“In Russia at that time there was only one painter who was widely famous, Bryullov” - Herzen A.I. about art.
In the first century AD, a series of eruptions of Mount Vesuvius occurred, which were accompanied by an earthquake. They destroyed several thriving cities that were located near the foot of the mountain. The city of Pompeii was gone in just two days - in August 79 it was completely covered with volcanic ash. He found himself buried under a seven-meter thick layer of ash. It seemed that the city had disappeared from the face of the earth. However, in 1748, archaeologists were able to excavate it, lifting the curtain of the terrible tragedy. Last day ancient city and a painting by the Russian artist Karl Bryullov was dedicated.
"The Last Day of Pompeii" - the most famous painting Karla Bryullova. The masterpiece was created over six long years - from the concept and the first sketch to the full-fledged canvas. Not a single Russian artist had such success in Europe as the young 34-year-old Bryullov, who very quickly acquired a symbolic nickname - “ Great Charles”, - which corresponded to the scale of his six-year-old long-suffering brainchild - the canvas size reached 30 square meters (!). It is noteworthy that the canvas itself was painted in just 11 months, the rest of the time was spent on preparatory work.
"Italian Morning", 1823; Kunsthalle, Kiel, Germany
Western colleagues in the craft had a hard time believing in the success of a promising and talented artist. Arrogant Italians, extolling Italian painting over the entire world, they considered the young and promising Russian painter incapable of anything more, something large and large-scale. And this despite the fact that Bryullov’s paintings were, to a certain extent, already known long before Pompeii. For example, the famous painting “Italian Morning”, painted by Bryullov after his arrival in Italy in 1823. The picture brought fame to Bryullov, receiving flattering reviews first from the Italian public, then from members of the Society for the Encouragement of Artists. OPH presented the painting “Italian Morning” to Alexandra Feodorovna, the wife of Nicholas I. The Emperor wanted to receive a painting paired with “Morning,” which was the beginning of Bryullov’s painting “ Italian noon"(1827).
A girl picking grapes in the vicinity of Naples. 1827; State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg And the painting “Girl Picking Grapes in the Vicinity of Naples” (1827), glorifying the cheerful and cheerful character of Italian girls from the people. And the noisily celebrated copy of Raphael’s fresco - “The School of Athens” (1824-1828) - now decorates the copy room in the building of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. Bryullov was independent and famous in Italy and Europe, he had many orders - almost everyone going to Rome strives to bring a portrait of Bryullov’s work from there...
And yet they didn’t really believe in the artist, and sometimes they even laughed at him. The already aged gentleman Camuccini, who was considered at that time the first Italian painter, especially tried. Looking at the sketches of Bryullov’s future masterpiece, he concludes that “the theme requires a huge canvas, but on a huge canvas the good that is in the sketches will be lost; Karl thinks in small canvases... The little Russian paints small pictures... A colossal piece of work that someone bigger could handle!” Bryullov was not offended, he just smiled - to be angry and angry with the old man would be absurd. In addition, the words of the Italian master further spurred the young and ambitious Russian genius in his quest to conquer Europe, and especially the complacent Italians, once and for all.
With his characteristic fanaticism, he continues to develop the plot of his main picture, which he believes will undoubtedly glorify his name.
There are at least two versions of how the idea of writing Pompeii originated. The unofficial version is that Bryullov, amazed by the performance of Giovanni Pacini’s enchanting opera “The Last Day of Pompeii” in Rome, came home and immediately sketched out a sketch of the future painting.
According to another version, the idea to restore the plot of the “destruction” came thanks to the excavations of archaeologists who discovered a city buried and littered with volcanic ash, stone debris and lava in 79. For almost 18 centuries the city lay under the ashes of Vesuvius. And when it was excavated, houses, statues, fountains, and the streets of Pompeii appeared before the eyes of the amazed Italians...
Karl Bryullov’s elder brother, Alexander, who had been studying the ruins of the ancient city since 1824, also took part in the excavations. For his project for the restoration of the Baths of Pompeii, he received the title of Architect of His Majesty, corresponding member of the French Institute, member of the Royal Institute of Architects in England and the title of member of the academies of art in Milan and St. Petersburg...
Alexander Pavlovich Bryullov, self-portrait 1830 By the way, in mid-March 1828, when the artist was in Rome, Vesuvius suddenly began to smoke more than usual, five days later it threw out a high column of ash and smoke, dark red streams of lava, splashing out of the crater, flowed down the slopes, a menacing roar was heard, In the houses of Naples, window panes began to tremble. Rumors of the eruption immediately reached Rome, and everyone who could rushed to Naples to look at the strange spectacle. Karl, with some difficulty, found a place in the carriage, where, besides him, there were five more passengers, and could consider himself lucky. But while the carriage was traveling the long 240 km from Rome to Naples, Vesuvius stopped smoking and dozed off... This fact greatly upset the artist, because he could have witnessed a similar catastrophe, seen the horror and brutality of the angry Vesuvius with his own eyes.
Work and triumph
So, having decided on the plot, the meticulous Bryullov began collecting historical material. Striving for the greatest authenticity of the image, Bryullov studied excavation materials and historical documents. He said that all the things he depicted were taken from the museum, that he followed archaeologists - “today’s antiquarians”, that until the last stroke he cared to be “closer to the authenticity of the incident.”
Remains of the people of the city of Pompeii, our days. He showed the scene of action on the canvas quite accurately: “I took this scenery entirely from life, without retreating or adding at all”; In the place that appeared in the picture, during excavations, bracelets, rings, earrings, necklaces and the charred remains of a chariot were found. But the idea of the painting is much higher and much deeper than the desire to reconstruct an event that happened seventeen and a half centuries ago. The steps of the tomb of Scaurus, the skeleton of a mother and daughters hugging each other before death, a burnt cart wheel, a stool, a vase, a lamp, a bracelet - all this was the limit of authenticity...
As soon as the canvas was completed, the Roman workshop of Karl Bryullov came under a real siege. “...I experienced wonderful moments while painting this picture! And now I see the venerable old man Camuccini standing in front of her. A few days later, after all of Rome had flocked to see my painting, he came to my studio in Via San Claudio and, after standing for a few minutes in front of the painting, he hugged me and said: “Hold me, Colossus!”
The painting was exhibited in Rome, then in Milan, and everywhere enthusiastic Italians are in awe of the “Great Charles.”
The name of Karl Bryullov immediately became famous throughout the Italian peninsula - from one end to the other. When meeting on the streets, everyone took off their hat to him; when he appeared in the theaters, everyone stood up; at the door of the house where he lived, or the restaurant where he dined, many people always gathered to greet him.
Italian newspapers and magazines glorified Karl Bryullov as a genius, equal the greatest painters of all times, poets sang him in verse, and entire treatises were written about his new painting. Since the Renaissance itself, no artist has been the object of such universal worship in Italy as Karl Bryullov.
Bryullov Karl Pavlovich, 1836 - Vasily Tropinin The painting “The Last Day of Pompeii” introduced Europe to the mighty Russian brush and Russian nature, which is capable of reaching almost unattainable heights in every field of art.
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 by the philanthropist Demidov to Nicholas I, who briefly placed it in Imperial Hermitage, and then donated it to the Academy of 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 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,
Crowds, old and young, are running out of the city.
Gogol dedicated “The Last Day of Pompeii” wonderfully in-depth article, and the poet Evgeny Baratynsky expressed general rejoicing in a well-known impromptu:
“You brought the spoils of peace
With you to your father's canopy,
And became “The Last Day of Pompeii”
First day for the Russian brush!”
Facts, secrets and mysteries of the painting “The Last Day of Pompeii”
Place of the painting
The discovery of Pompeii took place in 1748. Since then, month after month, continuous excavations have revealed the city. Pompeii left an indelible mark on the soul of Karl Bryullov already during his first visit to the city in 1827.
“The sight of these ruins involuntarily made me transport myself to a time when these walls were still inhabited... You cannot pass through these ruins without feeling within yourself some completely new feeling, making you forget everything except the terrible incident with this city.”
“I took this scenery entirely 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“, Bryullov shared in one of his letters.
"Street of Tombs" Pompeii 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.
And here is the place itself, which was exactly compared to the painting by Karl Bryullov.
photo Details of the picture
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.
The method of restoring the dying poses of the dead by pouring plaster 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.
Self-portrait in a painting
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.
Self-portrait, as well as a girl with a vessel on her head - Julia The beautiful features of Julia are recognized four times in the picture: a mother hugging her daughters, a woman clutching her baby to her chest, a girl with a vessel on her head, a noble Pompeian woman who fell from a broken chariot.
A self-portrait and portraits of a friend are a conscious “effect of presence”, making the viewer as if a participant in what is happening.
"Just a picture"
It is a known fact that among Karl Bryullov’s students, his painting “The Last Day of Pompeii” had a rather simple name - simply “Painting”. This means that for all the students, this painting was just a painting with a capital P, a painting of paintings. An example can be given: just as the Bible is the book of all books, the word Bible seems to mean the word Book.
Walter Scott: “This is an epic!”
Walter Scott appeared in Rome, whose fame was so enormous that at times he seemed like a mythical creature. The novelist was tall and had a strong build. His red-cheeked peasant face with sparse blond hair combed over his forehead seemed the epitome of health, but everyone knew that Sir Walter Scott never recovered from an apoplexy and came to Italy on the advice of doctors. A sober man, he understood that his days were numbered, and spent time only on what he considered especially important. In Rome, he asked to be taken to only one ancient castle, which he needed for some reason, to Thorvaldsen and Bryullov. Walter Scott sat in front of the painting for several hours, almost motionless, silent for a long time, and Bryullov, no longer expecting to hear his voice, took a brush, so as not to waste time, and began to touch the canvas here and there. Finally, Walter Scott stood up, falling slightly on his right leg, walked up to Bryullov, caught both of his hands in his huge palm and squeezed them tightly:
I expected to see historical novel. But you have created much more. This is epic...
Bible story
Tragic scenes were often depicted in various manifestations of classical art. For example, the destruction of Sodom or the Egyptian plagues. But in such biblical stories it was implied that the execution came from above; here one could see a manifestation of God’s providence. As if biblical history knew not senseless fate, but only the wrath of God. In the paintings of Karl Bryullov, people were at the mercy of the blind natural elements, fate. There can be no discussion of guilt and punishment here.. You won't be able to find the main character in the picture. It's simply not there. What appears before us is only a crowd, a people who were gripped by fear.
The perception of Pompeii as a vicious city, mired in sins, and its destruction as Divine punishment could be based on some finds that emerged as a result of excavations - these are erotic frescoes in ancient Roman houses, as well as similar sculptures, phallic amulets, pendants, and so on. The publication of these artifacts in the Antichita di Ercolano, published by the Italian Academy and republished in other countries between 1771 and 1780, caused a reaction culture shock- against the backdrop of Winckelmann’s postulate about the “noble simplicity and calm grandeur” of ancient art. That's why the public early XIX centuries could associate the eruption of Vesuvius with the biblical punishment brought down on the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Accurate calculations
Eruption of Vesuvius Having decided to paint a large canvas, K. Bryullov chose one of the most the hard way its compositional structure, namely light-shadow and spatial. This required the artist to accurately calculate the effect of the painting at a distance and mathematically determine the incidence of light. And in order to create the impression of deep space, he had to pay the most serious attention to the aerial perspective.
Blazing in the distance is Vesuvius, from the depths of which rivers of fiery lava flow in all directions. The light from them is so strong that the buildings closest to the volcano seem to be already on fire. One French newspaper noted this pictorial effect that the artist wanted to achieve and pointed out: “An ordinary artist, of course, would not fail to take advantage of the eruption of Vesuvius to illuminate his painting; but Mr. Bryullov neglected this remedy. Genius inspired him with a bold idea, as happy as it was inimitable: to illuminate the entire front part of the picture with the quick, minute and whitish brilliance of lightning, cutting through the thick cloud of ash that covered the city, while the light from the eruption, with difficulty breaking through the deep darkness, casts reddish penumbra into the background.”
At the limit of possibilities
He painted at such a limit of spiritual tension that it happened that he was literally carried out of the studio in their arms. However, even poor health does not stop his work.
Newlyweds
Newlyweds According to ancient Roman tradition, the heads of newlyweds were decorated with wreaths of flowers. The flammei, the traditional veil of the ancient Roman bride made of thin yellow-orange fabric, fell from the girl’s head.
Fall of Rome
In the center of the picture, a young woman lies on the pavement, and her unnecessary jewelry is scattered on the stones. Next to her is crying in fear small child. Beautiful, beautiful woman, the classical beauty of draperies and gold seems to symbolize refined culture Ancient Rome dying before our eyes. The artist acts not only as an artist, a master of composition and color, but also as a philosopher, speaking in visible images about the death of a great culture.
Woman with daughters
According to Bryullov, he saw one female and two children’s skeletons, covered in these poses with volcanic ash, at excavations. The artist could associate a mother with two daughters with Yulia Samoilova, who, having no children of her own, took in two girls, relatives of friends, to raise. By the way, the father of the youngest of them, composer Giovanni Pacini, wrote the opera “The Last Day of Pompeii” in 1825, and the fashionable production became one of the sources of inspiration for Bryullov.
Christian priest
In the first century of Christianity, a minister of the new faith could have been in Pompeii; in the picture he can be easily recognized by the cross, liturgical utensils - a censer and a chalice - and a scroll with a sacred text. The wearing of body crosses and pectoral crosses in the 1st century has not been confirmed archaeologically. Amazing welcome the artist - the courageous figure of a Christian priest, who knows no doubt and fear, is contrasted with a pagan priest running away in fear in the depths of the canvas.
Priest
The status of the character is indicated by the cult objects in his hands and the headband - infula. Contemporaries reproached Bryullov for not bringing to the fore the opposition of Christianity to paganism, but the artist did not have such a goal.
Contrary to the canons
Bryullov wrote almost everything differently than it was supposed to. Every great artist violates existing rules. In those days, they tried to imitate the creations of old masters who knew how to show the ideal beauty of a person. This is called "CLASSICISM". Therefore, Bryullov does not have distorted faces, crowds or confusion. It doesn't have the same crowd as on the street. There is nothing random here, and the characters are divided into groups so that everyone can be seen. And what’s interesting is that the faces in the picture are similar, but the poses are different. The main thing for Bryullov, as well as for ancient sculptors, is to convey human feeling with movement. This difficult art is called “PLASTIC”. Bryullov did not want to disfigure people’s faces or their bodies with either wounds or dirt. This technique in art is called “CONVENTIONALITY”: the artist refuses external plausibility in the name of a high goal: man is the most beautiful creature on earth.
Pushkin and Bryullov
A big event in the artist’s life was his meeting and the friendship that began with Pushkin. They immediately connected and fell in love with each other. In a letter to his wife dated May 4, 1836, the poet writes:
“...I really want to bring Bryullov to St. Petersburg. And he is a real artist, a kind fellow, and is ready for anything. Here Perovsky overwhelmed him, transported him to his place, locked him up and forced him to work. Bryullov forcibly escaped from him.”
“Bryullov is leaving me now. He goes to St. Petersburg reluctantly, afraid of the climate and captivity. I try to console and encourage him; and meanwhile my soul sinks into my boots when I remember that I’m a journalist.”
Less than a month has passed since Pushkin sent a letter about Bryullov’s departure to Saint Petersburg how on June 11, 1836, a dinner was given in honor of famous painter. Maybe we shouldn’t have celebrated this unremarkable date, June 11th! But the fact is that, by a strange coincidence, it was on June 11, fourteen years later, that Bryullov would come, essentially, to die in Rome... Sick, old.
Celebration of Russia
Karl Pavlovich Bryullov. Artist Zavyalov F.S. At the Louvre exhibition of 1834, where “The Last Day of Pompeii” was shown, paintings by Ingres and Delacroix, adherents of the “notorious ancient beauty,” hung next to Bryullov’s painting. Critics unanimously scolded Bryullov. For some, his painting was twenty years late, others found in it excessive boldness of imagination, destroying the unity of style. But there were still others - spectators: Parisians crowded for hours in front of “The Last Day of Pompeii” and admired it as unanimously as the Romans. A rare case - the general opinion defeated the judgments of the “noted critics” (as newspapers and magazines called them): the jury did not risk pleasing the “noted” - Bryullov received gold medal first dignity. Russia was triumphant.
"Professor out of turn"
The Academy Council, noting that Bryullov’s painting has undeniably the greatest merits, placing it among the extraordinary artistic creations in Europe at the present time, asked His Majesty’s permission to elevate the famous painter to the rank of professor out of turn. Two months later, the minister of the imperial court notified the president of the academy that the sovereign had not given permission and ordered that the charter be adhered to. At the same time, wishing to express new sign all-merciful attention to the talents of this artist, His Majesty granted Bryullov a Knight of the Order of St. Anna 3rd degree.
Canvas dimensions
K. P. Bryullov
Last day of Pompeii. 1830—1833
Oil on canvas. 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 the famous eruption of 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.
Employees of the Murom Historical and Art Museum. The article is called "Masterpiece and Tragedy or the History of One Painting" and is dedicated to brilliant picture Karl Bryullova "The Last Day of Pompeii".
I really liked the article, I quoted it, but quotes are rarely read, and with the permission of the author, I am posting it in its entirety in this post, slightly embellished with reproductions of the painting and musical accompaniment.
Read it, I assure you, you won’t regret it...
Walking through the halls of the Murom Gallery, guests of Murom often freeze in amazement at one inconspicuous, at first glance, exhibit. This is a simple black and white drawing in a regular frame behind glass. It would seem, why does it attract museum visitors so much? However, having peered into his faded features, it is difficult to contain an involuntary sigh of admiration. The yellowish paper of the exhibit depicts a plot familiar to many from childhood. famous painting. Before the guests is Karl Bryullov’s sketch for his famous painting “The Last Day of Pompeii” - one of the brightest pearls of the Murom Gallery!
It is a rare museum that can boast of such an acquisition in its collection. Sometimes this sketch surprises even guests from Moscow and St. Petersburg. And they are fascinated not only by the uniqueness of the old drawing, but also by the attraction of the tragic plot conveyed by the artist’s genius.
And indeed, this small yellowed leaf tells viewers not only about the terrible catastrophe of antiquity, but also about how the greatest canvas of Russian painting was created.
ON THE EVE OF THE TRAGEDY.
Bryullov’s talented brush revealed to us one of the pictures of a terrible tragedy Ancient world. Over two fateful days, August 24 and 25, 79 AD, several Roman cities ceased to exist - Pompeii, Herculaneum, Stabia and Octavianum. And the reason for this was the awakening of the Vesuvius volcano, at the foot of which these settlements were located.
People have long appreciated the high, incomparable fertility of volcanic soils and began to cultivate them since time immemorial. Scientists have written sources at their disposal that more than two thousand years ago, rich harvests were harvested around Vesuvius and on its slopes.
At the beginning of the 1st century. Vesuvius was covered with dense forest with wild grapes. At its top there was an overgrown cup-shaped depression - traces of an ancient crater, preserved after the volcano's 300-year dormant period. In this crater in 72 Spartacus was hiding with rebel slaves. 3,000 soldiers led by praetor Clodius Pulker were sent to search for him. However, Spartacus eluded them and escaped to the plain surrounding the volcano from the north.
Volcanic ash and tuff, which covered the gentle slopes of Vesuvius and its environs like a cloak, made the lands around it unusually fertile. Corn, barley, nuts, wheat, and grapes grew especially well. No wonder this area was famous for its excellent wines.
And at the beginning new era the area near the Bay of Naples was also a favorite place of residence for wealthy Romans. In the north was the city of Herculaneum, to the south were Pompeii and Stabia - three kind of country suburbs of Naples. The patricians were attracted here by the mild and warm climate. Therefore, this part of the shore of the bay near Naples was built up with rich villas.
The first signs of Vesuvius's concern were noticed back in mid-August 79. But then it puzzled few people. Similar surprises have been seen behind the volcano before. The last time he thoroughly “disturbed” Pompeii was on February 5, 62 AD. A powerful earthquake destroyed the city, but this did not serve as a lesson to its residents. They were in no hurry to leave their homes. And this is no coincidence!
So, for the next 15 years, Pompeii was under construction - city residents restored houses destroyed by the earthquake and built new buildings.
Oddly enough, the townspeople, despite the cruel lesson of fate, did not take Vesuvius seriously and did not expect further troubles from it.
The tremors did not really bother the townspeople. Each time they repaired the cracks in the houses, simultaneously updating the interior and adding new decorations. No panic.
DAY OF THE WRATH OF THE GODS.B
Vesuvius opened its mouth - smoke poured out in a cloud - flames
spread widely 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,
Crowds, old and young, are running out of the city.
A.S. Pushkin.
August 24 began as the most ordinary day in the life of Pompeii. In the morning there was no sign of the impending tragedy. Bright sun the city streets were flooded. The people leisurely went about their business, discussing latest news. Shops were open, incense was smoked in temples, and in the city theater they were preparing for a performance - on this day the next gladiator fights were supposed to take place. These handsome warriors proudly walked along the streets of Pompeii, laughing, reading the inscriptions on the walls of houses that numerous fans left for them.
Now, almost 2000 years later, we know literally minute by minute what happened in those tragic days. And this is thanks to two stunning letters from Pliny the Younger, an eyewitness to the tragedy.
On August 24, at about 2 o'clock in the afternoon, a giant white cloud with brown spots began to quickly rise above Vesuvius. It grew and spread out to the sides at altitude, reminiscent of the crown of a Mediterranean pine tree. A terrible roar was heard near the volcano, and continuous tremors occurred, which were also felt in Miseno (about 30 km from Pompeii), where Pliny’s family was located. The lines of his letter say that the shaking was so strong that carts were thrown from side to side, tiles fell off houses and statues and obelisks collapsed.
The sky suddenly became menacing, the cloud became darker and darker...
The sun was completely hidden behind the heavy ashfall, and pitch darkness set in. This further increased people's anxiety and confusion. At the same time, there were heavy downpours on the western slopes of the volcano, which occur frequently during eruptions. Loose ash and pumice strata on the slopes, “saturated” with water, rushed down in powerful mud, apparently , hot streams - lahars. Three such streams, following one after another, covered the city of Herculaneum, located on the seashore, destroying all life in the blink of an eye.
Hercalaneum was the first to die, since it was located almost at the foot of Vesuvius. Its city residents, who tried to escape, died under lava and ash.
The fate of Pompeii turned out differently. There was no flow of mud here, the only salvation from which, apparently, was flight; here it all started with volcanic ash, which could be easily shaken off. However, lapilli soon began to fall, then pieces of pumice, several kilograms each.
The full danger became clear only gradually. And when people finally realized what was threatening them, it was already too late. Sulfur fumes descended on the city; they crawled into all the cracks, penetrated under the bandages and scarves with which people covered their faces - it became increasingly difficult to breathe... Trying to break free, to swallow fresh air, the townspeople ran out into the street - here they fell under a hail of lapilli and returned back in horror, but as soon as they crossed the threshold of the house, the ceiling collapsed on them, burying them under its rubble. . It was impossible to go outside without covering your head with a pillow, as heavy stones fell on your head along with the ashes. Some managed to delay their death: they hid under stairwells and in galleries, spending there in dying fear the last half hour of their lives. However, later sulfur vapors penetrated there too.
By the time the horrified residents realized the seriousness and danger of their situation, the streets were already buried under a thick layer of ash, and it kept falling and falling from the sky. Soft ash on the ground, falling ash from the sky, sulfurous fumes in the air...
People, mad with fear and horror, ran, stumbled and fell, dying right in the streets, and were instantly covered in ash. Some of them decided to stay in houses where there was no ash, but the houses quickly filled with toxic fumes, and hundreds of people died from suffocation. Many found their deaths under the ruins of their own houses, were crushed by roofs that collapsed under the weight of the ash.
The final blow of Vesuvius on the unfortunate cities was a fiery wall of lava, forever burying the once flourishing settlements.
Forty-eight hours later, the sun shone again, but by that time both Pompeii and Herculaneum had already ceased to exist. In place of olive trees and green vineyards, on marble villas and throughout the city, ash and wave-like lava lay. Everything within a radius of eighteen kilometers was destroyed. Moreover, the ashes even carried to Syria and Egypt.
Now only a thin column of smoke was visible above Vesuvius, and the sky was blue again...
However, despite the scale of the tragedy, out of twenty thousand inhabitants of Pompeii, only two thousand died. Many residents realized in time what the eruption could threaten them with and tried to quickly escape to a safe place.
Almost seventeen centuries have passed. In the middle of the 18th century, people of a different culture and different customs took up spades and dug up what had rested underground for so long.
Before the excavations began, only the fact of the death of two cities during the eruption of Vesuvius was known. Now this tragic incident gradually emerged more and more clearly and the reports about it by ancient writers became flesh and blood. The terrifying scope of this catastrophe and its suddenness became increasingly visible: everyday life was interrupted so quickly that the piglets were left in the ovens and the bread in the ovens. What story could, for example, be told by the remains of two skeletons with slave chains still on their legs? What did these people endure - chained, helpless, in those hours when everything around them was dying? What kind of torment did this dog have to experience before it died? She was found under the ceiling of one of the rooms: chained, she rose along with the growing layer of lapilli, penetrating into the room through windows and doors, until she finally came across an insurmountable barrier - the ceiling, barked one last time and suffocated.
Under the blows of the spade, pictures of the death of families and terrifying human dramas were revealed. . Some mothers were found with children in their arms; Trying to save the children, they covered them with the last piece of cloth, but they died together. Some men and women managed to grab their treasures and run to the gate, but here they were overtaken by a hail of lapilli, and they died, clutching their jewelry and money in their hands.
"Cave Canem" - "Beware of the dog" reads the inscription from the mosaic in front of the door of one house. Two girls died on the threshold of this house: they hesitated to escape, trying to collect their things, and then it was too late to escape. At the Hercules Gate the bodies of the dead lay almost side by side; the load of household belongings they were dragging turned out to be too much for them. The skeletons of a woman and a dog were found in one of the rooms. Careful research has made it possible to reconstruct the tragedy that took place here. In fact, why was the skeleton of the dog preserved in its entirety, while the remains of the woman were scattered throughout the room? Who could have scattered them? Maybe they were taken away by a dog, in which, under the influence of hunger, the wolf nature awoke? Perhaps she delayed the day of her death by attacking her own mistress and tearing her to pieces. Nearby, in another house, the events of the fateful day were interrupted by a wake. The funeral feast participants reclined around the table; This is how they were found seventeen centuries later - they turned out to be participants in their own funeral.
In one place, death overtook seven children playing, unsuspectingly, in a room. In the other there are thirty-four people and with them a goat, which, apparently, was trying, desperately ringing its bell, to find salvation in the imaginary strength of human habitation. Neither courage, nor prudence, nor strength could help those who were too slow to flee. The skeleton of a man of truly Herculean build was found; he was also unable to protect his wife and fourteen-year-old daughter, who were running ahead of him: all three remained lying on the road. True, in a last-ditch effort, the man apparently made another attempt to rise, but, stupefied by the poisonous fumes, he slowly sank to the ground, turned over on his back and froze. The ashes that covered him seemed to take a cast from his body; scientists poured plaster into this mold and obtained a sculptural image of the deceased Pompeian.
One can imagine what a noise, what a roar was heard in a buried house, when a person left in it or left behind from others suddenly discovered that it was no longer possible to get out through the windows and doors; he tried to cut a passage in the wall with an ax; not finding a way to salvation here, he took on the second wall, and when a stream rushed towards him from this wall, he, exhausted, sank to the floor.
The houses, the temple of Isis, the amphitheater - everything has been preserved intact. There were wax tablets in the offices, papyrus scrolls in the libraries, tools in the workshops, strigils (scrapers) in the baths. On the tables in the taverns there were still dishes and money, thrown in a hurry by the last visitors. Love poems and beautiful frescoes are preserved on the walls of the taverns.
“AND THE LAST DAY OF POMPEII BECAME THE FIRST DAY FOR THE RUSSIAN BRUSH...”
Karl Bryullov first visited the excavations of Pompeii in the summer of 1827. The story of the tragic catastrophe that befell the ancient city completely captured all the thoughts of the painter. Most likely, it was then that he conceived the idea of creating a monumental historical picture.
The artist began to collect necessary materials before you start painting. An important source of information for him were letters from an eyewitness to the disaster, Pliny the Younger, to the Roman historian Tacitus, which contained details of the disaster.
Bryullov studied the customs of ancient Italy, visited Naples several times, explored the destroyed Pompeii, walked along its streets, examined in detail the houses preserved under volcanic ash with all the furnishings and utensils. He visited the Naples Museum, where there were amazingly vivid imprints of the bodies of people covered with hot ashes. He makes a series of sketches: landscapes, ruins, fossilized figures.
The artist attended Pacini’s opera “The Last Day of Pompeii” several times and dressed his sitters in the costumes of the heroes of this performance. Based on materials from archaeological excavations, Bryullov paints not only all household items. He will depict some figures in the very poses that preserved the voids formed in the solidified lava in place of incinerated bodies - a mother with daughters, a woman who fell from a chariot, a group of young spouses. The artist took the image of the young man and his mother from Pliny.
In 1830, the artist began working on a large canvas. He painted at such a limit of spiritual tension that it happened that he was literally carried out of the studio in their arms. However, even poor health does not stop his work.
And so the final composition of the painting was born.
The crowd in the picture is divided into separate groups, from which the viewer gradually reads the artist’s literary intention - to depict the feelings and behavior of people in the face of death.
Each group has its own content, arising from general content paintings. The mother seeks to shelter the children. The sons save their old father and carry him on their shoulders. The groom carries away the unconscious bride. A weak mother convinces her son not to burden himself, and the father of the family, with the last movement in his life, tries to shelter his loved ones. But the rider, who has a much greater chance of escape than others, rushes at full speed, not wanting to help anyone. And the priest, whom they used to listen to and believed, cowardly leaves the dying city, hoping to remain unnoticed.
In one of the background groups the artist depicted himself. In his eyes it is not so much the horror of death as close attention artist, aggravated by the terrible spectacle. He carries on his head the most valuable thing - a box of paints and other painting supplies. It seems that he has slowed down and is trying to remember the picture unfolding before him.
And now the canvas was finished. Preparation for the masterpiece took six years of the master’s life (1827-1833). But its success was also enormous.
Long before the end, people in Rome began to talk about the marvelous work of the Russian artist. When the doors of his studio on St. Claudius Street opened wide to the public, and when the painting was later exhibited in Milan, the Italians were indescribably delighted. The name of Karl Bryullov immediately became famous throughout the Italian peninsula - from one end to the other. When meeting on the streets, everyone took off their hat to him; when he appeared in the theaters, everyone stood up; at the door of the house where he lived, or the restaurant where he dined, many people always gathered to greet him.
The real triumph awaited K. Bryullov at home. The painting was brought to Russia in July 1834, and it immediately became a subject of patriotic pride and became the center of attention of Russian society. Numerous engraved and lithographic reproductions" Last day Pompeii" spread the fame of K. Bryullov far beyond the capital. The best representatives of Russian culture enthusiastically greeted the famous painting: A.S. Pushkin translated its plot into verse, N.V. Gogol called the painting a “worldwide creation” in which everything is “so powerful , so boldly, so harmoniously combined into one, as only it could arise in the head of a universal genius." But even these own praises seemed insufficient to the writer, and he called the picture "a bright resurrection of painting. He (K. Bryullov) is trying to grasp nature with a gigantic embrace."
E.A. Boratynsky, composed a laudatory ode for this occasion. Words from which - “The last day of Pompeii became the first day for the Russian brush!” - later became a famous aphorism.
The owner of the painting, Anatoly Demidov, presented the painting to Nicholas I, who exhibited the painting at the Academy of Arts as a guide for aspiring painters. After the opening of the Russian Museum in 1895, the painting was exhibited there, and the general public gained access to it.
Note.
This is what the painter Karl Pavlovich Bryullov looked like while working on his painting. This is a self-portrait of the artist, dated "circa 1833." He was only 28 years old when he began this work, and 34 when he completed the painting.
This is how he depicted himself on the canvas (remember, with a box on his head...), you can best see him in the first fragment of the picture from the top.
Four s more than a year Karl Bryullov lived in Italy before reaching Pompeii in 1827. At that time he was looking for a subject for a large painting on historical topic. What he saw amazed the artist. It took him six years to collect material and paint an epic canvas with an area of almost 30 m2.
In the picture, people of different genders and ages, occupations and faiths, caught in the disaster, are rushing about. However, in the motley crowd you can notice four identical faces...
In the same 1827, Bryullov met the woman of his life - Countess Yulia Samoilova. Having separated from her husband, the young aristocrat, a former maid of honor, who loved a bohemian lifestyle, moved to Italy, where morals are freer. Both the Countess and the artist had a reputation as heartthrobs. Their relationship remained free, but long, and their friendship continued until Bryullov’s death. “Nothing was done according to the rules between me and Karl.”, Samoilova later wrote to his brother Alexander.
Julia with her Mediterranean appearance (there were rumors that the woman’s father was the Italian Count Litta, her mother’s stepfather) was an ideal for Bryullov, moreover, as if created for an ancient plot. The artist painted several portraits of the countess and “gave” her face to the four heroines of the painting, which became his most famous creation. In “The Last Day of Pompeii” Bryullov wanted to show the beauty of a person even in a desperate situation, and Yulia Samoilova was for him a perfect example of this beauty in the real world.
1 Yulia Samoilova. Researcher Erich Hollerbach noted that the similar heroines of “The Last Day of Pompeii,” despite social differences, look like representatives of one big family, as if the disaster had brought all the townspeople closer and equalized.
2 Street. “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 the main reason.”, Bryullov explained in a letter to his brother the choice of location. This is already a suburb, the so-called Road of the Tombs, leading from the Herculaneum Gate of Pompeii to Naples. Here were the tombs of noble citizens and temples. The artist sketched the location of the buildings during excavations.
3 Woman with daughters. According to Bryullov, he saw one female and two children’s skeletons, covered in these poses with volcanic ash, at excavations. The artist could associate a mother with two daughters with Yulia Samoilova, who, having no children of her own, took in two girls, relatives of friends, to raise. By the way, the father of the youngest of them, composer Giovanni Pacini, wrote the opera “The Last Day of Pompeii” in 1825, and the fashionable production became one of the sources of inspiration for Bryullov.
4 Christian priest. In the first century of Christianity, a minister of the new faith could have appeared in Pompeii; in the picture he can be easily recognized by the cross, liturgical utensils - a censer and a chalice - and a scroll with a sacred text. The wearing of body crosses and pectoral crosses in the 1st century has not been confirmed archaeologically.
5 Pagan Priest. The status of the character is indicated by the cult objects in his hands and the headband - infula. Contemporaries reproached Bryullov for not bringing to the fore the opposition of Christianity to paganism, but the artist did not have such a goal.
8 Artist. Judging by the number of frescoes on the walls of Pompeii, the profession of painter was in demand in the city. Bryullov portrayed himself as an ancient painter running next to a girl with the appearance of Countess Yulia - this is what the Renaissance masters, whose work he studied in Italy, often did.
9 The woman who fell from her chariot. According to art critic Galina Leontyeva, the Pompeian woman lying on the pavement symbolizes death ancient world, for which the artists of classicism yearned.
10 Things, which fell out of the box, like other objects and decorations in the picture, were copied by Bryullov from bronze and silver mirrors, keys, lamps filled with olive oil, vases, bracelets and necklaces found by archaeologists that belonged to the inhabitants of Pompeii of the 1st century AD. e.
11 Warrior and boy. According to the artist's idea, these are two brothers saving a sick old father.
12 Pliny the Younger. An ancient Roman prose writer who witnessed the eruption of Vesuvius described it in detail in two letters to the historian Tacitus.
13 Mother of Pliny the Younger. Bryullov placed the scene with Pliny on canvas “as an example of a child’s and mother's love", despite the fact that disaster overtook the writer and his family in another city - Misenach (about 25 km from Vesuvius and about 30 km from Pompeii). Pliny recalled how he and his mother got out of Misenum at the height of the earthquake, and a cloud of volcanic ash was approaching the city. It was difficult for the elderly woman to escape, and she, not wanting to cause the death of her 18-year-old son, tried to persuade him to leave her. “I replied that I would be saved only with her; I take her by the arm and make her quicken her pace.”, said Pliny. Both survived.
14 Goldfinch. During a volcanic eruption, birds died in flight.
15 Newlyweds. According to ancient Roman tradition, the heads of newlyweds were decorated with wreaths of flowers. The flammei, the traditional veil of an ancient Roman bride made of thin yellow-orange fabric, fell from the girl’s head.
16 Tomb of Scaurus. Building from the Road of the Tombs, resting place of Aulus Umbricius Scaurus the Younger. The tombs of the ancient Romans were usually built outside the city limits on both sides of the road. During his lifetime, Scaurus the Younger held the position of duumvir, that is, he stood at the head of the city administration, and for his services he was even awarded a monument in the forum. This citizen was the son of a wealthy merchant of garum fish sauce (Pompeii was famous for it throughout the empire).
17 Building destruction. Seismologists, based on the nature of the destruction of the buildings depicted in the picture, determined the intensity of the earthquake “according to Bryullov” - eight points.
18 Vesuvius. The eruption occurred on August 24-25, 79 AD. e., destroyed several cities of the Roman Empire located at the foot of the volcano. Of the 20-30 thousand inhabitants of Pompeii, about two thousand were not saved, judging by the remains found.
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ARTIST
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1799 - Born in St. Petersburg into the family of academician of ornamental sculpture Pavel Brullo. Russian artist Karl Bryullov was undoubtedly quite respected for his skill long before the creation of this masterpiece. Nevertheless, it was “The Last Day of Pompeii” that brought Bryullov, without exaggeration, worldwide fame. Why did the disaster picture have such an impact on the public, and what secrets does it hide from viewers to this day?
Why Pompeii?
At the end of August 79 AD, as a result of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, the cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, Stabiae and many small villages became the graves of several thousand local residents. Real archaeological excavations The localities that had sunk into oblivion began only in 1748, that is, 51 years before the birth of Karl Bryullov himself. It is clear that archaeologists worked not just for one day, but for several decades. Thanks to this circumstance, the artist was able to personally visit the excavations and wander through the ancient Roman streets already freed from solidified lava. Moreover, at that moment Pompeii turned out to be the most cleared.
Countess Yulia Samoilova, for whom Karl Pavlovich had warm feelings, also walked there with Bryullov. Later she will play a huge role in the creation of her lover’s masterpiece, and more than one. Bryullov and Samoilova had the opportunity to see the buildings of the ancient city, restored household items, remains dead people. All this left a deep and vivid imprint on the artist’s delicate nature. This was in 1827.
Disappearance of characters
Impressed, Bryullov almost immediately set to work, and very seriously and thoroughly. He visited the vicinity of Vesuvius more than once, making sketches for the future canvas. In addition, the artist familiarized himself with manuscripts that have survived to this day, including letters from an eyewitness to the disaster, the ancient Roman politician and writer Pliny the Younger, whose uncle Pliny the Elder died in the eruption. Of course, such work required a lot of time. Therefore, preparation for writing the masterpiece took Bryullov more than 5 years. He created the canvas itself, with an area of more than 30 square meters, in less than a year. The artist was sometimes unable to walk from exhaustion; he was literally carried out of the studio. But even with such careful preparation and hard work on the masterpiece, Bryullov kept changing the original plan to one degree or another. For example, he did not use a sketch of a thief taking jewelry from a fallen woman.
Same faces
One of the main mysteries that can be found on the canvas is the presence of several identical female faces. This is a girl with a jug on her head, a woman lying on the ground with a child, as well as a mother hugging her daughters, and a person with her husband and children. Why did Bryullov draw them so similar? The fact is that the same lady served as the model for all these characters - the same Countess Samoilova. Despite the fact that the artist drew other people in the picture from ordinary residents of Italy, apparently Samoilov Bryullov, overcome by certain feelings, simply liked to paint.
In addition, in the crowd depicted on the canvas, you can find the painter himself. He portrayed himself as what he was, an artist with a box filled with drawing supplies on his head. This method, as a kind of autograph, was used by many Italian masters. And Bryullov spent many years in Italy and it was there that he studied the art of painting.
Christian and pagan
Among the characters in the masterpiece there is also an adherent of the Christian faith, who is easily recognized by the cross on his chest. A mother and two daughters are huddling close to him, as if seeking protection from the old man. However, Bryullov also painted a pagan priest who quickly runs away, not paying any attention to the frightened townspeople. Undoubtedly, Christianity was persecuted at that time and it is not known for certain whether any of the adherents of this faith could have been in Pompeii at that time. But Bryullov, trying to adhere to the documentary accuracy of events, introduced into his work and hidden meaning. Through the above-mentioned clergy, he showed not only the cataclysm itself, but the disappearance of the old and the birth of the new.