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An ancient Roman tragedy that became the triumph of Karl Bryullov

On December 23, 1799, Karl Bryullov was born. The son of French-born sculptor Paul Brulleau, Karl was one of seven children in the family. His brothers Pavel, Ivan and Fedor also became painters, and his brother Alexander became an architect. However, the most famous was Karl, who painted “The Last Day of Pompeii” in 1833, the main work of his life. “Kultura.RF” remembered how this painting was created.

Karl Bryullov. Self-portrait. 1836

History of creation

The painting was painted in Italy, where in 1822 the artist went on a four-year retirement trip from the Imperial Academy of Arts. But he lived there for 13 years.

The plot tells about the ancient Roman tragedy - the death of the ancient city of Pompeii, located at the foot of Vesuvius: August 24, 79 AD. e. The volcanic eruption claimed the lives of two thousand inhabitants.

In 1748, military engineer Rocque de Alcubierre began archaeological excavations at the site of the tragedy. The discovery of Pompeii became a sensation and was reflected in creativity different people. So, in 1825 the opera by Giovanni Pacini appeared, and in 1834 - historical novel Englishman Edward Bulwer-Lytton, dedicated to the destruction of Pompeii.

Bryullov first visited the excavation site in 1827. Going to the ruins, the 28-year-old artist had no idea that this trip would turn out to be fateful for him: “You cannot pass through these ruins without feeling some completely new feeling within yourself, making you forget everything except the terrible incident with this city.”, wrote the artist.

The feelings that Karl Bryullov experienced during the excavations did not leave him. This is how the idea of ​​the canvas was born historical topic. While working on the plot, the painter studied archaeological and literary sources. “I took this scenery from life, without retreating or adding at all, standing with my back to the city gates in order to see part of Vesuvius as main reason» . The models for the characters were Italians - descendants of the ancient inhabitants of Pompeii.

At the intersection of classicism and romanticism

In this work, Bryullov reveals himself not as a traditional classicist, but as an artist of the romantic movement. Thus, its historical plot is dedicated not to one hero, but to the tragedy of an entire people. And as a plot, he chose not an idealized image or idea, but a real historical fact.

True, Bryullov builds the composition of the painting in the traditions of classicism - as a cycle of individual episodes enclosed in a triangle.

On the left side of the picture, in the background, several people are depicted on the steps of the large building of the tomb of Scaurus. A woman looks directly at the viewer, with horror in her eyes. And behind her is an artist with a box of paints on his head: this is a self-portrait of Bryullov, experiencing a tragedy along with his characters.

Closer to the viewer - married couple with children, who is trying to escape from the lava, and in the foreground a woman is hugging her daughters... Next to her is Christian priest, who has already entrusted his fate to God and is therefore calm. In the depths of the picture we see a pagan Roman priest who is trying to escape by carrying away ritual valuables. Here Bryullov hints at the fall of the ancient pagan world of the Romans and the onset of the Christian era.

On the right side of the picture in the background there is a rider on a horse who reared up. And closer to the viewer is the groom, gripped by horror, who is trying to hold his bride in his arms (she is wearing a wreath of roses), who has lost consciousness. In the foreground, two sons carry their old father in their arms. And next to them is a young man, begging his mother to get up and run further from this all-consuming element. By the way, this young man is none other than Pliny the Younger, who actually escaped and left his memories of the tragedy. Here is an excerpt from his letter to Tacitus: “I look back. A thick black fog, spreading like a stream across the ground, overtook us. Night had fallen all around, unlike a moonless or cloudy one: it only gets so dark in a locked room with the lights out. Women's screams, children's squeaks and men's screams were heard; some called out to their parents, others to their children or wives and tried to recognize them by their voices. Some mourned their own death, others the death of loved ones, some, in fear of death, prayed for death; many raised their hands to the gods; the majority explained that there were no gods anywhere and for the world this was the last eternal night.”.

There is no main character in the picture, but there are central ones: a golden-haired child near the prostrate body of his dead mother in a yellow tunic - a symbol of the fall of the old world and the birth of a new one, this is the opposition of life and death - in best traditions romanticism.

In this picture, Bryullov also showed himself as an innovator, using two light sources - hot red light in the background, conveying the feeling of approaching lava, and cold greenish-blue in the foreground, adding additional drama to the plot.

The bright and rich coloring of this painting also violates classical traditions and allows us to speak of the artist as a romantic.

Triumphal procession painting

Karl Bryullov worked on the canvas for six years - from 1827 to 1833.

The painting was first presented to the public in 1833 at an exhibition in Milan - and immediately created a sensation. The artist was honored as a Roman triumph, and laudatory reviews were written about the painting in the press. Bryullov was greeted with applause on the street, and during his travels at the borders of the Italian principalities they did not require a passport: it was believed that every Italian already knew him by sight.

In 1834, The Last Day of Pompeii was presented at the Paris Salon. French criticism turned out to be more restrained than the Italian one. But the professionals appreciated the work, giving Bryullov gold medal French Academy of Arts.

The canvas created a sensation in Europe, and was eagerly awaited in Russia. In the same year it was sent to St. Petersburg. Having seen the painting, Nicholas I expressed a desire to personally meet the author, but the artist went with Count Vladimir Davydov on a trip to Greece, and returned to his homeland only in December 1835.

June 11, 1836 in the Round Hall Russian Academy where the painting “The Last Day of Pompeii” was exhibited, guests of honor, members of the Academy, artists and simply art lovers gathered. The author of the painting, “the great Charles,” was carried into the hall in his arms to the enthusiastic screams of the guests. “Crowds of visitors, one might say, burst into the halls of the Academy to look at Pompeii.”, writes a contemporary and witness to that success, the like of which no Russian artist has ever known.

The customer and owner of the painting, Anatoly Demidov, presented it to the emperor, and Nicholas I placed it in the Hermitage, where it remained for 60 years. And in 1897 it was transferred to the Russian Museum.

The picture literally excited the entire Russian society and the best minds of that time.

Art peace trophies
You brought it into your father's canopy.
And there was the "Last Day of Pompeii"
First day for the Russian brush! -

poet Evgeny Boratynsky wrote about the painting.

Alexander Pushkin also dedicated poems to her:

Vesuvius opened its mouth - smoke poured out in a cloud, flames
Widely developed as a battle flag.
The earth is agitated - from the shaky columns
Idols fall! A people driven by fear
Under the stone rain, under the inflamed ashes,
Crowds, old and young, are running out of the city.

Mikhail Lermontov also mentions “The Last Day of Pompeii” in the novel “Princess Ligovskaya”: “If you love art, then I can tell you very good news: Bryullov’s painting “The Last Day of Pompeii” is going to St. Petersburg. All of Italy knew about her, the French scolded her.”, - Lermontov clearly knew about the reviews of the Parisian press.

Russian historian and traveler Alexander Turgenev said that this picture was the glory of Russia and Italy.

And Nikolai Gogol dedicated the painting big article, writing: “His brush contains that poetry that you only feel and can always recognize: our feelings always know and see even features, but their words will never tell. Its color is so bright that it has almost never been before, its colors burn and rush into the eyes. They would be unbearable if the artist had appeared at a level lower than Bryullov, but with him they are clothed in that harmony and breathe that inner music with which living objects of nature are filled.”.

During his lifetime he was called “The Great Karl”; he was the pride and glory of the Russian Academy of Arts, which honored him with all academic awards during his years of study. On the day of graduation from the Academy, Karl Pavlovich Bryullov carried out a whole handful of medals from the assembly hall. For the public, he embodied the myth of a genius, brilliant, capricious, self-confident and unattainable in his skill, education, social acquaintances, love affairs and revelry. One of the legends about Bryullov is reflected in Repin’s drawing “Pushkin and Karl Bryullov,” which depicts Pushkin on his knees begging the Great Karl for a drawing.

Karl Pavlovich Bryullov was born and grew up in a family of hereditary artists (his great-grandfather worked as a modeler at a porcelain factory, his grandfather was a sculptor, his father was an academician of ornamental sculpture, his brother Alexander was an architect). His famous talent manifested itself unusually very early. While still studying at the Academy, Bryullov became its star.

In 1821, Bryullov graduated from the Academy with a Great Gold Medal and in 1822 he left for Rome with money from the Society for the Encouragement of Artists. Here he creates the best work of his life - the famous "" (1830-1833).

By this time, romanticism in Russia was going through the “portrait” and “landscape” stages, and Russian art"ripening" to the creation of a large historical - philosophical picture. The theme of such a picture is not the fate of a specific historical figure and not even the fate of the people, but the fate of all humanity.
The plot of the canvas Bryullov- the ancient city of the Roman Empire, Pompeii, erased from the face of the earth during the eruption of Vesuvius in the first century AD. About two thousand people died in this disaster. The choice of subject may have been suggested by the artist’s brother, the architect Alexander Bryullov, who created the famous project for the reconstruction of the Pompeii Baths. The impetus for the formation of the idea for the film was Pacini's opera "".

It is interesting that the picture was not painted according to instructions from the Academy, but according to a freely chosen plot; not by official order, but by order of a private person, Prince A.N. Demidova.

Bryullov’s painting, with historical and archaeological accuracy that was new for that time, depicted historical period, geographical area, clothing style, weapons. Since the middle of the 18th century, excavations were carried out in the cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii, covered with the ashes of Vesuvius, which aroused great interest in society. The artist Karl Bryullov used archaeological discoveries in his work. Location Bryullov depicted the Street of the Tombs, which is the best preserved in the city, destroyed by time. Even the skeletons of three women connected to each other, found during excavations, he depicted in the picture as a group connected together - a mother with two daughters.

For about six years the artist carefully studied historical sources and documents related to the tragedy of Pompeii, read the letters of the ancient Roman politician Pliny the Younger to the historian of the Roman Empire Tacitus, life, customs and traditions of ancient Italy. But documentary facts and accuracy, as the foundation of the picture, do not imprison Bryullov’s fantasy and imagination, his genius does not become a prisoner of archaeological and historical details. The main thing is a person in the face of death, which exposes him moral qualities. Love and nobility: here is Pliny’s mother, convincing her son to leave her and not burden himself; here is the groom with the dead bride in his arms. Or animal fear that consumes the self-respect of the human person.

While working on the work, Bryullov was inspired monumental works Renaissance titans Raphael and Michelangelo. He copied " Athens school" and studied " Fire in Borgo» Raphael. Bryullov repeats the technique of the Renaissance masters, who included their self-portraits and portraits of their contemporaries in canvases on biblical historical subjects. There are portrait faces in “ Last day Pompeii": portrait of himself Bryullov and his friend - Countess Yulia Samoilova. Alexander Ivanov wrote with pride for the Russian school of painting that with his painting Bryullov proved: “the Russians are destined to improve what the great painters of Italy invented.”

After the gala show " Pompeii“At European art exhibitions, the brilliant Karl Pavlovich Bryullov, having achieved success, returned to Russia and was greeted as a hero who glorified the Fatherland.

After " Pompeii» Bryullov is looking for new dramatic historical subjects. He paints a picture "" (1834)

based on the plot of the 16th century poet Camões, he develops a sketch of a painting called "".

The plot is inspired by N.V. Gogol’s article “On the movement of peoples at the end of the 5th century.” About the leader of the Huns, Genseric (in Bryullov’s sketch he is depicted on a horse with a tiger skin over his armor). Bryullov did not dare to create a large canvas based on this sketch. It was no longer possible to repeat the success of Pompeii.

The outstanding Bryullov is very diverse in his genre hobbies. There are no barriers for him to write his invaluable works, be they historical dramas or genre scenes, portraits or paintings in the “NUDE” style. Written in Italy genre paintings - «», « Noon», « Vintage"", "", "" - elegant and festive.

Here Bryullov creates a living sensation of air and sun. Color in his works remains local. The arrangement of color spots is subordinated to decorative purposes.

", "" - a synthesis of the harsh truth of life and ideal beauty. He paints the beauty of the female body, but with all the sculptural forms, the beauty is not cold, but alive, warm.

The “signature” effect of Bryullov’s painting, the subject of imitation and envy of his epigones, is a surprisingly soft glow from within, inspired by antique marbles, which is the glory of these artist’s works. Bryullov's nudes on mythological subjects in the spirit of romanticism are colored with the spice of oriental exoticism: the snow-white beauty of his Bathsheba and Juno is set off by the dark-skinned bodies of mulatto women.

Like many creative romantics, Bryullov was fond of the exoticism of the East. In 1835 he visited Turkey. After this trip, oriental themes appeared in his work: works based on “ Bakhchisarai fountain"Pushkin, poems by Zhukovsky" Peri and the angel», « Turk" Fancy oriental costumes allow decorative talent to flourish Bryullov.

In the work of Bryullov, as a historical painter, one can see a remarkable collection of his portraits at different times. Perhaps the most famous among them is the famous “ Rider"(portrait of Giovanina and Amazilia Pacini - pupils of Countess Yu.P. Samoilova).

Creating his own version of a ceremonial painting - a portrait, he was inspired by the classics of this genre - ceremonial portraits with catchy expressiveness and solemnity of the Dutch master, who became a portrait painter at the English court XVII century, Van Dyck. The ceremonial portrait contains shades of everyday life. The portrait of the Bryullovs seemed to be filled with vital movement, motive and sounds: dogs bark, it seems that the echo of the trampling of children’s feet in the echoing corridors of the palazzo can still be heard. The horse is hot, but the rider herself sits motionless, as if on a pedestal, on his broad back. With great skill Bryullov writes the rider's fluttering emerald gauze scarf against the background of the dark greenery of the park (green on green). The portrait absorbed a jubilant feeling of delight at the festive richness and diversity of life.

In portraits of the 1840s, the characterization of a person becomes deeper and more individual, the shades of feelings and psychological states become more diverse. Ceremonial portrait- the picture fades into the background. Bryullov's current heroes are the noble intelligentsia after the defeat of the Decembrist uprising, a time when many preferred to go abroad or to their estates, but not to live in the capital, not to serve at the court of Nicholas I. Bryullov's heroes are outwardly passive, weak-willed, they are familiar with the feeling of internal devastation . The master’s portrait work of the 1840s is full of Lermontov’s moods: “fire in the blood” and “secret cold” of the soul, death in inaction of the intellectual and spiritual forces of Russia, melancholy of the “superfluous people” known from the history of Russian literature and school literature lessons.

Compared to his predecessors (Rokotov, Levitsky, Borovikovsky, Kiprensky), a new feature appears in Bryullov’s portraits - reflection. The origins of the description lie in the creative thinking of Karl Pavlovich psychological portrait second personality half of the 19th century century, portraits of Perov, Kramskoy, Ge, Repin. One of best works Bryullov of the mature age - “”, a friend of the artist, translator of Goethe into Russian.

It was he who was given M.I. Glinka's romance " Lark" Painfully - pale thin face, extinguished fire of the eyes, limp soft lips, nervous thin fingers - before us is an intelligent, sensitive, but deeply tired and devastated person.

Close to him in emotional mood and “ Self-portrait", written by Bryullov very quickly in a sketchy manner during a short respite during his illness. A pale face, exhausted by illness and thoughts, is framed by a halo of golden hair, the right hand is lowered down. A wounded lion that has lost its strength, but has not lost its greatness.

One of the last portraits of the artist is “”.

In the portrait he is seventy-two years old. The archaeologist and orientalist looks from the portrait vigilantly and collectedly, the life of his intellect makes him beautiful.

Bryullov spent the last years of his life on the island of Madeira and in Rome. He died in Rome and was buried there in the cemetery at Monte Testaccio. Exalted and deified during his lifetime, Bryullov was subjected to severe criticism after his death and was roughly toppled from his pedestal by the generation of the 1860s.

The art of the second half of the 19th century will turn away from Karl Bryullov, his canvases will be called V.V. Stasov empty, crackling, false. Bred by N.S. Leskov, under the name Phebufis, in the novel “Devil's Dolls”, Bryullov is depicted as a gifted man, but an empty flower, handsome, but cold. And to the writer and critic D.V. Grigorovich saw Bryullov as a caricatured figure - a small, fat man on short legs with a protruding belly. There will be a very heated debate around the name of Bryullov. And I.E.’s authority and courage will be needed. Repin to run out XIX century in his articles and letters, pay tribute to Bryullov’s talent and rehabilitate the art of the Great Charles.

The city in Bryullov's painting

The first letter is "p"

Second letter "o"

Third letter "m"

The last letter of the letter is "i"

Answer for the question "City in Bryullov's painting", 6 letters:
Pompeii

Alternative crossword questions for the word Pompeii

City in Italy

Victim of Vesuvius

The novel by Russian writer Evgenia Tur “The Last Days...”

Disaster film directed by Paul W. S. Anderson

City in Southern Italy

An ancient city, destroyed by a volcanic eruption

Definition of the word Pompeii in dictionaries

Wikipedia Meaning of the word in the Wikipedia dictionary
Pompeii is an ancient Roman family (nomen), probably originating from Picenum, a region in central Italy. Pompeii probably came from some Italian tribe that received in the 2nd century. BC e. Roman citizenship rights

encyclopedic Dictionary, 1998 The meaning of the word in the dictionary Encyclopedic Dictionary, 1998
POMPEI (Pompei) city in South. Italy. 23 thousand inhabitants (1981). Located at the foot of Mount Vesuvius. The population is mainly occupied with serving tourists. Geophysical Observatory. Near Pompeii, the ruins of the ancient city of Pompeii, buried during a volcanic eruption...

Big Soviet Encyclopedia The meaning of the word in the dictionary Great Soviet Encyclopedia
(Pompei; until 1928 ≈ Valle di Pompei), a city in Southern Italy, in the region of Campania, in the province of Naples. Located on the shores of the Gulf of Naples, at the foot of Mount Vesuvius, 22 km to the south-east. from Naples. 22.7 thousand inhabitants (1968). The city's population is busy...

Examples of the use of the word Pompeii in literature.

Finally, the final decision to sail to Egypt, which turned into a disaster, was made literally in last minute when out of respect for his wife's feelings Pompeii refused to seek refuge where only the defeated Roman leader could reliably hide - in the Parthian Empire.

Figurative painting Pompeii and Herculaneum is full of artistry and cheerfulness and is incomparably more natural and realistic than the painting of Egypt or Babylon.

Pompeii with his legions, Caesar from the west, and Pompeii from the east, entered into an open struggle for power in the Roman state.

Cyrus and Alexander, Darius and Xerxes, Caesar and Pompeii- they all made very interesting campaigns, but, by and large, they cannot be put on the same level with the campaigns that concerned a much larger part of humanity, which took place on the other side of Asia.

Because the Jews did not attempt to destroy the siege rampart on the Sabbath, Jerusalem was able to take Pompeii Great.

Karl Pavlovich Bryullov(1799 - 1852),

Artist.

Self-portrait

Karl Bryullov was born on December 12, 1799 in St. Petersburg. He grew up in an artistic family: his brothers, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather were artists.
He successfully graduated from the Academy of Arts, where his father taught. Thanks to his rare talent and considerable home preparation, from the first steps he stood out among his peers.

In 1821, the Society for the Encouragement of Artists was established in St. Petersburg, main goal which was by all possible means to help artists and promote the wide dissemination of all the fine arts. It was Karl Bryullov and his brother Alexander who were the first to go to Italy, to Rome, with the Society’s money.

Portrait of the architect A.P. Bryullov, brother of the artist

And on the eve of their trip abroad, their original surname “Bryullo” was given a Russian ending, and from now on both became “Bryullovs”. Young Russian artists became thoroughly acquainted with the history and art of Western Europe.

Portrait of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. 1837

There Karl painted the painting "Italian Morning", which made him an unusually popular artist.

Italian morning

His heroine, washing herself under the streams of a fountain, permeated sun rays, airy and light, is perceived as the personification of the morning itself, the morning of a rising new day, the morning of human life.

Italian noon

The Great Karl - this is how contemporaries of the remarkable Russian artist Karl Pavlovich Bryullov called him during his lifetime. Bryullov’s huge canvas, “The Last Day of Pompeii,” which he painted in Italy, brought him worldwide recognition. The name of Karl Bryullov was now placed next to the names of Rubens, Rembrandt, Van Dyck.

The last day of Pompeii

The plot of the painting “The Last Day of Pompeii” is the death of the ancient city of Pompeii as a result of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. Working to implement his plan, he carefully studied historical material, in particular the testimony of an eyewitness to the disaster - the Roman writer and statesman - Pliny the Younger, and went to the site archaeological excavations, where he made many sketches and sketches from life.
The tragic death of people during the eruption of Vesuvius, the poetics of feelings, the greatness of the human spirit in the face of the blind elements illustrated the artist’s dramatic perception of life.

In 1836, K.P. Bryullov returned to Russia and took the position of professor at the Academy of Arts.

In St. Petersburg, the artist created a gallery of portraits of his contemporaries.

Rider

Portrait of Yu.P. Samoilova with her adopted daughter Amalia 1842

It is a known fact that among Karl Bryullov’s students his painting "The last day of Pompeii" had a rather simple name - just “Painting”. This means that for all the students, this painting was just a painting with a capital P, a painting of paintings. An example can be given: how Bible is the book of all books, the word Bible seems to mean the word Book. At the core of its design and final aesthetic effect "The last day of Pompeii" is not just another experience in the style of metamorphosis, but also an embodied idea, a plan.

The principle of metamorphosis rests on magical power art, this is not only on a toy scale, but also on a grand scale. Gogol managed to express all feelings with complete certainty: “... it seemed to me that sculpture, which was comprehended in such plastic perfection by the ancients, that this sculpture finally passed into painting and, moreover, was imbued with some kind of secret music.”. The ideal of perfection that was shown to the viewer has undergone metamorphosis. He was resurrected and transformed in picturesque form. After all, that’s what painting is called in translation – to paint vividly. In sculpture, everything made of stone simply comes to life. But immediately all signs of life-likeness that painting can restore disappear in it. At the same time, it does not lose its perfection at all; it is imprinted in sculptures by antiquity.

It follows that the plot of the picture "The last day of Pompeii" interprets not a very tragic incident from life, but artistic plot. It tells how the ideal of perfection was buried, but it was preserved in stone in order to be able to overcome, to conquer time. He needed to be reborn in painting in order to comprehend the features of perfect beauty in sculptural images. She has accumulated her funds over a long time to revive and restore breath to such beauty. This was a debt that the art of painting had to return to classical art. It was necessary to learn to find the ideal of the absolutely beautiful. This was precisely the mood in the dialogue between antiquity and romanticism; it was a kind of aesthetic background against which the contours of Bryullov’s picture were outlined. The painting of Karl Bryullov had just such a metaphysical super-plot about the inscrutability of the paths of continuity and artistic experience.

It is worth recalling that Baratynsky composed the now famous lines "And this was the last day of Pompeii". Gogol announces at the very beginning of his article about the gloomy spectacle of the end and death of the bright Sunday in painting. In the words of both masters, the final plot and the title of the painting are played out in the same vein. This is precisely the key to the picture and to the success that the picture received from its contemporaries. The antithesis is played out: the Last Day, which means death and the end, death - and the first - that is, signifying and solemn. But both pictures show the catastrophic decline of life in one matter - the matter of history, and at one point it is put in a mystical connection with the miraculous presence of living energy.

Here the artist has drawn an image of life-giving death. Ancient world He died in the picture, but it’s as if he was saved by living beauty. Karl Bryullov managed to both resurrect and immortalize. This is exactly what he talks about Gogol: “his figures are beautiful despite the horror of their situation. They drown him out with their beauty... Bryullov’s man appears in order to show all his beauty, all the supreme grace of his nature. Passions, true, fiery feelings are expressed in such a beautiful appearance, in such wonderful person that you enjoy to the point of rapture..."

A series of eruptions occurred in the first century AD Mount Vesuvius which were accompanied by an earthquake. They destroyed several thriving cities that were located near the foot of the mountain. Cities Pompeii disappeared in just two days - in August 1979 it was completely buried volcanic ash. He found himself buried under a seven-meter thick layer of ash. It seemed that the city had disappeared from the face of the earth. Discovery of Pompeii happened in 1748 year. Since then, month after month, continuous excavations have uncovered the city. Pompeii left an indelible mark on the soul of Karl Bryullov already during his first visit to the city in 1827.

Bryullov’s brother studies Pompeian architecture and is working on projects for the restoration of Pompeian baths. It may seem that the theme of the future painting arose naturally, as if it was a tribute to the impression. But in European art the subject of the city of Pompeii is a nomadic subject. Romanticism as an art was created by a generation of people during the Napoleonic wars. It was before their eyes that the spectacles of the mysterious game appeared. The romantics began to invent and interpret historical subjects differently.

Tragic scenes were often depicted in various manifestations of classical art. For example, the destruction of Sodom or the Egyptian plagues. But in such biblical stories it was implied that the execution came from above; here one could see a manifestation of God’s providence. As if biblical story I would not know senseless fate, but only the wrath of God. In the paintings of Karl Bryullov, people were at the mercy of the blind natural elements, fate. There can be no discussion of guilt and punishment here. You won't be able to find the main character in the picture. It's simply not there. What appears before us is only a crowd, a people who were gripped by fear.

Unlike many paintings of the era of classicism, where mainly one turn of the characters’ faces predominated - towards the auditorium, here the new technology, new option. The direction of movement is carried out only with the direction of movement in depth. Individual figures in the painting are depicted from the back, some are in strong diagonal movement. This technique of placing groups endowed what was happening with an existence independent of the viewer; here everything exists only for the viewer. Everything tragic and terrible that happens happens only for the audience. It is an incident such as a real fire on a stage artificially adapted for artificial passions that makes the audience feel everything they see, everything concerns them directly, it is as if they are a participant in the event, and not a spectator.

Bryullov had the idea of ​​using a compositional maneuver in his sketches; he was going to change the visual setting by analogy with similar situations. The viewer needed to be imbued with the feeling that everything was happening directly. In a sketch that is stored in Tretyakov Gallery, you can see a whole tangle of lines that spin in different ways. The picture in the upper right corner depicts a volcanic eruption - a tongue of fire bursts out of the crater, and tongues of lava descend down the slopes of the mountain. The red sky in the picture is also surrounded by flames.

In the sketch you can also see modified quotes from the Vatican fresco "Fire in Borgo". Here you can also see groups of people raising their hands to the sky. They ask the high priest for mercy. The painting has the shape of a rectangular tomb, which limits the depth of the painting and creates a feeling of closeness. There is a mixture of the classical canon and the new. It was the author’s romantic passions that ensured such great success of the film in Italy. The film was also a success in St. Petersburg. It was here that the picture was eagerly awaited.

The painting was created to order. I ordered it Anatoly Demidov, he was one of the richest heirs of the Ural mining owners. In Italy he bought himself the special title of Prince San Donato, collector and philanthropist. In 1834, Demidov came to St. Petersburg and presented this painting as a gift to Nicholas the First. Anatoly decided to show the painting first in France, so the painting went to Paris. But in March of the same year, she showed in Barcelona. The exhibition jury determined the main prize for this particular painting.

But Karl Bryullov remained dissatisfied with the reaction of French criticism, especially after the Italian enthusiasm. It was French artistic criticism that reflected the general balance of power in art, but it was a struggle of parties. Bryullov reached a compromise - he combined romanticism and classicism. But against the backdrop of the ongoing struggle between classicism and romanticism, the picture did not satisfy the tastes of both groups. At the exhibition, the painting was located between the paintings - "St. Symphorion" Ingres and "Algerian women" Delacroix.