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Canvas, oil.
Size: 465.5 × 651 cm

"The last day of Pompeii"

"The Last Day of Pompeii" is terrible and beautiful. It shows how powerless a person is in front of an angry nature. The talent of the artist, who managed to convey all the fragility of human life, is striking. The picture silently screams that there is nothing in the world more important than human tragedy. A thirty-meter monumental canvas opens up to everyone those pages of history that no one wants to repeat.

... Of the 20 thousand inhabitants of Pompeii, 2000 people died on the streets of the city that day. How many of them remained buried under the rubble of houses is unknown to this day.

Description of the painting "The Last Day of Pompeii" by K. Bryullov

Artist: Karl Pavlovich Bryullov (Bryulov)
Name of the painting: "The Last Day of Pompeii"
The picture was painted: 1830-1833
Canvas, oil.
Size: 465.5 × 651 cm

The Russian artist of the Pushkin era is known as a portrait painter and the last romantic of painting, and not in love with life and beauty, but rather as a tragic conflict. It is noteworthy that small watercolors by K. Bryullov during his life in Naples were brought by aristocrats from trips as a decorative and entertaining souvenir.

A strong influence on the master's work was exerted by life in Italy, and a trip to the cities of Greece, as well as friendship with A. S. Pushkin. The latter drastically affected the vision of the world of the graduate of the Academy of Arts - the fate of all mankind comes to the fore in his works.

The picture reflects this idea as clearly as possible. "The last day of Pompeii" based on real historical facts.

A city near modern Naples was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. This is also evidenced by the manuscripts of ancient historians, in particular, Pliny the Younger. He says that Pompeii was famous throughout Italy for its mild climate, healing air and divine nature. Patricians built villas here, emperors and generals came to rest, turning the city into an ancient version of Rublyovka. It is authentically known that there was a theater, plumbing and Roman baths.

August 24, 79 CE e. people heard a deafening roar and saw how pillars of fire, ash and stones began to break out of the depths of Vesuvius. The catastrophe was preceded by an earthquake the day before, so most of the people managed to leave the city. The rest did not escape from the ashes that reached Egypt and the volcanic lava. A terrible tragedy occurred in a matter of seconds - houses collapsed on the heads of the inhabitants, and meter-long layers of volcanic precipitation covered everyone without exception. Panic broke out in Pompeii, but there was nowhere to run.

It is this moment that is depicted on the canvas by K. Bryullov, who saw the streets of the ancient city live, even under a layer of petrified ash, remaining the same as they were before the eruption. The artist collected materials for a long time, visited Pompeii several times, examined houses, walked the streets, made sketches of the body prints of people who died under a layer of hot ash. Many figures are depicted in the picture in the same poses - a mother with children, a woman who fell from a chariot and a young couple.

The work was written for 3 years - from 1830 to 1833. The master was so imbued with the tragedy of human civilization that he was taken out of the workshop several times in a semi-conscious state.

Interestingly, the themes of destruction and human self-sacrifice are connected in the picture. The first moment you will see in the fire that engulfed the city, the falling statues, the enraged horse and the murdered woman who fell from the chariot. The contrast is achieved by the fleeing townspeople who don't care about her.

It is noteworthy that the master depicted not a crowd in the usual sense of the word, but people, each of whom tells his own story.

Mothers hugging their children, who do not quite understand what is happening, want to shelter them from this catastrophe. The sons, carrying their father in their arms, who looks madly at the sky and closes his eyes from the ashes with his hand, try to save him at the cost of their lives. A young man holding his dead bride in his arms does not seem to believe that she is no longer alive. The mad horse, which is trying to throw off its rider, seems to convey that nature has not spared anyone. A Christian shepherd in red robes, not letting go of the censer, fearlessly and terrifyingly calmly looks at the falling statues of pagan gods, as if he sees God's punishment in this. The image of the priest, who, having taken a golden cup and artifacts from the temple, is striking, leaves the city, cowardly looking around. The faces of people are mostly beautiful and reflect not horror, but calmness.

One of them in the background is a self-portrait of Bryullov himself. He clutches the most valuable thing - a box of paints. Pay attention to his look, there is no fear of death in him, there is only admiration for the opened spectacle. The master seems to have stopped and remembers a deadly beautiful moment.

Remarkably, there is no main character on the canvas, there is only a world divided by the elements into two parts. The characters disperse on the proscenium, opening the doors to a volcanic hell, and a young woman in a golden dress, lying on the ground, is a symbol of the death of the refined culture of Pompeii.

Bryullov knew how to work with chiaroscuro, modeling voluminous and lively images. Clothing and draperies play an important role here. The robes are depicted in rich colors - red, orange, green, ocher, light blue and blue. Contrasted with them is deathly pale skin, which is illuminated by the glow of lightning.

Continues the idea of dividing the picture with light. He is no longer a way of conveying what is happening, but becomes a living hero of "The Last Day of Pompeii." Lightning flashes yellow, even lemon, cold color, turning the townspeople into living marble statues, and blood-red lava flows over the peaceful paradise. The glow of the volcano sets off the panorama of the dying city in the background of the picture. Black clouds of dust, from which not saving rain pours, but destructive ash, as if they say that no one can be saved. The dominant color in the painting is red. Moreover, this is not the cheerful color that is intended to give life. Bryullov red is bloody, as if reflecting the biblical Armageddon. The clothes of the heroes, the background of the picture seem to merge with the glow of the volcano. Flashes of lightning illuminate only the foreground.

Karl Bryullov lived in Italy for more than four years before reaching Pompeii in 1827. At that time, he was looking for a subject for a large picture on a historical theme. What he saw amazed the artist. It took him six years to collect material and write an epic canvas with an area of almost 30 m2.

In the picture, people of different sex and age, occupation and faith, caught in a catastrophe, are rushing about. However, in the motley crowd you can see four identical faces...

In the same 1827, Bryullov met the woman of his life - Countess Yulia Samoilova. After parting ways with her husband, a young aristocrat, a former lady-in-waiting who loved a bohemian lifestyle, moved to Italy, where morals are freer. Both the countess and the artist had a reputation for heartthrobs. Their relationship remained free, but long, and friendship continued until Bryullov's death. “Nothing was done according to the rules between me and Karl”, - Samoilova subsequently wrote to his brother Alexander.

Julia with her Mediterranean appearance (there were rumors that the woman's father was the Italian Count Litta, her mother's stepfather) was an ideal for Bryullov, moreover, as if created for an ancient plot. The artist painted several portraits of the countess and "gave" her face to the four heroines of the painting, which became his most famous creation. In The Last Day of Pompeii, Bryullov wanted to show the beauty of a person even in a desperate situation, and Yulia Samoilova was for him a perfect example of this beauty in the real world.

1 Julia Samoilova. Researcher Erich Hollerbach noted that the heroines of The Last Day of Pompeii, similar to each other, despite social differences, look like representatives of one large family, as if the disaster brought all the townspeople closer and equalized.

2 Street. “I took this scenery from nature, without retreating at all and without adding, standing with my back to the city gates in order to see part of Vesuvius as the main reason”, - Bryullov explained in a letter to his brother the choice of scene. This is already a suburb, the so-called Road of the Tombs, leading from the Herculaneum gates of Pompeii to Naples. Here were the tombs of noble citizens and temples. The artist sketched the location of the buildings during the excavations.

3 Woman with daughters. According to Bryullov, he saw one female and two children's skeletons, covered in these positions 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 up two girls, relatives of friends, to raise. By the way, the father of the youngest of them, the 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.

4 Christian priest. In the first century of Christianity, a minister of the new faith could have been in Pompeii; in the picture he is easily recognizable by the cross, liturgical utensils - a censer and a chalice - and a scroll with a sacred text. The wearing of pectoral and pectoral crosses in the 1st century has not been confirmed archaeologically.

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

8 Artist. Judging by the number of frescoes on the walls of Pompeii, the profession of a painter was in demand in the city. As an ancient painter, running next to a girl with the appearance of Countess Julia, Bryullov portrayed himself - this was often done by Renaissance masters, whose work he studied in Italy.

9 The woman who fell from the chariot. According to art historian Galina Leontyeva, the pompeian lying on the pavement symbolizes the death of the ancient world, for which the artists of classicism yearned.

10 items, which fell out of the box, as well as other objects and decorations in the picture, were copied by Bryullov from bronze and silver mirrors found by archaeologists, keys, lamps filled with olive oil, vases, bracelets and necklaces that belonged to the inhabitants of Pompeii of the 1st century AD. e.

11 Warrior and boy. As conceived by the artist, these are two brothers rescuing a sick old father.

12 Pliny the Younger. The ancient Roman prose writer, who witnessed the eruption of Vesuvius, described it in detail in two letters to the historian Tacitus.

13 Mother of Pliny the Younger. Bryullov placed the scene with Pliny on the canvas “as an example of childish and maternal love,” despite the fact that the disaster caught the writer and his family in another city - Misena (about 25 km from Vesuvius and about 30 km from Pompeii). Pliny recalled how he and his mother got out of Mizenum at the height of the earthquake, and a cloud of volcanic ash was approaching the city. It was difficult for an elderly woman to escape, and she, not wanting to cause the death of her 18-year-old son, persuaded her to leave her. “I answered that I would be saved only with her; I take her by the arm and make her take a step”, said Pliny. Both survived.

14 Goldfinch. During a volcanic eruption, birds died on the fly.

15 Newlyweds. According to the ancient Roman tradition, the heads of the newlyweds were decorated with wreaths of flowers. Flammey fell from the girl's head - the traditional cover of the ancient Roman bride from a thin yellow-orange fabric.

16 Tomb of Skaurus. Building from the Road of the Tombs, the resting place of Aulus Umbritius Scaurus the Younger. The tombs of the ancient Romans were usually built outside the city on both sides of the road. Scaurus the Younger during his lifetime held the position of duumvir, that is, he was at the head of the city government, and for his merits he was even awarded a monument in the forum. This citizen was the son of a wealthy trader in garum fish sauce (Pompeii was famous for it throughout the empire).

17 Demolition of buildings. Seismologists, by the nature of the destruction of the buildings depicted in the picture, determined the intensity of the earthquake "according to Bryullov" - eight points.

18 Vesuvius. The eruption that occurred on August 24-25, 79 AD. e., destroyed several cities of the Roman Empire, located at the foot of the volcano. Of the 20-30 thousand inhabitants of Pompeii, about two thousand did not escape, judging by the remains found.

ARTIST
Karl Bryullov

1799 - Born in St. Petersburg in the family of academician of ornamental sculpture Pavel Brullo.
1809-1821 - Studied at the Academy of Arts.
1822 - At the expense of the Society for the Encouragement of Artists, he left for Germany and Italy.
1823 - Created "Italian Morning".
1827 - Painted the paintings "Italian afternoon" and "Girl picking grapes in the vicinity of Naples."
1828-1833 - Worked on the canvas "The Last Day of Pompeii".
1832 - He wrote "The Horsewoman", "Bathsheba".
1832-1834 - Worked on the "Portrait of Yulia Pavlovna Samoilova with Giovanina Pacini and a black child."
1835 - Returned to Russia.
1836 - Became a professor at the Academy of Arts.
1839 - Married the daughter of the Riga burgomaster Emilia Timm, but divorced two months later.
1840 - Created "Portrait of Countess Yulia Pavlovna Samoilova, leaving the ball ...".
1849-1850 - Went abroad for treatment.
1852 - Died in the village of Manziana near Rome, buried in the Roman cemetery of Testaccio.

After the demonstration of the painting, Nicholas I awarded Bryullov with a laurel wreath,
after which the artist was called "Charlemagne"
Fragment of the painting by Karl Bryullov (1799-1852) "The Last Day of Pompeii" (1830-1833)

Karl Bryullov was so carried away by the tragedy of the city destroyed by Vesuvius that he personally participated in the excavations of Pompeii, and later carefully worked on the picture: instead of the three years indicated in the order of the young philanthropist Anatoly Demidov, the artist painted the picture for six whole years. About the imitation of Raphael, plot parallels with The Bronze Horseman, tours of the work in Europe and the fashion for the tragedy of Pompeii among artists.

Before you start looking at the photos that the son took in Pompeii, it is worth understanding how it was.
The eruption of Vesuvius on August 24-25 in 79 AD was the largest cataclysm of the Ancient World. On that last day, several coastal cities lost about 5,000 people. Even now, for a modern person, the word “death” will immediately associatively require the word “Pompeii”, and the phrase: “Yesterday I just had the death of Pompeii” is understandable and metaphorically indicates the scale of the trouble, even if it broke through the fan pipe and flooded the neighbors.
This story is especially well known to us from the painting by Karl Bryullov, which can be seen in the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg. This picture is remembered, a kind of blockbuster, it is clear that at a time when there was no cinema, it made an indelible impression on the audience

In 1834, the "presentation" of the painting took place in St. Petersburg. The poet Yevgeny Boratynsky wrote the lines:The last day of Pompeii became the first day for the Russian brush!”The picture struck Pushkin and Gogol. Gogol captured in his inspirational article on the painting the secret of its popularity:His works are the first that can be understood (although not equally) by an artist who has a higher development of taste, and who does not know what art is.Indeed, a work of genius is understandable to everyone, and at the same time, a more developed person will discover in it still other planes of a different level.
Pushkin wrote poetry and even sketched a part of the painting's composition in the margins.

Vesuvius opened the pharynx - the smoke gushed out in a club - the flame
Widely developed like a battle banner.
The earth is worried - from the staggering columns
Idols are falling! A people driven by fear
Under the stone rain, under the inflamed ashes,
Crowds, old and young, run out of the city (III, 332).

This is a brief retelling of the picture, multi-figured and complex in composition, not at all a small canvas, in those days it was even the largest painting, which already amazed contemporaries: the scale of the picture, correlated with the scale of the disaster.
Our memory cannot absorb everything, its possibilities are not unlimited, such a picture can be viewed more than once and every time something else can be seen. What did Pushkin single out and remember? The researcher of his work, Yuri Lotman, identified three main thoughts: "the uprising of the elements - the statues begin to move - the people (people) as a victim of a disaster." And he made a quite reasonable conclusion: Pushkin had just finished his "The Bronze Horseman" and saw what was close to him at that moment. Indeed, a similar plot: the element (flood) is raging, the monument comes to life, frightened Eugene runs from the elements and the monument.
Lotman also writes about the direction of Pushkin's gaze:Comparison of the text with Bryullov's canvas reveals that Pushkin's gaze slides diagonally from the upper right corner to the lower left. This corresponds to the main compositional axis of the picture. The researcher of diagonal compositions, artist and art theorist N. Tarabukin wrote: "The content of the picture, built compositionally along this diagonal, is often one or another demonstration procession." And further: "The viewer of the picture in this case takes a place, as it were, among the crowd depicted on the canvas."
Indeed, we are unusually captivated by what is happening, Bryullov managed to make the viewer involved in the events as much as possible. There is a presence effect.
Karl Bryullov graduated from the Academy of Arts in 1823 with a gold medal. By tradition, gold medalists went to Italy for an internship. There, Bryullov visits the workshop of an Italian artist and for 4 years copies Raphael's "Athenian School", and all 50 figures are life-size. At this time, Bryullov is visited by the writer Stendhal. There is no doubt that Bryullov learned a lot from Raphael, the ability to organize a large canvas. Bryullov came to Pompeii in 1827 together with Countess Maria Grigoryevna Razumovskaya. She became the first customer of the painting. However, the rights to the paintings are redeemed by sixteen-year-old Anatoly Nikolaevich Demidov, the owner of the Ural mining plants, a rich man and philanthropist. He had a net annual income of two million rubles. Nikolai Demidov, father, recently deceased, was a Russian envoy and sponsored excavations in Florence in the Forum and the Capitol. Demidov will later present the painting to Nicholas the First, who will donate it to the Academy of Arts, from where it will go to the Russian Museum. Demidov signed a contract with Bryullov for a fixed period and tried to fit the artist, but he conceived a grandiose idea and in total the work on the painting took 6 years.
Bryullov makes many sketches and collects material.

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Bryullov was so carried away that he himself participated in the excavations. It must be said that the excavations began formally on October 22, 1738, by decree of the Neapolitan king Charles III, they were carried out by an engineer from Andalusia, Roque Joaquín de Alcubierre, with 12 workers, and these were the first archaeological systematic excavations in history, when detailed records were made of everything that was found, before that, there were mainly pirate methods, when precious items were snatched out, and the rest could be barbarously destroyed. By the time Bryullov appeared, Herculaneum and Pompeii had already become not only a place of excavations, but also a place of pilgrimage for tourists. In addition, Bryullov was inspired by Paccini's opera The Last Day of Pompeii, which he saw in Italy. It is known that he dressed sitters in costumes for the play. Gogol, by the way, compared the picture with an opera, apparently felt the "theatricality" of the mise-en-scene. She definitely lacks musical accompaniment in the spirit of "Carmina Burana".

So, after a long sketching, Bryullov painted a picture and already in Italy it aroused tremendous interest. Demidov decided to take her to Paris to the Salon, where she also received a gold medal. In addition, she exhibited in Milan and London. In London, the painting was seen by the writer Edward Bulwer-Lytton, who later wrote his novel The Last Days of Pompeii under the impression of the canvas. It is interesting to compare the two moments of the interpretation of the plot. With Bryullov, we clearly see all the action, somewhere nearby there is fire and smoke, but in the foreground there is a clear image of the characters. scattered on the pavement. People are more likely to run from the fire. In fact, the city was already shrouded in smog, it was impossible to breathe, in Bulwer-Lytton's novel, the heroes, a couple in love, are saved by a slave, blind from birth. Since she is blind, she easily finds her way in the dark. Heroes are saved and accept Christianity.
Were there Christians in Pompeii? At that time they were persecuted and it is not known whether the new faith reached the provincial resort. However, Bryullov also contrasts the Christian faith with the pagan faith and the death of the pagans. In the left corner of the picture we see a group of an old man with a cross around his neck and women under his protection. The old man turned his gaze to heaven, to his God, perhaps he would save him.

The picture has been familiar to me since childhood, once, back in art school, we analyzed it for a whole lesson, it was on the example of “The Last Day of Pompeii” that the teacher told about the main painting techniques used by the artist. Indeed, it can serve as a textbook on painting, if you take it apart carefully. The artist uses color and light contrasts, skillfully unites groups of people. Although contemporaries-artists nicknamed it "fried eggs" because of the bright colors, mostly a bright compositional center, we understand that Italy, with its bright natural colors, could not help but influence. Bryullov is considered the founder of the "Italian genre" in Russian painting.

By the way, Bryullov copied some of the figures from the figures from the excavations. By that time, they began to fill the voids with plaster and got quite real figures of the dead inhabitants.

Classicist teachers scolded Karl for his departure from the canons of classical painting. Karl tossed between the classics absorbed at the Academy with its ideally sublime principles and the new aesthetics of romanticism.

If you look at the picture, you can distinguish several groups and individual characters, each with its own history. Something was inspired by excavations, something by historical facts.

The artist himself is present in the picture, his self-portrait is recognizable, here he is young, he is about 30 years old, on his head he takes out the most necessary and expensive - a box of paints. This is a tribute to the tradition of Renaissance artists to paint their self-portrait in a painting.
The girl next to her carries a lamp.

The son who carries his father on himself is reminiscent of the classic story about Aeneas who carried his father out of the burning Troy.

With one piece of cloth, the artist unites a family fleeing disaster into a group. During the excavations, couples who embraced before death, children together with their parents, are especially touching.

The two figures, the son persuading his mother to get up and run on, are taken from the letters of Pliny the Younger.

Pliny the Younger turned out to be an eyewitness who left written evidence of the death of cities. There are two letters written by him to the historian Tacitus, in which he talks about the death of his uncle Pliny the Elder, a famous naturalist, and his own misadventures.
Gaius Pliny was only 17 years old, at the time of the disaster he was studying the history of Titus Livius in order to write an essay, and therefore refused to go with his uncle to watch the volcanic eruption. Pliny the Elder was then an admiral of the local fleet, a position that he received for his scientific merits was an easy one. His curiosity ruined him, in addition, a certain Rektsina sent him a letter asking for help, it was possible to escape from her villa only by sea. Pliny sailed past Herculaneum, people on the shore at that moment could still be saved, but he strove to see the eruption in all its glory as soon as possible. Then the ships in the smoke with difficulty found their way to Stabia, where Pliny spent the night, but the next day he died, inhaling the sulfur-poisoned air.
Gaius Pliny, who remained in Mizena, 30 kilometers from Pompeii, was forced to flee, since the disaster reached him and his mother.
The painting by the Swiss artist Angelica Kaufmann just shows this moment. A Spanish friend persuades Guy and his mother to run away, but they hesitate, thinking to wait for their uncle to return. The mother in the picture is not at all weak, but quite young.

They run, the mother asks her to leave and escape alone, but Guy helps her go on. Fortunately, they are saved.
Pliny described the horror of the disaster and described the type of eruption, after which it began to be called "Plinian". He saw the eruption from afar:
“The cloud (those who looked from afar could not determine which mountain it arose over; that it was Vesuvius, they recognized later), in its form most of all resembled a pine tree: it was as if a tall trunk rose upwards and from it branches seemed to diverge in all directions. I think that it was thrown out by a current of air, but then the current weakened and the cloud, due to its own gravity, began to diverge in width; in some places it was a bright white color, in other places it was covered with dirty spots, as if from earth and ashes raised up.
The inhabitants of Pompeii had already experienced a volcanic eruption 15 years before, but did not draw conclusions. Blame - seductive sea coast and fertile land. Every gardener knows how well a crop grows on ashes. Mankind still believes in "maybe it will blow over." Vesuvius and after that woke up more than once, almost once every 20 years. Many drawings of eruptions from different centuries have been preserved.

It was this that especially affected the death of cities, the wind carried a suspension of ejected particles towards the southeast, just to the cities of Herculaneum, Pompeii, Stabia and several other small villas and villages. During the day they were under a multi-meter layer of ash, but before that, many people died from a rockfall, burned alive, died of suffocation. A slight shaking did not suggest an impending catastrophe, even when stones were already falling from the sky, many preferred to pray to the gods and hide in houses, where they were then walled up alive with a layer of ash.

Gaius Pliny, who survived all this in a light version in Mezima, describes what happened:“It is already the first hour of the day, and the light is wrong, as if sick. The houses around are shaking; in an open narrow area it is very scary; this is where they collapse. It was finally decided to leave the city; we are followed by a crowd of people who have lost their heads and prefer someone else's decision to their own; frightened, it seems reasonable; we are crushed and pushed in this crowd of departing. When we leave the city, we stop. How amazing and how terrible we have experienced! The wagons that were ordered to accompany us were thrown in different directions on a completely level ground; despite the stones placed, they could not stand in the same place. We have seen the sea recede; the earth, shaking, seemed to push him away. The coast was clearly moving forward; many marine animals stuck in dry sand. On the other hand, a terrible black cloud, which was broken through in different places by running fiery zigzags; it opened up in wide blazing stripes, similar to lightning, but large.

The agony of those whose brains exploded from the heat, their lungs turned into cement, and their teeth and bones decayed, we cannot even imagine.

How the catastrophe happened within one day can be seen in the BBC film, or briefly on this installation:

Or watch the movie "Pompeii", where the view of the city and the large-scale apocalypse are also recreated with the help of computer graphics.

And we'll see what archaeologists have unearthed over the years of excavations ..

http://www.livejournal.com/magazine/883019.html .

Original entry and comments on

Medieval Christians considered Vesuvius the shortest road to hell. And not without reason: people and cities died from its eruptions more than once. But the most famous eruption of Vesuvius happened on August 24, 79 AD, which destroyed the flourishing city of Pompeii, located at the foot of the volcano. For more than a thousand and a half years, Pompeii remained buried under a layer of volcanic lava and ash. The city was first discovered quite by accident at the end of the 16th century during earthworks.

Karl Bryullov (1799-1852)
The last day of Pompeii
oil on canvas 456 x 651 cm

Archaeological excavations began here in the middle of the 18th century. They were of particular interest not only in Italy, but throughout the world. Many travelers aspired to visit Pompeii, where literally at every step there were evidence of the suddenly cut short life of the ancient city.

Karl Bryullov (1799-1852)

1830-1833, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

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

Karl Bryullov (1799-1852)
The last day of Pompeii (detail)
1830-1833, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Ludwig van Beethoven *Symphony No. 5 - B minor*

Karl Bryullov (1799-1852)
The last day of Pompeii (detail)
1830-1833, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

From the idea of the picture to its completion will take a long six years. Bryullov begins with the study of historical sources. He reads the letters of Pliny the Younger, an eyewitness to the events, to the Roman historian Tacitus. In search of authenticity, the artist also turns to the materials of archaeological excavations, he depicts some figures in those poses in which the skeletons of the victims of Vesuvius were found in hardened lava.

Karl Bryullov (1799-1852)
The last day of Pompeii (detail)
1830-1833, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

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

Karl Bryullov (1799-1852)
The last day of Pompeii (detail)
1830-1833, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

In 1830 the artist began work on a large canvas. He wrote at such a limit of spiritual tension that it happened that he was literally taken out of the studio in his arms. Finally, by the middle of 1833, the picture was ready. The canvas was exhibited in Rome, where it received enthusiastic reviews from critics, and forwarded to the Louvre in Paris. This work was the first painting by the artist that aroused such interest abroad. Walter Scott called the picture "unusual, epic."

Karl Bryullov (1799-1852)
The last day of Pompeii (detail)
1830-1833, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

... Black darkness hung over the earth. A blood-red glow paints the sky near the horizon, and a blinding flash of lightning momentarily breaks the darkness.

Karl Bryullov (1799-1852)
The last day of Pompeii (detail)
1830-1833, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

In the face of death, the essence of the human soul is exposed. Here the young Pliny persuades his mother, who has fallen to the ground, to gather the remnants of her strength and try to escape.

Karl Bryullov (1799-1852)
The last day of Pompeii (detail)
1830-1833, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

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

Karl Bryullov (1799-1852)
The last day of Pompeii (detail)
1830-1833, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Nearby is a kneeling mother with children. With what inexpressible tenderness they huddle together! Above them is a Christian shepherd with a cross around his neck, with a torch and a censer in his hands. With calm fearlessness, he looks at the flaming skies and the crumbling statues of the former gods.

Karl Bryullov (1799-1852)
The last day of Pompeii (detail)
1830-1833, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

The canvas also depicts Countess Yulia Pavlovna Samoilova three times - a woman with a jug on her head, standing on a dais on the left side of the canvas; a woman who has crashed to death, sprawled on the pavement, and next to her a living child (both, presumably, were thrown out of a broken chariot) - in the center of the canvas; and a mother attracting her daughters to her, in the left corner of the picture.

Karl Bryullov (1799-1852)
The last day of Pompeii (detail)
1830-1833, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

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

Karl Bryullov (1799-1852)
The last day of Pompeii (detail)
1830-1833, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

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

Karl Bryullov (1799-1852)
The last day of Pompeii (detail)
1830-1833, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

The most central figure of the canvas - a noble woman who fell from a chariot, symbolizes the beautiful, but already outgoing ancient world. The baby mourning her is an allegory of the new world, a symbol of the inexhaustible power of life. "The Last Day of Pompeii" convinces that the main value in the world is a person. Bryullov contrasts the destructive forces of nature with the spiritual greatness and beauty of man. 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.

Karl Bryullov (1799-1852)
The last day of Pompeii (detail)
1830-1833, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

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 subject of patriotic pride. She was enthusiastically welcomed by A.S. Pushkin:

Vesuvius zev opened - smoke gushed in a club - flame
Widely developed like a battle banner.
The earth worries - from staggering columns
Idols are falling! A people driven by fear
Crowds, old and young, under inflamed ashes,
Under the stone rain runs out of the hail.

Karl Bryullov (1799-1852)
The last day of Pompeii (detail)
1830-1833, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Indeed, the worldwide fame of Bryullov's painting forever destroyed the disparaging attitude towards Russian artists that existed even in Russia itself.

Karl Bryullov (1799-1852)
The last day of Pompeii (detail)
1830-1833, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

In the eyes of contemporaries, the work of Karl Bryullov was proof of the originality of the national artistic genius. Bryullov was compared with the great Italian masters. Poets dedicated poems to him. He was greeted with applause in the street and in the theater. A year later, the French Academy of Arts awarded the artist a gold medal for the painting after her participation in the Paris Salon.

Karl Bryullov (1799-1852)
The last day of Pompeii (detail)
1830-1833, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

The breaking of fate reveals the characters. Caring sons carry a weak father out of hell. The mother covers the children. The desperate young man, having gathered his last strength, does not let go of the precious cargo - the bride. And the handsome man on a white horse hurries away alone: rather, rather, save himself, his beloved. Vesuvius mercilessly demonstrates to people not only their insides, but also their own. Thirty-year-old Karl Bryullov understood this perfectly. And showed us.

Karl Bryullov (1799-1852)
The last day of Pompeii (detail)
1830-1833, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

"And there was" The Last Day of Pompeii "for the Russian brush the first day," the poet Yevgeny Baratynsky exulted. Truly so: the picture was triumphantly greeted in Rome, where he painted it, and then in Russia, and Sir Walter Scott somewhat pompously called the picture "unusual, epic."

Karl Bryullov (1799-1852)
The last day of Pompeii (detail)
1830-1833, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

And there was success. And paintings, and masters. And in the fall of 1833, the painting appeared at an exhibition in Milan and the triumph of Karl Bryullov reached its highest point. The name of the Russian master immediately became known throughout the Italian peninsula - from one end to the other.

Karl Bryullov (1799-1852)
The last day of Pompeii (detail)
1830-1833, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Enthusiastic reviews about "The Last Day of Pompeii" and its author were printed in Italian newspapers and magazines. Bryullov was greeted with applause on the street, they gave a standing ovation in the theater. Poets dedicated poems to him. During the journeys on the borders of the Italian principalities, he was not required to present a passport - it was believed that every Italian was obliged to know him by sight.

It can be indisputably stated that the most famous, most popular Russian artist of the first half of the 19th century was Karl Pavlovich Bryullov. Admired by his creations, contemporaries called the artist "the great, divine Charles." His the painting "The Last Day of Pompeii" caused enthusiastic responses, it was officially recognized as one of the best works of the century.
The history of the tragic catastrophe that befell the ancient city completely captured all the thoughts of the painter, and he begins 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 stone 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 to the death of Pompeii. In museums, the artist studied the 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, of man, under the onslaught of an unbridled, cruel element.
While working on the painting, the artist clearly imagined how life was in full swing in the city: people made noise and applauded in theaters, people loved, rejoiced, worked, sang songs, children played in the yards...
So it was on that August evening when the inhabitants of Pompeii went to rest, not knowing what a terrible fate would befall them in a few hours.
In the middle of the night, suddenly there was a terrible roar - the revived Vesuvius opened its fire-breathing depths .... Somehow dressed, seized with indescribable horror, the Pompeians run out of their houses. And in the sky the scourges of lightning streak clouds, stones and ashes from the crater of the volcano fall down on the city from above, the earth trembles and trembles underfoot...
Unfortunate residents flee the city, hoping for salvation outside the city gates. Now 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, apart from death, they no longer expect anything ... Flashes of lightning grab marble statues out of the darkness. They leaned over, about to collapse...
In wild malice, the unbridled elements fell upon Pompeii and its inhabitants. And in the hour of a formidable test, each one shows his own character. Bryullov sees as if in reality:
two sons carry their old father on their shoulders;
the young man, saving the old mother, begs to continue the journey;
the husband seeks to protect his beloved wife and son from death;
mother before death hugs her daughters for the last time.

The death of Pompeii in the view of Bryullov is the death of the entire ancient world, the symbol of which is 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 selflessness of these people, who do not lose their human dignity in the face of an inevitable catastrophe. In these terrible moments, they do not think about themselves, but try to help their loved ones, to protect them from danger.
The artist also 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 keen observation of the artist does not leave him - he clearly sees human figures perfect in their plastic beauty in the brilliance of lightning. They are beautiful not only because of the extraordinary lighting, but also because they themselves 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 the last year, the artist worked so furiously that he was carried out of the studio more than once in a state of complete exhaustion.
The autumn of 1833 came. Karl Bryullov opened the doors of his workshop for 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 - Italians, numerous foreigners constantly flooding Rome, the noble public and the common people. Even artists, usually so jealous of someone else's success, called Bryullov "the second Raphael." After

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 picture of 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. Scott. The next day, the sick writer was brought to the artist's studio and seated in an armchair in front of the painting. For more than an hour Walter Scott sat in front of the picture and could not tear himself away from it. He repeated with delight:

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

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

Rumors about the glory of Bryullov soon reached St. Petersburg. Domestic newspapers began to broadcast the content of foreign articles about his painting. The Society for the Encouragement of Artists has collected articles about the "Last Day of Pompeii", which slowly walked through Europe and, having visited Paris, finally reached the Motherland.

Demidov, who became the owner of the painting, presented it to Nicholas I. It was August 1834. At the entrance of the Academy of Arts is not overcrowded. There were a lot of crews there. The rejoicing of compatriots knew no bounds. 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 zev opened - smoke gushed cube - flame
Widely developed like a battle banner.
The earth worries - from staggering columns
Idols are falling! A people driven by fear
Under the stone rain, under the inflamed ashes
Crowds of old and young run out of the city.
Right there, next to the poems, Pushkin drew from memory the central figures of the picture.
And N.V. Gogol was inspired and wrote an article about "The Last Day of Pompeii." There were lines like this: “Bryullov is the first of the painters whose plasticity has reached the highest perfection ... Bryullov has a man in order to show all his beauty. There is not a single figure in him that would not breathe beauty, no matter where a person is beautiful ... "
Belinsky called him "a brilliant artist" and "the first painter of Europe"..
Triumph! You will not find another word to appreciate the stream of delight, love and gratitude that fell upon 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 long. Muscovites received him cordially, 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 the most famous work of Bryullov, and well deserved. Here he managed to maintain the tradition of decadent and boring academism - without changing it in essence, but only skillfully and effectively, correcting it with the methods of painting of romanticism. The Russian painter managed to express the thoughts and ideas that excited his compatriots, his contemporaries, and the best of them, in a painting based on a plot from ancient Roman history. 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 whole people ...”.

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

How Bryullov made Europe applaud the Russian pictorial genius.

Plot

On the canvas - one of the most powerful volcanic eruptions in the history of mankind. In 79, Vesuvius, who had been silent for so long before 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 Mizena, which survived during the disaster: scenes. The chariots, which we dared to take out, shook so violently back and forth, although they stood on the ground, that we could not hold them, 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; certainly the land expanded considerably, and some sea animals were on the sand ... Finally, the terrible darkness began to dissipate little by little, like a cloud of smoke; daylight reappeared, and even the sun came out, although its light was gloomy, as it 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 with snow.

Pompeii today

A crushing 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 goes into the thousands. Among them - mostly slaves, whom the owners left to guard the property, as well as the elderly and the sick, who did not have time to leave. There were also those who hoped to wait out the elements 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 a panic, the elements will not spare either the rich or the poor. And what is remarkable - for writing people of different classes, Bryullov used one model. We are talking about Yulia Samoilova, her face is found on the canvas four times: a woman with a jug on her head on the left side of the canvas; a dead woman 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 was looking for faces for the rest of the heroes on the Roman streets.

It is surprising in this picture and 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 picture; but Mr. Bryullov neglected this remedy. Genius inspired him with a bold idea, as happy as it was inimitable: to illuminate the entire front of the picture with a quick, minute and whitish brilliance of lightning, cutting through the thick cloud of ash that enveloped the city, while the light from the eruption, with difficulty breaking through the deep darkness, throws reddish penumbra into the background, ”the newspapers wrote then.

Context

By the time Bryullov decided to write the death of the Pompeii, he was considered talented, but still promising. For approval in the status of a master, serious work was needed.

At that time in Italy, the theme of Pompeii was popular. Firstly, excavations were carried out very actively, and secondly, there were a couple more eruptions of Vesuvius. This could not but be reflected in culture: on the stages of many Italian theaters, Paccini's opera L "Ultimo giorno di Pompeia" was successfully staged. There is no doubt that the artist saw her, and maybe more than once.

The idea to write the death of the city came in Pompeii itself, which Bryullov visited in 1827 at the initiative of his brother, the architect Alexander. It took 6 years to collect the material. The artist was scrupulous in details. So, things that fell out of the box, jewelry and other various items in the picture were copied from those found by archaeologists 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, is found four times on the canvas. For the picture, Bryullov was looking for Italian characters. 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 a black boy." Bryullov, 1832-1834

They met in Italy in 1827. Bryullov adopted the experience of senior masters there and looked for inspiration, while Samoilova burned through 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 the work on the painting was completed and the Italian public saw the canvas, a boom began on Bryullov. It was a success! Everyone at a meeting with the artist considered it an honor to say hello; when he appeared in theaters, everyone stood up, and at the door of the house where he lived, or the restaurant where he dined, many people always gathered to greet him. Since the Renaissance, not a single artist in Italy has been the object of such worship as Karl Bryullov.

In the homeland of the painter, a triumph also awaited. The general euphoria about the picture becomes clear after reading the lines of Baratynsky:

He brought peaceful trophies
With you in the father's shade.
And there was "The Last Day of Pompeii"
For the Russian brush, the first day.

Karl Bryullov spent half of his conscious creative life in Europe. For the first time he went abroad after graduating from the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg to improve his skills. And where, if not in Italy, to 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-figured 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.

An interrupted date (Water is already running over the edge). 1827

Bryullov wrote simultaneously with Delacroix and Ingres. It was a time when the theme of the fate of huge human masses came to the fore in painting. Therefore, it is not surprising that Bryullov chose the story of the death of Pompeii for his program canvas.

Bryullov undermined his health while painting St. Isaac's Cathedral

The picture 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, Krylov.

Bryullov's frescoes in St. Isaac's Cathedral

The last years the artist spent in Italy, trying to save his health, undermined during the painting of St. Isaac's Cathedral. Hours of long hard work in a damp unfinished cathedral had a bad effect on the heart and aggravated rheumatism.

K. Bryullov. The last day of Pompeii. 1830-1833

We have long been familiar with the painting by Karl Bryullov THE LAST DAY OF POMPEI, but we did not consider it in detail. I wanted to know its history and examine the canvas 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 all the nooks and crannies of the city, touched the walls, rough from boiling lava, and, perhaps, he had the idea to paint a picture of the last day of Pompeii.

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

Eruption of Vesuvius.

Let's make a small 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 of the surviving manuscripts of the "Letters" of Pliny the Younger. It led to the death of three cities - Pompeii, Herculaneum, Stabia and several small villages and villas.

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

People tried to hide in houses, but died from suffocation or under the ruins. Someone overtook death in public places - in theaters, markets, forums, temples, someone - on the streets of the city, someone - already beyond its borders. However, the vast majority of residents still managed to leave the city.

During the excavations, it turned out that everything in the cities was preserved as it was before the eruption. Streets, houses with full furnishings, the remains of people and animals that did not have time to escape were found under many meters of ash. The force of the eruption was such that the ashes from it flew even to Egypt and Syria.

Of the 20,000 inhabitants of Pompeii, about 2,000 died in the buildings and on the streets. Most of the inhabitants left the city before the disaster, but the remains of the dead are found outside the city. Therefore, the exact number of deaths cannot be estimated.

Among those who died from the eruption was Pliny the Elder, out of scientific interest and out of a desire to help people suffering from the eruption, who tried to approach Vesuvius on a ship and ended up in one of the hotbeds 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, the inhabitants of the dead cities also tried to do the same). The crowd running along the road soon found itself in complete darkness, screams and cries of children were heard.

Those who fell were trampled down by those who followed. I had to shake off the ashes all the time, otherwise the person instantly fell asleep, and there was no way for those who sat down to rest 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 evening, the eruption began to subside, and by the evening of the 26th everything had subsided. Pliny the Younger was lucky, but his uncle - an outstanding scientist, author of natural history Pliny the Elder - died during an eruption in Pompeii.

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

DESCRIPTION OF THE PICTURE

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

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

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

Nearby is a kneeling mother with children. With what inexpressible tenderness they huddle together!

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

A man who raised his hand to heaven is trying to protect his family. Next to him is a kneeling mother with children who seek protection and help from her.

Left in the background - a crowd of fugitives on the steps of the tomb of Skaurus. In it, we notice an artist saving the most precious thing - a box with 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 close attention of the artist, exacerbated by the terrible spectacle. He carries on his head the most precious thing - a box with paints and other painting accessories. It seems that he slowed down his steps and tries to remember the picture that unfolded before him. Yu.P. Samoilova served as a model for a girl with a jug.

We can see her in other images. This is a woman who has crashed to death, sprawled 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, in his eyes there is despair and hopelessness.

Many art historians consider the frightened child lying near the dead mother to be the central characters on the canvas. 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 the fallen race. But, what is his further fate, of course, we do not 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. There is so much pain, fear and despair in the eyes of people.

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

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.

Seeing this work for the first time, any viewer admires 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 not a city is depicted on the plane of the canvas, but the whole world, which is experiencing death.

HISTORY OF THE PICTURE

Crowds, old and young, under inflamed ashes,
Under the stone rain runs out of the hail.

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

Bryullov was compared with the great Italian masters. Poets dedicated poems to him. He was greeted with applause in the street and in the theater. A year later, the French Academy of Arts awarded the artist a gold medal for the painting after her 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 was the glory of 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 with 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 beginner painters. After the opening of the Russian Museum in 1895, the canvas moved there, and the general public gained access to it.

The text with the details of this painting can be viewed here.https://maxpark.com/community/6782/content/496452

“In Russia then there was only one painter who was widely known, Bryullov” - Herzen A.I. about art.

In the first century AD, there was a series of eruptions of Mount Vesuvius, which were accompanied by an earthquake. They destroyed several flourishing 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 was buried under a seven-meter thickness of ash. It seemed that the city disappeared from the face of the earth. However, in 1748, archaeologists were able to unearth it, opening the veil of a terrible tragedy. The painting of 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 for six long years - from the idea and the first sketch to a full-fledged canvas. Not a single Russian artist had such success in Europe as the young 34-year-old Bryullov, who very quickly got a symbolic nickname - "The Great Karl", which corresponded to the scale of his six-year-old long-suffering offspring - the size of the canvas 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 believed in the success of a promising and talented artist with difficulty. The arrogant Italians, extolling Italian painting above the whole world, considered the young and promising Russian painter incapable of something more, something large and large-scale. And this is despite the fact that Bryullov's paintings were already known to a certain extent long before Pompeii. For example, the famous painting “Italian Morning”, written by Bryullov after his arrival in Italy in 1823. The picture brought fame to Bryullov, having received flattering reviews, first from the Italian public, then from members of the Society for the Encouragement of Artists. The OPH presented the painting "Italian Morning" to Alexandra Feodorovna, the wife of Nicholas I. The emperor wanted to get a painting paired with "Morning", which was the beginning of Bryullov's writing of the painting "Italian Noon" (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 it adorns 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 back a portrait of Bryullov's work ...

And yet, they did not particularly believe in the artist, and sometimes even ridiculed. The already aged cavalier Camuccini, who at that time was considered the first Italian painter, especially tried. Considering the sketches of Bryullov's future masterpiece, he concludes that “the theme requires a huge canvas, but the good that is in the sketches will disappear on the huge canvas; Carl thinks in small canvases... Little Russian paints little pictures... A colossal work on the shoulder of someone bigger! Bryullov was not offended, he only smiled - it would be absurd to be angry and angry at the old man. In addition, the words of the Italian master further spurred the young and ambitious Russian genius in an effort to conquer Europe once and for all, and especially the self-satisfied Italians.

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 was born. An unofficial version - Bryullov, amazed at the performance in Rome of the enchanting opera by Giovanni Pacini "The Last Day of Pompeii", having come home, immediately sketched a sketch of the future picture.

According to another version, the idea to restore the plot of "death" came from the excavations of archaeologists who discovered a city buried and littered with volcanic ash, stone fragments and lava in 79. For almost 18 centuries, the city lay under the ashes of Vesuvius. And when it was unearthed, houses, statues, fountains, streets of Pompeii appeared before the eyes of the astonished Italians ...

The elder brother of Karl Bryullov, Alexander, who had studied the ruins of the ancient city since 1824, also took part in the excavations. For the project of restoration of the Pompeian Baths he drew up, 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 arts 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 he threw out a tall column of ash and smoke, dark red lava flows, splashing out of the crater, flowed down the slopes, a menacing rumble was heard, windows in the houses of Naples trembled. Rumors of an eruption immediately flew to Rome, everyone who could rushed to Naples - to look at the outlandish spectacle. Karl, not without difficulty, got a seat in the carriage, where, besides him, there were five more passengers, and he could consider himself lucky. But while the carriage traveled a long 240 km from Rome to Naples, Vesuvius stopped smoking and dozed off ... This fact upset the artist very much, because he could witness a similar catastrophe, see the horror and brutality of the angry Vesuvius with his own eyes.

Work and triumph

So, having decided on the plot, meticulous Bryullov began to collect historical material. Striving for the greatest reliability of the image, Bryullov studied the excavation materials and historical documents. He said that all the things depicted by him were taken from the museum, that he follows archaeologists - "current antiquarians", that until the last stroke he took care to be "closer to the authenticity of the incident."

The remains of the people of the city of Pompeii, our days.

He also showed the scene of action on the canvas quite accurately: “I took this scenery all from life, without retreating at all and without adding”; in the place that got into the picture, during the excavations, bracelets, rings, earrings, necklaces and charred remains of a chariot were found. But the thought of the picture 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 who hugged each other before their death, a burnt cart wheel, a stool, a vase, a lamp, a bracelet - all this was the limit of certainty ...

As soon as the canvas was completed, the Roman workshop of Karl Bryullov was subjected to 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 Rome flocked to see my picture, he came to my studio in Via San Claudio and, after standing for several minutes in front of the picture, hugged me and said: “Hug me, Colossus!”

The painting was exhibited in Rome, then in Milan, and everywhere enthusiastic Italians tremble before the "Great Charles".

The name of Karl Bryullov immediately became known throughout the Italian peninsula - from one end to the other. When meeting in the streets, everyone took off his 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, there were always many people gathered to greet him.

Italian newspapers and magazines glorified Karl Bryullov as a genius, equal to the greatest painters of all time, poets sang him in verse, entire treatises were written about his new painting. Since the Renaissance, not a single artist in Italy has been the object of such universal worship 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.

It is hard to imagine the enthusiasm and patriotic enthusiasm with which the picture was received in St. Petersburg: 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 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 the salons, shared opinions in private correspondence, made notes in diaries. The honorary nickname "Charlemagne" was established for Bryullov.

Impressed by the picture, Pushkin wrote a six-line:

Vesuvius zev opened - smoke gushed in a club - flame
Widely developed like a battle banner.
The earth worries - from staggering columns
Idols are falling! A people driven by fear
Under the stone rain, under the inflamed ashes,
Crowds, old and young, run out of the city.

Gogol devoted a remarkably profound article to The Last Day of Pompeii, and the poet Yevgeny Baratynsky expressed the general jubilation in a well-known impromptu:

"You brought peaceful trophies
With you in the paternal shadow,
And became "The Last Day of Pompeii"
For the Russian brush, the first day!

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

Place of the painting

Pompeii was discovered in 1748. Since then, month after month, continuously ongoing excavations have opened the city. Pompeii left an indelible mark on Karl Bryullov's soul during his first visit to the city in 1827.

“The sight of these ruins involuntarily made me go back to a time when these walls were still inhabited ... You cannot go through these ruins without feeling some completely new feeling in yourself that makes you forget everything, except for the terrible incident with this city.”

“I took this scenery all from nature, without retreating at all and without adding, 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 the Tombs" Pompeii

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

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

a photo

Painting details

Recreating the picture of the eruption, Bryullov followed the famous messages of Pliny the Younger to Tacitus.

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

Seismologists are amazed at how convincingly he portrayed the earthquake: looking at collapsing houses, you 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 argue that Bryullov's painting can be used to study ancient Roman culture.

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

Mother hugging two daughters; a young woman who was crushed to death when she fell from a chariot that ran into a cobblestone, turned out of the pavement by an earthquake; people on the steps of the tomb of Skaurus, protecting their heads from rockfall with stools and dishes - all this is not a figment of the painter's fantasy, but an artistically recreated reality.

self-portrait in 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 a baby to her chest, a girl with a vessel on her head, a noble pompeian who fell from a broken chariot.

A self-portrait and portraits of a girlfriend are a conscious “presence effect”, making the viewer seem to be a participant in what is happening.

"Just a Picture"

It is known that among the students of Karl Bryullov, his canvas “The Last Day of Pompeii” had a rather simple name - simply “Picture”. This means that for all the disciples, this canvas was just a picture with a capital letter, a picture of pictures. An example can be given: as the Bible is the book of all books, the word Bible seems to mean the word Book.

Walter Scott: "This is epic!"

Walter Scott appeared in Rome, whose fame was so great that at times he seemed to be a mythical creature. The novelist was tall and had a strong build. His ruddy-cheeked peasant face with sparse blond hair combed over his forehead seemed to be the epitome of health, but everyone knew that Sir Walter Scott never recovered from apoplexy and came to Italy on the advice of doctors. A sober man, he understood that the days were numbered, and spent time only on what he considered especially important. In Rome, he asked to be taken to only one ancient castle, which for some reason he needed, to Thorvaldsen and Bryullov. Walter Scott sat in front of the picture for several hours, almost motionless, was silent for a long time, and Bryullov, no longer teasing 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 got up, crouching slightly on his right leg, went up to Bryullov, caught both of his hands in his huge palm and squeezed them tightly:

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

bible story

Tragic scenes were often depicted in various manifestations of classical art. For example, the destruction of Sodom or the Egyptian executions. But in such biblical stories it was implied that the execution comes from above, here one could see the manifestation of God's providence. As if biblical history knew no senseless fate, but only the wrath of God. In the paintings of Karl Bryullov, people were at the mercy of a blind natural element, rock. There can be no reasoning about guilt and punishment here.. In the picture you will not be able to find the main character. It's just not there. Before us appears only the crowd, the people who were seized with fear.

The perception of Pompeii as a vicious city mired in sins, and its destruction as a Divine punishment could be based on some finds that appeared 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 artefacts in the Antichita di Ercolano, published by the Italian Academy and republished in other countries between 1771 and 1780, caused a reaction of culture shock - against the backdrop of Winckelmann's postulate of the "noble simplicity and calm grandeur" of ancient art. That is why the public of the early 19th century could associate the eruption of Vesuvius with the biblical punishment that fell on the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Accurate calculations

Vesuvius eruption

Having decided to paint a large canvas, K. Bryullov chose one of the most difficult ways of his 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. Also, to create the impression of deep space, he had to pay the most serious attention to the aerial perspective.

Blazing and distant Vesuvius, from the bowels 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 on fire. One French newspaper noted this pictorial effect, which 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 picture; but Mr. Bryullov neglected this remedy. Genius inspired him with a bold idea, as happy as it was inimitable: to illuminate the entire front of the picture with a quick, minute and whitish brilliance of lightning, cutting through the thick cloud of ash that enveloped the city, while the light from the eruption, with difficulty breaking through the deep darkness, throws in the background a reddish penumbra.

At the limit

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

Newlyweds

Newlyweds

According to the ancient Roman tradition, the heads of the newlyweds were decorated with wreaths of flowers. Flammey fell from the girl's head - the traditional cover of the ancient Roman bride from a thin yellow-orange fabric.

Fall of Rome

In the center of the picture, a young woman lies on the pavement, and her unnecessary jewelry scattered over the stones. Next to her, a small child is crying in fear. A beautiful, beautiful woman, the classical beauty of draperies and gold seem to symbolize the refined culture of Ancient Rome, which is 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 positions 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 up two girls, relatives of friends, to raise. By the way, the father of the youngest of them, the 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 is easily recognizable by the cross, liturgical utensils - a censer and a chalice - and a scroll with a sacred text. The wearing of pectoral and pectoral crosses in the 1st century has not been confirmed archaeologically. The artist's amazing reception is the courageous figure of a Christian priest, who knows no doubts and fear, is opposed to a pagan priest fleeing in fear in the depths of the canvas.

Priest

The status of the character is indicated by cult objects in his hands and a headband - infula. Bryullov's contemporaries reproached him 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 wrong. Every great artist breaks the existing rules. In those days, they tried to imitate the creations of the old masters, who knew how to show the ideal beauty of a person. It's 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 considered. And here's what's interesting - the faces in the picture are similar, but the poses are different. The main thing for Bryullov, as well as for the ancient sculptors, is to convey a human feeling with movement. This difficult art is called "PLASTIC". Bryullov did not want to disfigure people's faces, their bodies with neither wounds nor dirt. Such a technique in art is called "CONVENTION": the artist refuses external credibility in the name of a lofty goal: man is the most beautiful creature on earth.

Pushkin and Bryullov

A great event in the life of the artist was his meeting and friendship with Pushkin. They hit it off immediately 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. And he is a real artist, a kind fellow, and ready for anything. Here Perovsky filled him up, moved him to his place, locked him up and forced him to work. Bryullov ran away from him by force.

“Bryullov is now from me. Goes to St. Petersburg reluctantly, afraid of the climate and captivity. I try to comfort and encourage him; meanwhile, my soul goes to the heels, as soon as I remember that I am 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 in the premises of the Academy of Arts. Maybe it was not worth celebrating this unremarkable date, June 11! But the fact is that, by a strange coincidence, it is on June 11, in fourteen years, that Bryullov will come, in essence, to die in Rome ... Sick, aged.

The triumph of Russia

Karl Pavlovich Bryullov. Artist Zavyalov F.S.

At the Louvre exhibition in 1834, where “The Last Day of Pompeii” was shown, next to the painting by Bryullov, paintings by Ingres and Delacroix, adherents of the “notorious ancient beauty”, hung. Critics unanimously scolded Bryullov. For some, his painting was twenty years late, others found in it an excessive boldness of the imagination, destroying the unity of style. But there were still others - spectators: the 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 won over the judgments of the "note critics" (as newspapers and magazines called them): the jury did not dare to please the "note" - Bryullov received a gold medal of the first denomination. Russia triumphed.

"Professor Out of Line"

The Council of the Academy, noting that Bryullov's painting has undeniably the greatest merits, placing it among the most unusual artistic creations in Europe at the present time, asked His Majesty's permission to raise the illustrious painter to a professorship out of turn. Two months later, the minister of the imperial court informed the president of the academy that the sovereign had not given his permission and had ordered that the charter be followed. 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 the painting by Bryullov “The Last Day of Pompeii”

One of Bryullov's famous paintings, which he began to paint in 1830 and finished in 1833.
This picture shows 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 the collapsed city.
The objects that the artist depicted on his canvas, he could see by visiting the Neapolitan Museum.

The picture of the artist is painted with bright colors.
A bright flash of lightning is striking, which illuminates 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 frightening look.

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

In my opinion, "The Last Day of Pompeii" shows us the spiritual beauty of a person who is opposed to nature.
It shows that, no matter what, a person still remains a person with a 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 the groans of the dead.
The picture makes an indelible impression and makes you think about serious things, about whose relatives I could once offend with a word or deed.

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Work and triumph

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

“The sight of these ruins involuntarily made me go back to a time when these walls were still inhabited ... You cannot go through these ruins without feeling some completely new feeling in yourself that makes you forget everything, except for the terrible incident with this city.”

Description of the painting by Bryullov “The Last Day of Pompeii”