The State Museum of Fine Arts named after A.S. Pushkin has implemented another significant project. In the halls of the Moscow museum there was an exhibition, dedicated to creativity outstanding artist Michelangelo da Caravaggio. The exhibition takes place as part of the Year of Italy in Russia.
The exhibition includes 11 works by the master from the collections of Italy and the Vatican. The exhibition is small, but rare in its content. Among the works presented are such masterpieces European painting like “Boy with a Basket of Fruit” from the Borghese Gallery, “Entombment”, which almost never leaves the walls of the Vatican Palace, “Supper at Emmaus” from Milan’s Brera Gallery, “Conversion of Saul” from the Church of Santa Maria del Popolo and other paintings.
The selection dedicated to Christmas includes the following paintings:
4. Giorgione. Adoration of the Magi.
5. Rogier van der Weyden. Adoration of the Magi.
6. Rembrandt, Harmens van Rijn. Flight to Egypt.
7. Hugo van der Goes. Christmas.
10. Mikhail Vasilievich Nesterov. Christmas.
12. Eugene Henri Paul Gauguin. Christmas.
Giorgio Vasari(1511-1574) - Italian painter, architect and writer.
Vladimir Lukich Borovikovsky(1757-1825) - Russian artist, master of portraiture.
Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco, better known as Giorgione (1476/1477 – 1510)) - Italian artist, representative of the Venetian school of painting; one of the greatest masters of the High Renaissance.
Rogier van der Weyden(1399/1400 – 1464) – van Eyck’s rival for the title of the most influential master of early Netherlandish painting.
Rembrandt Harmens van Rijn (16-6-1669) - Dutch artist, draftsman and engraver, great master chiaroscuro, the largest representative of the golden age of Dutch painting.
Hugo van der Goes(c. 1420-25 – 1482) – Flemish artist. Albrecht Dürer considered him the largest representative of early Netherlandish painting, along with Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden.
Sandro Botticelli(1445-1510) is the nickname of the Florentine artist Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, who brought the art of the Quattrocento to the threshold of the High Renaissance.
Michelangelo Merisi de Caravaggio(1573-1610), Italian artist, reformer of European painting of the 17th century, one of the greatest masters of the Baroque. One of the first to use the “chiaroscuro” style of painting - a sharp contrast of light and shadow.
Mikhail Vasilievich Nesterov(1862-1942) - Russian and Soviet painter. Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1942). Winner of the Stalin Prize, first degree (1941).
Shebuev, Vasily Kozmich- (* April 2 (13), 1777 in Kronstadt - † June 16 (28), 1855, St. Petersburg) - Russian painter, actual state councilor, academician, honored rector of painting and sculpture of the Imperial Academy of Arts (1832), one of leading masters of late classicism and academicism.
Eugene Henri-Paul Gauguin(1848-1903) - French painter, sculptor, ceramicist and graphic artist. Along with Cezanne and Van Gogh, he was the largest representative of post-impressionism.
God Himself came into the world of people in human form, into a world crippled by sin, to take on all the evil of the world and defeat it. He came not in a blaze of glory, but as a tiny, helpless Baby, born into a poor, unknown family. In all centuries of Christian history, this fact has resonated with such force in the Christian heart that the Nativity of Christ has become one of the favorite subjects for artists. Already in the very first early Christian monuments of art one can find an image of the Nativity.Let's try to take a little journey together into the world of colors and lines, with the help of which the old masters conveyed to modern man the beauty and joy of the Nativity of Christ.
Art of the First Christians
For the first three centuries of Christian history (I-III centuries AD), a separate holiday of Christmas did not exist.
It was connected with the feast of the Epiphany under the same name of Epiphany - the coming of God into the world of people. Only in the 4th century, when the Roman Emperor Constantine the Greatallowed Christians to openly profess their faith and Christians came out of the catacombs, the Christmas holiday became an independent bright event of the annual liturgical and calendar circle. Gradually, a tradition of writing the plot of the Nativity began to develop. .
Christmas. Old Russian icon of the 15th century.
Byzantine and Russian icons of the Nativity of ChristThe first Christians depicted the Nativity of Christ very simply, as children usually draw it - a manger with the Baby, the Virgin Mary and the righteous Joseph bending over them, next to an ox and a donkey. Sometimes (much less often) shepherds and wise men were depicted. Archaeologists find just such images of the Birthfood on ancient Roman Christian sarcophagi, on bottles for lamp oil. With the appearance of the first icons (the earliest known icons date back to the 6th century AD), the iconography of the Nativity of Christ was formed, which will remain virtually unchanged until the 21st century.
Icon painting has its own special canons for depicting Sacred History. The icon painter does not set himself the task of drawing an illustration for the Christmas narrative of the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke. The Nativity of Christ is viewed from the point of view of eternity, where everything is different, not the same as on earth.
Therefore, for example, it is not surprising that the Nativity icon depicts several events that took place in different times- the appearance of a star, Christmas itself, the appearance of angels to the shepherds, the procession of the wise men. If all this were depicted by a secular artist, he would undoubtedly offer the audience a series of paintings on the theme of Christmas, where he would depict everything in sequence. This, by the way, happened during the Renaissance (XV-XVI centuries). And the icon painter combines everything in one icon, because in eternity there is no “when” and “then,” but only “today,” that is, “now and forever.”
In human history, in time, the Nativity of Christ took place only once. But for the Church, which every year again and again enters the space of Christmas, this event is not just historical fact, dividing time into “before the Nativity of Christ” and “after.” This is the event of the meeting of God and man, time and Eternity. This is not “once”, but “forever”.
In the space of the icon, the “joy of greatness” about the birth of the Savior of the world, which the angels announced to the shepherds, also looks completely different from joy in the ordinary, everyday sense. The icon seems to offer a different understanding of the holiday - not a rich table, not bright clothes, not songs and dances, but silence, peace and gratitude. Silence and peace of the figures of the Mother and the swaddled Baby, quiet sheep at the feet of the shepherds looking at the sky. This is the joy that is experienced inside, in the heart.
The classical Byzantine iconographic depiction of the Nativity of Christ includes three visual plans (tiers) - the top, “heaven,” the center, “the union of heaven and earth,” and the bottom, “earth.”
Old Russian icons almost always follow the Byzantine tradition. Only in the 17th century did icons appear, the composition of which was very reminiscent of Western European painting. In the icons of this time, in addition to the actual plot of the Nativity, the plot of the flight to Egypt and the beating of infants by order of King Herod appears.
Sky, star, mountains
What and, most importantly, why does the master place in each tier of the image?
At the top of the icon is usually depicted open sky and a shining star. The ray of the star touches the top of the mountain, inside of which there is a cave - a “den”. The star and the cave are a kind of concrete illustration of the Gospel story about Christmas, but the open sky and the top of the mountain are already filled with symbolic meaning. You can often come across the expression: “Christmas is heaven on earth.” It is quite possible that the icon painter means exactly this when depicting the open sky.
Since Christmas, heaven has become open to man; he can, if he wants, move towards God. Because Christ, having taken the form of a human baby, suffered and died on the Cross, and then resurrected, cured man of sin. And the path to heaven is open. Only a person must pass it himself, climbing up.
Here we go symbolic meaning The mountains become clear - the mountains are depicted here not only as a reflection of the real mountainous landscape of the Holy Land, but also as an image of the movement of the human soul upward, towards God, through overcoming the obstacles of a previous, sinful life. The angels on the sides of the mountain are also from heaven, mountain world where God lives. Moreover, the sky is meant not as an astronomical, natural-scientific concept, not as something that covers the earth, but as something that denotes limitlessness and purity.
Cave, donkey, ox, manger
Inside the cave, they usually depict the Virgin Mary lying on a bed, who is depicted larger than other participants in the event, and a tiny swaddled Christ, around whose head a cross-shaped halo shines (a halo with a cross inscribed in it is a mandatory attribute of the image of the Savior, indicating His suffering on the cross).
It is interesting that the Mother of God usually does not look at the Child, but looks at us. This often causes confusion. How is it that the Mother does not look at the Son? But this is done quite deliberately to show that the Baby does not belong to the Mother, He came into the world to save it.
An ox and a donkey (sometimes a horse and a cow) are usually depicted next to a wooden manger. This detail is not only a hint that Christmas took place in a stable, but also an illustration to the book of the prophet Isaiah, who predicted the birth of Christ from the Virgin many thousands of years before the event itself: “The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s manger...”(Isaiah 1:3). In addition, some researchers believe that the ox and the donkey are images of two worlds - Israeli and pagan, for the salvation of which the Lord came into the world.
It is also important to pay attention to the shape of the manger, which is similar to the shape of the tomb - Christ was born into the world to die for it and rise for it.
Shepherds and Magi
Shepherds and wise men are often depicted on either side of the Virgin Mary; their figures are much smaller than the figure of the Virgin Mary. In the person of simple illiterate but believing shepherds and in the person of pagan wise men and women, the Lord appeared to the whole world. And now every person can find his own way to God - and not too educated, but kind and honest man, and a modern intellectual, whose heart is often infected with arrogance and arrogance.
Righteous Joseph
In the lower tier, the icons usually depict Joseph sitting in thought with a shepherd standing in front of him, and two women washing the newborn Baby.
The scene with the shepherd is usually explained this way: an evil spirit torments Joseph’s soul with doubts: how could the Birth happen? But many researchers agree that this is most likely the shepherd from the apocryphal tales of the Nativity, to whom Joseph turned in search of shelter and fire for the Baby. The most often used in iconography and painting is the apocryphal “Proto-Gospel of Jacob,” which tells about the childhood years of the Savior and the childhood of the Mother of God.
Washing the Child
The scene of the washing of the Child, about which neither Matthew nor Luke says anything, is also taken from the Proto-Gospel of James. On the one hand, this is a purely everyday detail associated with the birth of a child. In ancient times and the Middle Ages, it was customary to wash a newborn, as it is now. Hence the font and the jug of water.
But there is a second explanation for this. The Apocrypha introduces purely human, everyday details into the story of the Nativity of God. The Proto-Gospel of Jacob tells how Joseph left the Mother of God alone in a cave and went to look for a midwife who would help deliver the baby. A midwife named Salome doubted that the Virgin could give birth and wanted to see for herself. This is what happened next in the text:
“And as soon as Salome extended her finger, she screamed and said: “Woe to my unbelief, for I dared to tempt God. And now my hand is taken away, as if on fire...” And then the Angel of the Lord appeared before her and said to her, “Salome, Salome, the Lord has listened to you, raise your hand to the Baby and hold Him, and healing and joy will come for you.” And Salome came and took the Child, saying: “I will worship Him, for He was born great king Israel. And Salome was immediately healed..."
You can try to offer another simple interpretation of the scene of the washing of the Child. The font depicted on the icon is easily recognizable as the font in which infants are usually baptized in the Church, introducing them to life with God.
Western European artists of the Middle Ages and Renaissance
The works of European artists of the Early (V-XI centuries) and Mature Middle Ages (XI-XIII centuries) in principle repeat the Byzantine icon painting tradition. Only a few details are added that cannot be found in Byzantine and Old Russian icons.
A characteristic feature of European Christian painting is the desire not so much to inspire a person to move the soul upward, towards God, but to “bring down” God from heaven to earth, to make Him accessible to man, to mix Sacred history and everyday human history, dissolving one into the other.
Census in Bethlehem
One of the details of the event of the Nativity of Christ, which is not in the iconography, but is in the painting, is the image of the population census, with the story of which the Christmas chapter of the Gospel of Luke begins: “In those days a command came from Caesar Augustus to make a census of the whole earth...”(Luke 2:1).
The remarkable master of the Northern Renaissance, Pieter Bruegel the Elder (16th century), dedicated this subject famous painting"Census in Bethlehem." But what appears to the viewer’s eyes is not the mountainous Holy Land, but the snow-capped Netherlands. The artist transfers gospel events into his contemporary world. There is always snow at Christmas in northern Europe, so righteous Joseph and the Virgin Mary wander through the snow.
The fact that this is the Holy Family (as it was customary to say in Europe of the 14th-17th centuries) can only be guessed by looking at the donkey on which the Virgin Mary sits, and the saw on the shoulder of Joseph the carpenter. Huge masses of people, among whom the modest Holy Family was lost, represent crowds of people who came to the census. But nothing else tells us that the great event of Christmas is about to take place. Dutch peasants are busy with their household chores, children frolic on the ice.
Only a Christmas wreath nailed above the door of the house and a roast pig hint at the Christmas holiday. But these are again not gospel details, but the reality of everyday life in the Netherlands during the Renaissance.
Cave, house, hotel
Often in European paintings on the theme of the Nativity of Christ, instead of a cave, you can see a dilapidated, almost destroyed house.
On the one hand, such a house symbolized the fact that Christ was born in poverty and obscurity, and on the other hand, the old, dilapidated house symbolized the Old Testament, which, with the coming of Christ into the world, was replaced by the commandments of the New Testament.
Some researchers see in this image of a house an image of a hotel, such as was common in the East. It was a caravanserai, a hut with three walls, the fourth side of the house open to the street. Here, in the courtyard, separated by several steps from the house, cattle graze. Everything that happens in such a house is visible to the eyes of a stranger.
It is quite possible that it was in one of these hotels that the Holy Family was not allowed to spend the night. And by placing such a house-hotel on their canvas, European artists thereby emphasize the pilgrimage of Christ in this world and His openness to everyone and everything.
Child Christ
On Byzantine and Old Russian icons, the Child Christ is often depicted without age, or vice versa, as a small adult, in order to emphasize the eternity of God and His maturity in relation to people.
In European painting, two types of images of the Baby are common - either the fragile and thin body of a newborn with disproportionate parts of the body and a large head, as happens with real newborn babies, or in the form of a well-fed six-month-old baby, or even one year old child. Perhaps this concreteness, physicality in the depiction of Christ is also some tribute of Europeans to their desire to combine sacred and everyday, worldly history?
Around the head of the Infant God in most European paintings there is no cross-shaped halo, and in some there is not even a simple halo - a symbol of holiness.
The famous Dutch painter of the 17th century, Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn, found an interesting move - he depicts the deep darkness of the Christmas night and, in contrast to the darkness, paints the bright glow of the Baby’s face. The light comes from Himself, and not from the halo painted above the head. So Rembrandt, with the help of bright details, conveys the idea that God Himself is the source of light, goodness, love, holiness.
Angels, shepherds
Often Western European artists depicted angels above a baby not as spiritual beings, but as having the body of cheerful, happy musicians, only with wings on their backs.
The motif of playing the Christ Child on a flute or lutes originates in folk tradition Catholic medieval Europe play at Christmas in front of the image of the Child Christ on a fife. Interestingly, the notes that the angels hold in their hands contain real pieces of music that can be performed. Some of them are even for multiple instruments and voices. In addition, the angels of European artists (for example, in the painting by Robert Campin) hold ribbons with the words of Christmas carols in their hands.
Shepherds are often depicted with pipes and bagpipes, which may be associated not only with their shepherd’s work, but also with the medieval custom of playing the flute for the Infant Christ.
Magi
Typically, European artists depicted the three wise men according to the number of three human ages (youth, maturity, old age) to emphasize that at any age a person needs God.
Christ the Child plays with the gifts, touches the clothes and hair of the Magi, and they stretch out their hands to Him. God rushes to people in response to their movement towards Him.
Already in the era of the Mature Middle Ages, pagan astrologer magicians turned into three kings who came from three countries of the East (Arabia, Persia and Ethiopia are most often mentioned among these countries). Each king has his own name - Caspar, Melchior, Balthazar. Each brought his own gift to the born Christ - gold (emphasizing the royal dignity of Christ), incense (which is used in worship) and myrrh (it is used to soak a dead body in the East). The gifts of the Magi symbolized the dual nature of Christ - Divine immortality and human mortality.
In Catholic Europe, there is still a holiday of the Three Kings, especially loved by German and French children. On this day (January 6), they receive gifts and wear golden paper crowns, depicting the Magi-kings.
During the Renaissance, the Magi had a magnificent retinue - camels and horses loaded with gifts, numerous servants, as, for example, in the painting “The Adoration of the Magi” by Giotto. Perhaps it was the Renaissance artists who brought into the consciousness of Europeans that understanding of the Christmas holiday, which is very close to modern man - abundance, even luxury of all kinds of manifestations of the material world as the main attribute of the celebration. Isn’t this where the roots of the tradition of a rich festive meal, brilliant outfits, future lush decorated Christmas trees, balls and fireworks come from?
Artists increasingly enlarged this retinue; it often filled the entire field of the picture, so that Christ the Child and the Virgin Mary were barely noticeable. Gradually the same thing happened in everyday life. The reality of Christmas, its absolute meaning for a person of European Christian civilization, was obscured by the bustle of the metropolis. And for many, Christmas days are now just an excuse to attend a pre-holiday sale. Or just a long holiday in the middle of winter.
Renaissance artists, discovering new technical possibilities oil painting, mastered the image real world in every detail. Paintings on the theme of Christmas reveal not only painstakingly painted folds of clothing in the then fashion of wealthy Italian or Dutch trading cities, but also portrait features of specific people - the artists themselves or their benefactors.
But maybe it's not just a matter of striving for realism. Still, the man of the Renaissance had not yet rejected Christ, and in general his life flowed in line with Christian tradition, despite the fact that it was in the 15th-16th centuries that European rationalism arose. Perhaps this is how the Renaissance masters expressed the movement of their soul, which also wanted to worship Christ along with the Magi?
But only two or three hundred years will pass, and rationalism will turn into ordinary atheism, which will give rise to our post-Christian era, where faith and unbelief have become the personal matter of the individual. And more and more the festively dressed crowd obscures the newborn Baby...
While they were there, the time came for Her to give birth; and she gave birth to her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. (Luke 2:6–7). Until the beginning of the 5th century, Christmas was celebrated simultaneously as a feast of Epiphany. Therefore, the painting mixed the subjects of the birth itself and subsequent episodes, which, strictly speaking, relate more to the Epiphany - the worship of the Magi (kings), the worship of the shepherds, which do not always include an image of the birth of Christ directly.
Joseph's dream.
Alexander Andreevich Ivanov. 1850s
Paper, watercolor, Italian pencil.
Moscow. State Tretyakov Gallery
Christmas.
Gagarin Grigory Grigorievich
Adoration of the Magi.
Gagarin Grigory Grigorievich
Nativity of Christ (Adoration of the Shepherds).
Shebuev Vasily Kozmich. 1847 Oil on canvas. 233x139.5 cm.
Image for the Annunciation Church of the Horse Guards Regiment in St. Petersburg
Christmas.
Repin Ilya Efimovich. 1890 Oil on canvas. 73x53.3.
The appearance of an angel announcing the birth of Christ to the shepherds. Sketch.
Ivanov Alexander Andreevich. 1850s.
Brown paper, watercolor, white, Italian pencil. 26.4x39.7
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
The Doxology of the Shepherds.
Ivanov Alexander Andreevich. 1850
The appearance of an angel to the shepherds.
Petrovsky Pyotr Stepanovich (1814-1842). 1839 Oil on canvas. 213x161.
Cherepovets Museum Association
For this painting, the young artist, a student of Karl Bryullov, received his first large gold medal Academy of Arts. The canvas was in the Museum of the Imperial Academy of Arts until its closure, then it was transferred to the Cherepovets Museum of Local Lore.
Christmas.
Vasnetsov Viktor Mikhailovich. 1885-1896
Murals of the Vladimir Cathedral in Kyiv
Christmas.
Vishnyakov Ivan Yakovlevich and others, 1755
From the Trinity-Petrovsky Cathedral.
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg
Christmas.
Borovikovsky Vladimir Lukich. 1790 Oil on canvas.
Tver Regional Art Gallery
Christmas.
Borovikovsky Vladimir Lukich. Oil on canvas
Historical-architectural and art museum"New Jerusalem"
Christmas.
M.V. Nesterov. 1890-1891 Paper on cardboard, gouache, gold. 41 x 31.
Sketch of the painting of the altar wall of the southern aisle in the choir of the Vladimir Cathedral
State Tretyakov Gallery
http://www.art-catalog.ru/picture.php?id_picture=15006
Christmas.
Sketch of the painting of the altar wall of the southern chapel in the choir of the Vladimir Cathedral.
Nesterov Mikhail Vasilievich. 1890–1891 Paper on cardboard, gouache, gold. 41x31.8
State Tretyakov Gallery
http://www.art-catalog.ru/picture.php?id_picture=14959
Christmas.
M. V. Nesterov. 1890
The kneeling figure of a young man with a staff in his hand. Hand holding a staff. Hand raised to mouth.
M.V. Nesterov. Etude. 1890-1891 Paper on cardboard, graphite pencil, Italian pencil, charcoal. 49x41.
Preparatory studies for the figure of one of the shepherds of the composition "The Nativity of Christ" (the southern altar is attached to the choir of St. Vladimir Cathedral in Kyiv)
Kyiv State Museum of Russian Art
http://www.art-catalog.ru/picture.php?id_picture=4661
Christmas (Bow to the Kings).
M.V. Nesterov. 1903
Fragment of the painting of the northern wall of the church in the name of the blessed prince Alexander Nevsky
http://www.art-catalog.ru/picture.php?id_picture=15189
Christmas (Bow to the Kings).
M.V. Nesterov. 1899-1900 Paper on cardboard, graphite pencil, gouache, watercolor, bronze, aluminum. 31x49.
Sketch of the painting of the northern wall of the church in the name of the blessed prince Alexander Nevsky.
State Russian Museum
http://www.art-catalog.ru/picture.php?id_picture=15177
Magi. Sketch
Ryabushkin Andrey Petrovich. Paper, watercolor
Kostroma State United Art Museum
Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Lebedev Klavdiy Vasilievich (1852-1816)
Angelic praise at the moment of the birth of the Savior.
Lebedev Klavdiy Vasilievich (1852-1816)
Christmas.
Lebedev Klavdiy Vasilievich (1852-1816). Graphics.
Adoration of the Magi.
Klavdiy Vasilievich Lebedev,
Church and Archaeological Office of the MDA
Adoration of the Magi.
Valerian Otmar. 1897 Oil on canvas, 71x66.
Original mosaic for the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood
The appearance of an angel to the shepherds. Christmas. Candlemas.
Christmas.
Mosaic based on the original by I. F. Porfirov
Church of the Resurrection of Christ (Savior on Spilled Blood), St. Petersburg
The Nativity of Christ and other sacred scenes from the life of Jesus Christ and the Mother of God.
I. Ya. Bilibin.
Sketch of a fresco for the southern wall of the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Olshany
Magi (wise men).
Pavel Nikolaevich Filonov. 1914 Watercolor, brown ink, ink, pen, brush on paper. 37x39.2 cm.
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg
Olga's Gallery
Adoration of the Magi.
Pavel Nikolaevich Filonov. 1913 Wood, pencil, gouache. 45.7x34.9.
Private collection
Initially, the work was in the possession of the artist’s sister Evdokia Glebova.
On October 17, 1990 it was sold to an anonymous person at Sotheby's auction,
then on November 29, 2006, it was sold again at Christie’s for $1.5 million.
Christie's auction house
Adoration of the Magi.
Pavel Nikolaevich Filonov. 1913. Paper, gouache (tempera?), 35.5x45.5.
Private collection, Switzerland
Publication of the Tretyakov Gallery, 2006.
http://www.tg-m.ru/articles/06/04/042–049.pdf
Source sites for reproductions:
What bliss that the snow shines,
That the cold got stronger, and it was drizzling in the morning,
That foil sparkles wildly and tenderly
On every corner and in the store window.
While serpentine, tinsel, gimmick
They rise above the boredom of other possessions,
The languor of the weeks before New Year's
to endure and endure - what a wondrous fate...
(Bella Akhmadulina, December 1974)
- (Illustrator Alexander Dudin, 1953.)
I begin my New Year's review of paintings dedicated to the annual celebration of Christmas and the New Year with this general symbolic generalized illustration to create the appropriate mood for the reader. This does not mean that I will show reproductions with ordinary decorated Christmas trees and children and adults having fun around them, but I will try to show something non-banal, but original from this set of paintings on the named topic, which, as it turned out, were not so many painted by artists. If we had not collected the entire classical biblical series of paintings painted by the great masters of the past, then the name and objectives of our study would have been different. But there are modern original exclusive painting subjects that are worth highlighting and showing as a reflection of the Christmas holiday and the New Year.…
Naturally, I cannot, in my usual manner, evaluate the New Year and Christmas paintings in question from the point of view of a doctor, as I tried to do in previous reviews, but I will try to discuss the reproductions as an ordinary viewer and amateur in art. And in this review I have the right to select non-trivial subjects, rare paintings by famous artists and images unexpected for some authors, paintings with humor and exclusive subjects. But all of them were written on the occasion of Christmas or New Year holidays, often combining both celebrations.
For example, completely unusual picture Salvador Dali, written for a French women's magazine"Vogue" (pronounced vog, from fr. - “fashion”) - a women's fashion magazine published since 1892 by the publishing house Condé Nast Publications, is perceived as a joke of a genius.
As far as I could see and understand, it shows two parts of an open arch in the form of a leaning man and woman, from whose mouths green pendants are lowered Christmas decorations- droplets or light bulbs. The divided balusters are made as parts of a person's face. Above you can see spruce trees with brightly and radiantly shining lights...
- Dali's Christmas design for Vogue 1946. The artist depicted an allegorical New Year’s landscape with metaphorical details of decor and architecture...
It is quite natural that artists could not ignore such subjects that had to be transferred to canvases with their magic brushes. Where else can you find paintings for cheerful images, fabulous, colorful, cheerful and fantastic in content, if not during the Christmas and New Year holidays?
- This is one of the old German engravings, in which children and Santa Claus himself gathered at the “Claus tree” (German: Klausbaum). Engraving from the German book “50 Fables with Pictures for Children.”
Of course, it is unlikely that there will be paintings by the great masters of the past, when there were no traditions to celebrate these days and paint them in paintings. After all, the first mentions of the celebration of the Nativity of Christ in Russia appeared only at the very end of the 15th century. And celebrating the New Year with a Christmas tree is even later.
- Painting by an unknown artist about the New Year's Eve in peasant hut before or in the first years after the October revolution.
On December 15, 1699, Peter 1 issued a decree on a new calendar, and therefore the New Year began to be celebrated on January 1. Because of Peter I’s passion for Europe, New Year celebrations began to be celebrated in the manner customary there. The celebrations have become a more fun and vibrant event for the Russian people. Based on Dutch traditions, people began to decorate their homes with pine branches, which were supposed to remain until the Nativity of Christ. On holiday New Year I have my own main character– Santa Claus, a fairy-tale character who also came to us from Europe in the second half of the 19th century under the name Santa Claus. In Russian tradition, he had a granddaughter, Snegurochka.
This bright holiday
On this bright holiday -
Christmas holiday
We'll tell each other
Warm words.
The snow falls quietly:
It's winter outside,
A miracle will happen here
And will set hearts on fire.
Let your smiles
On this wonderful day
They will be our happiness
And a gift to everyone.
The sounds of life flow
Happiness and goodness,
Illuminating thoughts
With the light of Christmas.
- Khomyakov Alexey Stepanovich (1804-1860)
True, even before Father Frost and the Snow Maiden, the first guest who came to the New Year was a Snow Woman or Snowman, made up of rolled balls of fresh snow, marked with charcoal facial features, a carrot instead of a nose, a bucket or pan on the head, and a broom in hands made of branches ...
Children are friends with him in the yard.
He loves frost and wind.
He won’t go wherever he wants,
And it stands from morning to night.
He doesn't eat, doesn't drink, doesn't sleep,
And a snowball is flying above him...
He is not used to living in a warm place.
From - ha - yes - whether? (Snowman)
(Alexandrenko Elena)
- "Snegurochka" (literally, "girl made of snow").
But the artist Sergei Sviridov decided to diversify the company of the usual snowmen or Snow Women and painted the Snow Maiden in the form of a small sprout of a snow granny in the typical appearance of rolled balls of fresh snow, lined with embers of facial features and buttons, a carrot instead of a nose, a red bucket or pan on the head (after all , woman!) and brooms in hands made of branches... And from under the bucket-hat sticks out a blond “tuft of hair” made from wood chips or broom twigs...
This Snow girl - Snegurochka stands in the yard next to a decorated Christmas tree and waits for a real girl to appear from the window in the morning and smile at her, exclaiming: “Happy New Year, dear friend!”
Our other guest will be Santa Claus, whom he brought
- artist Valentin Gubarev in the painting "New Year's Eve". The artist, endowed with a bright personality and a special, non-trivial vision of the world, draws his subjects with great humor. One of which shows the arrival of Santa Claus, sitting on a children's sleigh with his legs curled up. The sled is pulled by a long-nosed, thin lady in a wide coat and a red hat. Probably a teacher at a local school, who was tasked by the teachers' council to organize the New Year's Eve party. A cheerful red puppy shows her the way, turning his head towards her and, with a ringing bark, advising her where to go next. Santa is riding through a Russian village with a bell tower visible in the distance...
A different vision of Santa Claus is offered to us in a beautiful image by the self-taught Canadian painter Stuart Sherwood, who loves to paint everything related to the Christmas holidays, not sparing the bright red shades and humor, as in this untitled painting. But we ourselves can describe it, as we see it:
- Here he is reclining in a comfortable position in white socks with an unkempt white shock of hair on his head and face, continuing in a long beard, on a chair with a retractable footrest, and carefully reading the list of gifts and addresses, what and where he will have to deliver all this to New Year. According to the recommendations in the book “Very good boys and girls” lying next to Teddy on the floor.
- And in this cheerful painting by the American popular artist Norman Rockwell, drawn by him in 1939, Santa Claus sits on a stepladder near a map of the world and also reads a list of “very good” children and plans his route for Christmas night. By the way, many collectors are hunting for his paintings. And at Christie’s auction in 2007, a selection of them fetched $2.5 million (the illustration graced the cover of The Saturday Evening Post magazine). (We will meet with this artist later in the story).
Now you can get acquainted with the images of Russian Snow Maidens, which have taken root only in Russia in the paintings of Russian artists. And among them is the first Snow Maiden in the painting of the same name by V.M. Vasnetsov, drawn by him back in 1899.
- The Snow Maiden, the daughter of Spring and Frost, is a favorite fairy-tale character of the Christmas holidays, although the libretto of the opera does not say about Christmas and New Year, but reveals a tragic love story The Snow Maiden and the shepherd Lelya and her death from the rays of Yarilo - the Sun, for knowing love without being a person. However, Vasnetsov painted his picture under the influence of the fairy tale “The Snow Maiden” and the opera created based on it by Nikolai Andreevich Rimsky-Korsakov (1881), written, in turn, based on the play of the same name by Alexander Ostrovsky (1873).
In the picture, as in the scenery of an opera, there is a fabulously beautiful night: a snow-covered forest, bathed in moonlight, a starry sky. Her fur coat, mittens, and hat absorbed all the shades of snow, forest, and sky. Dazzling white snow, blue-green night, young fir trees in the foreground - everything in the picture is shown reliably with the extraordinary precision of the brush of a great master - the singer of Russian nature.
- Mikhail Vrubel presented his image of “The Snow Maiden”, (1890). The painting was painted in the post-impressionist style. The prototype of the image of the Snow Maiden, his Muse (as well as the Sea Princess and Spring), has always been his wife, actress Nadezhda Ivanovna Zabela. Throughout her married life, she was a mystery to the artist with her characteristic attractive force.
In the guise of the Snow Maiden, the artist showed the girl’s snow-covered flowing curls, with large snowflakes sparkling on them like precious jewelry. In her face, which he always liked, there is a languid, slightly surprised, distant look, and there is also a certain childishness in her closed lips. Snow-covered spruce branches cast patterned shadows with a bluish tint. As the mistress of a fairy-tale forest, the Magician Snow Maiden is not afraid of cold and frost, and you just want to hide her childish, delicate bare hands in a muff or put mittens on them...
But this picture, like the previous one, only by its name refers to Christmas or New Year, symbolizing their arrival and our custom of generalizing them.
But we got distracted by the New Year's celebrations and forgot to buy Christmas trees! We immediately go to the Christmas tree markets in order to have time to purchase this important and beautiful attribute of the New Year's holiday. Here is one of these paintings by Henry Manizer. And it would be a pity not to show it, because it shows all the breadth and character of the Russian soul, long fur coats of women and sheepskin coats of men, scarves and winter fur hats, hubbub and unbridled joy on their faces.
- Henry Manizer "Christmas Tree Bargaining". As it is written in the footnote under the picture – “Before Christmas, three days before, in the markets, in the squares, there was a forest of fir trees. And WHAT Christmas trees! There is as much of this goodness in Russia as you want. On Theater Square, it used to be - a forest.”
And another Christmas tree bazaar, painted by the provincial Russian artist Alexander Bukchuri:
- Buchkuri Alexander Alekseevich (1870 --1942) in 1906. At this bazaar, a calmer public, obviously from wealthy families, with their children chooses the tree they like and other attributes to decorate the Christmas tree and home. The goods are placed around separately so that the buyer can appreciate the beauty of the tree; they are already mounted on the crosses. Buy it, take it home and immediately place it in the place you prepared in advance in the room.
And now it’s all about “Christmas Tree Sale,” painted ten years later. B.M. Kustodiev, unfortunately, was already confined to a chair due to increasing paralysis of his legs...
Folk holidays and celebrations were one of the artist’s favorite themes. And Christmas, of course, occupied a special place in his work. The painting depicts what happens somewhere in Russia on New Year's Eve. Crowds of shoppers, carts with horses loaded in them, beautiful Christmas trees carried to the sleigh. They sell Christmas trees to decorate the house, for children's amusement, for a festive mood, for the difficult but exciting process of decorating a Christmas tree, which the whole family does, as shown in the following picture.
- Boris Kustodiev. “Christmas tree auction”, 1918. Krasnodar Regional Art Museum named after. F.A. Kovalenko.
I remember the previous rush with buying a Christmas tree in advance and temporarily placing it on the balcony. And also boxes of old toys pulled out of cabinets, chests of drawers, removed from mezzanines. The appearance of new ones, especially German ones, distinguished by their beautiful colors and weightless material... The smells of old cotton wool, toys, especially soft ones, which absorbed and preserved them, traces of confetti or all sorts of powders and the crunch of broken fragments underfoot, which will be swept up, but will not disappear until the end of the New Year holidays...
Christmas
My calendar is half-scorched
blossomed in crimson numbers;
palms and opals on glass
the spell brought frost.
It poured out into a feathery pattern,
arched radiantly,
and tangerines and boron
the living room smells blue.
- Vladimir Nabokov, September 23, 1921, Berlin
- Sergei Vasilievich Dosekin - Preparing for Christmas, (1896). The tree and gifts are not yet visible in the picture, but the family has gathered to make garlands and decorations for the house. It’s not like going to a store and choosing toys at the Christmas tree market that you like or order by kids, whose fantasies sometimes exceed their capabilities and retail chains and parents. And advertising is often to blame for this. Like this one:
On the advertising canvas, in in this case paintings by American artist Nicky Boehme, you are invited to see how best to arrange and decorate everything in the house on its section in a series of bright and colorful paintings: “A BEAUTIFUL WINTER’S TALE FROM NICKY BOEHME.”
- The “spectators”, fascinated by the display of the interior, have already gathered and are ready to sign a press release with recommendations for consumers and retail chains. Everyone is delighted! And penguins, and a squirrel, and a cat and a dog, and also a gazelle... People had not yet gathered, but our younger brothers had already sensed it and rushed in early.
The Christmas tree is also decorated alone, if things don’t work out, or in front of the crown in a white wedding dress, as worn on this charming girl with what seems to me to be a sad face. Although sadness can also be calm and temporary. And tomorrow her face, perhaps, will light up with a cheerful, joyful smile, and rainbow Christmas tree lights will be reflected in her eyes...
Alexey Mikhailovich Korin - Christmas tree, 1910
But there is also a sad decoration of the Christmas tree by two lonely women, perhaps a mother with an unlucky or abandoned (divorced) daughter, who has a handkerchief in her hands, perhaps she is crying...
- Jozsef Riepl-Ronai. “Winter evening. Decorating the Christmas tree" 1910. One of the women prepares another candle, attaching it to the tree. Her face is sad and thoughtful, because she is experiencing the even sadder state of the second woman, sitting at the table and covering her face with her hands. This state is referred to as "Facepalm" (English: face - face, palm - palm). This is a physical gesture - “face closed hands" which is a manifestation of disappointment, shame, despondency, irritation or embarrassment." This gesture is sometimes called “little hand” or “hand of hand”)...
This is the first time I have come across such terms... This means that this is her adult daughter, her child, because under the picture there is such an entry - “Child facepalming”... Maybe. There is no arguing with the author.
And in the next painting by the same Hungarian artist, there is again the same gloomy setting on Christmas evening in which one, younger woman, writes something on an open secretary. The older woman, perhaps the mother, stands there, upset, waiting for the letter to be completed. Both are dressed in coats and hats and are about to leave the house. The elderly lady seems to have a stick in her hand for support when walking...
- Joseph Rippl-Rone. Christmas. 1903.
On the bedside table in a clay pot against the background of the carpet there is a modestly decorated small Christmas tree. On the sides are two unlit candles under burgundy lampshades... Not everyone's holidays are fun and carefree.
Christmas romance...
Your New Year in dark blue
A wave in the middle of the urban sea
Floating in inexplicable melancholy,
It's like life will start again
As if there will be light and glory,
Have a good day and plenty of bread,
It's like life is swinging to the right
swinging to the left.
(Joseph Alexandrovich Brodsky (1961)
- Edvard Munch "Christmas in a Brothel", 1904.
The painting “Christmas in a Brothel” by the famous and talented Norwegian artist Edvard Munch in the expressionist style was completed in 1904/05. and is housed in the Munch Museum in Oslo. The painting was created during a difficult time for Munch. As a result of various worries, Munch suffered from anxious mental states, which he tried to cope with with the help of alcohol and drugs. He had to periodically undergo treatment in a psychiatric clinic.
A visit to a brothel in Lübeck at Christmas left him in a state of “slight melancholy” due to the impressionability of the situation when the “working” girls had just finished decorating the Christmas tree. He considered the picture he painted ironic, sentimental and ugly. Prostitution was Munch’s favorite theme , and later he would create a whole series of paintings, The Green Room.
But we are again distracted from the main task - to prepare for the New Year, and the toys are not all hung on the numerous Christmas trees. Some of them lie on the table, as depicted in the painting by contemporary artist T.V. Bessonova.
- Bessonova Tamara Vladimirovna "New Year", 1955
From under the sad Pierrot’s mask you can see beautiful Christmas tree paws, and between them is a colorful masquerade mask, all covered in sparkles, and a simpler one at the feet of a monkey. And fans for masquerade masks and various large balls, which little Parsley in the foreground looked at with surprise...
- An unknown artist presented "A Festive Table of Gifts for a Girl" for Christmas, (1840) . “Table of Christmas Gifts for a Girl,” unknown artist.
The girl doll sitting at the table, against the backdrop of a sparsely decorated Christmas tree, shows few objects, possibly gifts. There are yellow shoes, a white blouse with a blue belt, garlands of pink paper flowers, a basket of apples and a vase... The shoes are really for a girl, but in this strange picture she is replaced by a doll... What the author wanted to say. There is no one to ask, since he is not known to us.
And if there are still few toys in the pictures presented so far, then the shops are still open and the metro is still working and it looks something like how Natasha Villon painted them: The escalators are overcrowded, barely able to accommodate all the customers with bags, bags, and children with toys in their hands. Everyone is rushing home to have time to decorate the Christmas tree and prepare goodies and outfits. Christmas has begun and the New Year is coming soon... The picture of the New Year's metro is filled with noise and movement. Everyone is excited and humor is visible in each of the passengers going down the escalator into the subway. The hat-cap has almost fallen onto the girl’s face, and from under the “airfield” cap only black mustaches can be clearly seen. Two loaves, like the ears of a hare, emphasize the face of a woman in a black headscarf, standing with her eyes closed and not afraid to fall due to the insuring density of the crowd... A funny girl with a big teddy bear smiles at a small dark-skinned young man with big skis.
Soon the escalator will be free of people already familiar to us, who will disperse in different directions. And others will fill the miraculous staircase until they completely dry up...
- Artist Natasha Villon, “Pre-New Year Metro”
Sometimes a grandmother, who has more free time while still at work or at school, begins to decorate the Christmas tree herself, looking at the toys and remembering each one, what it is called and where it should be hung... It is possible that the grandmother suddenly begins to remember the Christmas holidays or celebrating the New Year in your younger years. And the toy in her hand lingers until a kaleidoscope of episodes or specific faces from the memories of distant childhood or youth passes by... Let’s not disturb her.
- Egor Zaitsev "Christmas Tree", 1996
I would like to hope that another grandmother, somewhere in Ukraine, had previously prepared all the treats for the arrival of her grandchildren and children. In any case, when you look at the tables arranged in the kitchen and what is placed on them, your mouth will water, and once you try it, you will lick your fingers. I know for sure that Ukrainian buns, pampushki, dumplings with anything are the most delicious. There are mashed poppy seeds and kutia in the makitras, under the towels there are slices or a piece of lard, fried pig in sour cream with a crispy crust, and in jars there are various pickles. In general, you can’t list everything, but judging by the picture, everything was provided for by the caring grandmother and is ready to be served.
- Nadezhda Poluyan-Vnukova (Ukraine) – “At Grandma’s before Christmas.”
I did the same Grand Duchess Olga Aleksandrovna Romanova, who became an artist in Soviet Russia. In her painting, she has also prepared a New Year's treat and the festive table, set under a decorated Christmas tree, is ready to receive guests.
- Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna Romanova (sister of Emperor Nicholas II) "New Year's treat." (1935).
In the imperial family, all children were taught painting, but only Grand Duchess Olga (the youngest daughter of Emperor Alexander III) became a fairly famous artist.
It seems to me that the colors in the picture are faded. They either faded with time, or the princess did not have the opportunity to buy better ones. After all, she was destitute in Soviet times and was no longer a princess...
And now you can invite guests and start celebrating Christmas and the New Year, which is what the artist A.F. painted. Chernyshov.
- Scenes from the family life of Emperor Nicholas I.
Christmas tree in Anichkov Palace.
Artist Chernyshev A.F.
In the picture there are women in elegant ball gowns, men in tailcoats and uniforms, children in elegant dresses and suits that are fashionable for their age. The Christmas trees in the hall are decorated, and there are huge chandeliers on the ceiling. Everything is solemn and decorous, because the presence of royalty or members of his family, or even the Emperor of Russia himself, is felt.
Charles Green (?). "Christmas Comes Only Once a Year" (1896). Charles Green, “Christmas Comes But Once A Year,”
Rich family. Christmas dinner (another name for the painting). Guests are served by a maid or cook (cook, cook) in a cap and apron. She brings out a platter of steaming roast turkey, which catches the guests' eyes. Although some are indifferent and busy talking. Obviously, the owner is standing and keeping order on the table and in the service...
This is all I could find out about this picture, which was shown on the Internet more than once. Even about the artist it was not possible to find any information except his name, but the picture corresponds to the idea of describing the chosen topic.
- Viggo Johansen " Merry Christmas"(1891) Viggo Johansen. "Merry Christmas", 1891. HIRSCHSPRUNG Museum.
The Dane Viggo Johansen, a representative of the Skagen Artists group and director of the Danish Academy of Arts, could not resist the temptation to depict Christmas.
A decorated, beautiful Christmas tree shines brightly in a darkened room. Around her, the mothers or older sisters of the children staged a round dance, in which all the participants, holding hands, dance, lead a round dance and sing in Danish...
So, New Year and Christmas days have come and continue. As the celebrations progress, new ones arise or all sorts of shortcomings and worries arise. Like, for example, these two charming girls (and perhaps the eldest is a gentle boy - the viewer will understand) decided to light additional decorative fragrant candles under the Christmas tree on the roof of a beautiful medieval castle. Or install a flag on the tower...
- Felix Ehrlich “Christmas”, (1889). “Christmas” Felix Ehrlich (1866-1931) German artist beautifully and subtly painted this tender children's picture. What a pleasant and beautiful face the older girl (boy?) has, soft pink, white hands, all of her in a natural pose. Like the youngest, frozen by the impression and watching with attention what her sister is doing. I also look and can’t tear myself away from these adorable kids...
Karl Olof Larsson was considered a “hillbilly” by some of his critics for his desire to depict rural subjects. (Carl Olof Larsson, 1853-1919). Swedish artist and author of frescoes, oil paintings and watercolors, considered one of the most revered Swedish painters. Larsson's mother was a laundress, and his father was a simple worker.
- Carl Larsson dressed the girl in a clearly rural outfit in a typically folk style. This colorful blouse and bright red apron on black skirt They fit so well with the same colored hat, dashingly placed on the head of a beautiful teenager, that it is impossible to admire her. It was not for nothing that she was placed on a chair, probably not for empty staring, but for the performance of poetry or a song. Although she seems to be attaching a candle to a tree branch. But the girl is shy and, blushing, lowered her head...
In another picture by the same author, a boy in a Santa Claus hat and funny oversized boots is either adding toys or reading out the text, and one of the older girls or mother is watching and listening to the boy. And Karl Larsson exclaims in his painting:
Now it's chirstmas again! Now it's Christmas again!
The children will go to bed early
On the last day of December,
And they’ll wake up a year older
On the first day of the calendar.
The year will begin with silence,
Unfamiliar with last winters:
Noise behind the double frame
Barely perceptible.
But the guys are calling outside
Winter day through ice glass -
Into the refreshing cold
Of cozy warmth.
We will remember you with a kind word
Years old care,
Starting early in the morning
New day and new year!
(The children will go to bed early... S. Marshak)
- Early in the morning, the children, not even dressed yet, hid at the door of the room where there was a decorated Christmas tree, looking out to see if there was a bag of gifts under the tree...
American artist Henry Mosler in his painting “Christmas Morning” (1916) depicted a moment of anticipation of pleasure and exciting anticipation from the possible receipt of familiar and long-awaited gifts from Santa Claus, who never forgets about them. He won't forget!
It’s not for nothing that he guards the pre-dawn pre-New Year’s dream of a girl in a painting by another American artist, admiring her and the serene expression on her face...
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- "Santa Claus", (1921). The work of American artist and illustrator Norman Rockwell.
Wise, kind Santa Claus plucks his beard and carefully looks at the facial expression and listens to the breathing of the sleeping girl, trying to unravel her dream and guess her future. And on her beautiful and gentle face you can see a light, kind smile. Probably a pleasant dream, like morning dreams often are when you don’t want to wake up at all...
Another Christmas morning in a large family.
Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller "Christmas Morning", (1844). Belvedere, Wien. Father, mother, grandmother, a still married, possibly childless couple - all are busy with seven (I didn’t count more) children of different but close ages, who are not yet fully dressed, but are already active, cheerful and cheerful. This mood is transmitted to adults and gives them joy and satisfaction on this bright festive Christmas morning.
Another painting by the same master shows a cheerful scene of the whole family and grandchildren arriving at their grandmother’s with Christmas greetings and gifts.
- Norman Rockwell depicts the stormy and noisy moment of a family's arrival at their estranged grandmother. And the grandson shouts at the top of his voice: We have arrived, grandma! Merry Christmas! We arrived in our new Plymouth! Merry Grandma...We Came in Our New Plymouth! (The picture was painted in 1951)
It seems strange to me the number of gifts, but we do not know the composition of the grandmother’s family...
And for the road there are several paintings by animal painters depicting the moments when cats are half-prepared for the New Year.
- Painting by the talented successor of the dynasty of artists of Neftekamsk - Alexander Mokhov, 2005.
The author of the picture talks about a curious red cat with white spots on its face, swinging a large ball with its paw, hanging on Christmas tree “paws” inserted into a vase. The cat admires the changing highlights of color on it as the ball rotates. On the table are the remains of a meal with orange peels, burning candle in a glass and wine glass. Nearby is a dark bottle of wine.
- I. Demina “New Year’s Table” from the album “New Year is Coming” 2013. Contemporary young artist. Born in 1988. Her picture of a mischievous, cunning and serene dirty gray-brown cat is difficult not to notice and appreciate. Leaving on festive table his leftovers, neatly stacked on plates, he lies in a serene pose, resting his head on his paw, brazenly looking at the stunned hostess, expecting a thrashing from her, but continues to suck wine from the glass, thinking: “What will be, will be!” . Like, not the first time... Meowing at them all....
Cute and funny kittens treat the doll very carelessly, tearing off her wig and braid while reclining on it... And the Christmas tree is barely visible, since kittens are the mise-en-scène of the plot.
But it’s already midnight, which means that the New Year has already arrived and we should celebrate it properly with a glass of champagne in hand, which the last picture brought to your attention:
The work of world-famous illustrator Inge Lök. Inge Look is a well-known artist in Finland, famous for her cheerful lady aunts, and in Russian translation - laughing old ladies. Paintings with their images have long been settled in social networks. So in this picture, the aunties, having glued their mustaches, celebrated the New Year with a cake and a glass of champagne...
What I wish you all to do is when the fiery (or “roasted”) rooster - the symbol of the future of 2017 - pecks at you...
There are much fewer bright and joyful subjects in religious painting than tragic ones. Fine art affects the viewer more acutely and powerfully through tragedy and pain. To modern man For someone accustomed to superficial perception, such dialogue is understandable and relatable. It’s a completely different story with plots that require quiet contemplation, participation in joy and deep awareness. The Nativity of Christ is one of these subtle, bright themes, imbued with hope and love.
For the first time, Christmas was celebrated in Rome in the second quarter of the 4th century. Scientists date the oldest service of the Nativity of Christ that has reached us to the 5th century. The essence of the holiday is perceived as a statement of the truth of the incarnation of God the Word, who came to Earth in the flesh to save humanity from the slavery of sin.
The paucity of written sources did not influence the formation of a strong artistic tradition of this subject. Evangelists cover this solemn event without detail. The Apostle Matthew says: “Rising from sleep, Joseph did as the Angel of the Lord commanded him, and took his wife. And he did not know Her, but at last She gave birth to Her firstborn Son, and he called His name Jesus” (Matthew 1:24-25). Among the evangelists, only the Apostle Luke mentions a number of important historical circumstances of the appearance of the Holy Family in Jerusalem. Apocrypha and revelation also served as additional sources for artists.
The origins of the iconography of the Nativity of Christ go back to images in the catacombs and sarcophagi. They use the types of images already established in ancient art of a woman in labor, shepherds, an ox and a donkey, and a manger. Quite early, the nativity scene began to be combined with the composition of the worship of the Magi or shepherds. A remarkable example is the painting of the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua by the artist Giotto di Bondone, 1305-1313.
Giotto was recognized as the greatest phenomenon in the field of art during his lifetime. He managed to create a completely new and modern style based on the Greek and Latin art schools. Giotto wrote compositions in which tangible pictorial space, volume, depth and emotional experiences appeared for the first time. In this fresco, the artist focuses on the contemplation of Mary's motherly love. The monumentality and integrity of the figures creates the impression of peace, strength and spiritual support. Although Giotto, as usual, does not depict the feelings of his heroes on their faces, there is so much warmth in Mary’s movement that it is easy for the viewer to understand and imagine the emotions that gripped Her. Mary gives the baby into the hands of Salome for Christ to be washed. The scene of ablution, unknown in early Christian art, is associated with the story of the apocrypha - the Proto-Gospel of James about the midwife Salome, who did not believe in the virgin birth, was punished for this with a withered hand and was healed by touching the Infant God. The image of Salome bathing the infant Christ and the maid (or another midwife, sometimes called Zelomia) helping her, usually pouring water into the font, once again emphasizes the truth of the coming of God in the flesh and testifies to the actual Incarnation. In the bathing of the Baby one can see a prototype of the sacrament of the Baptism of the Lord.
One of the most amazing works in terms of conveying Mary’s contemplative love is Correggio’s painting “Holy Night” (1528-1530, art gallery, Dresden), in which Mary rocks the Baby in her arms, not noticing everything that is happening around Her - flying angels, Joseph . Artists who depict Mary in this way seem to break through into a great mystery about which the evangelists are reverently silent - into the intimate dialogue between Mother and Son, behind which lies the mystery of God’s love for each of us.
El Greco in the Nativity scene (1603-1605, private collection) leaves only the Child, Mary and Joseph. The center of the composition is Emmanuel, who is swaddled by Mary. The manger is also a prototype of the deathbed for the body of the deceased Lord, and baby swaddling clothes are the burial shrouds. John Chrysostom says that the manger represents the throne of heaven, and the cattle represent the presence of the angels. The animals closest to Christ are the ox and the donkey. They are not mentioned in the Gospel, but interpreters of this plot agree that the ox is a symbol of those born in the law, Israel, and the donkey is a symbol of the pagans. And between them is depicted the divine Child, freeing them from under the yoke: some from the yoke of the law, others from the worship of idols. Some are the chosen “remnant” of the Old Testament Church, which will enter the Church of the New Testament; others are those to whom the possibility of true knowledge of God is just opening up.
On Russian soil, due to the loss of understanding of the original meaning of this image, the ox and donkey are often replaced by the cow and horse that are common in rural use. El Greco depicts an ox in the foreground in a manner and perspective characteristic of Menierism, with the head of a donkey peeking out behind Mary. Here the theme of salvation and the joy of Christmas is filled with the consciousness of the redemptive purpose of the Incarnation.
Western European art of the 20th century departed from the canons in everything: color, composition, plane, space and interpretation of the plot. The search for truth in painting led artists to archaic, simple forms close to the embodiment of subjects on sarcophagi, that is, to the origins.
Paul Gauguin devoted himself to thinking about the true nature of humanity. He explored primitive nature, freed from civilization. The result of his search turned out to be very interesting, original and expressive. However, in the predominance of the decorative side of painting, its subtle psychological interpretation is lost. In the film “Child. The Birth of the Tahitian Christ" (1896, Hermitage) an unusual point of view is chosen, the viewer becomes an outside observer, the coloring and images create the impression that the plot is, on the one hand, mystical, and on the other, too realistic and everyday. In the stable, the artist depicts livestock, rather than the symbolic ox and donkey. We do not see the Baby's face, but his pose is reminiscent of sacrifice. Gauguin attached great importance to the artist's creative imagination.
In Russia at the same time, artists were also looking for new artistic and expressive means. However, the heritage of Byzantine art, classical education and deep traditions did not allow such daring incarnations. The painting of the Vladimir Cathedral in Kyiv caused a resonance in society at the end XIX century. The images created by the artists departed from the canonical ones, but remained deeply spiritual and sublime. In the painting of the altar wall of the southern chapel in the choir of the Vladimir Cathedral, M.V. Nesterov combines the scene of the Nativity of Christ (1890-1891) with the Adoration of the Shepherds. The Mother of God and Joseph are standing in a cave. The cave is mentioned in some apocrypha. The mountain in which we usually see the cave is traditionally associated with Mary, and the cave, in this case, can be interpreted as Her womb. The cave also symbolizes the fallen world, in which the “Sun of Truth” Christ shone.
The shepherds, the first of all people to learn about the Nativity of the Savior, are simple, unsophisticated souls, “the worthless things of this world.” But the Lord, upon His Coming, exalted the image of the shepherd, saying about Himself “I am the Good Shepherd.” The shepherds in the images of Christmas express that amazing childish delight, the intoxication of a miracle, of which only the “pure in heart” and “poor in spirit” are capable. At the top we see in a segment of the sky the image of a star from which the ray emanates. Often the attention of several groups of characters turns out to be focused on the star: the wise men point to it as their guide to Christ, the shepherds marvel at it, and the angels praise it around it. The star, thus, determines the axis of the composition, and the ray falling on the manger of the Infant indicates the main miracle of this moment - the Birth of “He who existed before the ages,” the position in the manger of the Immense, the wrapping of the swaddling clothes of the One who covers the sky with clouds. Subtle color shades, the beauty of the surrounding nature: fragile blades of grass, pearlescent sky, graceful young trees, the purity of flowers growing near the cave; the fragile and loving image of the Virgin Mary, the emotional worship of the shepherds - all this allows the viewer to empathize and be involved in the mystery of Christmas.
In the same 1890, the master psychological portrait I.E. Repin wrote his version of Christmas (State Tretyakov Gallery). The central figures were the Child Christ and Mary hugging him. I.E. Repin fills the picture with eschatological consciousness. The central position in the compositions of the Nativity of the Mother of God emphasizes her place and role in the arrangement of human salvation. In pre-iconoclast art she is depicted either sitting by a manger or lying on a bed. Mary sitting at the manger is an image of the painless birth of Christ, the incomprehensible virgin birth of the One who is “Virgin before the Nativity, and a Virgin at the Nativity, and a Virgin after the Nativity.”