The demon downcast
During this period, Vrubel also created numerous watercolors with flowers. The latter inspired by The Arabian Nights, and Hamlet and Ophelia. Other works of the Kiev period include the large canvas Portrait of a Girl against a Persian Carpet and The Oriental Tale dating from 1886. In fact, Vrubel rarely took pains to preserve his works, being more interested in the process of creation than in the result. The Kiev versions of The Demon, both the pictures and sculptures, have not survived.
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The Virgin and Child, 1884, Mikhail Vrubelīack in Kiev Vrubel started to work on the first version of The Demon, an illustration to Mikhail Lermontov's 1890 poem of the same name. He drew the face of the Virgin from the studies of E. During his time in Venice, Vrubel produced four large icons, including The Virgin and Child. While in Venice Vrubel’s palette acquired strong saturated tones resembling the iridescent play of precious stones. In Venice, Vrubel was particularly impressed by the medieval mosaics in the Church of San Marco and the Early Renaissance paintings of Giovanni Bellini and Cima da Conegliano. Later, he was commissioned to paint icons for the iconostasis of the church, which he did in Venice where he spent several months in the years 1884-85. Cyril’s Church, Vrubel executed new murals in place of the lost ones, The Descent of the Holy Spirit Upon the Apostles (Pentecost) and Three Angels Over the Body of Christ. The knowledge Vrubel acquired in the process con-tributed to the development of his style as a painter. In 1884, Vrubel was asked to take part in the restoration of the Old Russian murals and mosaics in the 12th century Church of St. Along with an expressiveness and rich imagin-ation, his works, even then, reveal a taste for improvisation, frag-mentary composition, his charac-teristic “unfinished” manner pecul-iarly fused with classical style and monumentality. His Academy drawings on classical subjects are striking for their elegant workmanship.ĭescent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles, 1885, Mikhail VrubelĮven during his training, Vrubel was not a devoted follower of the Academy style. Vrubel’s art, was academic in a sense, based on the cult of the model and drawing. Vrubel owed much to the Academy and never shared the distaste towards it felt by many prominent painters of the time. Among Tchistyakov’s pupils were such outstanding painters as Vasily Surikov, Viktor Vasnetsov, and Vasily Polenov all of whom thought very highly of their teacher. For that he was indebted to professor Pavel Tchistyakov, who was famous for his method of teaching painting and drawing. Vrubel referred to his Academy years In his 1901 autobiography, as the happiest in his life as an artist. Petersburg University in 1880 with a law degree, but then entered the Academy of Arts the very same year. Mikhail Vrubel was born into the family of a military lawyer. Vrubel's wife was the famous opera singer, Nadezhda Zabela. The same is evident in the colors employed. There is an unresolved tension in the muscular torso and the feminine sculpted face. The figure is not so demonic, it could be you or the artist, and yet there is a madness in the composition which is difficult to define. His Seated Demon (top), for example, has in its color psychology and the posture of the central character something unsettling. His art is simply extraordinary, and will take you, like the greatest in Russian literature, to depths that both educate and endanger your sensibility. One artist, who explored this melancholic tendency against Western influence, was Mikhail Vrubel. Indeed, many formed a coalition against Western influences, aiming to capture the realism of the countryside and its people.
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Nevertheless, the Russian character, speaking from a post-postmodern context, is evident in the works of the finest Russian artists of the nineteenth century.
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The Internationalism we sometimes bemoan today has a very long history. The international influence becomes crystal clear when a Russian impressionist work is placed next to a French one. Many Russian artists up until, and even after, the revolution were either of foreign extraction or spent a great deal of time in cultural centers like Paris and Rome.