Painted a grandiose canvas in Italy great painter Bryullov - “The Last Day of Pompeii”. A description of the painting will be presented in our article. Contemporaries gave the work the most enthusiastic reviews, and the artist himself began to be called the Great Charles.

A little about K. I. Bryullov

The painter was born in 1799 into a family that, starting with his great-grandfather, was associated with art. Having graduated from the Academy of Arts with a gold medal, he and his brother Alexander, a gifted architect, went to Rome. IN Eternal City he works fruitfully, paints portraits and paintings that delight the public, critics and royalty. Karl Bryullov worked on the monumental dense structure for six years. “The Last Day of Pompeii” (the description of the picture and its perception by Italians can be expressed in one word - triumph) became a masterpiece for the residents of the country. They believed that the artist’s canvas evoked thoughts about the heroic past of their homeland at a time when the entire country was engulfed in the struggle for freedom.

Historical facts

The description of Bryullov’s painting “The Last Day of Pompeii” must begin with interesting fact: the master visited excavations near Vesuvius in 1827. This sight simply stunned him. It was clear that life had suddenly ended in the city.

The ruts on the pavement were fresh, the colors of the inscriptions were bright, announcing the rental of premises and upcoming entertainment. In taverns, where only sellers were missing, traces of cups and bowls remained on the tables.

Beginning of work

We begin the description of Bryullov’s painting “The Last Day of Pompeii” with a story about many years preparatory work artist, which took three years. First, a compositional sketch was made based on fresh impressions.

After this, the artist began to study historical documents. The artist found the information he needed in letters from a witness to this natural disaster and the famous Roman historian Tacitus. They describe a day covered in darkness, crowds of people rushing about, not knowing where to run, screams, moans... Some mourned their inevitable death, others mourned the death of loved ones. Above the rushing figures - dark sky with zigzags of lightning. In addition, the artist created more and more new sketches, wrote various groups people, changed the composition. This constitutes a preliminary description of Bryullov’s painting “The Last Day of Pompeii.” The place where the action takes place was immediately clear to him - the intersection of the Street of Tombs. As soon as Bryullov imagined a rolling, heartbreaking thunderclap, he vividly imagined how all the people froze... A new feeling was added to their fear - the inevitability of tragedy. This is reflected in the artist’s last composition and forms the description of Bryullov’s painting “The Last Day of Pompeii.” Materials from archaeological excavations provided the artist with everyday objects for his canvases. The voids that formed in the lava preserved the contours of some bodies: a woman fell from a chariot, here are daughters and a mother, here are young spouses. The artist borrowed the image of a mother and a young man from Pliny.

Selfless work

Work on the huge canvas took three years. Raphael had a huge influence on the compositional and plastic design, on the characteristics and description of Bryullov’s painting “The Last Day of Pompeii”. The artist previously studied with him, copying the frescoes “Fire in Borgo” and “ Athens school", where about forty characters act. How many heroes are depicted on Bryullov’s multi-figure canvas? It was very important when working on the painting to introduce his contemporaries into it, bringing distant eras closer together. This is how the portrait of the track and field athlete Marini appeared on the canvas - the father figure in the family group.

Under the artist’s brush, the image of his favorite model appears, either in the form of a girl or in the form of a mother. Y. Samoilova was the embodiment of his ideal, which glowed with the power and passion of beauty. Her image filled the artist’s imagination, and all the women on his canvas acquired the features the master loved.

Composition of the painting: a combination of romanticism and classicism

Bryullov boldly combines romanticism and classics in his canvas (“The Last Day of Pompeii”). The description of the painting can be briefly described in such a way that in the composition the master did not try to enclose everything in classical triangles. In addition, listening to the voice of romanticism, he depicted a mass folk scene, violating the classical principle of bas-relief. The action develops, going deeper into the canvas: a man has fallen from his chariot and is carried away by frightened horses. The viewer's gaze involuntarily follows him into the abyss, into the cycle of events.

But the painter did not abandon all the dispassionate ideas of classicism. His heroes are beautiful externally and internally. The horror of their situation is drowned out perfect beauty characters. This softens the tragedy of their condition for the viewer. In addition, the composition uses the technique of contrast between panic and calm.

Action composition

In a canvas filled with movement, the rhythm of hand gestures and body movements is very important. Hands protect, protect, embrace, extend to the sky with anger and fall powerlessly. Like sculptures, their forms are three-dimensional. I want to walk around them to take a closer look. The outline clearly envelops each figure. This classic technique was not rejected by the romantics.

Color of the canvas

The day of the disaster is tragically gloomy. Darkness, completely impenetrable, hung over the people in distress. These black clouds of smoke and ash are torn apart by sharp, bright lightning. The horizon is flooded with the blood-red light of a fire. Its reflections fall on falling buildings and columns, on people - men, women, children - adding even more tragedy to the situation and showing the inevitable threat of death. Bryullov strives for natural lighting, violating the requirements of classicism. He subtly captures the reflexes of light and combines them with distinct chiaroscuro.

Canvas characters characters

The description and analysis of Bryullov’s painting “The Last Day of Pompeii” will be incomplete without considering all the people acting in the picture. The day has come for them Last Judgment: monumental stone buildings collapse like paper from earthquakes. There is roar all around, cries for help, prayers to the gods who abandoned the unfortunate ones. Essence human soul completely naked in the face of death. All groups, which are essentially portraits, face the viewer.

Right side

Among the nobility there are base characters: a selfish thief who carries jewelry in the hope that he will survive. A pagan priest who runs away and tries to save himself, forgetting that he must pray to the gods for mercy. Fear and confusion in the composition of a family covered with a blanket... This is the description of Bryullov’s painting “The Last Day of Pompeii”. The photo of the masterpiece in the article shows in detail how the young father raises his hand to the sky in prayer.

The children, hugging their mother, knelt. They are motionless and simply await a terrible inevitable fate. There is no one to help them. A Christian with a bare chest and a cross on it believes in a future resurrection.

Only one figure is calm - the artist.

His task is to rise above the fear of death and forever capture the tragedy. Bryullov, introducing his portrait into the picture, shows the master as a witness to the unfolding drama.

Center and left side of the canvas

In the center is a young mother who has fallen to her death and is hugged by an uncomprehending baby. This is a very tragic episode. The deceased symbolizes the death of the ancient world.

Selfless sons carry a powerless old father. They are filled with love for him and do not think at all about their own salvation.

The young man persuades his mother, who is sitting exhausted, to get up and go to save herself. It’s difficult for two people, but nobility does not allow the young man young man leave the old lady.

The young guy peers into the face of the tender bride, who has completely lost her fortitude from the roar all around, the sight of death, the fiery glow that promise them death.

He does not leave his beloved, although death can overtake them at any moment.

The masterpiece “The Last Day of Pompeii” by K. Bryullov was destined to become a key painting in the history of art. He caught the spirit of the times and created a canvas about those who know how to sacrifice everything for the sake of their loved ones. About ordinary people whose moral concepts stand immeasurably high during cruel trials. The spectacle of how courageously they bear the heavy burden that has befallen them should serve as an example of how to act in any era and in any place. true love to a person.

After the demonstration of the painting, Nicholas I awarded Bryullov a laurel wreath,
after which the artist began to be 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 painting: instead three years indicated in the order of the young philanthropist Anatoly Demidov, the artist painted the picture for six whole years. About imitation of Raphael, plot parallels with The Bronze Horseman, tours of the work across Europe and the fashion for the tragedy of Pompeii among artists.

Before you start looking at the photographs that your son took in Pompeii, it’s worth understanding how things happened.
The eruption of Vesuvius on August 24-25 in 79 AD was the largest cataclysm Ancient world. About 5 thousand people died on that last day in several coastal cities. Even now modern man the word “destruction” will immediately associatively require the word “Pompeii”, and the phrase: “Yesterday I just had the death of Pompeii” is understandable and will metaphorically indicate the scale of the troubles, even if a sewer pipe burst 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 memorable, a kind of blockbuster, it is clear that in a time when there was no cinema, it made an indelible impression on the audience

In 1834, a “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 amazed Pushkin and Gogol. Gogol captured the secret of its popularity in his inspired article dedicated to the painting: “His works are the first that can be understood (although not in the same way) by an artist with the highest 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 other planes of a different level.
Pushkin wrote poetry and even sketched part of the composition of the painting in the margins.

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, flee from the city (III, 332).

This brief retelling a painting, multi-figured and compositionally complex, not a small canvas at all, in those days it was even the most big picture, 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 limitless, such a picture can be viewed more than once and each time we see something else. What did Pushkin single out and remember? A 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 disaster.” And he made a completely reasonable conclusion: Pushkin had just finished his “ Bronze Horseman” and saw what was close to him at that moment. Indeed, the plot is similar: the elements (flood) rage, the monument comes to life, the frightened Evgeniy runs away from the elements and the monument.
Lotman also writes about the direction of Pushkin’s view: “A 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. Researcher of diagonal compositions, artist and art theorist N. Tarabukin wrote: “The content of a picture constructed 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. Traditionally, gold medalists went to Italy for an internship. There Bryullov visits the workshop Italian artist and for 4 years he copies “The School of Athens” by Raphael, and in life size all 50 figures. At this time, the writer Stendhal visits Bryullov. 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 Grigorievna Razumovskaya. She became the first customer of the painting. However, the rights to the paintings are bought 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, the father, who recently died, was a Russian envoy and sponsored excavations in Florence in the Forum and Capitol. Demidov would later give the painting to Nicholas the First, who would donate it to the Academy of Arts, from where it would go to the Russian Museum. Demidov signed a contract with Bryullov for a certain period and tried to adjust the artist, but he conceived a grandiose plan and in total the work on the painting took 6 years.
Bryullov makes a lot of sketches and collects material.

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 order of the Neapolitan king Charles III, they were carried out by an engineer from Andalusia, Roque Joaquin 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 objects were snatched, and the rest could be barbarically destroyed. By the time Bryullov appeared, Herculaneum and Pompeii had become not only a site 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 the sitters in costumes for the performance. Gogol, by the way, compared the picture to an opera, apparently sensing the “theatricality” of the mise-en-scène. She definitely misses musical accompaniment in the spirit of Carmina Burana.

So, after a long sketch, Bryullov painted the picture and already in Italy it aroused enormous interest. Demidov decided to take her to Paris to the Salon, where she also received a gold medal. In addition, it was 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 painting. It is interesting to compare two aspects of the interpretation of the plot. In Bryullov we see clearly all the action, somewhere nearby there is a fire and smoke, but in the foreground there is a clear image of the characters. When panic and mass exodus had already begun, the city was in a fair amount of smoke from the ash; the artist depicts the rockfall with fine St. Petersburg rain and pebbles , scattered along the sidewalk. People are more likely to run away from a 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. The heroes are saved and accept Christianity.
Were there Christians in Pompeii? At that time they were persecuted and it is unknown whether the new faith reached the provincial resort. However, Bryullov also contrasts the pagan faith and the death of the pagans with the Christian faith. 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 the heavens, to his God, perhaps he would save him.

The picture is familiar to me from childhood, once upon a time, back in art school we took it apart whole lesson, using the example of “The Last Day of Pompeii”, the teacher talked about the main painting techniques that the artist used. Indeed, it can serve as a textbook on painting if you examine it carefully. The artist uses color and light contrasts and skillfully unites groups of people. Although contemporaries-artists nicknamed her “scrambled eggs” because bright colors, basically 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 figures from excavations. By that time, they began to fill the voids with plaster and obtained very real figures of the dead residents.

Classicist teachers scolded Karl for deviating from the canons classical painting. Karl rushed 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 identify several groups and individual characters, each with their own story. Some were inspired by excavations, some 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 carries the most necessary and expensive thing - a box of paints. This is a tribute to the tradition of Renaissance artists to paint their self-portrait in a painting.
The girl nearby is carrying a lamp.



The son carrying his father on himself is reminiscent of the classic story about Aeneas, who carried his father from the burning of Troy.



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




Two figures, a son persuading his mother to get up and run further, are taken from the letters of Pliny the Younger.



Pliny the Younger turned out to be an eyewitness who left written evidence of the destruction of cities. Two letters have survived that he wrote to the historian Tacitus, in which he talks about the death of his uncle Pliny the Elder, a famous natural scientist, and his own misadventures.
Gaius Pliny was only 17 years old, at the time of the disaster he was studying the history of Titus Livy to write an essay, and therefore refused to go with his uncle to watch the volcanic eruption. Pliny the Elder was then admiral of the local fleet, the position he received for his scientific merits was easy. Curiosity ruined him, in addition, a certain Reczina sent him a letter asking for help; the only way to escape from her villa was by sea. Pliny sailed past Herculaneum; the people on the shore at that moment could still be saved, but he wanted to quickly see the eruption in all its glory. Then the ships, in the smoke, had difficulty finding their way to Stabia, where Pliny spent the night, but died the next day after inhaling air poisoned by sulfur.
Guy Pliny, who remained in Misenum, 30 kilometers from Pompeii, was forced to flee, since the disaster had reached him and his mother.
The painting by Swiss artist Angelika Kaufmann shows exactly 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 is still quite young.




They run, her mother asks her to leave her and save herself alone, but Guy helps her move on. Fortunately, they are saved.
Pliny described the horror of the disaster and described the appearance of the eruption, after which it began to be called "Plinian". He saw the eruption from a distance:
“The cloud (those looking from afar could not determine over which mountain it arose; it was recognized later that it was Vesuvius) was most like a pine tree in its shape: it was like a tall trunk rising up 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 began to spread wider due to its own gravity; in some places it was bright- white, in places with dirty spots, as if from earth and ash raised upward.”
The inhabitants of Pompeii had already experienced a volcanic eruption 15 years earlier, but did not draw any conclusions. The reason is the seductive sea coast and fertile lands. Every gardener knows how well crops grow on ashes. Humanity still believes in “maybe it will blow over.” Vesuvius woke up more than once after that, almost once every 20 years. Many drawings of eruptions from different centuries have been preserved.

This is what particularly influenced the death of the cities; the wind carried the suspension of ejected particles towards the southeast, just towards the cities of Herculaneum, Pompeii, Stabia and several other small villas and villages. Within 24 hours they found themselves under a multi-meter layer of ash, but before that many people died from a rockfall, burned alive, and died of suffocation. A slight shaking did not indicate the approaching disaster, even when stones were already falling from the sky, many chose to pray to the gods and hide in houses, where they later found themselves walled up alive in a layer of ash.

Guy Pliny, who experienced all this in a lighter version in Mezim, describes what happened:“It’s already the first hour of the day, and the light is incorrect, as if sick. The houses around are shaking; it is very scary in an open narrow area; they are about to collapse. It was finally decided to leave the city; behind us is a crowd of people who have lost their heads and prefer someone else’s decision to their own; out of fear this seems reasonable; we are pressed and pushed in this crowd of people leaving. Coming out of the city, we stop. How many amazing and how many terrible things we have experienced! The carts that were ordered to accompany us were thrown in different directions on completely level ground; despite the stones placed, they could not stand in the same place. We saw the sea recede; the earth, shaking, seemed to push him away. The shore was clearly moving forward; many sea animals are stuck in the dry sand. On the other side there was a black terrible cloud, which was broken through in different places by running fiery zigzags; it opened up in wide blazing stripes, similar to lightning, but larger.”

We cannot even imagine the suffering of those whose brains exploded from the heat, their lungs became cement and their teeth and bones disintegrated.

How the disaster happened over the course of one day can be seen in the BBC film, or briefly in this installation:



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



And we'll see what archaeologists have dug up. long years excavations..

It seems possible for contemporaries to see through the eyes of a painter last moments life of the inhabitants of the city of Pompeii. It must be admitted that in the artist’s hand one can discern the manner of Raphael and Velazquez. The display and detailing, so sharply captured, the saturation with crimson and reddish shades, the technique of chiaroscuro - the master absorbed all the best from the artists of that era. Bryullov himself had a very significant influence on the technique and style of drawing of Flavitsky, Serov, Moller and others. He was characterized by a certain academicism and grandeur, which he vigorously demonstrated in the painting “Horsewoman” and “The Siege of Pskov.”

In order to implement his idea (and the idea, it must be admitted, was embodied in a very grandiose manner - on a canvas measuring 465x561 centimeters), Bryullov had to go to the foot of Mount Vesuvius and see the city ruins of Pompeii. There, on the spot, he made sketches for the future canvas, imagining how the revived Vesuvius spews hundreds of thousands of tons of ash and lava onto the confused inhabitants of Pompeii. Writing the work took Bryullov 3 years, and in 1833 he finished writing it.

Immediately after the completion of the picture, it was brought for review to Rome - critics and spectators were unanimous in their flattering reviews. The painting was then taken to an exhibition in Paris and placed in the Louvre. There she was seen by a world-famous writer, Walter Scott. He said that the painting was “unusual, epic.” A year after the end of the Paris exhibition, the canvas finally arrives in Russia, in St. Petersburg. And here, in their homeland, great figures and writers never tire of talking about it. Turgenev left a flattering review, and Baratynsky and Pushkin immediately scattered aphorisms, which were immediately prohibited by censorship.

The style of the work at that time was considered something extraordinary, innovative, because it was ahead of its time. Now this technique is recognized as neoclassicism.
So popular then were the stories on historical topics, Bryullov turned it into a certain reality - the characters depicted are not static, he is all in motion. Their faces are filled with horror and fear. It seems that the artist himself caught the crowd at that very moment - the reality of the painted figures is so great. Not indifferent to Countess Yulia Pavlovna Samoilova, the Tsar's maid of honor, Bryullov could not deny himself the pleasure of capturing her several times in the picture.

Here she appears on the left side of the canvas on a hill, in the image of a woman with a jug on her head, then the image of a woman who fell to her death - she and her child (he is alive) were thrown from the broken steps of the stairs, and finally, she is a mother hugging her daughter. The artist depicted himself as the same painter on the left in the corner of the picture. The artist depicted in very detail and exultation the blazing glow and falling marble statues of the gods, over which lightning scattered.

People, maddened by fear, run away from the destruction, but they cannot escape. "The Last Day of Pompeii" presents us with an image of eternal life captured.
Currently, the painting belongs to the Russian Museum, where Nicholas I gave it to him in 1895.

Canvas, oil.
Size: 465.5 × 651 cm

"The last day of Pompeii"

The Last Day of Pompeii is scary and beautiful. It shows how powerless man is in the face of furious nature. The talent of the artist is amazing, he managed to convey all the fragility human life. The picture silently screams that there is nothing in the world more important than human tragedy. The thirty-meter monumental canvas reveals to everyone those pages of history that no one wants to repeat.

... Of the 20 thousand inhabitants of Pompeii that day, 2,000 people died on the streets of the city. 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)
Title 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 an experiencer tragic conflict. It is noteworthy that K. Bryullov’s small watercolors during his life in Naples were brought by aristocrats from trips as decorative and entertaining souvenirs.

The master’s work was strongly influenced by life in Italy, and travel through the cities of Greece, as well as friendship with A.S. Pushkin. The latter radically affected the vision of the world of the graduate of the Academy of Arts - the fate of all humanity comes first in his works.

This 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. Manuscripts of ancient historians, in particular Pliny the Younger, also speak about this. He says that Pompeii was famous throughout Italy for its mild climate, healing air and divine nature. Patricians had villas here, emperors and generals came to rest, turning the city into an ancient version of Rublyovka. It is reliably known that there was a theater, water supply and Roman baths here.

August 24, 79 AD e. people heard a deafening roar and saw pillars of fire, ash and stones begin to burst out of the bowels of Vesuvius. The disaster was preceded by an earthquake the day before, so most of the people managed to leave the city. Those who remained were not saved from the ash that reached Egypt and volcanic lava. A terrible tragedy occurred in a matter of seconds - houses collapsed on the heads of the residents, and meter-high layers of volcanic sediment covered everyone without exception. Panic began in Pompeii, but there was nowhere to run.

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

The work took 3 years to write - from 1830 to 1833. The master was so imbued with the tragedy human civilization that he was carried out of the workshop several times in a semi-fainting state.

Interestingly, the film contains themes of destruction and human sacrifice. The first moment you will see is the fire engulfing the city, falling statues, a mad horse and 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 holding 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, looking madly into the sky and covering his eyes from the ashes with his hand, try to save him at the cost of their lives. The young man, holding his dead bride in his arms, seems to not believe that she is no longer alive. A maddened 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 pagan gods, as if he sees God’s punishment in this. The image of a priest who, having taken a golden cup and artifacts from the temple, leaves the city, cowardly looking around, is striking. Most people's faces are beautiful and reflect not horror, but calm.

One of them in the background is a self-portrait of Bryullov himself. He clutches the most valuable thing to himself - a box of paints. Pay attention to his gaze, there is no fear of death in him, there is only admiration for the spectacle that has unfolded. It’s as if the master stopped and remembers the deadly beautiful moment.

What is noteworthy is that there is no main character on the canvas, there is only a world divided by the elements into two parts. 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 three-dimensional and lively images. Clothes and draperies play an important role here. Robes are depicted rich colors– red, orange, green, ocher, blue and blue. Contrasting with them is deathly pale skin, which is illuminated by the glow of lightning.

Light continues the idea of ​​dividing the picture. He is no longer a way to convey what is happening, but becomes a living hero in “The Last Day of Pompeii.” Lightning flashes in a 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 pours not saving rain, 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 designed to give life. Bryullov red is bloody, as if reflecting the biblical Armageddon. The clothes of the characters and the background of the picture seem to merge with the glow of the volcano. Flashes of lightning illuminate only the foreground.

Medieval Christians considered Vesuvius the shortest road to hell. And not without reason: people and cities have perished more than once from its eruptions. But the most famous eruption Vesuvius happened on August 24, 79 AD. And it became the last day of the ancient Roman city of Pompeii.

We know about him from the words of the Roman politician and the writer Gaius Pliny Caecilius Secundus, better known in history as Pliny the Younger. In letters to the historian Publius Cornelius Tacitus, he described the eruption:

The shape of the cloud was similar to a pine tree: it was like a trunk rising upward, and branches seemed to diverge from it in all directions. In some places it was bright white, in others there were dirty spots, as if from earth and ash raised upward.

But few people in the world read the Letters to Tacitus. And yet, anyone who went to school knows about the eruption of Vesuvius in 79. Helped... art.

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,

In crowds, old and young, fleeing from the city...

Everyone has seen the picture described by Pushkin more than once - in the State Russian Museum or in reproductions. This, according to Gogol, is the “bright resurrection of painting” - “The Last Day of Pompeii.” Alexander Bryullov visited the excavations of the city covered with ash and, with the permission of the Neapolitan king, made sketches and measurements. And he suggested the plot to brother Karl.

And others say that Karl Pavlovich Bryullov saw the majestic panorama of Vesuvius from the Sorrento Peninsula. And I got the idea to write his eruption. Russian artist and art historian Alexander Benois thought otherwise: the idea for the painting was born from Bryullov under the influence of the opera of the same name Italian composer Giovanni Pacini. Let's not forget about the customer, especially since he is the famous Prince San Donato from the Russian Demidov family - a philanthropist, researcher and benefactor.

But be that as it may, thanks to Karl Bryullov with the support of Anatoly Demidov, we see with our own eyes the tragedy of Pompeii - a small but wealthy southern resort with two theaters and thirty-five brothels. The tragedy of the carelessness of those dancing on the volcano: in 62, strong tremors warned Pompeii of an imminent disaster. But the townspeople remained deaf and rebuilt the destroyed city.

Nature has not forgiven thoughtlessness. On August 24, 79, on an ordinary sunny summer day, Vesuvius spoke. And he spoke for almost a day, covering the streets, houses with all their furnishings, and two thousand people out of the twenty thousand population of the city with a multimeter thick layer of ash. The rest escaped: this flight from death was depicted by Bryullov.

The breakdown of destinies reveals characters. Caring sons They carry a weak father out of hell. The mother covers her children. Desperate young man, gathered with with the last of my strength, does not let go of the precious cargo - the bride. And the handsome man on a white horse hurries away alone: ​​quickly, quickly, save himself, his beloved. Vesuvius mercilessly shows people not only his insides, but also theirs. Thirty-year-old Karl Bryullov understood this perfectly. And he showed it to us.

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

And it was a success. Both 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 famous throughout the Italian peninsula - from one end to the other. IN Italian newspapers and magazines published rave reviews about " Last day Pompeii" and its author. Bryullov was greeted with applause on the street, there was a standing ovation in the theater. Poets dedicated poems to him. When traveling at 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.