Mikhail Vrubel

Fülszöveg

Mikhail Yrubel (1856—1910) as an artist always strove to capture the essence of life, to grasp its philosophical meaning, and to determine Man's place in the universe. Vrubel strove to revive monumental painting, to return to the grandeur of Renaissance art, and to unite the high-strung spirituality of his time, lull of contradictions as it was, with profound meditations on the eternal questions of Good, Evil, and Truth. He found inspiration in the imagery of the Russian epos, Romantic poetry, and classical antiquity; his heroes were derived from works of Pushkin, Lermontov, Goethe, and France. He paid tribute to both Symbolism and Art Nouveau, significantly fostering these trends in Russia, but his creations were incomparably broader and richer. He created the majestic images of The Demon, splendid and all-powerful, yet incapable of finding happiness in a world that rejected him, and The Prophet, a ghostly embodiment of goodness and wisdom, as well as numerous portraits,... Tovább

Fülszöveg

Mikhail Yrubel (1856—1910) as an artist always strove to capture the essence of life, to grasp its philosophical meaning, and to determine Man's place in the universe. Vrubel strove to revive monumental painting, to return to the grandeur of Renaissance art, and to unite the high-strung spirituality of his time, lull of contradictions as it was, with profound meditations on the eternal questions of Good, Evil, and Truth. He found inspiration in the imagery of the Russian epos, Romantic poetry, and classical antiquity; his heroes were derived from works of Pushkin, Lermontov, Goethe, and France. He paid tribute to both Symbolism and Art Nouveau, significantly fostering these trends in Russia, but his creations were incomparably broader and richer. He created the majestic images of The Demon, splendid and all-powerful, yet incapable of finding happiness in a world that rejected him, and The Prophet, a ghostly embodiment of goodness and wisdom, as well as numerous portraits, brilliant in their psychological depth and inner tension, all painted in a distinctive manner characteristic of Vrubel alone, with the brushstrokes merging into crystal-like iridescent clots. In fact, he created a whole world of unusual spiritual intensity and passionate yearning for some ideal harmony that he failed to attain. Tormented by constant dissatisfaction, Vrubel never created the ultimate, great work, of which he dreamed throughout his artistic career, but his quest yielded many remarkable paintings, which, so amply offered here to foreign readers for the first time, reveal Vrubel's unique position in world culture of the turn of the century.
The book has been compiled by the eminent scholar Mikhail Guerman, Doctor of Arts. Vissza