Video: "Rural religious procession at Easter": How Perov was almost sent into exile for this painting
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Vasily Perov has always been worried about Russian types. He even returned from a trip to Italy, where the Academy of Arts had sent him for his merits, returned ahead of schedule, because he considered that that life was incomprehensible to him, and he would not be able to create something of his own there. Perhaps the most resonant of his paintings was "The Rural Procession at Easter". Some praised the painting for its truthfulness, while others were indignant: how not to get the artist into exile to Solovki for his insolence.
At first glance, the painting by Vasily Perov, painted in 1861, depicts a uniform disgrace. The drunken priest can barely stand on his feet as an insole, peasants are lying next to him in even worse condition. And the procession is not at its best. The icon is scratched in the woman's hands, and an old man walking next to him keeps the image upside down.
The action takes place on a bright week (a week after Easter), so the picture does not depict a procession of the cross around the church on Easter night, as it might seem. So what then happens on Perov's canvas?
The fact is that in the Russian Empire, the salaries of priests were not paid. As a rule, parishes had land plots and a tiny subsidy from the state. Therefore, in an effort to increase their income, the priests invented the custom of praising at Easter. In the week after the Bright holiday, the priests went to the peasant farmsteads. They went into every hut and sang church chants. The peasants, in turn, had to thank the priests for wishing prosperity with a gift or money.
In reality, it didn't look so good. The priests, trying to bypass as many houses as possible, sang the chants very quickly. The peasants believed that they were simply robbed. After all, the time for Easter was the most economically difficult, when after the winter there was no money left, and food supplies were coming to an end. To get rid of the priests, they were often poured alcohol and escorted out of the hut.
It is this side of the relationship between the church and the peasants that Vasily Perov portrayed in his painting. It is worth noting that his canvas caused a storm of indignation both in church circles and among artists. The painter Vasily Khudyakov wrote an emotional appeal to Tretyakov, who acquired the painting "Rural Religious Procession at Easter" for his collection:
. Tretyakov had to remove the picture from the exhibition.
But there were also those who considered the true situation of the peasants in the picture of the great-hacker Perov. Critic Vladimir Stasov spoke of the canvas as truthful and sincere, conveying real types of people.
Another incredibly emotional painting by Vasily Perov cannot leave anyone indifferent. "Troika (The disciples of the artisans are carrying water)" was immediately praised by all critics, but for an ordinary woman the picture turned into a tragedy.
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