Famous painting Karl Bryullov's “The Last Day of Pompeii” was written in 1830-1833. In this epic canvas, the painter captured the death of the city of Pompeii due to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.

In search of authenticity, Bryullov visited the excavations of the lost city. The figures and faces of people were created by the painter from life, from the inhabitants of Rome. Almost all the objects depicted in the picture were painted by the artist from original items stored in the Naples Museum.

Bryullov paints a truly hellish picture. In the distance, a volcano is burning, from the depths of which streams of fiery lava flow in all directions. Reflections of the flame from the burning lava illuminate the back of the canvas with a reddish glow. A flash of lightning, cutting through a cloud of ash and burning, illuminates the front of the picture.

In his painting, Bryullov uses a bold color scheme for its time. The most close attention The painter turns to aerial perspective - he manages to create a feeling of deep space.

Before us is a whole sea of ​​human suffering. In the hour of real tragedy they are exposed human souls. Here is a man, protecting his loved ones, desperately raising his hand, as if trying to stop the elements. The mother, passionately hugging her children, looks at the sky with a plea for mercy. Here the sons are trying to carry their weak old father away from danger on their shoulders. A young man persuades his fallen mother to gather her strength and run. In the center of the picture are a dead woman and a baby reaching out to the lifeless body of the mother.

The painting “The Last Day of Pompeii” reminds the viewer that the main value of the world is man. The artist contrasts his physical beauty and spiritual greatness with the destructive forces of nature. The picture caused an explosion of admiration and admiration, both in Italy and in Russia. The work was enthusiastically welcomed by A.S. Pushkin and N.V. Gogol.

In addition to the description of K. P. Bryullov’s painting “The Last Day of Pompeii”, our website contains many other descriptions of paintings by various artists, which can be used both in preparation for writing an essay on the painting, and simply for a more complete acquaintance with the work of famous masters of the past .

Bryullov Karl Pavlovich (1799-1852). "The Last Day of Pompeii"

With the magical touch of his brush, historical, portrait, watercolor, perspective, landscape painting was resurrected, for which he gave living examples in his paintings. The artist’s brush barely had time to follow his imagination; images of virtues and vices swarmed in his head, constantly replacing one another, whole historical events grew to the most vivid concrete outlines.

Self-portrait. Around 1833

Karl Bryullov was 28 years old when he decided to paint the grandiose painting “The Last Day of Pompeii.” The artist owed the emergence of interest in this topic to his older brother, the architect Alexander Bryullov, who acquainted him in detail with the excavations of 1824-1825. K. Bryullov himself was in Rome during these years, the fifth year of his pension in Italy was expiring. He already had several serious works under his belt, which had considerable success in the artistic community, but none of them seemed to the artist himself to be quite worthy of his talent. He felt that he had not yet lived up to the expectations placed on him.

"The Last Day of Pompeii"
1830-1833
Oil on canvas. 456.5 x 651 cm
State Russian Museum

For a long time now, Karl Bryullov has been haunted by the conviction that he can create a work more significant than those he has done so far. Conscious of his strengths, he wanted to complete a large and complex picture and thereby destroy the rumors that were beginning to circulate in Rome. He was especially annoyed by the gentleman Cammuccini, who was considered at that time the first Italian painter. It was he who distrusted the talent of the Russian artist and often said: “Well, this Russian painter is capable of small things. But a colossal work needs to be done by someone bigger!”

Others, too, although they recognized Karl Bryullov’s great talent, noted that frivolity and an absent-minded life would never allow him to concentrate on a serious work. Incited by these conversations, Karl Bryullov was constantly looking for a plot for big picture, which would glorify his name. For a long time he could not dwell on any of the topics that came to his mind. Finally he attacked the plot that took over all his thoughts.

At this time, Paccini's opera "L" Ultimo giorno di Pompeia" was successfully performed on the stages of many Italian theaters. There is no doubt that Karl Bryullov saw it, maybe even more than once. In addition, together with the nobleman A.N. Demidov (a chamberlain and cavalier of His Majesty the Russian Emperor) he examined the destroyed Pompeii, and knew from his own experience what a strong impression these ruins make on the viewer, preserving traces of ancient chariots, these houses, as if these were only recently abandoned by their owners; public buildings and temples, amphitheaters, where it seems as if gladiatorial battles ended just yesterday; country tombs bearing the names and titles of those whose ashes are still preserved in surviving urns.

All around, just as many centuries ago, lush green vegetation covered the remains of the unfortunate city. And above all this rises the dark cone of Vesuvius, smoking menacingly in the welcoming azure sky. In Pompeii, Bryullov vividly asked the servants who had been supervising the excavations for a long time about all the details.

Of course, the impressionable and receptive soul of the artist responded to the thoughts and feelings aroused by the remains of the ancient Italian city. At one of these moments, the idea flashed through his mind to imagine these scenes on a large canvas. He communicated this idea to A.N. Demidov with such fervor that he promised to provide funds for the implementation of this plan and to purchase Karl Bryullov’s future painting in advance.

Karl Bryullov set about executing the painting with love and fervor and quite soon made the initial sketch. However, other activities distracted the artist from Demidov’s order and to deadline(late 1830) the painting was not ready. Dissatisfied with such circumstances, A.N. Demidov almost destroyed the terms of the agreement concluded between them, and only K. Bryullov’s assurances that he would immediately get to work corrected the whole matter.

Last day of Pompeii1. 1827-1830

Last day of Pompeii2. 1827-1830

Last day of Pompeii. 1828

And indeed, he set to work with such diligence that two years later he completed the colossal canvas. Brilliant artist drew his inspiration not only from the ruins of destroyed Pompeii, he was also inspired classical prose Pliny the Younger, who described the eruption of Vesuvius in his letter to the Roman historian Tacitus.

Striving for the greatest authenticity of the image, Bryullov studied excavation materials and historical documents. Architectural structures in the picture he restored them from the remains of ancient monuments; household items and women's jewelry were copied from exhibits located in the Naples Museum. The figures and heads of the people depicted were painted mainly from life, from the inhabitants of Rome. Numerous sketches of individual figures, entire groups and sketches of the painting show the author’s desire for maximum psychological, plastic and coloristic expressiveness.

Bryullov constructed the picture as separate episodes, at first glance not connected with each other. The connection becomes clear only when the gaze simultaneously covers all groups, the whole picture.

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.

Italian newspapers and magazines glorified Karl Bryullov as a genius equal to the greatest painters of all times, poets sang of him in poetry, about his new picture Entire treatises were written. English writer V. Scott called it an epic of painting, and Cammuccini (ashamed of his previous statements) hugged K. Bryullov and called him a colossus. Since the Renaissance itself, no artist has been the object of such universal worship in Italy as Karl Bryullov.

He presented to the amazed gaze all the merits of an impeccable artist, although it has long been known that even greatest painters did not possess equally all the perfections in their happiest combination. However, the drawing by K. Bryullov, the lighting of the picture, its artistic style absolutely inimitable. 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.

What is depicted in the painting by Karl Bryullov?

Vesuvius burning in the distance, from whose depths 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 picture; but Mr. Bryullov neglected this means. Genius inspired him with a bold idea, equally happy, as well as 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 covering the city, while the light from the eruption, hardly breaking through the deep darkness, casts a reddish penumbra into the background.”

Indeed, the main color scheme that K. Bryullov chose for his painting was extremely bold for that time. This was the gamma of the spectrum, built on blue, red and yellow flowers, illuminated by white light. Green, pink, blue are found as intermediate tones.

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 serious attention to the aerial perspective.

In the center of the canvas there is a prostrate figure of a murdered young woman, as if it was with her that Karl Bryullov wanted to symbolize the dying ancient world(a hint of such an interpretation was already found in the reviews of contemporaries). This noble family was leaving in a chariot, hoping to escape by hasty escape. But, alas, it’s too late: death overtook them on the way. The frightened horses shake the reins, the reins break, the axle of the chariot breaks, and the woman sitting in them falls to the ground and dies. Next to the unfortunate woman lie various jewelry and precious objects that she took with her to last path. And the unbridled horses carry her husband further - also to certain death, and he tries in vain to stay in the chariot. A child reaches out to the mother's lifeless body...

The unfortunate townspeople are looking for salvation, driven by fire, continuous eruptions of lava and falling ash. This is a whole tragedy of human horror and human suffering. The city perishes in a sea of ​​fire, statues, buildings - everything falls down and flies towards the maddened crowd. How many different faces and positions, how many colors in these faces!

Here is a courageous warrior and his young brother in a hurry to shelter their elderly father from the inevitable death... They are carrying a weakened old man, who is trying to push away, to remove from himself the terrible ghost of death, trying to shield himself from the ash falling on him with his hand. The dazzling shine of lightning, reflected on his brow, makes the old man’s body tremble... And on the left, near the Christian, a group of women looks longingly at the ominous sky...

One of the first to appear in the picture was the group of Pliny and his mother. A young man in a wide-brimmed hat leans towards an elderly woman in an impetuous movement. Here (in the right corner of the picture) the figure of a mother and daughters emerges...

The owner of the painting, A.N. Demidov was delighted with the resounding success" Last day Pompeii" and certainly wanted to show the painting in Paris. Thanks to his efforts, it was exhibited at the Art Salon of 1834, but even before that the French had heard about the exceptional success of K. Bryullov’s painting among the Italians. But a completely different situation reigned in French painting 1830s, it was the scene of fierce struggle between various artistic directions, and therefore K. Bryullov’s work was greeted without the enthusiasm that befell him in Italy. Despite the fact that the reviews of the French press were not very favorable for the artist, the French Academy of Arts awarded Karl Bryullov an honorary gold medal.

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 of “The Last Day of 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 poetry, N.V. Gogol called the painting a “universal creation,” in which everything “is so powerful, so bold, so harmoniously combined into one, as soon as 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 " bright resurrection painting. He (K. Bryullov) is trying to capture nature with a gigantic embrace."

Evgeny Baratynsky dedicated the following lines to Karl Bryullov:

He brought the spoils of peace
Take it with you to your father's canopy.
And there was the "Last Day of Pompeii"
First day for the Russian brush.

"One Hundred Great Paintings" by N.A. Ionin, Veche Publishing House, 2002

Original post and comments at

Almost 2,000 years ago, the eruption of Mount Vesuvius destroyed several ancient Roman settlements, including the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. "The Futurist" chronicles the events of August 24-25, 79 AD.

The ancient Roman writer and lawyer Pliny the Younger said that this happened at the seventh hour after sunrise (at about noon) on August 24. His mother pointed out to his uncle, Pliny the Elder, the cloud unusual sizes and the form that arose at the top of the mountain. Pliny the Elder, who at that time was the commander of the Roman fleet, went to Misenum to observe a rare occurrence nature. Over the next two days, 16 thousand inhabitants of the Roman settlements of Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabiae died: their bodies were buried under a layer of ash, stones and pumice thrown out by the raging volcano Vesuvius.

Casts of bodies found during excavations are now on display inside the Baths of Stabian at the archaeological site in Pompeii

Since then, interest in Pompeii has not waned: modern researchers draw digital maps of the destroyed city and go on archaeological expeditions to show us daily life people who died at the foot of the volcano.

Letters from Pliny the Younger to the historian Tacitus, excavation results and volcanological evidence allow scientists to reconstruct the timetable of the eruption.

Ruins of Pompeii with Vesuvius in the background

12:02 Pliny's mother tells his uncle Pliny the Elder about a strange cloud that appeared over Vesuvius. Before this, the city was shaken by tremors for several days, although this was uncharacteristic for the Campania region. Pliny the Younger would later describe this phenomenon as follows:

"huge black cloud was approaching quickly... long, fantastic tongues of flame, reminiscent of lightning flashes, only much larger, burst out of it every now and then...

Winds carry most of the ash to the southeast. The “Plinian phase” of the eruption begins.

13:00 To the east of the volcano, ash begins to fall. Pompeii is only six miles from Vesuvius.

14:00 First ash falls on Pompeii, and then white pumice. The layer of volcanic sediments that covered the earth grows at a rate of 10-15 cm per hour. Ultimately, the thickness of the pumice layer will be 280 cm.

The last day of Pompeii, painting by Karl Pavlovich Bryullov, painted in 1830-1833.

17:00 Roofs are collapsing under the mass of volcanic sediments in Pompeii. Fist-sized stones rain down on the city at a speed of 50 m/s. The sun has become covered with an ashy veil, and people seek refuge in the pitch darkness. Many rush to the harbor of Pompeii. In the evening it’s the turn of gray pumice.

23:15 The “Peleian eruption” begins, the first wave of which hit Herculaneum, Boscoreale and Oplontis.

00:00 The 14-kilometer ash column grew to 33 km. Pumice and ash enter the stratosphere. Over the next seven hours, six pyroclastic waves (a gas-laden flow of ash, pumice and lava) will hit the area. People are facing death everywhere. This is how volcanologist Giuseppe Mastrolorenzo describes the night for National Geographic:

“The temperature outside and indoors rose to 300 °C. This is more than enough to kill hundreds of people in a split second. When the pyroclastic wave swept through Pompeii, people did not have time to suffocate. The distorted poses of the victims’ bodies are not a consequence of prolonged agony, it is a spasm from heat shock that bent already dead limbs.”

Oil on canvas.
Size: 465.5 × 651 cm

"The Last Day of Pompeii"

The Last Day of Pompeii is scary and beautiful. It shows how powerless man is in the face of furious nature. The talent of the artist is amazing, he managed to convey all the fragility human life. The picture silently screams that there is nothing in the world more important than human tragedy. The thirty-meter monumental canvas reveals to everyone those pages of history that no one wants to repeat.

... Of the 20 thousand inhabitants of Pompeii that day, 2,000 people died on the streets of the city. How many of them remained buried under the rubble of houses is unknown to this day.

Description of the painting “The Last Day of Pompeii” by K. Bryullov

Artist: Karl Pavlovich Bryullov (Bryulov)
Title of the painting: “The Last Day of Pompeii”
The picture was painted: 1830-1833.
Oil on canvas.
Size: 465.5 × 651 cm

The Russian artist of the Pushkin era is known as a portrait painter and the last romantic of painting, and not in love with life and beauty, but rather as an experiencer tragic conflict. It is noteworthy that K. Bryullov’s small watercolors during his life in Naples were brought by aristocrats from trips as decorative and entertaining souvenirs.

The master’s work was strongly influenced by his life in Italy, his travels through the cities of Greece, as well as his friendship with A.S. Pushkin. The latter radically affected the Academy of Arts graduate’s vision of the world – the fate of all humanity comes first in his works.

This picture reflects this idea as clearly as possible. "The Last Day of Pompeii" based on real historical facts.

A city near modern Naples was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Manuscripts of ancient historians, in particular Pliny the Younger, also speak about this. He says that Pompeii was famous throughout Italy for its mild climate, healing air and divine nature. Patricians had villas here, emperors and generals came to rest, turning the city into an ancient version of Rublyovka. It is reliably known that there was a theater, water supply and Roman baths here.

August 24, 79 AD e. people heard a deafening roar and saw pillars of fire, ash and stones begin to burst out of the bowels of Vesuvius. The disaster was preceded by an earthquake the day before, so most of the people managed to leave the city. Those who remained were not saved from the ash that reached Egypt and volcanic lava. Terrible tragedy came in a matter of seconds - houses collapsed on the heads of the inhabitants, and meter-high layers of volcanic sediment covered everyone without exception. Panic began in Pompeii, but there was nowhere to run.

This is exactly the moment depicted on the canvas by K. Bryullov, who saw the streets live ancient city, even under a layer of petrified ash, remaining the same as they were before the eruption. The artist collected materials for a long time, visited Pompeii several times, examined houses, walked the streets, made sketches of imprints of the bodies of people who died under a layer of hot ash. Many figures are depicted in the painting in the same poses - a mother with children, a woman who fell from a chariot and a young couple.

The work took 3 years to write - from 1830 to 1833. The master was so imbued with the tragedy of human civilization that he was carried out of the workshop several times in a semi-fainting state.

Interestingly, the film contains themes of destruction and human sacrifice. The first moment you will see is the fire engulfing the city, falling statues, a maddened horse and a murdered woman who fell from her chariot. The contrast is achieved by the fleeing townspeople who do not care about her.

It is noteworthy that the master depicted not a crowd in the usual sense of the word, but people, each of whom tells his own story.

Mothers holding their children, who do not quite understand what is happening, want to shelter them from this catastrophe. The sons, carrying their father in their arms, looking madly into the sky and covering his eyes from the ashes with his hand, try to save him at the cost of their lives. The young man, holding his dead bride in his arms, seems to not believe that she is no longer alive. A maddened horse, which is trying to throw off its rider, seems to convey that nature has not spared anyone. A Christian shepherd in red robes, not letting go of the censer, fearlessly and terrifyingly calmly looks at the falling statues pagan gods, as if he sees God’s punishment in this. The image of a priest who, having taken a golden cup and artifacts from the temple, leaves the city, cowardly looking around, is striking. Most people's faces are beautiful and reflect not horror, but calm.

One of them in the background is a self-portrait of Bryullov himself. He clutches the most valuable thing to himself - a box of paints. Pay attention to his gaze, there is no fear of death in him, there is only admiration for the spectacle that has unfolded. It’s as if the master stopped and remembers the deadly beautiful moment.

What is noteworthy is that there is no main character on the canvas, there is only a world divided by the elements into two parts. Characters disperse on the proscenium, opening the doors to a volcanic hell, and a young woman in a golden dress lying on the ground is a symbol of the death of the refined culture of Pompeii.

Bryullov knew how to work with chiaroscuro, modeling three-dimensional and lively images. Clothes and draperies play an important role here. Robes are depicted rich colors– red, orange, green, ocher, blue and blue. Contrasting with them is deathly pale skin, which is illuminated by the glow of lightning.

Light continues the idea of ​​dividing the picture. He is no longer a way to convey what is happening, but becomes a living hero in “The Last Day of Pompeii.” Lightning flashes yellow, even lemon, cold color, turning the townspeople into living ones marble statues, and blood-red lava flows over the peaceful paradise. The glow of the volcano sets off the panorama of the dying city in the background of the picture. Black clouds of dust, from which pours not saving rain, but destructive ash, as if they say that no one can be saved. The dominant color in the painting is red. Moreover, this is not the cheerful color that is designed to give life. Bryullov red is bloody, as if reflecting the biblical Armageddon. The clothes of the characters and the background of the picture seem to merge with the glow of the volcano. Flashes of lightning illuminate only the foreground.