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Kings feast

Pavel Filonov • Painting, 1913, 175×215 cm
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About the artwork
Art form: Painting
Subject and objects: Genre scene, Allegorical scene
Style of art: Analytical realism
Technique: Oil
Materials: Canvas
Date of creation: 1913
Size: 175×215 cm
Artwork in selections: 23 selections

Description of the artwork «Kings feast»

The picture "Feast of Kings" For nine days, the body of Pavel Filonov was covered - in besieged Leningrad, not only food was not available, but also boards. Finally, the Union of Soviet Artists singled out nine boards, of which the coffin was made for the creator of analytical art. He failed to evade this last handout of "bastards," as Filonov called this unification.

Next year the First World War will begin. It seems that the Feast of Kings, written in 1913, predicts it. Filonov's close friend, the futurist poet Velimir Khlebnikov, spoke of the painting: "Feast of corpses, feast of revenge". According to the principles of analytical art, it makes no sense to depict a certain “plot”, because it is always a halt, a dead cast. The picture should capture metamorphoses, depict movement - but not external movement in space, as among futurists, but the internal, rather movement in time, stage of a certain process. The Feast of Kings seems to be showing us the process of decay ...

This is the final version of the picture, there was also another "Feast of Kings", a similar plot in lighter colors. And the main difference, perhaps, is that in the first version the kings are still clearly and obviously alive, and it seems that there is some conversation between them. The second “Feast of Kings” seems to be a feast of the dead, a depressing feeling of silence emanates from the picture. There is no place for conversation.

The overall tone of the picture is blood red. Everything seems to be happening in the dungeon, an atmosphere of sacrifice has been created. The table depicts 11 figures, including two under the table and one - someone like a homunculus - on the table. In the upper left corner attract the attention of the three most majestic figures, among them - a woman. It is written in slightly brighter colors, not so bloody. Could be considered a glimpse in this hellish haze, but no, her pose is copied by the jester sitting under the table, and thereby reduces and destroys the possibility of a "ray of light" in this kingdom.

The figures on either side of the woman are depicted with arms crossed on her chest. It is noteworthy that in the first version of "Pira" there is also one female figure - the grotesquely depicted old woman in the foreground holds a goblet in one hand, the second reaches for the grapes. Temptation?

The table seems like a sacrificial lectern. The central place is fish - in Christianity symbolizing Christ himself. “God is dead”, it is just right to agree with Nietzsche, looking at this “Last Supper”. Many researchers see in the picture a symbol of "anti-supper", anti-communion.

Two of the figures - one near the triple (trinity?) Of the "main", the second in the right corner - are depicted with their eyes closed. Are you dead? Are you dead drunk? But what seems to be a fun feast is least likely. Recall that Filonov depicts a process that holographically includes in every moment everything that was before and after. Once all these kings were alive. We wonder if two of them are dead, and at that moment death appears at the table - even if the rest are alive, this is not for long. Despite the obvious analogies with the sacrifice, we do not see a sheep or a ram that would be intended for slaughter. The only animal is a dog curled up at the clown's feet. The devilish symbolism of the image of a dog is well known. In total, there are 12 creatures in the picture. Moreover, they are depicted in a state of numbness, expectation. Who is the 13th? Is he not welcomed by a raised glass by the figure on the right, under whose throne the dog curled up?

The Feast of Kings sends the viewer to both icons and to the poetics of Bosch paintings. Filonov himself said that his paintings on the day of the “Last Judgment of Art” will become that straw that will decide the fate of mankind, and in the manifesto “Paintings Made” he wrote that people would come to his paintings as icons.

Author: Alain Esaulova
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