Secrets of "The Last Day of Pompeii": Which of the contemporaries Karl Bryullov depicted in the picture four times

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

1939 years ago, on August 24, 79 AD, the most devastating eruption of Mount Vesuvius occurred, as a result of which the cities of Herculaneum, Stabia and Pompeii were destroyed. This event has more than once become the subject of works of art, and the most famous of them is Karl Bryullov's "The Last Day of Pompeii". However, few people know that in this picture the artist depicted not only himself, but also the woman with whom he was romantically involved in four images.

While working on this painting, the artist lived in Italy. In 1827 he went to the excavations of Pompeii, in which his brother Alexander also participated. Obviously, then he conceived the idea to create a monumental picture on a historical theme. He wrote about his impressions: "".

The preparation process took Bryullov several years - he studied the customs of ancient Italy, learned the details of the catastrophe from the letters of the eyewitness of the tragedy Pliny the Younger to the Roman historian Tacitus, visited the excavations several times, exploring the ruined city, made sketches in the archaeological museum of Naples. In addition, Pacini's opera "The Last Day of Pompeii" was a source of inspiration for the artist, and he dressed his sitters in the costumes of participants in this performance.

Bryullov depicted some figures on his canvas in the same poses in which skeletons were found in the petrified ash at the site of the tragedy. The artist borrowed the image of a young man with his mother from Pliny - he described how, during a volcanic eruption, an old woman asked her son to leave her and run. However, the picture captured not only historical details with documentary accuracy, but also Bryullov's contemporaries.

In one of the characters, Bryullov portrayed himself - this is an artist who is trying to save the most precious thing he has - a box with brushes and paints. He seemed to freeze for a minute, trying to remember the picture unfolding in front of him. In addition, Bryullov captured the features of his beloved, Countess Yulia Samoilova in four images: this is a girl who bears a vessel on her head, a mother hugging her daughters, a woman holding a baby to her chest, and a noble Pompeian woman who fell from a broken chariot.

Countess Samoilova was one of the most beautiful and wealthy women of the early 19th century. Due to her scandalous reputation, she had to leave Russia and settle in Italy. There she gathered the whole bloom of society - composers, painters, diplomats, actors. For her villas, she often ordered sculptures and paintings, including from Karl Bryullov. He painted several of her portraits, which can be used to establish similarities with the images depicted in "The Last Day of Pompeii." In all the paintings one can feel his tender attitude towards Samoilova, about which A. Benois wrote: "". Their romance with interruptions lasted 16 years, and during this time Bryullov even managed to get married and divorced.

The artist tried to be as accurate as possible in conveying details, so even today it is possible to establish the scene of action chosen by Bryullov - this is the Herculaneum Gate, behind which the "Street of Tombs" began - a burial place with magnificent tombs. "", - he wrote in one of the letters. In the 1820s. this part of the lost city was already well cleared, which allowed the artist to reproduce the architecture as accurately as possible. Volcanologists drew attention to the fact that Bryullov very reliably depicted an earthquake with a power of 8 points - this is how structures collapse during tremors of such strength.

The picture depicts several groups of characters, each of which is a separate story against the background of a general catastrophe, but this "polyphony" does not destroy the impression of the artistic integrity of the picture. Because of this feature, it was like the final scene of a play, in which all the storylines are connected. Gogol wrote about this in an article dedicated to "The Last Day of Pompeii", comparing the picture "". The writer drew attention to one more feature: "".

When 6 years later, in 1833, the work was completed and the painting was exhibited in Rome and Milan, Bryullov was in for a real triumph. The Italians did not hide their delight and showed the artist all kinds of honors: on the street in front of him, passers-by took off their hats, when he appeared in the theater, everyone rose from their seats, many people gathered near the door of his house to greet the painter. Walter Scott, who at that time was in Rome, sat in front of the painting for several hours, and then went up to Bryullov and said: ""

In July 1834, the painting was brought to Russia, and here Bryullov's success was no less overwhelming. Gogol called "The Last Day of Pompeii" "". Baratynsky wrote a laudatory ode in honor of Bryullov, the lines from which later became an aphorism: "". And Pushkin dedicated poems to this picture:

According to the myth, the gods punished Pompeii for the licentious nature of the townspeople: Secrets of the life and death of the ancient city.