easel paintings
“Denial of confession” by Ilya Repin
Vasily Ivanovich Surikov is a great Russian historical painter, but all he has to say about him is not enough: the national genius embodied in the art of Surikov. The value of his work is not immediately realized, but only with the passage of life, when a person acquires experience, knowledge, develops his mind, develops spiritual wisdom in himself. Comprehension of the art of Surikov is as joyful and difficult as comprehension of Pushkin’s poetry. Continue reading
Eugene Delacroix – Goethe’s Faust lithographs
In the 1820s, the artist Eugene Delacroix was in the prime of his creative power. He is 30 years old, he is a recognized master, who created the paintings that put him among the best artists of France: “Dante and Virgil”, “The Massacre at Chios”, “The Execution of Marino Faliero”, “The Death of Sardanapala”.
In them, Delacroix most fully reflected the ideas of progressive romanticism that prevailed at that time in French painting, to the transmission of historical truth expressed by a vivid, emotional language, which compels the emperor to sympathize with the strong, integral and passionate characters. Continue reading
Luca della Robbia – devotional service to art
The whole long life of Luke della Robbia was dedicated to serving the arts. The sculptor was born in Florence in 1399 or 1400. He made many works that rightfully occupy a prominent place in the history of the sculpture of the Renaissance. Luka della Robbia’s hard work, his devotion to art was emphasized by one of his first biographers, D. Vasari: “… completely leaving the jewelry business, he (Luca della Robbia) gave himself up to sculpture and did not do anything else, working with a chisel all day nights And he did it with such diligence that, often feeling at night that his legs were frozen, he, in order not to depart from the drawing, warmed them, shoved them into a basket with chips … ” Continue reading
