The city was discovered quite by accident at the end of the 16th century during excavation work.
Karl Bryullov. The last day of Pompeii. 1830-1833
Archaeological excavations began here in the middle of the 18th century. They aroused special interest not only in Italy, but throughout the world. Many travelers sought to visit Pompeii, where literally at every step there was evidence of the suddenly ended life of the ancient city.
And in 1827, the young Russian artist Karl Bryullov came to Pompeii. What he saw there stunned him. And this picture is most likely the result of that trip.
Before starting to paint the picture, Bryullov begins to study historical sources. He reads letters from Pliny the Younger, a witness to the events, to the Roman historian Tacitus. In search of authenticity, the artist also turns to materials from archaeological excavations; he will depict some figures in the poses in which the skeletons of the victims of Vesuvius were found in hardened lava.
The painting is valuable because almost all the objects were painted by Bryullov from original items stored in the Neapolitan museum. The surviving drawings, studies and sketches show how persistently the artist searched for the most expressive composition. And even when the sketch of the future canvas was ready, Bryullov rearranged the scene about a dozen times, changed gestures, movements, poses...
The canvas depicts Countess Yulia Pavlovna Samoilova three times - a woman with a jug on her head, standing on a raised platform on the left side of the canvas; a woman who fell to her death, stretched out on the pavement, and next to her a living child (both were presumably thrown out of a broken chariot) - in the center of the canvas; and a mother attracting her daughters to her in the left corner of the picture.
On the left in the background is a crowd of fugitives on the steps of the tomb of Scaurus. In it we notice an artist saving the most precious thing - a box of brushes and paints. This is a self-portrait of Karl Bryullov.
In the autumn of 1833, the painting appeared at an exhibition in Milan and caused an explosion of delight and admiration. An even greater triumph awaited Bryullov at home. Exhibited in the Hermitage and then at the Academy of Arts, the painting became a source of patriotic pride. She was enthusiastically greeted by A.S. Pushkin:
Vesuvius opened its mouth - smoke poured out in a cloud - flames
Widely developed as a battle flag.
The earth is agitated - from the shaky columns
Idols fall! A people driven by fear
In crowds, old and young, under the inflamed ashes,
Runs out of the city under the rain of stones.
Bryullov was compared to the greats Italian masters. Poets dedicated poems to him. He was greeted with applause on the street and in the theater. A year later, the French Academy of Arts awarded the artist for the painting gold medal after her participation in the Paris Salon.
“And it was the “Last Day of Pompeii” for the Russian brush,” wrote the poet Evgeny Baratynsky. And indeed, the painting was greeted triumphantly in Rome, where Bryullov painted it, and then in Russia, and Sir Walter Scott somewhat pompously called the painting “unusual, epic.” And Nicholas I honored the artist with a personal audience and awarded Charles a laurel wreath, after which the artist was called “Charlemagne”.
Anatoly Demidov presented the painting to Nicholas I, who exhibited it at the Academy of Arts as a guide for aspiring painters. After the opening of the Russian Museum in 1895, the painting moved there, and the general public gained access to it.
K. P. Bryullov
The last day of Pompeii. 1830—1833
Canvas, oil. 465.5 × 651 cm
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg
The Last Day of Pompeii is a painting by Karl Pavlovich Bryullov, painted in 1830-1833. The painting had unprecedented success in Italy, was awarded a gold medal in Paris, and was delivered to St. Petersburg in 1834.
Karl Bryullov first visited Naples and Vesuvius in July 1827, in the fourth year of his stay in Italy. He had no specific purpose for the trip, but there were several reasons for taking this trip. In 1824, the painter’s brother, Alexander Bryullov, visited Pompeii and, despite the restraint of his nature, enthusiastically spoke about his impressions. The second reason for visiting was the hot summer months and the almost always accompanying outbreaks of fever in Rome. The third reason was the recently rapidly emerging friendship with Princess Yulia Samoilova, who was also traveling to Naples.
The sight of the lost city stunned Bryullov. He stayed in it for four days, going around all the nooks and crannies more than once. “Going to Naples that summer, neither Bryullov himself nor his companion knew that this unexpected journey would lead the artist to the highest peak of his creativity - the creation of a monumental historical painting“The last day of Pompeii,” writes art critic Galina Leontyeva.
In 1828, during his next visit to Pompeii, Bryullov made many sketches for a future painting about famous eruption Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD e. and the destruction of this city. The canvas was exhibited in Rome, where it received rave reviews from critics, and was sent to the Louvre in Paris. This work became the first painting by the artist to arouse such interest abroad. Walter Scott called the painting “unusual, epic.”
Classic theme, thanks artistic vision Bryullov and the abundant play of chiaroscuro, resulted in work that is several steps ahead from the neoclassical style. “The Last Day of Pompeii” perfectly characterizes classicism in Russian painting, mixed with idealism, increased interest in plein air and the passionate love of that time for such historical subjects. The artist's image in the left corner of the painting is a self-portrait of the author.
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The canvas also depicts Countess Yulia Pavlovna Samoilova three times - a woman with a jug on her head, standing on a raised platform on the left side of the canvas; a woman who fell to her death, stretched out on the pavement, and next to her a living child (both were presumably thrown out of a broken chariot) - in the center of the canvas; and a mother attracting her daughters to her in the left corner of the picture.
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In 1834, the painting “The Last Day of Pompeii” was sent to St. Petersburg. Alexander Ivanovich Turgenev said that this picture brought glory to Russia and Italy. E. A. Baratynsky composed a famous aphorism on this occasion: “The last day of Pompeii became the first day for the Russian brush!” A. S. Pushkin also responded with a poem: “Idols fall! A people driven by fear..." (this line was prohibited by censorship). In Russia, Bryullov’s canvas was perceived not as a compromise, but as an exclusively innovative work.
Anatoly Demidov presented the painting to Nicholas I, who exhibited it at the Academy of Arts as a guide for aspiring painters. After the opening of the Russian Museum in 1895, the painting moved there, and the general public gained access to it.
Painted a grandiose canvas in Italy great painter Bryullov - “The Last Day of Pompeii”. A description of the painting will be presented in our article. Contemporaries gave the work the most enthusiastic reviews, and the artist himself began to be called the Great Charles.
A little about K. I. Bryullov
The painter was born in 1799 into a family that, starting with his great-grandfather, was associated with art. Having graduated from the Academy of Arts with a gold medal, he and his brother Alexander, a gifted architect, went to Rome. IN Eternal City he works fruitfully, paints portraits and paintings that delight the public, critics and royalty. Karl Bryullov worked on the monumental dense structure for six years. “The Last Day of Pompeii” (the description of the painting and its perception by Italians can be expressed in one word - triumph) became a masterpiece for the residents of the country. They believed that the artist’s canvas evoked thoughts about the heroic past of their homeland at a time when the entire country was engulfed in the struggle for freedom.
Historical facts
The description of Bryullov’s painting “The Last Day of Pompeii” must begin with interesting fact: the master visited excavations near Vesuvius in 1827. This sight simply stunned him. It was clear that life in the city had suddenly ended.
There were fresh ruts on the pavement, bright colors of the inscriptions that announced the rental of premises and upcoming entertainment. In taverns where only sellers were missing, traces of cups and bowls remained on the tables.
Beginning of work
We begin the description of Bryullov’s painting “The Last Day of Pompeii” with a story about many years preparatory work artist, which took three years. First, a compositional sketch was made based on fresh impressions.
After this, the artist began to study historical documents. The artist found the information he needed in letters from a witness to this natural disaster and the famous Roman historian Tacitus. They describe a day covered in darkness, crowds of people rushing about, not knowing where to run, screams, moans... Some mourned their inevitable death, others mourned the death of loved ones. Above the rushing figures is a dark sky with zigzags of lightning. In addition, the artist created more and more new sketches, wrote various groups people, changed the composition. This constitutes a preliminary description of Bryullov’s painting “The Last Day of Pompeii.” The place where the action takes place was immediately clear to him - the intersection of the Street of Tombs. As soon as Bryullov imagined a rolling, heartbreaking thunderclap, he vividly imagined how all the people froze... A new feeling was added to their fear - the inevitability of tragedy. This was reflected in last composition artist and composes a description of Bryullov’s painting “The Last Day of Pompeii”. Materials from archaeological excavations provided the artist with everyday objects for his canvases. The voids that formed in the lava preserved the contours of some bodies: a woman fell from a chariot, here are daughters and a mother, here are young spouses. The artist borrowed the image of a mother and a young man from Pliny.
Selfless work
Work on the huge canvas took three years. Raphael had a huge influence on the compositional and plastic design, on the characteristics and description of Bryullov’s painting “The Last Day of Pompeii”. The artist previously studied with him, copying the frescoes “Fire in Borgo” and “The School of Athens”, where there are about forty characters. How many heroes are depicted on Bryullov’s multi-figure canvas? It was very important when working on the painting to introduce his contemporaries into it, bringing distant eras closer together. This is how the portrait of the track and field athlete Marini appeared on the canvas - the father figure in the family group.
Under the artist’s brush, the image of his favorite model appears, either in the form of a girl or in the form of a mother. Y. Samoilova was the embodiment of his ideal, which glowed with the power and passion of beauty. Her image filled the artist’s imagination, and all the women on his canvas acquired the features the master loved.
Composition of the painting: a combination of romanticism and classicism
Bryullov boldly combines romanticism and classics in his canvas (“The Last Day of Pompeii”). The description of the painting can be briefly described in such a way that in the composition the master did not try to enclose everything in classical triangles. In addition, listening to the voice of romanticism, he depicted a mass folk scene, violating the classical principle of bas-relief. The action develops, going deeper into the canvas: a man has fallen from his chariot and is carried away by frightened horses. The viewer's gaze involuntarily follows him into the abyss, into the cycle of events.
But the painter did not abandon all the dispassionate ideas of classicism. His characters are beautiful externally and internally. The horror of their situation is drowned out by the ideal beauty of the characters. This softens the tragedy of their condition for the viewer. In addition, the composition uses the technique of contrast between panic and calm.
Action composition
In a canvas filled with movement, the rhythm of hand gestures and body movements is very important. Hands protect, protect, hug, extend to the sky with anger and fall powerlessly. Like sculptures, their forms are three-dimensional. I want to walk around them to take a closer look. The outline clearly envelops each figure. This classic technique was not rejected by the romantics.
Color of the canvas
The day of the disaster is tragically gloomy. Darkness, completely impenetrable, hung over the people in distress. These black clouds of smoke and ash are torn apart by sharp, bright lightning. The horizon is filled with the blood-red light of a fire. Its reflections fall on falling buildings and columns, on people - men, women, children - adding even more tragedy to the situation and showing the inevitable threat of death. Bryullov strives for natural lighting, violating the requirements of classicism. He subtly captures the reflexes of light and combines them with distinct chiaroscuro.
Canvas characters characters
The description and analysis of Bryullov’s painting “The Last Day of Pompeii” will be incomplete without considering all the people acting in the picture. The day has come for them Last Judgment: stone monumental buildings collapse like paper from earthquakes. There is roar all around, cries for help, prayers to the gods who abandoned the unfortunate ones. Essence human soul completely naked in the face of death. All groups, which are essentially portraits, face the viewer.
Right side
Among the nobility there are base faces: a selfish thief who carries jewelry in the hope that he will survive. A pagan priest who runs away and tries to save himself, forgetting that he must pray to the gods for mercy. Fear and confusion in the composition of a family covered with a blanket... This is the description of Bryullov’s painting “The Last Day of Pompeii.” The photo of the masterpiece in the article shows in detail how the young father raises his hand to the sky in prayer.
The children, hugging their mother, knelt. They are motionless and simply await a terrible inevitable fate. There is no one to help them. A Christian with a bare chest and a cross on it believes in a future resurrection.
Only one figure is calm - the artist.
His task is to rise above the fear of death and forever capture the tragedy. Bryullov, introducing his portrait into the picture, shows the master as a witness to the unfolding drama.
Center and left side of the canvas
In the center is a young mother who has fallen to her death and is hugged by an uncomprehending baby. This is a very tragic episode. The deceased symbolizes the death of the ancient world.
Selfless sons carry a powerless old father. They are filled with love for him and do not think at all about their own salvation.
The young man persuades his mother, who is sitting exhausted, to get up and go to save herself. It’s difficult for two people, but nobility does not allow the young man young man leave the old lady.
The young guy peers into the face of the tender bride, who has completely lost her fortitude from the roar all around, the sight of death, the fiery glow that promise them death.
He does not leave his beloved, although death can overtake them at any moment.
The masterpiece “The Last Day of Pompeii” by K. Bryullov was destined to become a key painting in the history of art. He caught the spirit of the times and created a canvas about those who know how to sacrifice everything for the sake of their loved ones. About ordinary people whose moral concepts stand immeasurably high during severe trials. The spectacle of how courageously they bear the heavy burden that has befallen them should serve as an example of how to act in any era and in any place. true love to a person.
Publications in the Museums section
An ancient Roman tragedy that became the triumph of Karl Bryullov
On December 23, 1799, Karl Bryullov was born. The son of French-born sculptor Paul Brulleau, Karl 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 “The Last Day of Pompeii” in 1833, the main work of his life. “Kultura.RF” remembered how this painting was created.
Karl Bryullov. Self-portrait. 1836
History of creation
The painting was painted in Italy, where in 1822 the artist went on a retirement trip from Imperial Academy 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 two thousand inhabitants.
In 1748, the military engineer Rocque de Alcubierre began archaeological excavations at the scene of the tragedy. The discovery of Pompeii became a sensation and was reflected in creativity different people. So, in 1825 the opera by Giovanni Pacini appeared, and in 1834 - historical novel Englishman Edward Bulwer-Lytton, dedicated to the destruction 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 turn out to be fateful for him: “You cannot pass through these ruins without feeling some completely new feeling within yourself, making you forget everything except the terrible incident with this city.”, wrote the artist.
The feelings that Karl Bryullov experienced during the excavations did not leave him. This is how the idea of the canvas was born historical topic. While working on the plot, the painter studied archaeological and literary sources. “I took this scenery from life, without retreating or adding at all, standing with my back to the city gates in order to see part of Vesuvius as main reason» . The models for the characters were Italians - descendants of the ancient inhabitants of Pompeii.
At the intersection of classicism and romanticism
In this work, Bryullov reveals himself not as a traditional classicist, but as an artist of a romantic direction. Thus, its historical plot is dedicated not to one hero, but to the tragedy of an entire people. And as a plot, he chose not an idealized image or idea, but a real historical fact.
True, Bryullov builds the composition of the painting 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 there are several people on the steps big building tombs of Scaurus. A woman looks directly at the viewer, with horror in her eyes. And behind her is an artist with a box of paints on his head: this is a self-portrait of Bryullov, experiencing a tragedy along with his characters.
Closer to the viewer - married couple with children, who is trying to escape from the lava, and in the foreground a woman is hugging her daughters... 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 valuables. Here Bryullov hints at 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 there is a rider on a horse who reared up. And closer to the viewer is the groom, gripped by 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 actually 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 across the ground, overtook us. Night had fallen all around, unlike a moonless or cloudy one: it only gets so dark in a locked room with the lights out. Women's screams, children's squeaks and men's screams were heard; some called out to their parents, others to their children or wives and tried to recognize them by their voices. Some mourned their own 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 dead mother in a yellow tunic - 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 - hot red light in the background, conveying the feeling of approaching lava, and cold greenish-blue in the foreground, adding additional drama to the plot.
The bright and rich color of this picture also violates classical traditions and allows us to talk about the artist as a romantic.
Triumphal procession painting
Karl Bryullov worked on the canvas for six years - from 1827 to 1833.
The painting was first presented to the public in 1833 at an exhibition in Milan - and immediately created a sensation. The artist was honored as a Roman triumph, and laudatory reviews were written about the painting in the press. Bryullov was greeted with applause on the street, and during his travels at 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 turned out to be more restrained than the Italian one. But professionals appreciated the work, presenting Bryullov with a gold medal from the French Academy of Arts.
The canvas created a sensation in Europe, and was eagerly awaited in Russia. In the same year it was sent to St. Petersburg. Having seen the painting, Nicholas I expressed a desire to personally meet the author, but the artist went with Count Vladimir Davydov on a trip to Greece, and returned to his homeland only in December 1835.
June 11, 1836 in the Round Hall Russian Academy where the painting “The Last Day of Pompeii” was exhibited, guests of honor, members of the Academy, artists and simply art lovers gathered. The author of the painting, “the great Charles,” was carried into the hall in his arms to the enthusiastic screams of the guests. “Crowds of visitors, one might say, burst into the halls of the Academy to look at Pompeii.”, writes a contemporary and witness to that success, the like of which no Russian artist has ever known.
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 everything Russian society and the best minds of the time.
Art peace trophies
You brought it into your father's canopy.
And there was the "Last Day of Pompeii"
First day for the Russian brush! -
poet Evgeny Boratynsky wrote about the painting.
Alexander Pushkin also dedicated poems to her:
Vesuvius opened its mouth - smoke poured out in a cloud, flames
Widely developed as a battle flag.
The earth is agitated - from the shaky columns
Idols fall! A people driven by fear
Under the stone rain, under the inflamed ashes,
In crowds, old and young, fleeing from the city.
Mikhail Lermontov also mentions “The Last Day of Pompeii” in the novel “Princess Ligovskaya”: “If you love art, then I can tell you very good news: Bryullov’s painting “The Last Day of Pompeii” is going to St. Petersburg. All of Italy knew about her, the French scolded 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 dedicated a long article to the painting, writing: “His brush contains the poetry that you only feel and can always recognize: our feelings always know and see even distinctive features, but words will never tell them. Its color is so bright that it has almost never been before, its colors burn and rush into the eyes. They would be unbearable if the artist had appeared at a level lower than Bryullov, but with him they are clothed in that harmony and breathe that inner music with which living objects of nature are filled.”.
August 15th, 2011 , 04:39 pm
1833 Oil on canvas. 456.5 x 651cm
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg
Bryullov's painting can be called complete, universal
creation. Everything was contained in it.
Nikolay Gogol.
On the night of August 24-25, 79 AD. e. eruption of Vesuvius The cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabia were destroyed. In 1833 Karl Bryullov wrote his famous painting "The last day of Pompeii".
It is difficult to name a picture that would have enjoyed the same success among contemporaries as “The Last Day of Pompeii.” As soon as the canvas was completed, the Roman workshop of Karl Bryullov came under a real siege. "INAll Rome flocked to see my picture.”, - wrote the artist. Exhibited in 1833 in Milan"Pompeii" literally shocked the audience. Newspapers and magazines were full of laudatory reviews,Bryullov was called the living Titian, the second Michelangelo, the new Raphael...
Dinners and receptions were held in honor of the Russian artist, and poems were dedicated to him. As soon as Bryullov appeared in the theater, the hall exploded with applause. The painter was recognized on the streets, showered with flowers, and sometimes the celebration ended with fans carrying him in their arms with songs.
In 1834 the painting, optionalcustomer, industrialist A.N. Demidova, was exhibited at the Paris Salon. The reaction of the public here was not as hot as in Italy (they are jealous! - the Russians explained), however, “Pompeii” was awarded the gold medal of the French Academy of Fine Arts.
The enthusiasm and patriotic enthusiasm with which the painting was greeted in St. Petersburg is difficult to imagine: thanks to Bryullov, Russian painting ceased to be a diligent student of the great Italians and created a work that delighted Europe!The painting was donated Demidov Nicholas I , who briefly placed her in Imperial Hermitage and then gave Academy arts
According to the memoirs of a contemporary, “crowds of visitors, one might say, burst into the halls of the Academy to look at Pompeii.” They talked about the masterpiece in salons, shared opinions in private correspondence, and made notes in diaries. The honorary nickname “Charlemagne” was established for Bryullov.
Impressed by the painting, Pushkin wrote a six-line poem:
“Vesuvius opened - smoke poured out in a cloud - flames
Widely developed as a battle flag.
The earth is agitated - from the shaky columns
Idols fall! A people driven by fear
Under the stone rain, under the inflamed ashes,
In crowds, old and young, fleeing from the city.”
Gogol dedicated " Last day Pompeii" is wonderful in-depth article, and the poet Evgeny Baratynsky expressed general rejoicing in a well-known impromptu:
«
You brought peace trophies
With you to your father's canopy,
And it became “The Last Day of Pompeii”
First day for the Russian brush!”
The immoderate enthusiasm has long subsided, but even today Bryullov’s painting makes a strong impression, going beyond the feelings that painting, even very good one, usually evokes in us. What's the matter?
"Tomb Street" In the depths is the Herculanean Gate.
Photograph of the second half of the 19th century.
Since excavations began in Pompeii in the mid-18th century, there has been interest in this city, which was destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. e., did not fade away. Europeans flocked to Pompeii to wander through the ruins, freed from a layer of petrified volcanic ash, to admire the frescoes, sculptures, mosaics, and marvel at the unexpected finds of archaeologists. Excavations attracted artists and architects; etchings with views of Pompeii were in great fashion.
Bryullov , who first visited the excavations in 1827, very accurately conveyeda feeling of empathy for the events of two thousand years ago, which covers everyone who comes to Pompeii:“The sight of these ruins involuntarily made me transported to a time when these walls were still inhabited /.../. You cannot pass through these ruins without feeling some completely new feeling within yourself, making you forget everything except the terrible incident with this city.”
Express this “new feeling”, create new image antiquity - not abstractly museum-like, but holistic and full-blooded, the artist strived for in his painting. He got used to the era with the meticulousness and care of an archaeologist: out of five extra years to create the canvas itself with an area of 30 square meters it took only 11 months, the rest of the time was taken up by preparatory work.
“I took this entire set from life, without retreating or adding at all, standing with my back to the city gates in order to see part of Vesuvius as the main reason,” Bryullov shared in one of his letters.Pompeii had eight gates, butfurther the artist mentioned “the staircase leading to Sepolcri Sc au ro " - the monumental tomb of the eminent citizen Scaurus, and this gives us the opportunity to accurately establish the place of action chosen by Bryullov. We are talking about the Herculanean Gate of Pompeii ( Porto di Ercolano ), behind which, already outside the city, began the “Street of Tombs” ( Via dei Sepolcri) - a cemetery with magnificent tombs and temples. This part of Pompeii was in the 1820s. was already well cleared, which allowed the painter to reconstruct the architecture on canvas with maximum accuracy.
Tomb of Scaurus. Reconstruction of the 19th century.
In recreating the picture of the eruption, Bryullov followed the famous letters of Pliny the Younger to Tacitus. Young Pliny survived the eruption in the seaport of Miseno, north of Pompeii, and described in detail what he saw: houses that seemed to move from their places, flames spreading widely across the cone of the volcano, hot pieces of pumice falling from the sky, heavy rain of ash, black impenetrable darkness , fiery zigzags, like giant lightning... And Bryullov transferred all this to the canvas.
Seismologists are amazed at how convincingly he depicted an earthquake: looking at collapsing houses, one can determine the direction and strength of the earthquake (8 points). Volcanologists note that the eruption of Vesuvius was written with all possible accuracy for that time. Historians claim that Bryullov’s painting can be used to study ancient Roman culture.
In order to reliably capture the world of ancient Pompeii destroyed by the catastrophe, Bryullov took objects and remains of bodies found during excavations as samples, and made countless sketches in the Archaeological Museum of Naples. The method of restoring the dying poses of the dead by pouring lime into the voids formed by the bodies was invented only in 1870, but even during the creation of the picture, skeletons discovered in petrified ashes testified to the last convulsions and gestures of the victims. A mother hugging her two daughters; a young woman who fell to her death when she fell from a chariot that hit a cobblestone that had been torn out of the pavement by an earthquake; people on the steps of the tomb of Scaurus, protecting their heads from rockfall with stools and dishes - all this is not a figment of the painter’s imagination, but an artistically recreated reality.
On the canvas we see characters endowed with portrait features of the author himself and his beloved, Countess Yulia Samoilova. Bryullov portrayed himself as an artist carrying a box of brushes and paints on his head. The beautiful features of Julia are recognized four times in the picture: a girl with a vessel on her head, a mother hugging her daughters, a woman clutching her baby to her chest, a noble Pompeian woman who fell from a broken chariot. The self-portrait and portraits of his friend are the best proof that in his penetration into the past Bryullov really became close to the event, creating for the viewer a “presence effect”, making him, as it were, a participant in what was happening.
Fragment of the picture:
self-portrait of Bryullovand a portrait of Yulia Samoilova.
Fragment of the picture:
compositional “triangle” - a mother hugging her daughters.
Bryullov’s painting pleased everyone - both strict academicians, adherents of the aesthetics of classicism, and those who valued novelty in art and for whom “Pompeii” became, in the words of Gogol, “ bright resurrection painting."This novelty was brought to Europe by the fresh wind of romanticism. The merit of Bryullov’s painting is usually seen in the fact that the brilliant graduate of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts was open to new trends. At the same time, the classicist layer of the painting is often interpreted as a relic, an inevitable tribute from the artist to the routine past. But it seems that another turn of the topic is possible: the fusion of two “isms” turned out to be fruitful for the film.
The unequal, fatal struggle of man with the elements - such is the romantic pathos of the picture. It is built on sharp contrasts of darkness and the disastrous light of the eruption, the inhuman power of soulless nature and the high intensity of human feelings.
But there is also something else in the picture that opposes the chaos of the catastrophe: an unshakable core in a world shaking to its very foundations. This core is the classical balance of the most complex composition, which saves the picture from tragic feeling hopelessness. The composition, built according to the “recipes” of academicians - the “triangles” ridiculed by subsequent generations of painters, into which groups of people fit, balanced masses on the right and left - is read in the living, tense context of the picture in a completely different way than in the dry and deathly academic canvases.
Fragment of the picture: a young family.
In the foreground is a pavement damaged by an earthquake.
Fragment of the picture: the dead Pompeian woman.
“The world is still harmonious in its fundamentals” - this feeling arises subconsciously in the viewer, partly contrary to what he sees on the canvas. The artist’s encouraging message is read not at the level of the painting’s plot, but at the level of its plastic solution.The wild romantic element is tamed by a classically perfect form, And in this unity of opposites lies another secret of the attractiveness of Bryullov’s canvas.
The film tells many exciting and touching stories. Here is a young man in despair peering into the face of a girl in a wedding crown, who has lost consciousness or died. Here is a young man convincing an old woman sitting exhausted of something. This couple is called “Pliny with his mother” (although, as we remember, Pliny the Younger was not in Pompeii, but in Miseno): in a letter to Tacitus, Pliny conveys his dispute with his mother, who urged her son to leave her and run away without delay, but he did not agree to leave the weak woman. A warrior in a helmet and a boy are carrying a sick old man; a baby who miraculously survived a fall from a chariot hugs dead mother; the young man raised his hand, as if deflecting the blow of the elements from his family, the baby in his wife’s arms reaches out with childish curiosity to the dead bird. People are trying to take with them what is most precious: a pagan priest - a tripod, a Christian - a censer, an artist - brushes. The deceased woman was carrying jewelry, which, no one needs, is now lying on the pavement.
Fragment of the painting: Pliny with his mother.
Fragment of the picture: earthquake - “idols fall.”
Such a powerful plot load on a picture can be dangerous for painting, making the canvas a “story in pictures,” but in Bryullov’s work the literary quality and abundance of details do not destroy artistic integrity paintings. Why? We find the answer in the same article by Gogol, who compares Bryullov’s painting “in its vastness and combination of everything beautiful in itself with opera, if only opera is truly a combination of the triple world of arts: painting, poetry, music” (by poetry Gogol obviously meant literature at all).
This feature of “Pompeii” can be described in one word - syntheticity: the picture organically connects dramatic plot, bright entertainment and thematic polyphony, similar to music. (By the way, the theatrical basis of the picture was real prototype- Giovanni Paccini’s opera “The Last Day of Pompeii”, which during the years the artist worked on the canvas was staged at the Neapolitan San Carlo Theater. Bryullov knew the composer well, listened to the opera several times and borrowed costumes for his sitters.)
William Turner. Eruption of Vesuvius. 1817
So, the picture resembles final scene monumental opera performance: the most expressive scenery is reserved for the finale, all storylines connect and musical themes intertwined into a complex polyphonic whole. This painting-performance is similar ancient tragedies, in which contemplation of the nobility and courage of the heroes in the face of inexorable fate leads the viewer to catharsis - spiritual and moral enlightenment. The feeling of empathy that overcomes us in front of the picture is akin to what we experience in the theater, when what is happening on the stage moves us to tears, and these tears bring joy to the heart.
Gavin Hamilton. Neapolitans watch the eruption of Vesuvius.
Second floor. 18th century
Bryullov’s painting is breathtakingly beautiful: huge size - four and a half by six and a half meters, stunning “special effects”, divinely built people, like people come to life antique statues. “His figures are beautiful despite the horror of their situation. They drown it out with their beauty,” wrote Gogol, sensitively capturing another feature of the picture - the aestheticization of the disaster. The tragedy of the death of Pompeii and, more broadly, of the entire ancient civilization is presented to us as an incredibly beautiful sight. What are these contrasts worth: the black cloud pressing on the city, the shining flame on the slopes of the volcano and the mercilessly bright flashes of lightning, these statues captured at the very moment of the fall and the buildings collapsing like cardboard...
The perception of the eruptions of Vesuvius as grandiose performances staged by nature itself appeared already in the 18th century - even special machines were created to imitate the eruption. This “volcano fashion” was introduced by the British envoy to the Kingdom of Naples, Lord William Hamilton (husband of the legendary Emma, friend of Admiral Nelson). A passionate volcanologist, he was literally in love with Vesuvius and even built a villa on the slope of the volcano to comfortably admire the eruptions. Observations of the volcano when it was active (several eruptions occurred in the 18th and 19th centuries), verbal descriptions and sketches of its changing beauties, climbing to the crater - such were the entertainments of the Neapolitan elite and visitors.
Watch with bated breath the disastrous and beautiful games of nature, even if this means balancing at the crater active volcano, characteristic of man. This is the same “ecstasy in battle and the dark abyss on the edge” that Pushkin wrote about in “Little Tragedies”, and which Bryullov conveyed in his canvas, which has been making us admire and be horrified for almost two centuries.
Modern Pompeii
Marina Agranovskaya