Rafael Santi - the ideal of the purest art
In the view of the people of the Renaissance, beauty is above all the orderly consonance and connection of parts, harmony. It is based on a proportion, a perfect image,…

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Wooden sculpture of Prikamye
The discovery of this “completely unprecedented and absolutely amazing phenomenon” - the original folk art of the Kama region - belongs to N. N. Serebrennikov, an Ural art historian, collector…

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The Unknown by Ivan Kramskoy
At the end of the 1860s, in the period when the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions was born, a curious incident occurred in the workshop of Artel of artists. He…

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"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…

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Camille Corot: "I write with my heart"
The large, half a century long, creative life of the French artist Camille Corot (1796–1875) was, as it were, subject to the change of seasons. In the winter months he…

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bookbinder decorators

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“The Adoration of the Magi” by Sandro Botticelli and Leonardo Da Vinci

In March 1481, the monks of the Florentine monastery of San Donato and Scopetto turned to the notary Pietro of Vinci with a request to find an artist who could write an altar painting for the cathedral. Pietro immediately offered the services of his son Leonardo, who recently graduated from Verrocchio. At the same time the contract was concluded, where the working conditions were determined. The artist was given the task of painting a 2.5×2.5 m size in oil on a blackboard in two – two and a half years. The plot of the Adoration of the Magi is one of the episodes of the Gospel legend. Continue reading

“The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis” by Rembrandt

A prominent place in Rembrandt’s painting is taken by the painting “The Claudius Civilis Conspiracy”, created in 1661. This creation was destined to play a very special role in all Western European painting of the XVII century.

A number of reasons contributed to this. First of all, the unusualness of the task that arose before the artist. Rembrandt, whose activities developed in the field of easel paintings, by the conditions of the order was put before the need to create a work of monumental painting. Continue reading

“David of Sasun” Yervand Kochar

Anyone who has visited Yerevan at least once will remember for a long time the sculptural monument to David of Sassun, made by the USSR People’s Artist Yervand Kochar. A little more than twenty years ago, this monument was created, but it is no longer possible to imagine an ancient city, the same age as Rome and Babylon, without a mighty horseman riding a powerful horse.

There is no person in Armenia who would not know about the feats of David of Sasun. This is the hero of the national epic – the legendary personality. But the basis of the image, of course, are real events. Continue reading

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"Boris Godunov" and "Vasily Shuisky" by Ivan Shtenglin
In the middle of the 18th century, the interest of the Russian society in national history increased. Ivan Shtenglin, a master from Augsburg, Germany, who worked in Russia, completed from…

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Antoine Bourdelle and Aristide Maillol - antiquity in the works
Antoine Bourdelle and Aristide Mayol. What binds them? That they were born in the same year - 1861st? That both are French? Or that they are outstanding sculptors and are…

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Two portraits of the actress Strepetova
There are destinies that strike the imagination with unusualness and inner completeness — such is the life of Pelageya Antipevna Strepetova (1850–1903), difficult and bright, full of dramatic turns. At…

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