The mystery of the ancient ceremony in Bridgman's painting: Procession of the Bull of Anubis:

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Frederick Arthur Bridgman is one of the most popular Orientalist painters. He created a canvas that transports the viewer to the times of Ancient Egypt. What are the secrets of the Egyptian tradition illuminated by his painting "Procession of the sacred bull Anubis"?

Frederick Arthur Bridgman is known for his paintings of the East. At the age of five, he announced that he decided to become an artist, and at sixteen he dropped out of school and began his career as an engraver with the American Banknote Company. However, this work soon bored Arthur, and in 1866 he went to Paris to study with the painter and sculptor Jean-Léon Jerome at the École des Beaux-Arts. In 1873 he went to North Africa.

In Africa, Bridgeman worked for five years, creating hundreds of sketches and collecting artifacts and costumes. Bridgeman painted the East and Africa magnificently, mysteriously, luxuriously and, most importantly, realistically. His imagery of exotic people and cultures fascinated Americans and Europeans throughout the 1880s. Subsequently, Bridgeman created many more oriental paintings from memory, inspired by a large collection of purchased Egyptian and Algerian souvenirs.

What allowed Bridgman to convey this region in such a natural way in his paintings to the smallest detail, is the work from nature. Unlike colleagues, the artist was allowed to enter the homes and harems of the people he met. Traveling to Algeria and Egypt, Bridgman completed over three hundred sketches and numerous photographs depicting the world of richly adorned and luxuriously dressed women in veils using transparent effects. A huge collection of artifacts that he acquired during his travels, including costumes, architecture and art, adorned his home.

After some time, the painter felt the need to change the subject and tried to find himself in the genre of symbolism, and then, in the 1890s. turned to historical, biblical themes and to ancient mythology ("Pharaoh crossing the Red Sea" and "Rejection of the Assyrian king"). In 1890, in New York, he published Winter in Algeria, which he illustrated with his paintings. These later works were not as successful as his oriental canvases. After the First World War, his popularity declined sharply, and he moved from Paris to Lyons-la-Forêt (Normandy, France), where he lived until the end of his days, without leaving painting.

"Procession of the sacred bull Anubis" - analysis

We will dwell on one of Bridgman's paintings, The Procession of the Sacred Bull of Anubis.

The painting belongs to the historical genre and has a reference to the ancient Egyptian tradition of the bull. Already in ancient times, people deified cattle - bulls and cows. William Tyler Alcott, in his book Myths of the Sun, details the details and meaning of the Egyptian bull procession.

Apis - in Egyptian mythology, the god of fertility in the guise of a bull with a solar disk (which we see on the head of the bull in the picture). Apis was associated with the cult of the dead and was considered the bull of Osiris (hence the name of the painting "the bull of Anubis"). The procession is led by priests, and jubilant crowds accompany it. Palace officials carry a sculpture of Osiris himself.

On the day of the feast of Osiris, the priests brought the bull to the banks of the Nile and solemnly drowned it in the Nile River. Then they were embalmed and buried in Memphis. The mourning continued until there was another bull, similar to the previous one, with the same marks. “Apis appear at long intervals. Their apparitions are celebrated with general jubilation. Apis is a calf from a cow, which at birth can never be pregnant (that is, she gives birth once). According to the Egyptians, a ray of light descends on the cow from the sky, and from it she gives birth to Apis. Apis is black, there is a white triangular spot on the forehead, an image of an eagle on the back, double hair on the tail, and an image of a beetle under the tongue”[Herodotus, 3: 27-28].

The symbolism of the bull is interesting: the black wool of the bull symbolized the scorching effect of the sun on the bodies, and the white spot on the forehead of the animal and the crescent moon on the side is the symbol of the moon. The eagle and the beetle are symbols of the sun. The rhythm plays an important role in the picture: the procession moves, we even hear people cheering, we practically catch every wave of musical instruments in the hands of the priestesses. The most prominent "spot" in the picture is, of course, the bull - the main character of the painting. The artist achieved this with the help of the darkest colors (if the main part of the picture is painted in light brown, brown tones, then the bull itself has black wool, which accentuates the attention). The priestess in front of the procession looks directly at us, the audience, as if inviting us to take part in the bull festival. The light in the picture flows smoothly from left to right - in the direction of the procession itself, falls on the columns with Egyptian patterns, illuminates the bull and the leading priests. The bright rays of the sun also allow us to see the paintings on the walls of the palace. In general, the picture belongs to the orientalist genre, closely intertwined with historical and religious motives.

Thus, the significant and creatively rich contribution of Frederick Arthur Bridgman to the art of the 19th century in general and to the coverage of oriental art in particular is undeniable. And, given the rich collection of artifacts, John Singer Sargent was right - one of the artist's contemporaries, declared the Bridgman residence one of two places to visit in Paris after the Eiffel Tower.