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 .

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." Last day 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.

"The Last Day of Pompeii" is the most famous pictorial depiction of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

On August 24, 79, one of the most powerful natural disasters occurred - the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which completely destroyed the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, located at its foot.

During the explosion, Vesuvius threw out a huge hot cloud of stones, ash and smoke up to 33 km high, and the thermal energy released by it exceeded that released during the explosion atomic bomb over Hiroshima.

Contemporaries who observed the event described it as a terrible, but at the same time, a phenomenon of a formidable nature full of gloomy beauty. Pliny the Younger himself was horrified and delighted by the spectacle, and his uncle, Pliny the Elder, observing the event, sailed too close to the eruption site on a ship and was poisoned to death by sulfur gases.

Many artists have found inspiration by thinking about the disaster. Most famous painting on the theme of the eruption of Vesuvius was “The Last Day of Pompeii” by Karl Bryullov.

The epic canvas was written in 1830-1833 after Bryullov’s visit in 1828 to the place near Naples where Pompeii was located. In Rome, where the masterpiece was exhibited after painting, it received many enthusiastic responses, and then was transported to the Louvre in Paris. She brought Bryullov real success abroad.

"Evening Moscow" presents to your attention 7 interesting facts about the picture:

1. The artist's image in the left corner of the painting is a self-portrait of the author.

2. The canvas depicts Countess Yulia Pavlovna Samoilova three times, with whom young artist tied up romantic relationship. It was with her that they traveled around Italy and wandered among the ruins of Pompeii, where the idea of ​​the famous master of canvas was born. In the painting, the Countess is depicted in three images: 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.

3. In Russia at that time, Bryullov’s painting was perceived as completely innovative. But it brought its share of fame Russian painting. E. A. Baratynsky composed a famous aphorism on this occasion: “The last day of Pompeii became the first day for the Russian brush!”

4. The customer and sponsor of the work was the famous philanthropist Anatoly Demidov, who then presented the painting to Nicholas I. For some time it was exhibited as a guide for beginning painters at the Academy of Arts.

5. Together with Bryullov's painting in Russian historical painting people came in for the first time. Previously, ordinary townspeople were not depicted in paintings. And although these people were shown in a rather idealized way, without any social characteristics, the significance of Bryullov’s undertaking cannot but be appreciated.

6. In the initial sketches for the painting, there was a figure of a robber removing jewelry from a fallen woman. However, in final version Bryullov removed it. The foreground of the picture was occupied by several groups, each of which became the personification of generosity. Negative characters did not violate the sublime tragic structure of the picture. The evil caused to people was embodied only in the raging elements.

7. The novelty of Bryullov’s plan lay in the fact that he used two extremely contrasting light sources: hot red rays in the depths and cold, greenish-bluish rays in the foreground. He set himself a difficult task, but with amazing courage he achieved its solution. Bryullov boldly “threw” reflections of lightning onto people’s faces, bodies and clothes, and brought light and shadow together in sharp contrasts. That is why contemporaries were so struck by the sculptural volume of the figures, the unusual and exciting illusion of life.

It seems possible for contemporaries to see through the eyes of a painter last moments life of the inhabitants of the city of Pompeii. It must be admitted that in the artist’s hand one can discern the manner of Raphael and Velazquez. The display and detailing, so sharply captured, the saturation with crimson and reddish shades, the technique of chiaroscuro - the master absorbed all the best from the artists of that era. Bryullov himself had a very significant influence on the technique and manner of drawing, Flavitsky, Serov, Moller and others. He was characterized by a certain academicism and grandeur, which he vigorously demonstrated in the painting “Horsewoman” and “The Siege of Pskov.”

In order to implement his idea (and the idea, it must be admitted, was embodied in a very grandiose manner - on a canvas measuring 465x561 centimeters), Bryullov had to go to the foot of Mount Vesuvius and see the city ruins of Pompeii. There, on the spot, he made sketches for the future canvas, imagining how the revived Vesuvius spews hundreds of thousands of tons of ash and lava onto the confused inhabitants of Pompeii. Writing the work took Bryullov 3 years, and in 1833 he finished writing it.

Immediately after the completion of the picture, it was brought for review to Rome - critics and spectators were unanimous in their flattering reviews. The painting was then taken to an exhibition in Paris and placed in the Louvre. There she was seen by a world-famous writer, Walter Scott. He said that the painting was “unusual, epic.” A year after the end of the Paris exhibition, the canvas finally arrives in Russia, in St. Petersburg. And here, in their homeland, great figures and writers never tire of talking about it. Turgenev left a flattering review, and Baratynsky and Pushkin immediately scattered aphorisms, which were immediately prohibited by censorship.

The style of the work at that time was considered something extraordinary, innovative, because it was ahead of its time. Now this technique is recognized as neoclassicism.
So popular then were the stories on historical topics, Bryullov turned it into a certain reality - the characters depicted are not static, he is all in motion. Their faces are filled with horror and fear. It seems that the artist himself caught the crowd at that very moment - the reality of the painted figures is so great. Not indifferent to Countess Yulia Pavlovna Samoilova, the Tsar's maid of honor, Bryullov could not deny himself the pleasure of capturing her several times in the picture.

Here she appears on the left side of the canvas on a hill, in the image of a woman with a jug on her head, then the image of a woman who fell to her death - she and her child (he is alive) were thrown from the broken steps of the stairs, and finally, she is a mother hugging her daughter. The artist depicted himself as the same painter on the left in the corner of the picture. The artist depicted in very detail and exultation the blazing glow and falling marble statues of the gods, over which lightning scattered.

People, maddened by fear, run away from the destruction, but they cannot escape. "The Last Day of Pompeii" presents us with an image of eternal life captured.
Currently, the painting belongs to the Russian Museum, where Nicholas I gave it to him in 1895.

Plot

The canvas shows one of the most powerful volcanic eruptions in human history. In 79, Vesuvius, which had previously been silent for so long that it had long been considered extinct, suddenly “woke up” and forced all living things in the area to fall asleep forever.

It is known that Bryullov read the memoirs of Pliny the Younger, who witnessed the events in Misenum, which survived the disaster: “The panic-stricken crowd followed us and... pressed on us in a dense mass, pushing us forward when we came out... We froze in the midst of the most dangerous and terrifying scenes. The chariots that we ventured to take out shook so violently back and forth, although they were standing on the ground, that we could not hold them up even by placing large stones under the wheels. The sea seemed to roll back and be pulled away from the shores by the convulsive movements of the Earth; definitely the land expanded significantly, and some sea animals found themselves on the sand... Finally, the terrible darkness began to gradually dissipate, like a cloud of smoke; daylight appeared again, and the sun even came out, although its light was gloomy, as happens before an approaching eclipse. Every object that appeared before our eyes (which were extremely weakened) seemed to have changed, covered with a thick layer of ash, as if snow.”

Pompeii today

The devastating blow to the cities occurred 18-20 hours after the start of the eruption - people had enough time to escape. However, not everyone was prudent. And although it was not possible to establish the exact number of deaths, the number is in the thousands. Among them are mainly slaves whom their owners left to guard their property, as well as the elderly and sick who did not have time to leave. There were also those who hoped to wait out the disaster at home. In fact, they are still there.

As a child, Bryullov became deaf in one ear after being slapped by his father.

On the canvas, people are in panic; the elements will not spare either the rich man or the poor man. And what is noteworthy is that Bryullov used one model to write people of different classes. We are talking about Yulia Samoilova, her face appears on the canvas four times: a woman with a jug on her head on the left side of the canvas; a woman falling to her death in the center; a mother attracting her daughters to her in the left corner of the picture; a woman covering her children and saving with her husband. The artist looked for faces for the remaining characters on the streets of Rome.

What is also surprising in this picture is how the issue of light is resolved. “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 a reddish penumbra fades into the background,” the newspapers wrote at the time.

Context

By the time Bryullov decided to write the death of Pompeii, he was considered talented, but still promising. Serious work was needed to gain the status of a master.

At that time, the theme of Pompeii was popular in Italy. Firstly, excavations were very active, and secondly, there were a couple more eruptions of Vesuvius. This could not but be reflected in culture: Paccini’s opera “L" Ultimo giorno di Pompeia” was successfully performed on the stages of many Italian theaters. There is no doubt that the artist saw it, perhaps more than once.

The idea to write about the death of the city came from Pompeii itself, which Bryullov visited in 1827 on the initiative of his brother, the architect Alexander. It took 6 years to collect the material. The artist was meticulous in details. Thus, the things that fell out of the box, jewelry and other various objects in the picture were copied from those that archaeologists found during excavations.

Bryullov's watercolors were the most popular souvenir from Italy

Let's say a few words about Yulia Samoilova, whose face, as mentioned above, appears four times on the canvas. For the painting, Bryullov was looking for Italian types. And although Samoilova was Russian, her appearance corresponded to Bryullov’s ideas about how Italian women should look.

“Portrait of Yu. P. Samoilova with Giovanina Pacini and the Little Arab.” Bryullov, 1832-1834

They met in Italy in 1827. Bryullov there adopted the experience of senior masters and looked for inspiration, and Samoilova lived her life. In Russia, she had already managed to get a divorce, she had no children, and for her too turbulent bohemian life, Nicholas I asked her to move away from the court.

When work on the painting was completed and the Italian public saw the canvas, a boom in Bryullov began. It was a success! Everyone, when meeting the artist, considered it an honor to say hello; When he appeared in the theaters, everyone stood up, and at the doors of the house where he lived, or the restaurant where he dined, many people always gathered to greet him. Since the Renaissance itself, no artist has been the object of such worship in Italy as Karl Bryullov.

Triumph also awaited the painter in his homeland. The general euphoria about the film becomes clear after reading Baratynsky’s lines:

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.

Half conscious creative life Karl Bryullov spent in Europe. He went abroad for the first time after graduating Imperial Academy arts in St. Petersburg to improve their skills. Where else, if not in Italy, can you do this?! At first, Bryullov mainly painted Italian aristocrats, as well as watercolors with scenes from life. The latter have become a very popular souvenir from Italy. These were small-sized pictures with small-figure compositions, without psychological portraits. Such watercolors mainly glorified Italy with its beautiful nature and represented the Italians as a people who genetically preserved the ancient beauty of their ancestors.

Interrupted date (The water is already running over the edge). 1827

Bryullov wrote at the same time as Delacroix and Ingres. This was the time when the theme of the fate of huge masses of people came to the fore in painting. Therefore, it is not surprising that for his programmatic canvas Bryullov chose the story of the death of Pompeii.

Bryullov undermined his health while painting St. Isaac's Cathedral

The painting made such a strong impression on Nicholas I that he demanded that Bryullov return to his homeland and take the place of professor at the Imperial Academy of Arts. Returning to Russia, Bryullov met and became friends with Pushkin, Glinka, and Krylov.

Bryullov's frescoes in St. Isaac's Cathedral

The artist spent his last years in Italy, trying to save his health, which had been damaged while painting St. Isaac's Cathedral. Hours of long, hard work in the damp, unfinished cathedral had a bad effect on the heart and aggravated rheumatism.