Pompey, from the past

I continue the story about small towns from the series “small and bold”.

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On these pages, I have taken on a great responsibility to present to you, dear readers, the small city of great Italy - Pompeii.

I am sure that many of you who have visited the south of Italy have not bypassed the great Vesuvius and have not denied yourself the pleasure of making a journey into the depths of centuries, i.e. visit Pompeii.

Before traveling to Italy, I knew a little about this city, my knowledge was practically limited famous painting Bryullov "The Last Day of Pompeii", but in preparation for the trip, I decided that the picture would be incomplete if you did not delve into history and try to understand how people lived in this ancient city, what were their interests, habits, preferences and why so suddenly their lives were cut short.

So, what has reached us from time immemorial?

Archaeologists attribute the foundation of Pompeii to the middle of the 6th century BC, then Pompeii did not stand out from the rest of the cities of Campania (this is how the fertile region of the Apennine Peninsula, where the city of Pompeii was located, was called and is now called).

Much later, in the 1st c. BC e. Pompeii turns into a cultural center. An amphitheater for 20 thousand spectators, an Odeon, numerous buildings are being built, streets are being paved. The city is decorated with sculptures, mosaics, frescoes. These were the times when special attention was paid to architecture in the Roman Empire: water pipes and bridges, baths and amphitheaters, villas and numerous residential buildings were built.

February 5, 62 AD the first warning of an impending disaster sounded - a powerful earthquake occurred in Campania with an epicenter in the vicinity of Pompeii. The city was destroyed. Up to this point, the city felt mild tremors that did not cause tangible damage. By this time, the sense of danger among the inhabitants had dulled.

For the next 15 years, Pompeii was built - the inhabitants of the city restored the houses destroyed by the earthquake and built new buildings.

Oddly enough, the townspeople, despite the cruel lesson of fate, did not take Vesuvius seriously and did not expect further trouble from him.

The tremors didn't really bother the townspeople. Each time they closed the cracks in the houses, updating the interior and adding new decorations along the way. No panic.

But in October 79 A.D. Vesuvius, dormant until now, finally woke up and brought down all his might on the city, as if taking revenge on people for many years of neglect of his great person.

Tremors, ash flakes, stones falling from the sky - all this flew at great speed towards the city. People tried to hide in houses, but died there from suffocation or under the ruins. Death overtook everywhere: in theaters, markets, the forum, temples, on the streets of the city, beyond its borders. But most of the inhabitants still managed to leave the city.

Vesuvius raged all day. Pompeii was covered with a multi-meter layer of ash. Dust and ash hung like a black veil in the sky for the next three days. The city was lost forever.

Bryullov's painting "The Last Day of Pompeii"

“Striving for the greatest reliability of the image, Bryullov studied the excavation materials and historical documents. The architectural structures in the picture were restored by him from the remains of ancient monuments, household items and women's jewelry were copied from exhibits in the Neapolitan Museum. The figures and heads of the depicted people are painted mainly from nature, from the inhabitants of Rome. Numerous sketches of individual figures, entire groups and sketches of the painting show the author's desire for maximum psychological, plastic and coloristic expressiveness.

Bryullov built the picture as separate episodes, at first glance unrelated. The connection becomes clear only when the gaze of all groups, the whole picture is simultaneously covered.

One Hundred Great Paintings" by N.A. Ionina, publishing house "Veche", 2002.

Thanks to the sudden and rapid death of Pompeii, it turned out to be the best preserved ancient city, since the entire furnishings of the houses remained intact under a layer of solidified lava.

To date, 3/5 of the city has been opened by the work of archaeologists (the rest was decided to be left to future generations!): defensive walls, gates, necropolises, quarters of residential buildings with mosaics, frescoes and sculptures, two forums, an amphitheater and two theaters, temples and much more are available for inspection.

Let's enter the gates of the city of Pompeii.

Unexpectedly, right next to the gates, barely crossing the threshold, at the entrance to the city, I saw a well-preserved image of the phallus on the floor tiles.

Blimey! - I was dumbfounded - it was a cheerful little town, however!

- Isn't it true that they acted more than extravagantly in ancient times?

I can’t even imagine what would start if now people tried to behave the same way ... - approx. author.

Tablets depicting she-wolves or phalluses, which previously hung on houses, have been in the museums of Naples for a long time, and one can only believe the guides that they once hung here and here. The ancient gentlemen were not shy about boasting, if there was something, and they ordered special plaques from the artists depicting their dignity and its size, which they attached above the threshold of their house.

It is easy to guess what an extraordinary city Pompeii was and why sailors and warriors always aspired to go there. There were plenty of luponaria in the city: they were located in hotels and private houses on the second floors, or on the first floors with a separate entrance, only they were not in the baths and baths (a paradox, in our time, services of an intimate nature flourish just in baths! - author's note). The Romans, on the other hand, loved to bathe and did not want to be distracted from this sacred occupation for various

They are easy to understand, there were no bathrooms in houses in which we perceive the lack of hot water for two weeks as a natural disaster! The ancients had to go to public institutions, where they managed to combine business with pleasure: they could wash themselves and meet friends and neighbors. - approx. author.

In the luponaria, entertaining frescoes have been preserved that set visitors in the right mood; these frescoes should not be shown to children. Many frescoes of an erotic nature are found in private homes, which indicates the serious attitude of the former owners to sexual issues. Looking closer, you will be surprised to find that there is little that has changed in the services of an intimate nature since ancient times.

Europeans in Pompeii will find the doorways narrow, the ceilings low, the boxes short, the rooms small. Ancient people were small in size, about the size of modern Japanese.

In Pompeii, you will find many marble columns that now support nothing, except perhaps the sky, mosaics, frescoes, picturesque ruins, an ancient toilet and the remains of an ancient aqueduct.

Only rich houses, fountains and baths were connected to the water supply. Ordinary citizens drew water from fountains, so there are no signs of plumbing in their homes. Only large tanks for collecting rainwater have survived.

Life-size plaster figurines of ancient inhabitants are exhibited.

Now in Pompeii there are about 30 streets and lanes. The houses were mostly two-story, located to the street with a blank wall, which suggests that ancient people had no desire to put their personal lives on display. Entire city blocks were occupied by baths, the favorite places of leisure for citizens. Other places of leisure and entertainment are located peripherally, theaters are concentrated there. The city is surrounded by a fortress wall with several gates.

At the time of performances in the theater, the seats are installed and then removed.

In Pompeii, the principle of "sparing" restoration is applied, which implies the restoration and restoration of only a small percentage of buildings or individual structural elements. The purpose of this approach is to show, i.e. hint at how one or another object could look like in its final form, allow drawing analogies with other objects, while not breaking the connection with a reliable archaeological heritage - note. architect

Further excavations are practically not carried out, because. the question of preserving what has already been revealed is acute.

Nowadays, a new enemy is advancing on Pompeii - a diverse vegetation that makes its way everywhere, inexorably continuing the process of destruction of the city. With this enemy means of struggle have not yet been found.

Visually, vegetation gives a certain charm to the city. The red heads of flowering poppies, here and there thin young trees swaying from a light breeze, enhance the feeling of peace and abandonment, reminiscent of peaceful life and the tragedy that once erupted here.

During his lifetime, he was called the "Great Karl", he was the pride and glory of the Russian Academy of Arts, which honored him with all academic awards during his studies. On the day of graduation from the Academy, Karl Pavlovich Bryullov took out a handful of medals from the assembly hall. For the public, he embodied the myth of a genius, brilliant, capricious, self-confident and unattainable in his skill, education, social acquaintances, love affairs and revelry. One of the legends about Bryullov is reflected in Repin's drawing "Pushkin and Karl Bryullov", which depicts Pushkin on his knees begging for a drawing from the Great Karl.

Karl Pavlovich Bryullov was born and grew up in a family of hereditary artists (great-grandfather worked as a sculptor at a porcelain factory, grandfather was a sculptor, father was an academician of ornamental sculpture, brother Alexander was an architect). His famous talent manifested itself extremely early. While still studying at the Academy, Bryullov becomes its star.

In 1821, Bryullov graduated from the Academy with a Grand Gold Medal and in 1822 left for Rome with the money of the Society for the Encouragement of Artists. Here he creates the best work of his life - the famous "" (1830-1833).

By this time, romanticism in Russia was going through the “portrait” and “landscape” stages, and Russian art"ripens" to the creation of a large historical and philosophical picture. The theme of such a picture is not the fate of a specific historical figure, and not even the fate of the people, but the fate of all mankind.
The plot of the canvas Bryullov- the ancient city of the Roman Empire - Pompeii - wiped off the face of the earth during the eruption of Vesuvius in the first century AD. About 2,000 people died in this disaster. The choice of plot may have been prompted by the artist's brother, architect Alexander Bryullov, who created the famous project for the reconstruction of the Pompeii baths. The impetus for the formation of the idea of ​​the picture was Pacini's opera "".

It is interesting that the picture was not painted on the instructions of the Academy, but according to a freely chosen plot; not by official order, but by order of a private person, Prince A.N. Demidov.

Bryullov's painting with historical and archaeological accuracy, new for that time, depicted the historical period, geographical area, style of clothing, weapons. From the middle of the 18th century, excavations were carried out in the cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii, covered with the ashes of Vesuvius, which aroused great interest in society. The artist Karl Bryullov used archaeological discoveries in his work. Venue Bryullov depicted the Street of the Tombs, which is the best preserved in the city, destroyed by time. Even the skeletons of three women connected to each other, found during excavations, he depicted in the picture as a group connected together - a mother with two daughters.

For about six years, the artist carefully studied historical sources and documents related to the tragedy of Pompeii, read letters from the ancient Roman politician Pliny the Younger to the historian of the Roman Empire Tacitus, life, customs and traditions of ancient Italy. But documentary facts and accuracy, as the foundation of the picture, do not fetter Bryullov's fantasy and imagination, his genius does not become a prisoner of archaeological and historical details. The main thing is a person in the face of death, which exposes his moral qualities. Love and nobility: here is the mother of Pliny, urging her son to leave her, not to burden herself; Here is the groom with the dead bride in his arms. Or bestial fear, absorbing the self-respect of the human person.

While working on the piece, Bryullov was inspired by the monumental works of the Renaissance titans Raphael and Michelangelo. He copied the school of Athens and studied Fire in Borgo» Raphael. Bryullov repeats the technique of the Renaissance masters, who included their self-portraits and portraits of their contemporaries in canvases on biblical historical subjects. There are portrait faces in The last day of Pompeii': a portrait of himself Bryullov and his friend - Countess Yulia Samoilova. Alexander Ivanov, proud of the Russian school of painting, wrote that Bryullov proved with his painting: “Russians are destined to improve what the great painters of Italy invented.”

After the grand show Pompeii"At European art exhibitions, the brilliant Karl Pavlovich Bryullov, having achieved success, returned to Russia and was greeted as a hero who glorified the Fatherland.

After " Pompeii» Bryullov is looking for new dramatic historical plots. He paints a picture "" (1834)

on the plot of the 16th century poet Camões, develops a sketch for a painting called "".

The plot was inspired by the article by N.V. Gogol "On the movement of peoples at the end of the 5th century." About the leader of the Huns, Genzerikh (in Bryullov's sketch, he is depicted on a horse with a tiger skin over armor). Bryullov did not dare to create a large canvas according to this sketch. It was no longer possible to repeat the success of Pompeii.

The outstanding Bryullov is very diverse in his genre hobbies. There are no barriers for him to write his priceless works, be it historical dramas or genre scenes, portraits or nude paintings. Genre paintings written in Italy - "", " Noon», « Vintage”, “”, “” - elegant and festive.

Canvas, oil

1827. Oil on canvas

Pifferari in front of the image of the Madonna. 1825. Oil on canvas

Here Bryullov creates a vivid feeling of air and sun. The color in his works remains local. The arrangement of color spots is subordinated to decorative tasks.

”, “” - a synthesis of the harsh truth of life and ideal beauty. He paints the beauty of the female body, but for all the sculptural forms, the beauty is not cold, but alive, warm.

Canvas, oil

Between 1839 and 1845. Sketch. Canvas, oil. 52.5x67.1

Canvas, oil. 146.1x124.1

The "signature" effect of Bryullov's painting, an object of imitation and envy of his epigones - a surprisingly soft glow from the inside, inspired by antique marbles - is the glory of these works of the artist. Nu Bryullova on mythological subjects in the spirit of romanticism, they are colored with the spice of oriental exoticism: the snow-white beauty of his Bathsheba and Juno is shaded by the dark-skinned bodies of mulattoes.

Like many creators - artistic romantics, Bryullov was fond of the exotic of the East. In 1835 he visited Turkey. After this journey, oriental themes appear in his work: works based on " Bakhchisaray fountain"Pushkin, poems by Zhukovsky" Peri and angel», « Turk". Whimsical oriental costumes allow decorative talent to unfold Bryullov.

In the work of Bryullov, as a historical painter, you can see a wonderful collection of his portraits at different times. Perhaps the most famous among them is the famous " Rider"(portrait of Giovannina and Amazilia Pacini - pupils of Countess Yu.P. Samoilova).

Creating his own version of a ceremonial painting - a portrait, he was inspired by the classics of this genre - ceremonial portraits with catchy expressiveness and solemnity of the Dutch master Van Dyck, who became a portrait painter at the English court of the 17th century. In the ceremonial portrait there are shades of everyday life. The portrait of the Bryullovs seemed to fill them with vital movement, motive and sounds: the dogs bark, it seems that the echo of the trampling of children's feet in the echoing corridors of the palazzo is still heard. The horse is hot, but the rider herself sits motionless, as if on a pedestal, on his broad back. With great skill Bryullov writes the horsewoman's fluttering emerald gas scarf against the background of the dark greenery of the park (green on green). The portrait absorbed a jubilant feeling of delight before the festive wealth and diversity of life.

In the portraits of the 1840s, the characteristics of a person become deeper and more individual, the shades of feelings and psychological states become diverse. Ceremonial portrait - the picture fades into the background. The current heroes of Bryullov are the noble intelligentsia after the defeat of the Decembrist uprising, a time when many preferred to go abroad or to their estates, but not to live in the capital, not to serve at the court of Nicholas I. The heroes of Bryullov are outwardly passive, weak-willed, they are familiar with the feeling of inner devastation . The portrait work of the master of the 1840s is full of Lermontov's moods: "fire in the blood" and "secret cold" of the soul, death in inaction of the intellectual and spiritual forces of Russia, melancholy of "superfluous people" known from the history of Russian literature and school literature lessons.

Compared with his predecessors (Rokotov, Levitsky, Borovikovsky, Kiprensky), a new feature appears in Bryullov's portraits - reflection. In the creative thinking of Karl Pavlovich lie the origins of the description of the psychological portrait of the personality of the second half of XIX century, a portrait of Perov, Kramskoy, Ge, Repin. One of the best works Bryullov of a mature age - "", a friend of the artist, a translator of Goethe into Russian.

It was he who was presented with M.I. Glinka romance " lark". A painfully pale, thin face, an extinguished fire in the eyes, weak-willed soft lips, nervous thin fingers - before us is an intelligent, sensitive, but deeply tired and devastated person.

Close to him in emotional mood and " self-portrait”, written by Bryullov very quickly in a sketchy manner during a brief respite during his illness. Pale, exhausted by illness and thoughts, the face is bordered by a halo of golden hair, the right hand is lowered down. A wounded lion that has lost its strength, but has not lost its greatness.

One of the last portraits of the artist - "".

In the portrait he is seventy-two years old. An archaeologist, an orientalist looks vigilantly and collected from a portrait, the life of the intellect makes it beautiful.

Bryullov spent the last years of his life on the island of Madeira and in Rome. He died in Rome, where he is buried in the cemetery at Monte Testaccio. Exalted, deified during his lifetime, after his death, Bryullov was subjected to severe criticism and was roughly overthrown from his pedestal by the generation of the 1860s.

The art of the second half of the 19th century will turn away from Karl Bryullov, his canvases will be called V.V. Stasov empty, crackling, false. Bred by N.S. Leskov under the name of Febufis in the novel "Devil's Dolls", Bryullov is depicted as a gifted man, but an empty flower, handsome, but cold. And the writer and critic D.V. Grigorovich Bryullov seemed to be a caricature figure - a small fat man on short legs with a prominent belly. There will be a very sharp controversy around the name of Bryullov. And the authority and courage of I.E. Repin, in order to pay tribute to Bryullov's talent and rehabilitate the art of the Great Charles in his articles and letters at the end of the 19th century.

Canvas, oil.

1830. Oil on canvas.

Canvas, oil. 102.3x86.2

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Ancient Roman tragedy that became the triumph of Karl Bryullov

Karl Bryullov was born on December 23, 1799. The son of French-born sculptor Paul Brullo, Carl was one of seven children in the family. His brothers Pavel, Ivan and Fedor also became painters, and his brother Alexander became an architect. However, the most famous was Karl, who painted in 1833 the canvas "The Last Day of Pompeii" - the main work of his life. Kultura.RF remembered how this canvas was created.

Karl Bryullov. Self-portrait. 1836

History of creation

The picture was painted in Italy, where in 1822 the artist went on a pensioner's trip from the Imperial Academy of Arts for four years. But he lived there for 13 years.

The plot tells about the ancient Roman tragedy - the death of the ancient city of Pompeii, located at the foot of Vesuvius: August 24, 79 AD. e. The volcanic eruption claimed the lives of 2,000 people.

In 1748, the military engineer Roque de Alcubierre began archaeological excavations at the site of the tragedy. The discovery of Pompeii became a sensation and was reflected in the work of various people. So, in 1825, the opera by Giovanni Pacini appeared, and in 1834 - historical novel Englishman Edward Bulwer-Lytton, dedicated to the death of Pompeii.

Bryullov first visited the excavation site in 1827. Going to the ruins, the 28-year-old artist had no idea that this trip would be fateful for him: “You can’t go through these ruins without feeling in yourself some completely new feeling that makes you forget everything, except for the terrible incident with this city”- wrote the artist.

The feelings that Karl Bryullov experienced during the excavations did not leave him. Thus was born the idea of ​​the canvas on historical theme. While working on the plot, the painter studied archaeological and literary sources. “I took this scenery from nature, without retreating at all and without adding, standing with my back to the city gates in order to see part of Vesuvius as main reason» . The models for the characters were the Italians - the descendants of the ancient inhabitants of Pompeii.

At the intersection of classicism and romanticism

In this work, Bryullov shows himself not as a traditional classicist, but as an artist of a romantic direction. So, its historical plot is dedicated not to one hero, but to the tragedy of an entire nation. And as a plot, he chose not an idealized image or idea, but a real historical fact.

True, Bryullov builds the composition of the picture in the traditions of classicism - as a cycle of individual episodes enclosed in a triangle.

On the left side of the picture in the background, several people are depicted on the steps of the large building of the tomb of Scaurus. A woman looks directly at the viewer, in whose eyes horror is read. And behind it is an artist with a box of paints on his head: this is Bryullov's self-portrait, experiencing a tragedy along with his characters.

Closer to the viewer is a married couple with children who are trying to escape from the lava, and in the foreground a woman hugs her daughters to her ... Next to her is a Christian priest who has already entrusted his fate to God and is therefore calm. In the depths of the picture, we see a pagan Roman priest who is trying to escape by carrying away ritual values. Here Bryullov alludes to the fall of the ancient pagan world of the Romans and the onset of the Christian era.

On the right side of the picture in the background is a horse rider who reared up. And closer to the viewer - the groom, seized with horror, who is trying to hold his bride in his arms (she is wearing a wreath of roses), who has lost consciousness. In the foreground, two sons carry their old father in their arms. And next to them is a young man, begging his mother to get up and run further from this all-consuming element. By the way, this young man is none other than Pliny the Younger, who really escaped and left his memories of the tragedy. Here is an excerpt from his letter to Tacitus: “I look back. A thick black fog, spreading like a stream over the ground, overtook us. All around the night fell, unlike moonless or cloudy: it is so dark only in a locked room with extinguished fires. Women's screams, children's squeaks and the cry of men were heard, some called out to their parents, others to children or wives and tried to recognize them by their voices. Some mourned their death, others the death of loved ones, some, in fear of death, prayed for death; many raised their hands to the gods; the majority explained that there were no gods anywhere, and for the world this was the last eternal night..

There is no main character in the picture, but there are central ones: a golden-haired child near the prostrate body of his deceased mother in a yellow tunic is a symbol of the fall of the old world and the birth of a new one, this is the opposition of life and death - in the best traditions of romanticism.

In this picture, Bryullov also showed himself as an innovator, using two light sources - a hot red light in the background, conveying the feeling of impending lava, and a cold greenish-blue in the foreground, adding additional dramaturgy to the plot.

The bright and rich coloring of this painting also violates classical traditions and allows us to speak of the artist as a romantic.

The triumphal procession of the painting

Karl Bryullov worked on the canvas for six years - from 1827 to 1833.

For the first time the picture was presented to the public in 1833 at an exhibition in Milan - and immediately made a splash. The artist was honored as a Roman triumphant, laudatory reviews were written about the painting in the press. Bryullov was greeted on the street with applause, and during his travels on the borders of the Italian principalities they did not require a passport: it was believed that every Italian already knew him by sight.

In 1834, The Last Day of Pompeii was presented at the Paris Salon. French criticism was, unlike the Italian, more restrained. But professionals appreciated the work at its true worth, presenting Bryullov with the gold medal of the French Academy of Arts.

The canvas made a sensation in Europe, and was eagerly awaited in Russia. In the same year it was sent to St. Petersburg. Seeing the picture, Nicholas I expressed a desire to personally meet the author, but the artist went on a trip to Greece with Count Vladimir Davydov, and returned to his homeland only in December 1835.

On June 11, 1836, in the Round Hall of the Russian Academy of Arts, where the painting “The Last Day of Pompeii” was exhibited, guests of honor, members of the Academy, artists and just art lovers gathered. The author of the canvas, “the great Karl”, was carried into the hall in his arms to the enthusiastic cries of the guests. “Crowds of visitors, one might say, burst into the halls of the Academy to look at Pompeii”, - writes a contemporary and a witness of that success, which no Russian artist knew equal.

The customer and owner of the painting, Anatoly Demidov, presented it to the emperor, and Nicholas I placed it in the Hermitage, where it remained for 60 years. And in 1897 it was transferred to the Russian Museum.

The picture literally excited everyone Russian society and the best minds of the time.

Arts peace trophies
You brought into the paternal canopy.
And there was "The Last Day of Pompeii"
For the Russian brush the first day! -

poet Yevgeny Boratynsky wrote about the painting.

Alexander Pushkin also dedicated poems to her:

Vesuvius zev opened - smoke gushed in a club, flames
Widely developed like a battle banner.
The earth worries - from staggering columns
Idols are falling! A people driven by fear
Under the stone rain, under the inflamed ashes,
Crowds, old and young, run out of the city.

Mentions "The Last Day of Pompeii" and Mikhail Lermontov in the novel "Princess Ligovskaya": “If you love art, then I can say very good news: Bryullov’s painting “The Last Day of Pompeii” is going to St. Petersburg. All of Italy knew about her, the French dismantled her.- Lermontov clearly knew about the reviews of the Parisian press.

Russian historian and traveler Alexander Turgenev said that this picture was the glory of Russia and Italy.

And Nikolai Gogol devoted a long article to the picture, writing: “His brush contains that poetry that you only feel and can always recognize: our feelings always know and even see features but their words will never tell. Its coloring is so bright, which it has almost never been before, its colors burn and rush into the eyes. They would be unbearable if they appeared to the artist a degree lower than Bryullov, but in him they are clothed in that harmony and breathe that inner music that living objects of nature are filled with”.

It is known that among the students of Karl Bryullov his canvas "The last day of Pompeii" had a rather simple name - just "Picture". This means that for all the disciples, this canvas was just a picture with a capital letter, a picture of pictures. An example could be: how Bible is the book of all books, the word Bible seems to mean the word Book. At the heart of its design and final aesthetic effect "The last day of Pompeii" is not just another experience in the style of metamorphoses, but also an embodied idea, a plan.

The principle of metamorphosis rests on the magical power of art, it is not only on a toy scale, but also on a grand scale. Gogol managed to express all the feelings with all certainty: “... it seemed to me that the sculpture, which was comprehended in such plastic perfection by the ancients, that this sculpture finally passed into painting and, moreover, was imbued with some kind of secret music”. The ideal of perfection, which was shown to the viewer, has undergone metamorphosis. He was resurrected and transformed in a picturesque form. After all, painting is called in translation - to write vividly. In sculpture, everything stone just comes to life. But then all the signs of lifelikeness that painting can restore disappear in it. At the same time, it does not lose its perfection at all, it is imprinted in the sculptures of antiquity.

It follows from this that the plot of the picture "The last day of Pompeii" interprets a not very tragic incident from life, but artistic plot. It tells how the ideal of perfection was buried, but it was preserved in stone in order to be able to overcome, conquer time. He needed to be reborn in painting in order to comprehend the features of perfect beauty in sculptural images. She accumulated her funds over a long time to revive and restore the breath of such beauty. This was the debt that the art of painting had to return to classical art. It was necessary to learn to find the ideal of the absolutely beautiful. This was precisely the mood in the dialogue between antiism and romanticism, it was a kind of aesthetic background against which the contours of Bryullov's picture were outlined. The painting of Karl Bryullov had just such a metaphysical superplot about the inscrutable paths of continuity and artistic experience.

It is worth recalling that Baratynsky composed the famous lines "And the last day of Pompeii". Gogol announces at the very beginning of his article about the gloomy spectacle of the end and death of bright Sunday in painting. In the words of both masters, the final plot and the title of the picture are played in the same vein. This is precisely the key to the picture and to the success that the picture received from its contemporaries. The antithesis is played out: the Last Day, which means death and the end, death - and the first - that is, signifying and solemn. But both pictures show the catastrophic decline of life in one matter - the matter of history, and at one point put in a mystical connection with the miraculous presence of living energy.

Here the artist painted the image of life-giving death. The ancient world in the picture has died, but it seems to have been saved by living beauty. Karl Bryullov managed to both resurrect and immortalize. That's what he's talking about Gogol: “His figures are beautiful despite the horror of his position. They drown it out with their beauty... Bryullov has a man in order to show all his beauty, all the supreme elegance of his nature. Passions, true feelings, fiery, are expressed in such a beautiful appearance, in such a beautiful person that you enjoy to the point of rapture ... "

A series of eruptions occurred in the first century AD Mount Vesuvius accompanied by an earthquake. They destroyed several flourishing cities that were located near the foot of the mountain. Cities Pompeii died in just two days - in August 79, he was completely covered with volcanic ash. He was buried under a seven-meter thickness of ash. It seemed that the city disappeared from the face of the earth. Discovery of Pompeii happened in 1748 year. Since then, month after month, continuously ongoing excavations have opened the city. Pompeii left an indelible mark on Karl Bryullov's soul during his first visit to the city in 1827.

Bryullov's brother is studying Pompeian architecture and working on projects for the restoration of Pompeian baths. It may seem that the theme of the future picture arose naturally, as if it were a tribute to the impression. But in European art, the plot of the city of Pompeii is a nomadic plot. Romanticism as an art was created by a generation of people from the era of the Napoleonic wars. It was before their eyes that the spectacles appeared mystery game. Romantics began to invent and interpret historical plots differently.

Tragic scenes were often depicted in various manifestations of classical art. For example, the destruction of Sodom or the Egyptian executions. But in such biblical stories it was implied that the execution comes from above, here one could see the manifestation of God's providence. As if biblical history knew no senseless fate, but only the wrath of God. In the paintings of Karl Bryullov, people were at the mercy of a blind natural element, rock. There can be no discussion of guilt and punishment here. In the picture you will not be able to find the main character. It's just not there. Before us appears only the crowd, the people who were seized with fear.

Unlike many paintings of the era of classicism, where one turn of the characters' faces mainly prevailed - towards the auditorium, a new technology is being worked out here, new version. The direction of movement is carried out only with the direction of movement in depth. Individual figures in the painting are shown from the back, some are in strong diagonal movement. Such a method of placing groups endowed what was happening with an existence independent of the viewer, here everything exists only for the viewer. Everything that happens tragic and terrible happens only for the audience. It is precisely such an incident, like a real fire on a stage artificially adapted for artificial passions, that makes the audience feel everything they see, everything concerns them directly, as if he is a participant in the event, and not a spectator.

Bryullov made sense to use a compositional maneuver in the sketches, he was going to change the visual setting by analogy with situations of this kind. The viewer needed to be imbued with the feeling that everything is happening in a straight line. In the sketch, which is stored in Tretyakov Gallery, you can see a whole tangle of lines that are spinning in different ways. The picture in the upper right corner shows a volcanic eruption - a fiery tongue escapes from the vent, and lava tongues descend down the slopes of the mountain. The red sky in the picture is also in puffs of flame.

In the sketch, you can also see modified quotes from the Vatican fresco. "Fire in Borgo". Here you can also see groups of people who raise their hands to the sky. They ask for mercy from the high priest. The painting has the shape of a rectangular tomb, which limits the depth of the painting and creates a feeling of tightness. A mixture of the classical canon and the new is being carried out. It was the author's romantic predilection that ensured such a great success of the picture in Italy. The picture was also a success in St. Petersburg. It was here that the picture was eagerly awaited.

The painting was commissioned. She ordered Anatoly Demidov, he was one of the richest heirs of the Ural mining companies. In Italy, he bought himself the special title of Prince of San Donato, a collector and patron of the arts. In 1834, Demidov came to St. Petersburg and presented this painting as a gift to Nicholas the First. Anatoly decided to show the picture first in France, so the picture went to Paris. But in March of that year, she showed up in Barcelona. The jury of the exhibition determined the main prize for this particular picture.

But Karl Bryullov remained dissatisfied with the reaction of French criticism, especially after the Italian enthusiasm. It was French art criticism that reflected the general alignment of forces in art, but it was a struggle between parties. Bryullov reached a compromise - he combined romanticism and classicism. But against the backdrop of the ongoing struggle between classicism and romanticism, the picture did not satisfy the tastes of both groups. At the exhibition, the painting was located between the paintings - "St. Symphorion" Ingres and "Algerian women" Delacroix.

Karl Pavlovich Bryullov(1799 - 1852),

Painter.

self-portrait

Karl Bryullov was born on December 12, 1799 in St. Petersburg. He grew up in an artistic family: his brothers, father, grandfather, great-grandfather were artists.
He successfully graduated from the Academy of Arts, where his father taught. Thanks to his rare talent and considerable home training, from the first steps he stood out sharply among his peers.

In 1821, the Society for the Encouragement of Artists was established in St. Petersburg, the main goal of which was to help artists by all possible means and to promote the wide dissemination of all fine arts. It was Karl Bryullov and his brother Alexander who were the first to go with the money of the Society to Italy, to Rome.

Portrait of the architect A.P. Bryullov, the artist's brother

And on the eve of their trip abroad, their original surname "Brullo" was given a Russian ending, both of them became "Brullovs" from now on. Young Russian artists got acquainted in detail with the history and art of Western Europe.

Portrait of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. 1837

There, Karl painted the painting "Italian Morning", which made him an extremely popular artist.

Italian morning

His heroine, washing herself under the jets of the fountain, penetrated by the sun's rays, airy, is perceived as the personification of the morning itself, the morning of the rising new day, the morning of human life.

Italian afternoon

Great Karl - this is what contemporaries of the remarkable Russian artist Karl Pavlovich Bryullov called during his lifetime. Bryullov received worldwide recognition from the huge canvas "The Last Day of Pompeii" written by him in Italy. The name of Karl Bryullov was now placed next to the names of Rubens, Rembrandt, Van Dyck.

The last day of Pompeii

The plot of the painting "The Last Day of Pompeii" is the death of the ancient city of Pompeii as a result of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. Working on the implementation of his plan, he carefully studied historical material, in particular, the testimony of an eyewitness to the catastrophe - the Roman writer and statesman - Pliny the Younger, went to the archaeological site, where he made many sketches and sketches from nature.
The tragic death of people during the eruption of Vesuvius, the poetics of feelings, greatness human spirit in front of the blind element they illustrated the artist's dramatic perception of life.

In 1836, K.P. Bryullov returned to Russia and took up the post of professor at the Academy of Arts.

In St. Petersburg, the artist created a gallery of portraits of his contemporaries.

Rider

Portrait of Yu.P. Samoilova with her adopted daughter Amalia, 1842