstract artist Henri Matisse's painting "The Boat" hung upside down in the Museum of Modern Art for forty-seven days. During this time, 116 thousand people managed to see it.
A boat is depicted sailing and its reflection in the water surface)) And you need to look at it by turning it 90 degrees
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In my opinion, a wonderful illustration of the true “value” of such art.
7 Idea to depict soft watch came to the mind of Salvador Dali when he watched Camembert cheese melt in the sun.
8 Vincent Van Gogh sold only one painting in his entire life.
Tragic life Vincent Van Gogh is popular today as some kind of sacred legend that people seem to need more than the shine of his stars and sunflowers. Hungry, almost beggarly existence, full of loneliness and the contempt of others, turned into worldwide excitement and interest in the 20th century. During his life, Van Gogh sold only one painting (“Red Vineyards at Arles”), and exactly one hundred years later at Christie’s auction in New York, his “Portrait of Doctor Gachet” was bought for $82.5 million (a record among paintings) . Against the background of this unhealthy worship, the image of the artist himself is lost, powerful and vulnerable at the same time, who ended his dramatic path on earth with despair and suicide. Van Gogh lived only 37 years, of which only the last seven were devoted to painting. However, his creative heritage amazing. This is about a thousand drawings and almost the same number of paintings, created as a result of volcanic creative eruptions, when for many weeks Van Gogh painted one or two paintings every day. Van Gogh became the last truly great artist in history, an unattainable example for others, whose selfless and heroic art, like a torch, like a rainbow, now shines over humanity. His paintings are amazing, full of love and suffering dialogue - with oneself, with God, with the world...
9 Edgar Degas painted about 1,500 paintings of ballet dancers .
10 Painting by Ivan Aivazovsky “Chaos. The Creation of the World,” which was written based on the Bible, was bought by Pope Gregory XVI, awarding the artist a gold medal.
Aivazovsky’s “Italian” paintings, presented at exhibitions in Naples and Rome, brought recognition and success to the painter. Critics wrote that no one had ever depicted light, air and water so vividly and authentically. English artist Joseph Mallord William Turner, who visited one of the exhibitions where the works of the Russian painter were exhibited, was so shocked by what he saw that he dedicated a poem to him:
Forgive me, great artist, if I was wrong,
Taking your picture for reality.
But your work fascinated me
And delight took possession of me.
Your art is high and monumental,
Because you are inspired by genius.
World creation. Chaos. 1841
The largest work created by the master in Italy is “The Creation of the World. Chaos" (1841, Museum of the Armenian Mekhitarist Congregation, Venice).
Focusing on the skill of Karl Petrovich Bryullov, Aivazovsky created a canvas grandiose in its expressiveness, depicting the confrontation and at the same time the interrelation of two primordial elements - sky and water, which are illuminated by divine light, piercing and uniting them. This work, which is based on the words from the book of Genesis: “The earth was formless and empty, and darkness fell over the deep, and the Spirit of God hovered over the waters” was highly appreciated by Pope Gregory XVI.
Thank you..
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On December 3, 1961, a significant event took place at the New York Museum of Modern Art - Matisse’s painting “The Boat,” which had been hanging upside down for 46 days, was properly rehung. It is worth saying that this is not an isolated funny incident associated with paintings by great artists.
Pablo Picasso painted one of his famous portraits in less than 5 minutes
Once, one of Pablo Picasso’s acquaintances, looking at his new works, sincerely said to the artist: “Sorry, but I can’t understand this. Such things simply don’t exist.” To which Picasso retorted: “You and Chinese Do not understand. But it still exists." However, many did not understand Picasso. Once he suggested to the Russian writer Ehrenburg, his good friend, paint his portrait. He happily agreed, but before he could sit down in a chair to pose, the artist announced that everything was ready.
Ehrenburg expressed surprise at the speed of execution of the work, because not even 5 minutes had passed, to which Picasso replied: “I have known you for 40 years. And all these 40 years I have been learning to paint portraits in 5 minutes.”
Ilya Repin helped sell a painting he didn't paint
One lady bought at the market for only 10 rubles a completely mediocre painting, on which the signature “I. Repin” proudly flaunted. When the art connoisseur showed this work to Ilya Efimovich, he laughed and added “This is not Repin” and signed his autograph. After some time, an enterprising lady sold the painting unknown artist with the autograph of the great master for 100 rubles.
The bears in Shishkin’s famous painting were painted by another artist
There is an unspoken law among artists - professional mutual assistance. After all, each of them has not only favorite stories and strengths, but also weak points, so why not help each other. Thus, it is known for certain that for the painting “Pushkin on the Seashore” by Aivazovsky, the figure of the great poet was drawn by Repin, and for Levitan’s painting “Autumn Day. Sokolniki" the lady in black was painted by Nikolai Chekhov. The landscape painter Shishkin, who could draw every blade of grass and needle in his paintings, when creating the painting “Morning in pine forest“The bears didn’t turn out at all. That’s why Savitsky painted the bears for Shishkin’s famous painting.
A piece of fiberboard, over which paint was simply poured, became one of the most expensive paintings
The most expensive painting in the world in 2006 was Jackson Pollock's Number 5, 1948. At one auction the painting went for $140 million. This may seem funny, but the artist didn’t really “bother” with the creation of this painting: he simply poured paint over a piece of fiberboard laid out on the floor.
Rubens encrypted the date of creation of his painting using the stars.
For a long time, art historians and scientists could not establish the date of creation of one of the most famous paintings Rubens - painting “The Feast of the Gods on Olympus”. The mystery was resolved only after astronomers took a closer look at the picture. It turned out that the characters in the picture were located in exactly the same order as the planets were located in the sky in 1602.
The Chupa Chups logo was drawn by the world famous surrealist
In 1961, Enrique Bernata, owner of the Chupa Chups company, asked artist Salvador Dali to come up with an image for a candy wrapper. Dali fulfilled the request. Today this image, although in a slightly modified form, is recognizable on the company's lollipops.
It is worth noting that in 1967 in Italy, with the blessing of the Pope, it was released with illustrations by Salvador Dali.
The most expensive painting Flour brings misfortune
Munch's "The Scream" was sold at auction for $120 million and is the artist's most expensive painting today. They say that Munch life path which is a series of tragedies, put so much grief into it that the picture absorbed negative energy and takes revenge on the offenders.
One of the Munch Museum employees once accidentally dropped a painting, after which he began to suffer from terrible headaches, which led this man to suicide. Another museum employee, who was unable to hold onto the painting, was involved in a terrible car accident just a few minutes later. And a museum visitor who allowed himself to touch the painting, after some time, burned alive in a fire. However, it is possible that these are just coincidences.
Malevich's "Black Square" has an "older brother"
“Black Square,” which is perhaps the most famous painting by Kazimir Malevich, is a canvas 79.5 * 79.5 centimeters, on which a black square is depicted on a white background. Malevich painted his painting in 1915. And back in 1893, 20 years before Malevich, Alphonse Allais, a French humorist writer, painted his “black square”. True, Allais's painting was called "The Battle of the Negroes in deep cave dark night."
Christ and Judas in Da Vinci's painting have the same face
They say that the creation of the painting “The Last Supper” required titanic efforts from Leonardo da Vinci. The artist quickly found the person from whom the image of Christ was painted. One of the singers was chosen for this role church choir. But da Vinci searched for “Judas” for three years.
Once on the street the artist saw a drunkard who was unsuccessfully trying to get out of a cesspool. Da Vinci took him to one of the drinking establishments, sat him down and began to draw. Imagine the artist’s surprise when, having opened up his thoughts, the drunkard admitted that he had already posed for him several years ago. It turned out that this was the same singer.
The idea to depict a flowing clock came to Salvador Dali during dinner when he noticed Camembert melting in the sun.
It was later that Dali was asked whether Einstein’s theory of relativity was encrypted on the canvas, and he answered with a smart look: “Rather, Heraclitus’ theory that time is measured by the flow of thought. That’s why I called the painting “The Persistence of Memory.” And first there was cheese, processed cheese.”"The Last Supper"
When Leonardo da Vinci wrote The Last Supper, he paid special attention to two figures: Christ and Judas. Leonardo found a model for the face of Jesus relatively quickly - a young man who sang in a church choir took his role. But Leonardo searched for a face capable of expressing the vice of Judas for three years. One day, while walking down the street, the master saw a drunkard in a gutter. Da Vinci brought the drunkard to a tavern, where he immediately began to paint Judas from him.
When the drunk sobered up, he remembered that several years ago he had already posed for an artist. This was the same singer. In Leonardo's great fresco, Jesus and Judas have the same face.
"Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan"
In 1913, a mentally ill artist slashed Repin’s painting “Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan” with a knife. It was only thanks to the masterful work of restorers that the painting was restored. Ilya Repin himself came to Moscow and redrew Grozny’s head in a strange lilac color- over two decades, the artist’s ideas about painting have changed a lot. Restorers removed these edits and returned the painting to an exact match of its museum photographs. Repin, seeing the restored canvas later, did not notice the corrections.
"Dream"
In 2006, American collector Steve Wynn agreed to sell Pablo Picasso's "The Dream" for $139 million, which would be one of the highest prices in history. But when talking about the painting, he waved his arms too expressively and tore the art with his elbow. Wynn regarded this as a sign from above and decided not to sell the painting after the restoration, which, by the way, cost a pretty penny.
"Boat"
A less destructive, but no less curious incident happened with a painting by Henri Matisse. In 1961, the Museum of Modern Art in New York presented the master’s painting “The Boat” to the audience. The exhibition was a success. But only seven weeks later, a casual art connoisseur noticed that the masterpiece was hanging upside down. During this time, 115 thousand people managed to see the art, and the review book was replenished with hundreds of admiring comments. The embarrassment spread across all the newspapers.
"Battle of Negroes in a Cave in the Dead of Night"
The famous “Black Square” was not the first painting of its kind. 22 years before Malevich, in 1893, the French artist and writer Allais Alphonse exhibited his masterpiece “The Battle of Negroes in a Cave in the Dead of Night” - an all-black rectangular canvas - at the Vivien Gallery.
"Feast of the Gods on Olympus"
In the 1960s One of the most famous paintings by Peter Paul Rubens, “The Feast of the Gods on Olympus,” was found in Prague. For a long time the date of its writing remained a mystery. The answer was found in the picture itself, moreover, by astronomers. They guessed that the positions of the planets were subtly encrypted on the canvas. For example, the Duke of Mantua Gonzaga in the image of the god Jupiter, Poseidon with the Sun and the goddess Venus with Cupid reflect the position of Jupiter, Venus and the Sun in the Zodiac.
In addition, it is clear that Venus is heading towards the constellation Pisces. Meticulous stargazers calculated that such a rare position of the planets in the sky was observed on the days of the winter solstice in 1602. Thus, a fairly accurate dating of the picture was carried out.
"Breakfast on the Grass"
Edouard Manet, "Luncheon on the Grass"
Claude Monet, "Luncheon on the Grass"
Edouard Manet and Claude Monet are confused not only by current applicants art schools– even their contemporaries confused them. Both lived in late nineteenth centuries in Paris, communicated with each other and were almost namesakes. So, in the film "Ocean's Eleven" between the characters of George Clooney and Julia Roberts the following dialogue occurs:
- I always confuse Monet and Manet. I only remember that one of them married his mistress.
- Monet.
- So Mane had syphilis.
- And they both wrote from time to time.
But the artists had little confusion with names; in addition, they actively borrowed ideas from each other. After Manet presented the painting “Luncheon on the Grass” to the public, Monet, without thinking twice, painted his own with the same name. As usual, there was some confusion.
"Sistine Madonna"
When looking at Raphael's painting " Sistine Madonna“It is clearly visible that Pope Sixtus II has six fingers on his hand. Among other things, the name Sixtus translates as “sixth,” which ultimately gave rise to a lot of theories. In fact, the “lower little finger” is not a finger at all, but part of the palm. It's noticeable if you look closely. No mysticism and secret harbingers of the Apocalypse for you, it’s a pity.
"Morning in a pine forest"
Bear cubs from the painting “Morning in pine forest“Shishkina is not the work of Shishkin at all. Ivan was an excellent landscape painter, he brilliantly knew how to convey the play of light and shadow in the forest, but he was not good at people and animals. So, at the artist’s request, the cute bear cubs were painted by Konstantin Savitsky, and the picture itself was signed with two names. But Pavel Tretyakov, after purchasing the landscape for his collection, erased Savitsky’s signature, and all the laurels went to Shishkin.
Each artist’s creation is unique; each painting contains a piece of the soul of its creator. But like any other business, painting has its own nuances, artists have their own tricks. Associated with each picture Interesting Facts, the most interesting ones we will present to you.
1. Apelles(370 - 306 BC) was an outstanding ancient Greek artist, friend of Alexander the Great. Many interesting facts are associated with his name. According to one legend, Apelles held a competition with another artist to determine the realism of the image. When they removed the canvas from the competitor’s painting, the birds immediately flocked to the surprisingly living grape branch. Then they began to remove the bedspread from Apelles's painting, but the assistants were unable to do so - the bedspread was depicted in the painting!
2. At one of the most famous paintings Rubens The date of creation of “The Feast of the Gods on Olympus” remained unknown for a long time. Finally, astronomers took a closer look at it, and it turned out that the characters were located exactly as they were located on the planet’s horizon in 1602.
3. B Soviet time each artist had to be able to pass his painting through a commission that often had little knowledge of the fine arts. I had to invent the most interesting and unexpected moves. So one artist painted a completely inappropriate yellow dog in the corner of the picture. It was this yellow dog that became main theme discussion for the commission, which no longer paid attention to anything else. A verdict was made - to accept the painting after removing the dog.
4. Van Meegeren was the most talented Dutch artist. Unfortunately, his works were not appreciated, but his copies of paintings were famous painters enjoyed unprecedented popularity. It was these copies that he sold to the Nazis. After the war, he faced a dilemma - or be accused of selling national treasure, or prove that they were fakes. Interestingly, in just a few days, under court supervision, he actually created a new painting.
5. Vasily Dmitrievich Polenov(1844-1927) was a recognized master historical painting. His brushes belong interesting picture With original name"Christ and the Sinner." But the picture was not accepted at that time, since the artist depicted Christ without the obligatory halo, in fact, as ordinary person. It was possible to exhibit the picture to the public only after it was renamed “The Prodigal Wife.”
6. One artist managed to introduce his fake in the most original way. He painted another picture on top of the fake canvas and took it all to the restorer. In the process of work, he discovered this “dual” interesting fact and the discovery of an “unknown” was announced Monet", the authenticity of which was not in doubt for a long time.
7. Other original way allows you to sell a fake. Two paintings are inserted into the frame, one of which is genuine. This entire “sandwich” is tested and receives an official conclusion about the authenticity of the work. After this, one of the paintings is removed, and the second is sold to a naive buyer.
8. Paintings Viktor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov on epic stories among other Russian artists they were not particularly popular, some even called his “After the Battle of Igor Svyatoslavovich with the Polovtsians” “Dead Man,” and his fabulous “Flying Carpet” “Carpet with Ears.”
9. An interesting business was done by one lady in a painting with the autograph of Ilya Efimovich Repin. She simply bought a certain painting for only 10 rubles, but with a proud signature " I. Repin"The lady showed this work to Ilya Efimovich after some time. The artist laughed and added “This is not Repin,” after which the lady sold his autograph (along with the picture, of course) for 100 rubles.
10. Artists often helped each other, because everyone has their own favorite subjects, but there are also weak points. It is natural in this case to use the help of a friend - Repin wrote Pushkin for the picture Aivazovsky"Pushkin on the seashore", Nikolai Chekhov portrayed a lady in black for the painting "Autumn Day. Sokolniki" Levitan, and wrote the most famous bears from Shishkin’s “Morning in a Pine Forest” Savitsky.
Today, in every museum you can listen to wonderful guides who will tell you in detail about the collection and the artists represented in it. At the same time, many parents know that it is difficult for most children to spend even an hour in a museum, and stories about the history of painting tire them quite quickly. To prevent children from getting bored in the museum, we offer a “cheat sheet” for parents - ten entertaining stories about paintings from the Tretyakov Gallery that will be of interest to both children and adults.
1. Ivan Kramskoy. "Mermaids", 1871
Ivan Kramskoy is primarily known as the author of the painting “Unknown” (it is often mistakenly called “Stranger”), as well as a number of beautiful portraits: Leo Tolstoy, Ivan Shishkin, Dmitry Mendeleev. But it’s better for children to start getting acquainted with his work from magical picture“Mermaids”, with which this is the story.
In August 1871, the artist Ivan Kramskoy was visiting the country estate of his friend, an art lover and famous philanthropist Pavel Stroganov. Walking in the evenings, he admired the moon and admired it magical light. During these walks, the artist decided to paint a night landscape and try to convey all the charm, all the magic of a moonlit night, to “catch the moon” - in his own words.
Kramskoy began work on the painting. The river bank appeared in moonlit night, a hillock and a house on it, surrounded by poplars. The landscape was beautiful, but something was missing - magic was not born on the canvas. Nikolai Gogol’s book “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka” came to the artist’s aid, or rather a story called “May Night, or the Drowned Woman” - fabulous and a little creepy. And then mermaid girls appeared in the picture, illuminated by moonlight.
The artist worked so carefully on the painting that he began to dream about it and constantly wanted to complete something in it. A year after it was bought by the founder of the Tretyakov Gallery, Pavel Tretyakov, Kramskoy once again wanted to change something in it and made small changes right in the exhibition hall.
Kramskoy’s canvas became the first “fairy-tale” painting in the history of Russian painting.
2. Vasily Vereshchagin. "Apotheosis of War", 1871
It so happened that people have always fought. From time immemorial, brave leaders and powerful rulers equipped their armies and sent them to war. Of course, they wanted distant descendants to know about their military exploits, so poets wrote poems and songs, and artists created beautiful paintings and sculptures. In these paintings, the war usually looked like a holiday - bright colors, fearless warriors, going into battle...
The artist Vasily Vereshchagin knew about the war firsthand - he took part in battles more than once - and painted many paintings in which he depicted what he saw with his own eyes: not only brave soldiers and their commanders, but also blood, pain and suffering.
One day he thought about how to show all the horrors of war in one picture, how to make viewers understand that war is always grief and death, how to let others look at its disgusting details? He realized that it was not enough to paint a picture of a battlefield dotted with dead soldiers - such canvases had existed before. Vereshchagin came up with a symbol of war, an image, just by looking at which, everyone can imagine how terrible any war is. He painted a scorched desert, in the middle of which rises a pyramid of human skulls. There are only dry, lifeless trees around, and only crows fly to their feast. In the distance one can see a dilapidated city, and the viewer can easily guess that there is no more life there either.
3. Alexey Savrasov. “The Rooks have Arrived”, 1871
Everyone has known the painting “The Rooks Have Arrived” since childhood, and probably everyone wrote from it school essays. And today teachers will definitely tell children about Savrasov’s lyrical landscapes and that already in the very name of this picture one can hear a joyful harbinger of the morning of the year and everything in it is filled with a deep meaning close to the heart. Meanwhile, few people know that the famous “Rooks...”, as well as all the other works of Savrasov, might not have existed at all.
Alexey Savrasov was the son of a small Moscow haberdasher. The boy’s desire to engage in painting did not cause delight in the parent, but nevertheless Moscow school painting and sculpture Kondrat Savrasov let his son go. Both teachers and classmates recognized the talent young artist and predicted a great future for him. But it turned out that, without even studying for a year, Alexey, apparently due to his mother’s illness, was forced to stop studying. His teacher Karl Rabus turned for help to the Chief of Police of Moscow, Major General Ivan Luzhin, who helped the talented young man receive an art education.
If Luzhin had not taken part in fate young artist, one of the most famous paintings in history national painting would never have been born.
4. Vasily Polenov. "Moscow courtyard", 1878
Sometimes, in order to write beautiful picture, the artist travels a lot, long and meticulously searching for the most beautiful views, in the end, finds the treasured place and time after time comes there with a sketchbook. And it also happens that in order to create a wonderful work, he just needs to go to his own window, look at a completely ordinary Moscow courtyard - and a miracle happens, an amazing landscape appears, filled with light and air.
This is exactly the miracle that happened to the artist Vasily Polenov, who looked out of the window of his apartment in the early summer of 1878 and quite quickly painted what he saw. Clouds glide easily across the sky, the sun rises higher and higher, warming the earth with its warmth, lighting up the domes of churches, shortening thick shadows... It would seem to be a simple picture, which the artist himself did not take seriously at first: he wrote it and almost forgot about it. But then he was invited to take part in the exhibition. He didn’t have anything significant, and Polenov decided to exhibit “Moscow Courtyard”.
Oddly enough, it was this “insignificant picture” that brought fame and glory to Vasily Polenov - both the public and critics loved it: it has warmth and bright colors, and its characters can be looked at endlessly, inventing a story about each of them.
5. Ivan Shishkin. "Morning in a Pine Forest", 1889
“Morning in a Pine Forest” by Ivan Shishkin is probably the most famous painting from the collection of the Tretyakov Gallery. In our country everyone knows her, thanks to reproductions in school textbooks, or maybe thanks to chocolates"Teddy Bear."
But not everyone knows that Shishkin himself painted only a morning forest in a foggy haze, and has nothing to do with bears. This painting is the fruit of joint creativity between Shishkin and his friend, artist Konstantin Savitsky.
Ivan Shishkin was consummate master depict all sorts of botanical subtleties - critic Alexander Benois He was fairly scolded for his passion for photographic accuracy, calling his paintings lifeless and cold. But the artist was not friends with zoology. They say that this is why Shishkin turned to Savitsky with a request to help him with the bears. Savitsky did not refuse his friend, but did not take his work seriously - and did not sign.
Later, Pavel Tretyakov purchased this painting from Shishkin, and the artist invited Savitsky to leave a signature on the painting - after all, they worked on it together. Savitsky did so, but Tretyakov did not like it. Declaring that he bought the painting from Shishkin, but didn’t want to know anything about Savitsky, he demanded a solvent and with my own hands deleted the “extra” signature. And so it happened that today in Tretyakov Gallery indicate the authorship of only one artist.
6. Viktor Vasnetsov. "Bogatyrs", 1898
Viktor Vasnetsov is considered the most “fabulous” artist in the history of Russian painting - it is his brushes that belong to such famous works, like “Alyonushka”, “The Knight at the Crossroads”, “Heroic Leap” and many others. But his most famous picture- “Bogatyrs”, which depicts the main characters of Russian epics.
The artist himself described the picture as follows: “The heroes Dobrynya, Ilya and Alyosha Popovich are on a heroic outing - they are noticing in the field whether there is a enemy somewhere, are they offending anyone?”
In the middle, on a black horse, Ilya Muromets looks into the distance from under his palm, the hero has a spear in one hand, and a damask club in the other. On the left, on a white horse, Dobrynya Nikitich takes his sword out of its sheath. On the right, on a red horse, Alyosha Popovich holds a bow and arrows in his hands. There is a curious story connected with the heroes of this picture - or rather with their prototypes.
Viktor Vasnetsov thought for a long time what Ilya Muromets should look like, and for a long time he could not find the “right” face - brave, honest, expressing both strength and kindness. But one day, completely by chance, he met the peasant Ivan Petrov, who came to Moscow to earn money. The artist was amazed - on a Moscow street he saw the real Ilya Muromets. The peasant agreed to pose for Vasnetsov and... remained for centuries.
In the epics, Dobrynya Nikitich is quite young, but for some reason Vasnetsov’s painting depicts a middle-aged man. Why did the artist decide to act so freely with folk tales? The solution is simple: Vasnetsov portrayed himself in the image of Dobrynya; just compare the picture with the artist’s portraits and photographs.
7. Valentin Serov. “Girl with peaches. Portrait of V. S. Mamontova”, 1887
"Girl with Peaches" is one of the most famous portraits in the history of Russian painting, written by the artist Valentin Serov.
The girl in the portrait is Verochka, the daughter of philanthropist Savva Mamontov, whose house the artist often visited. It is interesting that the peaches lying on the table were not brought from warm regions, but grew not far from Moscow, right in the Abramtsevo estate, which was a completely unusual thing in the 19th century. Mamontov had a gardener-magician working for him - in his skillful hands, fruit trees bloomed even in February, and the harvest was harvested already at the beginning of summer.
Thanks to Serov’s portrait, Vera Mamontova went down in history, but the artist himself recalled how hard it took him to persuade a 12-year-old girl, who had an unusually restless character, to pose. Serov worked on the painting for almost a month, and every day Vera sat quietly in the dining room for several hours.
The work was not in vain: when the artist presented the portrait at the exhibition, the public really liked the painting. And today, more than a hundred years later, “Girl with Peaches” delights visitors to the Tretyakov Gallery.
8. Ilya Repin. “Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan November 16, 1581,” 1883–1885.
Looking at this or that painting, you often wonder what was the source of inspiration for the artist, what prompted him to paint just such a work? In the case of Ilya Repin’s painting “Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan November 16, 1581,” guess about true reasons not at all easy.
The painting depicts a legendary episode from the life of Ivan the Terrible, when in a fit of anger he dealt a fatal blow to his son, Tsarevich Ivan. However, many historians believe that in fact there was no murder and the prince died of illness, and not at all from the hand of his father. It would seem that what could force an artist to turn to such a historical episode?
As the artist himself recalled, the idea to paint the painting “Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan” came to him after... a concert at which he heard the music of the composer Rimsky-Korsakov. It was symphonic suite"Antar." The sounds of music captured the artist, and he wanted to embody in painting the mood that was created in him under the influence of this work.
But music was not the only source of inspiration. Traveling around Europe in 1883, Repin attended a bullfight. The sight of this bloody spectacle impressed the artist, who wrote that, “having become infected... with this bloodiness, upon arriving home, he immediately began the bloody scene “Ivan the Terrible with his son.” And the blood picture was a great success."
9. Mikhail Vrubel. "Demon Seated", 1890
How sometimes the title of a painting means a lot. What does the viewer see when first looking at Mikhail Vrubel’s painting “The Seated Demon”? A muscular young man sits on a rock and sadly looks at the sunset. But as soon as we say the word “demon”, the image of a magical evil creature immediately appears. Meanwhile, Mikhail Vrubel's demon is not an evil spirit at all. The artist himself has said more than once that the demon is a spirit “not so much evil as suffering and sorrowful, but at the same time a powerful spirit, ... majestic.”
This painting is interesting for its painting technique. The artist applies paint to the canvas not with a conventional brush, but with a thin steel plate - a palette knife. This technique allows you to combine the techniques of a painter and a sculptor, literally “sculpting” a picture using paints. This is how a “mosaic” effect is achieved - it seems that the sky, rocks, and even the hero’s body itself are not painted with paint, but are laid out from carefully polished, perhaps even precious stones.
10. Alexander Ivanov. "The Appearance of Christ to the People (The Appearance of the Messiah)", 1837–1857.
Alexander Ivanov’s painting “The Appearance of Christ to the People” is a unique event in the history of Russian painting. It’s not easy to talk about it with children, especially 6-7 year olds, but they should definitely see this monumental canvas, on which the artist worked for more than 20 years and which became his life’s work.
The plot of the picture is based on the third chapter of the Gospel of Matthew: John the Baptist, baptizing the Jewish people on the banks of the Jordan in the name of the expected Savior, suddenly sees Him coming, in whose name he baptizes people. ABOUT compositional features paintings, about its symbols and artistic language the children will find out later. During the first acquaintance, it is worth talking about how one painting became the artist’s life’s work.
After graduating from St. Petersburg Academy arts Alexander Ivanov was sent “for an internship” to Italy. “The Appearance of Christ to the People” was supposed to be a work of record. But the artist takes his work very seriously: he carefully studies Holy Bible, history, spends months searching for the right landscape, spends an endless amount of time looking for an image for each character in the picture. The money that was allocated to him for work is running out, Ivanov leads a miserable existence. Painstaking work over the painting led to the artist’s vision being damaged and he was forced to undergo long-term treatment.
When Ivanov completed his work, the Italian public enthusiastically accepted the picture; this was one of the first cases European recognition Russian artist. In Russia, it was not immediately appreciated - only after the artist’s death did real fame come to him.
While working on the painting, Ivanov created more than 600 sketches. In the room where it is exhibited, you can see some of them. It is interesting to use these examples to trace how the artist worked on the composition, landscape, and images of the characters in the picture.