Who is the author of the painting The Last Day of Pompeii. Description of the painting by Karl Bryullov “The Last Day of Pompeii. Where did Bryullov get the plot from?

Karl Bryullov. Last day of Pompeii. 1833 State Russian Museum

The phrase “The Last Day of Pompeii” is known to everyone. Because the death of this ancient city was once depicted by Karl Bryullov (1799-1852)

So much so that the artist experienced an incredible triumph. First in Europe. After all, he painted the picture in Rome. Italians crowded outside his hotel to have the honor of welcoming the genius. Walter Scott sat there for several hours, amazed to the core.

It’s hard to imagine what was going on in Russia. After all, Bryullov created something that immediately raised the prestige of Russian painting to unprecedented heights!

People came in droves to look at the painting day and night. Bryullov was awarded a personal audience with Nicholas I. The nickname “Charlemagne” firmly stuck to him.

Only Alexandre Benois, a famous art historian of the 19th and 20th centuries, dared to criticize Pompeii. Moreover, he criticized very viciously: “Effectiveness...Painting tailored to all tastes...Theatrical loudness...Crackling effects...”

So what struck the majority so much and irritated Benoit so much? Let's try to figure it out.

Where did Bryullov get the plot from?

In 1828, young Bryullov lived and worked in Rome. Shortly before this, archaeologists began excavations three dead under the ashes of Vesuvius cities. Yes, yes, there were three of them. Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabiae.

For Europe this was an incredible discovery. After all, before this, they knew about the life of the ancient Romans from fragmentary written evidence. And here are 3 cities, mothballed for 18 centuries! With all the houses, frescoes, temples and public toilets.

Of course, Bryullov could not ignore such an event. And he went to the excavation site. By that time, Pompeii was best cleared. The artist was so amazed by what he saw that he began work almost immediately.

He worked very conscientiously. 5 years. Most of his time was spent collecting materials and sketches. The work itself took 9 months.

Bryullov the documentarian

Despite all the “theatricality” that Benois talks about, there is a lot of truth in Bryullov’s film.

The location of the action was not invented by the master. There is actually such a street at the Herculanean Gate in Pompeii. And the ruins of the temple with the stairs still stand there.

The artist also personally studied the remains of the dead. And he found some of the heroes in Pompeii. For example, a dead woman hugging her two daughters.

Karl Bryullov. Last day of Pompeii. Fragment (mother with daughters). 1833 State Russian Museum

Wheels from a cart and scattered jewelry were found on one of the streets. So Bryullov came up with the idea of ​​depicting the death of a noble Pompeian woman.

She tried to escape on a chariot, but an earthquake knocked out a cobblestone from the pavement, and the wheel ran over it. Bryullov depicts the most tragic moment. The woman fell out of the chariot and died. And her baby, having survived the fall, cries next to his mother’s body.

Karl Bryullov. Last day of Pompeii. Fragment (dead noble woman). 1833 State Russian Museum

Among the discovered skeletons, Bryullov also saw a pagan priest who tried to take his wealth with him.

On the canvas he showed him tightly clutching attributes for pagan rituals. They consist of precious metals, so the priest took them with him. He does not look in a very favorable light compared to a Christian clergyman.

We can identify him by the cross on his chest. He bravely looks at the enraged Vesuvius. If you look at them together, it is clear that Bryullov specifically contrasts Christianity with paganism not in favor of the latter.

“Correctly” the buildings in the picture are also collapsing. Volcanologists claim that Bryullov depicted an earthquake of 8 points. And very reliably. This is exactly how buildings fall apart during earthquakes of such force.

Bryullov also thought out the lighting very well. The lava of Vesuvius illuminates the background so brightly and saturates the buildings with such red color that they seem to be on fire.

In this case, the foreground is illuminated with white light from a lightning flash. This contrast makes the space especially deep. And believable at the same time.

Karl Bryullov. Last day of Pompeii. Fragment (Lighting, contrast of red and white light). 1833 State Russian Museum

Bryullov - theater director

But in the depiction of people, verisimilitude ends. Here Bryullov, of course, is far from realism.

What would we see if Bryullov was more realistic? There would be chaos and pandemonium.

We wouldn't have the opportunity to look at every character. We would see them in fits and starts: legs, arms, some lying on top of others. They would already be pretty dirty with soot and dirt. And the faces would be distorted with horror.

What do we see from Bryullov? Groups of heroes are arranged so that we see each of them. Even in the face of death they are divinely beautiful.

Someone is effectively holding back a rearing horse. Someone gracefully covers their head with dishes. Someone beautifully holds a loved one.

Yes, they are beautiful, like Gods. Even when their eyes are full of tears from the realization of imminent death.

But Bryullov does not idealize everything to such an extent. We see one character trying to catch falling coins. Remaining petty even at such a moment.

Karl Bryullov. Last day of Pompeii. Fragment (Picking up coins). 1833 State Russian Museum

Yes, this is a theatrical performance. This is a disaster, as aesthetically pleasing as possible. Benoit was right about this. But it is only thanks to this theatricality that we do not turn away in horror.

The artist gives us the opportunity to sympathize with these people, but not to strongly believe that in a second they will die.

This is more of a beautiful legend than a harsh reality. It's breathtakingly beautiful. No matter how blasphemous it may sound.

Personal in “The Last Day of Pompeii”

In the film you can also see Bryullov’s personal experiences. You can notice that all the main heroines of the canvas have the same face.

IN different ages, with different expressions, but this is the same woman - Countess Yulia Samoilova, the love of the painter Bryullov’s life.

Karl Bryullov. Countess Samoilova, leaving the ball of the Persian envoy (with her adopted daughter Amatsilia). 1842 State Russian Museum

They met in Italy. We even explored the ruins of Pompeii together. And then their romance dragged on, intermittently, for 16 long years. Their relationship was free: that is, both he and she allowed themselves to be carried away by others.

Bryullov even managed to get married during this time. True, I quickly got divorced, literally after 2 months. Only after the wedding did he learn the terrible secret of his new wife. Her lover was her own father, who wished to remain in this status in the future.

After such a shock, only Samoilova consoled the artist.

They separated forever in 1845, when Samoilova decided to marry a very handsome opera singer. Her family happiness also didn't last long. Literally a year later, her husband died of consumption.

Samoilova married for the third time only with the goal of regaining the title of Countess, which she lost due to her marriage to the singer. All her life she paid a large allowance to her husband, without living with him. Therefore, she died in almost complete poverty.

Of the real people on the canvas, you can also see Bryullov himself. Also in the role of an artist who covers his head with a box of brushes and paints.

Karl Bryullov. Last day of Pompeii. Fragment (self-portrait of the artist). 1833 State Russian Museum

Let's summarize. Why “The Last Day of Pompeii” is a masterpiece

“The Last Day of Pompeii” is monumental in every way. A huge canvas – 3 by 6 meters. Dozens of characters. There are many details by which you can study ancient Roman culture.

“The Last Day of Pompeii” is a story of disaster, beautifully and effectively told. The characters played their roles selflessly. The special effects are top notch. The lighting is phenomenal. This is a theater, but a very professional theater.

No one else in Russian painting could paint a disaster like that. In Western painting, “Pompeii” can only be compared with “The Raft of the Medusa” by Gericault.

1833 Oil on canvas. 456.5 x 651cm
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Bryullov's painting can be called complete, universal
creation. Everything was contained in it.
Nikolai Gogol.

On the night of August 24-25, 79 AD. e. eruption of Vesuvius The cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabia were destroyed. In 1833 Karl Bryullov wrote his famous painting "The Last Day of Pompeii".

It is difficult to name a picture that would have enjoyed the same success among contemporaries as “The Last Day of Pompeii.” As soon as the canvas was completed, the Roman workshop of Karl Bryullov came under a real siege. "INAll Rome flocked to see my picture.”, - wrote the artist. Exhibited in 1833 in Milan"Pompeii" literally shocked the audience. Newspapers and magazines were full of laudatory reviews,Bryullov was called the living Titian, the second Michelangelo, the new Raphael...

Dinners and receptions were held in honor of the Russian artist, and poems were dedicated to him. As soon as Bryullov appeared in the theater, the hall exploded with applause. The painter was recognized on the streets, showered with flowers, and sometimes the celebration ended with fans carrying him in their arms with songs.

In 1834 the painting, optionalcustomer, industrialist A.N. Demidova, was exhibited at the Paris Salon. The reaction of the public here was not as hot as in Italy (they are jealous! - the Russians explained), but “Pompeii” was awarded the gold medal of the French Academy of Fine Arts.

The enthusiasm and patriotic enthusiasm with which the painting was greeted in St. Petersburg is difficult to imagine: thanks to Bryullov, Russian painting ceased to be a diligent student of the great Italians and created a work that delighted Europe!The painting was donated Demidov Nicholas I , who briefly placed it in the Imperial Hermitage and then donated it Academy arts

According to the memoirs of a contemporary, “crowds of visitors, one might say, burst into the halls of the Academy to look at Pompeii.” They talked about the masterpiece in salons, shared opinions in private correspondence, and made notes in diaries. The honorary nickname “Charlemagne” was established for Bryullov.

Impressed by the painting, Pushkin wrote a six-line poem:
“Vesuvius opened - 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,
In crowds, old and young, fleeing from the city.”

Gogol dedicated a remarkably profound article to “The Last Day of Pompeii,” and the poet Evgeny Baratynsky expressed universal rejoicing in a well-known impromptu:

« You brought peace trophies
With you to your father's canopy,
And it became “The Last Day of Pompeii”
First day for the Russian brush!”

The immoderate enthusiasm has long subsided, but even today Bryullov’s painting makes a strong impression, going beyond the feelings that painting, even very good one, usually evokes in us. What's the matter?

"Tomb Street" In the depths is the Herculanean Gate.
Photograph of the second half of the 19th century.

Since excavations began in Pompeii in the mid-18th century, there has been interest in this city, which was destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. e., did not fade away. Europeans flocked to Pompeii to wander through the ruins, freed from a layer of petrified volcanic ash, to admire the frescoes, sculptures, mosaics, and marvel at the unexpected finds of archaeologists. Excavations attracted artists and architects; etchings with views of Pompeii were in great fashion.

Bryullov , who first visited the excavations in 1827, very accurately conveyeda feeling of empathy for the events of two thousand years ago, which covers everyone who comes to Pompeii:“The sight of these ruins involuntarily made me transported to a time when these walls were still inhabited /.../. 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.”

The artist sought in his painting to express this “new feeling”, to create a new image of antiquity - not an abstract museum image, but a holistic and full-blooded one. He got used to the era with the meticulousness and care of an archaeologist: out of more than five years, it took only 11 months to create the 30-square-meter canvas itself, the rest of the time was taken up by preparatory work.

“I took this entire set from life, without retreating or adding at all, standing with my back to the city gates in order to see part of Vesuvius as the main reason,” Bryullov shared in one of his letters.Pompeii had eight gates, butfurther the artist mentioned “the staircase leading to Sepolcri Sc au ro " - the monumental tomb of the eminent citizen Scaurus, and this gives us the opportunity to accurately establish the place of action chosen by Bryullov. We are talking about the Herculanean Gate of Pompeii ( Porto di Ercolano ), behind which, already outside the city, began the “Street of Tombs” ( Via dei Sepolcri) - a cemetery with magnificent tombs and temples. This part of Pompeii was in the 1820s. was already well cleared, which allowed the painter to reconstruct the architecture on canvas with maximum accuracy.

Tomb of Scaurus. Reconstruction of the 19th century.

In recreating the picture of the eruption, Bryullov followed the famous letters of Pliny the Younger to Tacitus. Young Pliny survived the eruption in the seaport of Miseno, north of Pompeii, and described in detail what he saw: houses that seemed to move from their places, flames spreading widely across the cone of the volcano, hot pieces of pumice falling from the sky, heavy rain of ash, black impenetrable darkness , fiery zigzags, like giant lightning... And Bryullov transferred all this to the canvas.

Seismologists are amazed at how convincingly he depicted an earthquake: looking at collapsing houses, one can determine the direction and strength of the earthquake (8 points). Volcanologists note that the eruption of Vesuvius was written with all possible accuracy for that time. Historians claim that Bryullov’s painting can be used to study ancient Roman culture.

In order to reliably capture the world of ancient Pompeii destroyed by the catastrophe, Bryullov took objects and remains of bodies found during excavations as samples, and made countless sketches in the Archaeological Museum of Naples. The method of restoring the dying poses of the dead by pouring lime into the voids formed by the bodies was invented only in 1870, but even during the creation of the picture, skeletons discovered in petrified ashes testified to the last convulsions and gestures of the victims. A mother hugging her two daughters; a young woman who fell to her death when she fell from a chariot that hit a cobblestone that had been torn out of the pavement by an earthquake; people on the steps of the tomb of Scaurus, protecting their heads from rockfall with stools and dishes - all this is not a figment of the painter’s imagination, but an artistically recreated reality.

On the canvas we see characters endowed with portrait features of the author himself and his beloved, Countess Yulia Samoilova. Bryullov portrayed himself as an artist carrying a box of brushes and paints on his head. The beautiful features of Julia are recognized four times in the picture: a girl with a vessel on her head, a mother hugging her daughters, a woman clutching her baby to her chest, a noble Pompeian woman who fell from a broken chariot. The self-portrait and portraits of his friend are the best proof that in his penetration into the past Bryullov really became close to the event, creating for the viewer a “presence effect”, making him, as it were, a participant in what was happening.

Fragment of the picture:
self-portrait of Bryullovand a portrait of Yulia Samoilova.
Fragment of the picture:
compositional “triangle” - a mother hugging her daughters.

Bryullov’s painting pleased everyone - both strict academicians, adherents of the aesthetics of classicism, and those who valued novelty in art and for whom “Pompeii” became, in Gogol’s words, “a bright resurrection of painting.”This novelty was brought to Europe by the fresh wind of romanticism. The merit of Bryullov’s painting is usually seen in the fact that the brilliant graduate of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts was open to new trends. At the same time, the classicist layer of the painting is often interpreted as a relic, an inevitable tribute from the artist to the routine past. But it seems that another turn of the topic is possible: the fusion of two “isms” turned out to be fruitful for the film.

The unequal, fatal struggle of man with the elements - such is the romantic pathos of the picture. It is built on sharp contrasts of darkness and the disastrous light of the eruption, the inhuman power of soulless nature and the high intensity of human feelings.

But there is also something else in the picture that opposes the chaos of the catastrophe: an unshakable core in a world shaking to its very foundations. This core is the classical balance of the most complex composition, which saves the picture from the tragic feeling of hopelessness. The composition, built according to the “recipes” of academicians - the “triangles” ridiculed by subsequent generations of painters, into which groups of people fit, balanced masses on the right and left - is read in the living, tense context of the picture in a completely different way than in the dry and deathly academic canvases.

Fragment of the picture: a young family.
In the foreground is a pavement damaged by an earthquake.
Fragment of the picture: the dead Pompeian woman.

“The world is still harmonious in its fundamentals” - this feeling arises in the viewer subconsciously, partly contrary to what he sees on the canvas. The artist's encouraging message is read not at the level of the painting's plot, but at the level of its plastic solution.The wild romantic element is tamed by a classically perfect form, And in this unity of opposites lies another secret of the attractiveness of Bryullov’s canvas.

The film tells many exciting and touching stories. Here is a young man in despair peering into the face of a girl in a wedding crown, who has lost consciousness or died. Here is a young man convincing an old woman sitting exhausted of something. This couple is called “Pliny with his mother” (although, as we remember, Pliny the Younger was not in Pompeii, but in Miseno): in a letter to Tacitus, Pliny conveys his dispute with his mother, who urged her son to leave her and run away without delay, but he did not agree to leave the weak woman. A warrior in a helmet and a boy are carrying a sick old man; a baby, who miraculously survived a fall from a chariot, hugs his dead mother; the young man raised his hand, as if deflecting the blow of the elements from his family, the baby in the arms of his wife, with childish curiosity, reaches out to the dead bird. People are trying to take with them what is most precious: a pagan priest - a tripod, a Christian - a censer, an artist - brushes. The deceased woman was carrying jewelry, which, no one needs, is now lying on the pavement.

Fragment of the painting: Pliny with his mother.
Fragment of the picture: earthquake - “idols fall.”

Such a powerful plot load on a painting can be dangerous for painting, making the canvas a “story in pictures,” but in Bryullov’s literary style and abundance of details do not destroy the artistic integrity of the painting. Why? We find the answer in the same article by Gogol, who compares Bryullov’s painting “in its vastness and combination of everything beautiful in itself with opera, if only opera is truly a combination of the triple world of arts: painting, poetry, music” (by poetry Gogol obviously meant literature at all).

This feature of Pompeii can be described in one word - syntheticity: the picture organically combines a dramatic plot, vivid entertainment and thematic polyphony, similar to music. (By the way, the theatrical basis of the picture had a real prototype - Giovanni Paccini’s opera “The Last Day of Pompeii”, which during the years of the artist’s work on the canvas was staged at the Neapolitan San Carlo Theater. Bryullov was well acquainted with the composer, listened to the opera several times and borrowed costumes for his sitters.)

William Turner. Eruption of Vesuvius. 1817

So, the picture resembles the final scene of a monumental opera performance: the most expressive scenery is reserved for the finale, all storylines are connected, and musical themes are woven into a complex polyphonic whole. This picture-performance is similar to ancient tragedies, in which contemplation of the nobility and courage of the heroes in the face of inexorable fate leads the viewer to catharsis - spiritual and moral enlightenment. The feeling of empathy that overcomes us in front of the picture is akin to what we experience in the theater, when what is happening on the stage moves us to tears, and these tears bring joy to the heart.

Gavin Hamilton. Neapolitans watch the eruption of Vesuvius.
Second floor. 18th century

Bryullov’s painting is breathtakingly beautiful: huge size - four and a half by six and a half meters, stunning “special effects”, divinely built people, like ancient statues come to life. “His figures are beautiful despite the horror of their situation. They drown it out with their beauty,” wrote Gogol, sensitively capturing another feature of the picture - the aestheticization of the disaster. The tragedy of the death of Pompeii and, more broadly, of the entire ancient civilization is presented to us as an incredibly beautiful sight. What are these contrasts worth: the black cloud pressing on the city, the shining flame on the slopes of the volcano and the mercilessly bright flashes of lightning, these statues captured at the very moment of the fall and the buildings collapsing like cardboard...

The perception of the eruptions of Vesuvius as grandiose performances staged by nature itself appeared already in the 18th century - even special machines were created to imitate the eruption. This “volcano fashion” was introduced by the British envoy to the Kingdom of Naples, Lord William Hamilton (husband of the legendary Emma, ​​friend of Admiral Nelson). A passionate volcanologist, he was literally in love with Vesuvius and even built a villa on the slope of the volcano to comfortably admire the eruptions. Observations of the volcano when it was active (several eruptions occurred in the 18th and 19th centuries), verbal descriptions and sketches of its changing beauties, ascents to the crater - these were the entertainments of the Neapolitan elite and visitors.

It is human nature to watch with bated breath the disastrous and beautiful games of nature, even if this means balancing at the mouth of an active volcano. This is the same “ecstasy in battle and the dark abyss on the edge” that Pushkin wrote about in “Little Tragedies”, and which Bryullov conveyed in his canvas, which has been making us admire and be horrified for almost two centuries.

Modern Pompeii

Marina Agranovskaya

Russian artist Karl Bryullov was undoubtedly quite respected for his skill long before the creation of this masterpiece. Nevertheless, it was “The Last Day of Pompeii” that brought Bryullov, without exaggeration, worldwide fame. Why did the disaster picture have such an impact on the public, and what secrets does it hide from viewers to this day?

Why Pompeii?

At the end of August 79 AD, as a result of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, the cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, Stabiae and many small villages became the graves of several thousand local residents. Real archaeological excavations of areas that had sunk into oblivion began only in 1748, that is, 51 years before the birth of Karl Bryullov himself. It is clear that archaeologists worked not just for one day, but for several decades. Thanks to this circumstance, the artist was able to personally visit the excavations and wander through the ancient Roman streets already freed from solidified lava. Moreover, at that moment Pompeii turned out to be the most cleared.

Countess Yulia Samoilova, for whom Karl Pavlovich had warm feelings, also walked there with Bryullov. Later she will play a huge role in the creation of her lover’s masterpiece, and more than one. Bryullov and Samoilova had the opportunity to see the buildings ancient city, restored household items, remains of dead people. All this left a deep and vivid imprint on the artist’s delicate nature. This was in 1827.

Disappearance of characters

Impressed, Bryullov almost immediately set to work, and very seriously and thoroughly. He visited the vicinity of Vesuvius more than once, making sketches for the future canvas. In addition, the artist familiarized himself with manuscripts that have survived to this day, including letters from an eyewitness to the disaster, the ancient Roman politician and writer Pliny the Younger, whose uncle Pliny the Elder died in the eruption. Of course, such work required a lot of time. Therefore, preparation for writing the masterpiece took Bryullov more than 5 years. He created the canvas itself, with an area of ​​more than 30 square meters, in less than a year. The artist was sometimes unable to walk from exhaustion; he was literally carried out of the studio. But even with such careful preparation and hard work on the masterpiece, Bryullov kept changing the original plan to one degree or another. For example, he did not use a sketch of a thief taking jewelry from a fallen woman.

Same faces

One of the main mysteries that can be found in the canvas is the presence of several identical female faces in the picture. This is a girl with a jug on her head, a woman lying on the ground with a child, as well as a mother hugging her daughters, and a person with her husband and children. Why did Bryullov draw them so similar? The fact is that the same lady served as the model for all these characters - the same Countess Samoilova. Despite the fact that the artist drew other people in the picture from ordinary residents of Italy, apparently Samoilov Bryullov, overcome by certain feelings, simply liked to paint.

In addition, in the crowd depicted on the canvas, you can find the painter himself. He portrayed himself as what he was, an artist with a box filled with drawing supplies on his head. This method, as a kind of autograph, was used by many Italian masters. And Bryullov spent many years in Italy and it was there that he studied the art of painting.

Christian and pagan

Among the characters in the masterpiece there is also an adherent of the Christian faith, who is easily recognized by the cross on his chest. A mother and two daughters are huddling close to him, as if seeking protection from the old man. However, Bryullov also painted a pagan priest who quickly runs away, not paying any attention to the frightened townspeople. Undoubtedly, Christianity was persecuted at that time and it is not known for certain whether any of the adherents of this faith could have been in Pompeii at that time. But Bryullov, trying to adhere to the documentary accuracy of events, introduced into his work and hidden meaning. Through the above-mentioned clergy, he showed not only the cataclysm itself, but the disappearance of the old and the birth of the new.

It can undoubtedly be argued that the most famous, most popular Russian artist of the first half of the 19th century was Karl Pavlovich Bryullov. Admired by his creations, his contemporaries called the artist “the great, divine Charles.” His The painting “The Last Day of Pompeii” evoked enthusiastic responses, it was officially recognized as one of the best works of the century.
The story of the tragic disaster that befell the ancient city completely captured all the thoughts of the painter, and he began to paint the picture. A lot of work preceded work on it - repeated visits to the ruins of Pompeii, where the artist spent hours to capture in his memory every pebble of the pavement, every curl of the cornice.
Bryullov reread the descriptions of historians, especially the Roman writer Pliny the Younger, a contemporary and eyewitness of the death of Pompeii. In museums, the artist studied costumes, jewelry and household items of that distant era. But the main thing in the work was the idea that captured the mind and heart of the artist. It was the thought of the death of everything beautiful, and, above all, man, under the onslaught of unbridled, cruel elements.
While working on the painting, the artist clearly imagined how life was in full swing in the city: people made noise and applauded in the theaters, people loved, rejoiced, worked, sang songs, children played in the courtyards...
So it was on that August evening when the inhabitants of Pompeii went to rest, not knowing what terrible fate would befall them in a few hours.
In the middle of the night, a terrible roar was suddenly heard - the revived Vesuvius opened its fire-breathing bowels.... Somehow dressed, overwhelmed with indescribable horror, the Pompeians run out of their houses. And in the sky, scourges of lightning slash the clouds, stones and ashes from the crater of the volcano fall onto the city from above, the earth beneath your feet shakes and trembles...
Unhappy residents flee the city, hoping for salvation outside the city gates. People have already passed the estate of Borgo Augusto Felice. But suddenly an even more deafening roar is heard, lightning splits the sky, and people look in horror at the terrible heavens, from where they expect nothing but death... Flashes of lightning snatch marble statues from the darkness. They are leaning over, about to collapse...
In wild anger, the unbridled elements fell upon Pompeii and its inhabitants. And in the hour of terrible testing, everyone shows their own character. Bryullov sees as if in reality:
two sons carry their old father on their shoulders;
the young man, saving his old mother, begs him to continue the journey;
the husband seeks to protect his beloved wife and son from death;
a mother hugs her daughters for the last time before her death.

The death of Pompeii in Bryullov’s view is the death of the entire ancient world, the symbol of which becomes the most central figure of the canvas - a beautiful woman who fell to her death by falling from a chariot.
Bryullov is shocked by the inner beauty and dedication of these people, who do not lose human dignity in the face of an inevitable catastrophe. In these terrible moments, they do not think about themselves, but strive to help their loved ones, to protect them from danger.
The artist sees himself among the inhabitants of Pompeii with a box of paints and brushes on his head. He is here next to them to help, to support their spirit.
But even before his death, the artist’s keen observation does not leave him - he clearly sees human figures perfect in their plastic beauty in the flashes of lightning. They are beautiful not only because of the extraordinary lighting, but also because they themselves seem to radiate the light of spiritual nobility and greatness.
Almost six years have passed since that memorable day when, on the streets of lifeless Pompeii, Bryullov had the idea to paint a picture about the death of this ancient city. IN last year the artist worked so furiously that he was more than once carried out of the workshop in a state of complete exhaustion.
The autumn of 1833 arrived. Karl Bryullov opened the doors of his workshop to visitors. It contained a huge canvas “The Last Day of Pompeii”, the size of which reached thirty square meters! Work on such a huge canvas took him three years (1830-1833). The exhibition of Bryullov's painting became the most important event in Rome. Crowds of spectators besieged the exhibition. Everyone admired the picture - the Italians, the numerous foreigners who constantly flood Rome, the noble public and the common people. Even artists, usually so jealous of other people's success, called Bryullov “the second Raphael.” After

Due to the haste that befell his work in Rome, Bryullov decided to exhibit it in Milan. He closed the doors of his studio and began to prepare the painting for the journey.

In those days, the famous writer Walter Scott arrived in Rome. He was old and sick. In Rome, he wanted to see, first of all, a painting by a Russian artist, about whom the newspapers wrote and who was so praised by the English artists who were in Rome. English painters came to Bryullov and asked him to open a workshop for V. Scot. The next day, the sick writer was brought to the artist’s studio and sat in a chair in front of the painting. Walter Scott sat in front of the painting for more than an hour and could not tear himself away from it. He repeated with delight:

This is not a painting, this is a whole poem!

Bryullov was recognized on the street, they greeted him, and once, when the artist visited the theater, the audience recognized the painter and gave him a standing ovation. A few minutes later, the singer read from the stage poems written in honor of the Russian genius.

Rumors about Bryullov's fame soon reached St. Petersburg. Domestic newspapers began to broadcast the contents of foreign articles about his film. The Society for the Encouragement of Artists collected articles about “The Last Day of Pompeii,” which slowly walked across Europe and, after visiting Paris, finally reached its homeland.

Demidov, who became the owner of the painting, presented it to Nicholas I. It was August 1834. The entrance to the Academy of Arts is crowded. There were a lot of crews gathered there. There was no limit to the rejoicing of compatriots. High connoisseurs of art were amazed by the brilliant work of Karl Bryullov.
A. S. Pushkin, returning home from the Academy of Arts, poured out his impressions in verse:
Vesuvius opened its mouth - smoke poured out like a cube - 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 of young and old are running out of the city.
Right there, next to the poems, Pushkin drew the central figures of the picture from memory.
And N.V. Gogol was inspired and wrote an article about “The Last Day of Pompeii.” There were these lines: “Bryullov is the first of the painters whose plastic art has reached the highest perfection... In Bryullov a person appears in order to show all his beauty. He doesn’t have a single figure that doesn’t breathe beauty, no matter where the person is beautiful...”
Belinsky called him a “brilliant artist” and “the first painter of Europe.”.
Triumph! You can’t find another word to appreciate the flow of delight, love and gratitude that fell on the happy artist. This was the full measure of popular recognition for a creative feat. Moscow made a huge impression on Bryullov. He wandered around the city all day. Muscovites received him cordially and hospitably. In 1836, a celebration was held in his honor at the Academy of Arts. Nicholas I himself honored him with an audience.
“The Last Day of Pompeii” became and remains to this day Bryullov’s most famous work, and quite deservedly so. Here he managed to support the tradition of declining and boring academicism - without changing it in essence, but only skillfully and effectively, correcting it with the techniques of painting of romanticism. The Russian painter was able to express in a painting based on a plot from ancient Roman history the thoughts and ideas that worried his compatriots, his contemporaries, and the best of them. As Gogol said, “a poet can even be national when he describes a completely foreign world, but looks at it through the eyes of his national element, through the eyes of the entire people...”.

The last day of Pompeii was the first in Karl Bryullov’s career. It cannot be said that no one knew the artist before painting the canvas. On the contrary, his name was well known, he was considered talented and promising. But behind his back they said that it was high time for Karl to write something serious, monumental, for the ages. This is how the picture turned out.

How Bryullov forced Europe to applaud the Russian artistic genius.

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 by 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 an overly stormy 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.

Karl Bryullov spent half of his conscious creative life in Europe. He went abroad for the first time after graduating from the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg to improve his 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 human masses 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.

K. Bryullov. Last day of Pompeii. 1830-1833

We have long been familiar with Karl Bryullov’s painting THE LAST DAY OF POMPEII, but we haven’t looked at it in detail. I wanted to know its history and look at the painting in detail.

BACKGROUND OF THE PICTURE.

In 1827, the young Russian artist Karl Bryullov arrived in Pompeii. He did not know that this trip would lead him to the pinnacle of creativity. The sight of Pompeii stunned him. He walked through all the nooks and crannies of the city, touched the walls, rough from boiling lava, and, perhaps, the idea arose of painting a picture about the last day of Pompeii.

It will take six long years from the conception of the painting to its completion. Bryullov begins by studying historical sources. He reads letters from Pliny the Younger, a witness to the events, to the Roman historian Tacitus.

In search of authenticity, the artist also turns to materials from archaeological excavations; he will depict some figures in the poses in which the skeletons of the victims of Vesuvius were found in hardened lava.

Almost all the items were painted by Bryullov from original items stored in the Neapolitan museum. The surviving drawings, studies and sketches show how persistently the artist searched for the most expressive composition. And even when the sketch of the future canvas was ready, Bryullov rearranged the scene about a dozen times, changing gestures, movements, and poses.

In 1830, the artist began working on a large canvas. He painted at such a limit of spiritual tension that it happened that he was literally carried out of the studio in their arms. Finally, by mid-1833 the canvas was ready.

Eruption of Vesuvius.

Let's take a short digression to get acquainted with the historical details of the event that we will see in the picture.
The eruption of Vesuvius began on the afternoon of August 24, 79 and lasted about a day, as evidenced by some surviving manuscripts of Pliny the Younger's Letters. It led to the destruction of three cities - Pompeii, Herculaneum, Stabiae and several small villages and villas.

Vesuvius wakes up and rains down all sorts of products of volcanic activity onto the surrounding space. Tremors, flakes of ash, stones falling from the sky - all this took the inhabitants of Pompeii by surprise.

People tried to take refuge in houses, but died from suffocation or under the rubble. Death overtook some in public places - in theaters, markets, forums, churches, some - on the streets of the city, some - already outside the city limits. However, the vast majority of residents still managed to leave the city.

During the excavations, it became clear that everything in the cities was preserved as it was before the eruption. Under many meters of ash, streets, fully furnished houses, and the remains of people and animals that did not have time to escape were found. The force of the eruption was such that the ash from it even reached Egypt and Syria.

Of the 20,000 inhabitants of Pompeii, about 2,000 people died in the buildings and on the streets. Most of the residents left the city before the disaster, but the remains of the victims are also found outside the city. Therefore, the exact number of deaths is impossible to estimate.

Among those killed by the eruption was Pliny the Elder, who, out of scientific interest and out of a desire to help people suffering from the eruption, tried to approach Vesuvius on a ship and found himself in one of the centers of the disaster - at Stabia.

Pliny the Younger describes what happened on the 25th at Miseno. In the morning, a black cloud of ash began to approach the city. Residents fled in horror from the city to the seashore (probably residents of the dead cities tried to do the same). The crowd running along the road soon found itself in complete darkness; screams and crying of children could be heard.

Those who fell were trampled by those following. I had to shake off the ashes all the time, otherwise the person would instantly fall asleep, and those who sat down to rest would no longer be able to get up. This went on for several hours, but in the afternoon the ash cloud began to dissipate.

Pliny returned to Miseno, although the earthquakes continued. By the evening the eruption began to decline, and on the 26th everything calmed down in the evening. Pliny the Younger was lucky, but his uncle, the outstanding scientist and author of natural history Pliny the Elder, died during the eruption in Pompeii.

They say that the curiosity of a natural scientist let him down, he stayed in the city for observations. The sun is above dead cities- Pompeii, Stabia, Herculaneum and Octavianum - it seemed only August 27th. Vesuvius has erupted at least eight more times to this day. Moreover, in 1631, 1794 and 1944, the eruption was quite strong.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PICTURE

Black darkness hung over the earth. A blood-red glow colors the sky at the horizon, and a blinding flash of lightning momentarily breaks the darkness. In the face of death, the essence of the human soul is revealed.

Here young Pliny persuades his mother, who has fallen to the ground, to gather what remains of her strength and try to escape.

Here the sons are carrying their old father on their shoulders, trying to quickly deliver the precious burden to a safe place.
Raising his hand towards the collapsing skies, the man is ready to protect his loved ones with his chest.

Nearby is a kneeling mother with her children. With what inexpressible tenderness they cling to each other!

Above them is a Christian shepherd with a cross around his neck, with a torch and censer in his hands. With calm fearlessness he looks at the flaming skies and the crumbling statues of former gods.

And in the depths of the canvas he is contrasted with a pagan priest, running in fear with an altar under his arm. This somewhat naive allegory proclaims the advantages of the Christian religion over the outgoing pagan one.

A man with his hand raised to the heavens is trying to protect his family. Next to him is a kneeling mother with children who are looking to her for protection and help.

On the left in the background is a crowd of fugitives on the steps of the tomb of Scaurus. In it we notice an artist saving the most precious thing - a box of brushes and paints. This is a self-portrait of Karl Bryullov.

But in his eyes it is not so much the horror of death as the artist’s close attention, heightened by the terrible spectacle. He carries on his head the most valuable thing - a box of paints and other painting supplies. It seems that he has slowed down and is trying to remember the picture unfolding before him. The model of the girl with the jug was Yu.P. Samoilova.

We can see her in other images. This is a woman who fell to her death, stretched out on the pavement, where next to her is a living child - in the center of the canvas; and a mother attracting her daughters to her in the left corner of the picture.

In the right corner, the young man holds his beloved; there is despair and hopelessness in his eyes.

Many art historians consider the central characters in the canvas to be a frightened child lying next to his dead mother. Here we see grief, despair, hope, the death of the old world, and perhaps the birth of a new one. This is a confrontation between life and death.

A noble woman tried to escape on a fast chariot, but no one can escape Kara; everyone must be punished for their sins. On the other hand, we see a frightened child who, against all odds, survived to revive a fallen race. But what is it further fate, we certainly don’t know, and we can only hope for a happy outcome.
The baby mourning her is an allegory of the new world, a symbol of the inexhaustible power of life. How much pain, fear and despair are in the eyes of people.

“The Last Day of Pompeii” convinces us that the main value in the world is man. Bryullov contrasts the spiritual greatness and beauty of man with the destructive forces of nature.

Brought up on the aesthetics of classicism, the artist strives to give his heroes ideal features and plastic perfection, although it is known that residents of Rome posed for many of them.

The first time anyone sees this work, any viewer is delighted by its colossal scale: on a canvas with an area of ​​more than thirty square meters, the artist tells the story of many lives united by a catastrophe. It seems that what is captured on the plane of the canvas is not a city, but an entire world experiencing destruction.

HISTORY OF THE PICTURE

In the autumn of 1833, the painting appeared at an exhibition in Milan and caused an explosion of delight and admiration. An even greater triumph awaited Bryullov at home. Exhibited in the Hermitage and then at the Academy of Arts, the painting became a source of patriotic pride. She was enthusiastically greeted by A.S. Pushkin:

In crowds, old and young, under the inflamed ashes,
Runs out of the city under the rain of stones.

Indeed, the world fame of Bryullov’s painting forever destroyed the disdainful attitude towards Russian artists that existed even in Russia itself. In the eyes of his contemporaries, the work of Karl Bryullov was proof of the originality of the national artistic genius.

Bryullov was compared to the great Italian masters. Poets dedicated poems to him. He was greeted with applause on the street and in the theater. A year later, the French Academy of Arts awarded the artist a gold medal for the painting after its participation in the Paris Salon.

In 1834, the painting “The Last Day of Pompeii” was sent to St. Petersburg. Alexander Ivanovich Turgenev said that this picture brought glory to Russia and Italy. E. A. Baratynsky composed a famous aphorism on this occasion: “The last day of Pompeii became the first day for the Russian brush!”

Nicholas I honored the artist with a personal audience and awarded Charles a laurel wreath, after which the artist was called “Charlemagne.”
Anatoly Demidov presented the painting to Nicholas I, who exhibited it at the Academy of Arts as a guide for aspiring painters. After the opening of the Russian Museum in 1895, the painting moved there, and the general public gained access to it.

The text with details of this picture can be found here. https://maxpark.com/community/6782/content/496452

“In Russia at that time there was only one painter who was widely famous, Bryullov” - Herzen A.I. about art.

In the first century AD, a series of eruptions of Mount Vesuvius occurred, which were accompanied by an earthquake. They destroyed several thriving cities that were located near the foot of the mountain. The city of Pompeii was gone in just two days - in August 79 it was completely covered with 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. However, in 1748, archaeologists were able to excavate it, lifting the curtain of the terrible tragedy. The painting by the Russian artist Karl Bryullov was dedicated to the last day of the ancient city.

“The Last Day of Pompeii” is the most famous painting by Karl Bryullov. The masterpiece was created over six long years - from the concept and the first sketch to the full-fledged canvas. Not a single Russian artist had such success in Europe as the young 34-year-old Bryullov, who very quickly acquired a symbolic nickname - “The Great Charles” - which corresponded to the scale of his six-year-old long-suffering brainchild - the canvas size reached 30 square meters (!). It is noteworthy that the canvas itself was painted in just 11 months; the rest of the time was spent on preparatory work.

"Italian Morning", 1823; Kunsthalle, Kiel, Germany

Western colleagues in the craft had a hard time believing in the success of a promising and talented artist. Arrogant Italians, extolling Italian painting over the entire world, considered the young and promising Russian painter incapable of anything more, something large and large-scale. And this despite the fact that Bryullov’s paintings were, to a certain extent, already known long before Pompeii. For example, the famous painting “Italian Morning”, painted by Bryullov after his arrival in Italy in 1823. The picture brought fame to Bryullov, receiving flattering reviews first from the Italian public, then from members of the Society for the Encouragement of Artists. OPH presented the painting “Italian Morning” to Alexandra Feodorovna, the wife of Nicholas I. The Emperor wanted to receive a painting paired with “Morning,” which was the beginning of Bryullov’s painting “Italian Afternoon” (1827).

A girl picking grapes in the vicinity of Naples. 1827; State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

And the painting “Girl Picking Grapes in the Vicinity of Naples” (1827), glorifying the cheerful and cheerful character of Italian girls from the people. And the noisily celebrated copy of Raphael’s fresco - “The School of Athens” (1824-1828) - now decorates the hall of copies in the building of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. Bryullov was independent and famous in Italy and Europe, he had many orders - almost everyone traveling to Rome strives to bring a portrait of Bryullov’s work from there...

And yet they didn’t really believe in the artist, and sometimes they even laughed at him. The already aged gentleman Camuccini, who was considered at that time the first Italian painter, especially tried. Looking at the sketches of Bryullov’s future masterpiece, he concludes that “the theme requires a huge canvas, but on a huge canvas the good that is in the sketches will be lost; Karl thinks in small canvases... The little Russian paints small pictures... A colossal piece of work that someone bigger could handle!” Bryullov was not offended, he just smiled - to be angry and angry with the old man would be absurd. In addition, the words of the Italian master further spurred the young and ambitious Russian genius in his quest to conquer Europe, and especially the complacent Italians, once and for all.

With his characteristic fanaticism, he continues to develop the plot of his main picture, which, he believes, will undoubtedly glorify his name.

There are at least two versions of how the idea of ​​writing Pompeii originated. The unofficial version is that Bryullov, amazed by the performance of Giovanni Pacini’s enchanting opera “The Last Day of Pompeii” in Rome, came home and immediately sketched out a sketch of the future painting.

According to another version, the idea to restore the plot of the “destruction” came thanks to the excavations of archaeologists who discovered a city buried and littered with volcanic ash, stone debris and lava in 79. For almost 18 centuries the city lay under the ashes of Vesuvius. And when it was excavated, houses, statues, fountains, and the streets of Pompeii appeared before the eyes of the amazed Italians...

Karl Bryullov’s elder brother, Alexander, also took part in the excavations, and since 1824 he has been studying the ruins of the ancient city. For his project for the restoration of the Baths of Pompeii, he received the title of Architect of His Majesty, corresponding member of the French Institute, member of the Royal Institute of Architects in England and the title of member of the academies of art in Milan and St. Petersburg...

Alexander Pavlovich Bryullov, self-portrait 1830

By the way, in mid-March 1828, when the artist was in Rome, Vesuvius suddenly began to smoke more than usual, five days later it threw out a high column of ash and smoke, dark red streams of lava, splashing out of the crater, flowed down the slopes, a menacing roar was heard, In the houses of Naples, window panes began to tremble. Rumors of the eruption immediately reached Rome, and everyone who could rushed to Naples to look at the strange spectacle. Karl, with some difficulty, found a place in the carriage, where, besides him, there were five more passengers, and could consider himself lucky. But while the carriage was traveling the long 240 km from Rome to Naples, Vesuvius stopped smoking and dozed off... This fact greatly upset the artist, because he could have witnessed a similar catastrophe, seen the horror and brutality of the angry Vesuvius with his own eyes.

Work and triumph

So, having decided on the plot, the meticulous Bryullov began collecting historical material. Striving for the greatest reliability of the image, Bryullov studied excavation materials and historical documents. He said that all the things he depicted were taken from the museum, that he followed archaeologists - “today’s antiquarians”, that until the last stroke he cared to be “closer to the authenticity of the incident.”

Remains of the people of the city of Pompeii, our days.

He showed the scene of action on the canvas quite accurately: “I took this scenery entirely from life, without retreating or adding at all”; In the place that appeared in the picture, during excavations, bracelets, rings, earrings, necklaces and the charred remains of a chariot were found. But the idea of ​​the painting is much higher and much deeper than the desire to reconstruct an event that happened seventeen and a half centuries ago. The steps of the tomb of Scaurus, the skeleton of a mother and daughters hugging each other before death, a burnt cart wheel, a stool, a vase, a lamp, a bracelet - all this was the limit of authenticity...

As soon as the canvas was completed, the Roman workshop of Karl Bryullov came under a real siege. “...I experienced wonderful moments while painting this picture! And now I see the venerable old man Camuccini standing in front of her. A few days later, after all of Rome had flocked to see my painting, he came to my studio in Via San Claudio and, after standing for a few minutes in front of the painting, he hugged me and said: “Hold me, Colossus!”

The painting was exhibited in Rome, then in Milan, and everywhere enthusiastic Italians are in awe of the “Great Charles”.

The name of Karl Bryullov immediately became famous throughout the Italian peninsula - from one end to the other. When meeting on the streets, everyone took off their hat to him; when he appeared in the theaters, everyone stood up; at the door of the house where he lived, or the restaurant where he dined, many people always gathered to greet him.

Italian newspapers and magazines glorified Karl Bryullov as a genius equal to the greatest painters of all times, poets sang his praises in verse, and entire treatises were written about his new painting. Since the Renaissance itself, no artist has been the object of such universal worship in Italy as Karl Bryullov.

Bryullov Karl Pavlovich, 1836 - Vasily Tropinin

The painting “The Last Day of Pompeii” introduced Europe to the mighty Russian brush and Russian nature, which is capable of reaching almost unattainable heights in every field of art.

The enthusiasm and patriotic enthusiasm with which the painting was greeted in St. Petersburg is difficult to imagine: thanks to Bryullov, Russian painting ceased to be a diligent student of the great Italians and created a work that delighted Europe!

The painting was presented by the philanthropist Demidov to Nicholas I, who briefly placed it in the Imperial Hermitage and then donated it to the Academy of Arts. According to the memoirs of a contemporary, “crowds of visitors, one might say, burst into the halls of the Academy to look at Pompeii.” They talked about the masterpiece in salons, shared opinions in private correspondence, and made notes in diaries. The honorary nickname “Charlemagne” was established for Bryullov.

Impressed by the painting, Pushkin wrote a six-line poem:

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.

Gogol dedicated a remarkably profound article to “The Last Day of Pompeii,” and the poet Evgeny Baratynsky expressed universal rejoicing in a well-known impromptu:

“You brought the spoils of peace
With you to your father's canopy,
And became “The Last Day of Pompeii”
First day for the Russian brush!”

Facts, secrets and mysteries of the painting “The Last Day of Pompeii”

Place of the painting

The discovery of Pompeii took place in 1748. Since then, month after month, continuous excavations have revealed the city. Pompeii left an indelible mark on the soul of Karl Bryullov already during his first visit to the city in 1827.

“The sight of these ruins involuntarily made me transport myself to a time when these walls were still inhabited... You cannot pass through these ruins without feeling within yourself some completely new feeling, making you forget everything except the terrible incident with this city.”

“I took this entire set from life, without retreating or adding at all, standing with my back to the city gates in order to see part of Vesuvius as the main reason,” Bryullov shared in one of his letters.

"Street of Tombs" Pompeii

We are talking about the Herculanean Gate of Pompeii (Porto di Ercolano), behind which, already outside the city, began the “Street of Tombs” (Via dei Sepolcri) - a cemetery with magnificent tombs and temples. This part of Pompeii was in the 1820s. was already well cleared, which allowed the painter to reconstruct the architecture on canvas with maximum accuracy.

And here is the place itself, which was exactly compared to the painting by Karl Bryullov.

photo

Details of the picture

In recreating the picture of the eruption, Bryullov followed the famous letters of Pliny the Younger to Tacitus.

Young Pliny survived the eruption in the seaport of Miseno, north of Pompeii, and described in detail what he saw: houses that seemed to move from their places, flames spreading widely across the cone of the volcano, hot pieces of pumice falling from the sky, heavy rain of ash, black impenetrable darkness , fiery zigzags, like giant lightning... And Bryullov transferred all this to the canvas.

Seismologists are amazed at how convincingly he depicted an earthquake: looking at collapsing houses, one can determine the direction and strength of the earthquake (8 points). Volcanologists note that the eruption of Vesuvius was written with all possible accuracy for that time. Historians claim that Bryullov’s painting can be used to study ancient Roman culture.

The method of restoring the dying poses of the dead by pouring plaster into the voids formed by the bodies was invented only in 1870, but even during the creation of the picture, skeletons discovered in petrified ashes testified to the last convulsions and gestures of the victims.

A mother hugging her two daughters; a young woman who fell to her death when she fell from a chariot that hit a cobblestone that had been torn out of the pavement by an earthquake; people on the steps of the tomb of Scaurus, protecting their heads from rockfall with stools and dishes - all this is not a figment of the painter’s imagination, but an artistically recreated reality.

Self-portrait in a painting

On the canvas we see characters endowed with portrait features of the author himself and his beloved, Countess Yulia Samoilova. Bryullov portrayed himself as an artist carrying a box of brushes and paints on his head.

Self-portrait, as well as a girl with a vessel on her head - Julia

The beautiful features of Julia are recognized four times in the picture: a mother hugging her daughters, a woman clutching her baby to her chest, a girl with a vessel on her head, a noble Pompeian woman who fell from a broken chariot.

A self-portrait and portraits of a friend are a conscious “effect of presence”, making the viewer as if a participant in what is happening.

"Just a picture"

It is a known fact that among Karl Bryullov’s students, his painting “The Last Day of Pompeii” had a rather simple name - simply “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: just as the Bible is the book of all books, the word Bible seems to mean the word Book.

Walter Scott: “This is an epic!”

Walter Scott appeared in Rome, whose fame was so enormous that at times he seemed like a mythical creature. The novelist was tall and had a strong build. His red-cheeked peasant face with sparse blond hair combed over his forehead seemed the epitome of health, but everyone knew that Sir Walter Scott never recovered from an apoplexy and came to Italy on the advice of doctors. A sober man, he understood that his days were numbered, and spent time only on what he considered especially important. In Rome, he asked to be taken only to one ancient castle, which he needed for some reason, to Thorvaldsen and Bryullov. Walter Scott sat in front of the painting for several hours, almost motionless, silent for a long time, and Bryullov, no longer expecting to hear his voice, took a brush, so as not to waste time, and began to touch the canvas here and there. Finally, Walter Scott stood up, slightly falling on his right leg, walked up to Bryullov, caught both of his hands in his huge palm and squeezed them tightly:

I was expecting to see a historical novel. But you have created much more. This is epic...

Bible story

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 history knew not 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.

The perception of Pompeii as a vicious city, mired in sins, and its destruction as Divine punishment could be based on some finds that emerged as a result of excavations - these are erotic frescoes in ancient Roman houses, as well as similar sculptures, phallic amulets, pendants, and so on. The publication of these artifacts in the Antichita di Ercolano, published by the Italian Academy and republished in other countries between 1771 and 1780, caused a culture shock reaction - against the backdrop of Winckelmann's postulate about the “noble simplicity and calm grandeur” of ancient art. This is why the public of the early 19th century could associate the eruption of Vesuvius with the biblical punishment visited on the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Accurate calculations

Eruption of Vesuvius

Having decided to paint a large canvas, K. Bryullov chose one of the most difficult methods of its compositional construction, namely, light-shadow and spatial. This required the artist to accurately calculate the effect of the painting at a distance and mathematically determine the incidence of light. And in order to create the impression of deep space, he had to pay serious attention to the aerial perspective.

Blazing Vesuvius in the distance, from the depths of which rivers of fiery lava flow in all directions. The light from them is so strong that the buildings closest to the volcano seem to be already on fire. One French newspaper noted this pictorial effect that the artist wanted to achieve and pointed out: “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 reddish penumbra into the background.”

At the limit of possibilities

He painted at such a limit of spiritual tension that it happened that he was literally carried out of the studio in their arms. However, even poor health does not stop his work.

Newlyweds

Newlyweds

According to ancient Roman tradition, the heads of newlyweds were decorated with wreaths of flowers. The flammei, the traditional veil of the ancient Roman bride made of thin yellow-orange fabric, fell from the girl’s head.

Fall of Rome

In the center of the picture, a young woman lies on the pavement, and her unnecessary jewelry is scattered on the stones. Next to her, a small child is crying in fear. Beautiful, beautiful woman, the classical beauty of draperies and gold seems to symbolize the refined culture of Ancient Rome, dying before our eyes. The artist acts not only as an artist, a master of composition and color, but also as a philosopher, speaking in visible images about the death of a great culture.

Woman with daughters

According to Bryullov, he saw one female and two children’s skeletons, covered in these poses with volcanic ash, at excavations. The artist could associate a mother with two daughters with Yulia Samoilova, who, having no children of her own, took in two girls, relatives of friends, to raise. By the way, the father of the youngest of them, composer Giovanni Pacini, wrote the opera “The Last Day of Pompeii” in 1825, and the fashionable production became one of the sources of inspiration for Bryullov.

Christian priest

In the first century of Christianity, a minister of the new faith could have been in Pompeii; in the picture he can be easily recognized by the cross, liturgical utensils - a censer and a chalice - and a scroll with a sacred text. The wearing of body crosses and pectoral crosses in the 1st century has not been confirmed archaeologically. An amazing technique of the artist - the courageous figure of a Christian priest, who knows no doubts and fears, is contrasted with a pagan priest running away in fear in the depths of the canvas.

Priest

The status of the character is indicated by the cult objects in his hands and the headband - infula. Contemporaries reproached Bryullov for not bringing to the fore the opposition of Christianity to paganism, but the artist did not have such a goal.

Contrary to the canons

Bryullov wrote almost everything differently than it was supposed to. Every great artist breaks existing rules. In those days, they tried to imitate the creations of old masters who knew how to show the ideal beauty of a person. This is called "CLASSICISM". Therefore, Bryullov does not have distorted faces, crush or confusion. It doesn't have the same crowd as on the street. There is nothing random here, and the characters are divided into groups so that everyone can be seen. And what’s interesting is that the faces in the picture are similar, but the poses are different. The main thing for Bryullov, as well as for ancient sculptors, is to convey human feeling with movement. This difficult art is called “PLASTIC”. Bryullov did not want to disfigure people’s faces or their bodies with either wounds or dirt. This technique in art is called “CONVENTION”: the artist refuses external plausibility in the name of a high goal: man is the most beautiful creation on the ground.

Pushkin and Bryullov

A big event in the artist’s life was his meeting and friendship with Pushkin. They immediately connected and fell in love with each other. In a letter to his wife dated May 4, 1836, the poet writes:

“...I really want to bring Bryullov to St. Petersburg. But he is a real artist, a kind fellow, and is ready for anything. Here Perovsky overwhelmed him, transported him to his place, locked him up and forced him to work. Bryullov forcibly escaped from him.”

“Bryullov is leaving me now. He goes to St. Petersburg reluctantly, afraid of the climate and captivity. I try to console and encourage him; and meanwhile my soul sinks into my boots when I remember that I’m a journalist.”

Less than a month had passed from the day Pushkin sent a letter about Bryullov’s departure to St. Petersburg, when on June 11, 1836, a dinner was given in honor of the famous painter on the premises of the Academy of Arts. Maybe we shouldn’t have celebrated this unremarkable date, June 11th! But the fact is that, by a strange coincidence, it was on June 11, fourteen years later, that Bryullov would come, essentially, to die in Rome... Sick, old.

Celebration of Russia

Karl Pavlovich Bryullov. Artist Zavyalov F.S.

At the Louvre exhibition of 1834, where “The Last Day of Pompeii” was shown, paintings by Ingres and Delacroix, adherents of the “notorious ancient beauty,” hung next to Bryullov’s painting. Critics unanimously scolded Bryullov. For some, his painting was twenty years late, others found in it excessive boldness of imagination, destroying the unity of style. But there were still others - spectators: Parisians crowded for hours in front of “The Last Day of Pompeii” and admired it as unanimously as the Romans. A rare case - the general opinion defeated the judgments of the “noted critics” (as newspapers and magazines called them): the jury did not risk pleasing the “noted ones” - Bryullov received a gold medal of the first dignity. Russia was triumphant.

"Professor out of turn"

The Academy Council, noting that Bryullov’s painting has undeniably the greatest merits, placing it among the extraordinary artistic creations in Europe at the present time, asked His Majesty’s permission to elevate the famous painter to the rank of professor out of turn. Two months later, the minister of the imperial court notified the president of the academy that the sovereign had not given permission and ordered that the charter be adhered to. At the same time, wishing to express a new sign of all-merciful attention to the talents of this artist, His Majesty granted Bryullov a Knight of the Order of St. Anna 3rd degree.

Canvas dimensions

Description of Bryullov’s painting “The Last Day of Pompeii”

One of Bryullov's famous paintings, which he began painting in 1830 and finished in 1833.
This painting depicts the volcano Vesuvius, or rather its eruption on the city of Pompeii.
Bryullov describes the events of 79 AD.
To create his masterpiece, he had to visit the excavations of a destroyed city.
He was able to see the objects that the artist depicted on his canvas when he visited the Naples Museum.

The artist's painting is painted with bright colors.
A bright flash of lightning catches the eye, illuminating the people.
A volcano spewing lava can be seen in the background.
It is the bright red colors that depict the volcano and the blackening cloud of smoke that give the picture a terrifying look.

In my opinion, the artist depicted the tragedy and death of the people.
A lot of suffering and fear can be seen in people's eyes.
Some look to the sky, as if they are begging for mercy.
A mother hugs her children, shielding them from a flash of lightning, two guys carry an old man on their shoulders, a young guy persuades a woman to get up and run for cover.
Particularly moving was the dead woman depicted in the center of the picture, where the baby is trying to reach her lifeless body.
And no one except the people themselves can help themselves, only they can run in an unknown direction from the burning streams of lava.

In my opinion, “The Last Day of Pompeii” shows us the spiritual beauty of a person who confronts nature.
It shows that, no matter what, a person still remains a person with soul, understanding and compassion.
When you look at the picture, it seems that now people will come to life, and we will hear their pleas for help, the cries of the wounded and groans for the dead.
The picture makes an indelible impression and makes you think about serious things, about whose loved ones I may have once offended with a word or deed.

Russian artist Karl Bryullov was undoubtedly quite respected for his skill long before the creation of this masterpiece. Nevertheless, it was “The Last Day of Pompeii” that brought Bryullov, without exaggeration, worldwide fame. Why did the disaster picture have such an impact on the public, and what secrets does it hide from viewers to this day?

Why Pompeii?

At the end of August 79 AD, as a result of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, the cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, Stabiae and many small villages became the graves of several thousand local residents. Real archaeological excavations of areas that had sunk into oblivion began only in 1748, that is, 51 years before the birth of Karl Bryullov himself. It is clear that archaeologists worked not just for one day, but for several decades. Thanks to this circumstance, the artist was able to personally visit the excavations and wander through the ancient Roman streets already freed from solidified lava. Moreover, at that moment Pompeii turned out to be the most cleared.

Countess Yulia Samoilova, for whom Karl Pavlovich had warm feelings, also walked there with Bryullov. Later she will play a huge role in the creation of her lover’s masterpiece, and more than one. Bryullov and Samoilova had the opportunity to see the buildings of the ancient city, restored household items, and the remains of dead people. All this left a deep and vivid imprint on the artist’s delicate nature. This was in 1827.

Disappearance of characters

Impressed, Bryullov almost immediately set to work, and very seriously and thoroughly. He visited the vicinity of Vesuvius more than once, making sketches for the future canvas. In addition, the artist familiarized himself with manuscripts that have survived to this day, including letters from an eyewitness to the disaster, the ancient Roman politician and writer Pliny the Younger, whose uncle Pliny the Elder died in the eruption. Of course, such work required a lot of time. Therefore, preparation for writing the masterpiece took Bryullov more than 5 years. He created the canvas itself, with an area of ​​more than 30 square meters, in less than a year. The artist was sometimes unable to walk from exhaustion; he was literally carried out of the studio. But even with such careful preparation and hard work on the masterpiece, Bryullov kept changing the original plan to one degree or another. For example, he did not use a sketch of a thief taking jewelry from a fallen woman.

Same faces

One of the main mysteries that can be found in the canvas is the presence of several identical female faces in the picture. This is a girl with a jug on her head, a woman lying on the ground with a child, as well as a mother hugging her daughters, and a person with her husband and children. Why did Bryullov draw them so similar? The fact is that the same lady served as the model for all these characters - the same Countess Samoilova. Despite the fact that the artist drew other people in the picture from ordinary residents of Italy, apparently Samoilov Bryullov, overcome by certain feelings, simply liked to paint.

In addition, in the crowd depicted on the canvas, you can find the painter himself. He portrayed himself as what he was, an artist with a box filled with drawing supplies on his head. This method, as a kind of autograph, was used by many Italian masters. And Bryullov spent many years in Italy and it was there that he studied the art of painting.

Christian and pagan

Among the characters in the masterpiece there is also an adherent of the Christian faith, who is easily recognized by the cross on his chest. A mother and two daughters are huddling close to him, as if seeking protection from the old man. However, Bryullov also painted a pagan priest who quickly runs away, not paying any attention to the frightened townspeople. Undoubtedly, Christianity was persecuted at that time and it is not known for certain whether any of the adherents of this faith could have been in Pompeii at that time. But Bryullov, trying to adhere to the documentary accuracy of events, also introduced hidden meaning into his work. Through the above-mentioned clergy, he showed not only the cataclysm itself, but the disappearance of the old and the birth of the new.