Caravaggio - "an excellent rival of nature"
At the turn of the XVI – XVII centuries in Italy, famous for great painters, poets, scientists and humanists, a very peculiar artist appeared. His paintings caused a genuine sensation.…

Continue reading →

Ernest Seton-Thompson - writer, artist, naturalist
Eighty-six years of life - a considerable time. Exactly so many wonderful Canadian writer, artist, naturalist Ernest Seton-Thompson lived. But who was he in the first place? A rare case…

Continue reading →

Kanoplasta from Tanagra
The Greek words "tanagra", "tanagryanka" about a hundred years ago entered the Russian language. They are now used to denote everything fragile, feminine and plastic. The artist V. Serov invented…

...

Ordinary Magic Glass
The expression "Venetian glass" has become a household word. It is used in the appreciation of the artistic merit of glass. And it is not by chance that the largest…

Continue reading →

Konstantin Meunier - an artist who glorified the proletariat
The life of the Belgian master Constantin Meunier is not eventful. But his creative biography is unusual. He began as a sculptor, visiting the class of the Academy of Fine…

...

communist party

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 the age of seven she first appeared on the stage. She was not yet fifteen, when she became a professional artist. And after a while rumors about her brilliant game began to spread throughout Russia. The very first performances of the provincial actress on the stages of Moscow and St. Petersburg literally stunned the theater audience, gave rise to the sincere admiration of some and the same sincere hostility of others. Continue reading

Masterpieces of Venetian painting

It is enough to remember the names of Giorgione and Titian, Veronese and Tintoretto, and it becomes clear what a bright and beautiful page in the art of the Renaissance was the painting of Venice. In a politically fragmented Italy, each city was an independent state, and its artistic culture had a special character, its own unique features. Historical destinies, social structure, natural conditions, way of life, everyday and cultural traditions determined the originality of the art of a particular center.

Indeed, how could it be like any other art painting of Venice – a fabulous city that arose, as if by magic, among the waters of the Adriatic? Continue reading

Chinese classical painting
Painting of China, flourishing in the era of the Middle Ages - IV – XIX centuries of our era, it was not by chance that it took an honorable place…

...

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…

...

Fritz Kremer: “I had the good fortune to create many monuments that stand on the street”
The essence of understanding of the creative tasks of Kremer is to appeal to the broad masses of the people. “I feel it my duty,” says the artist, “to speak…

...