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On the arable land. Spring
Alexey Gavrilovich Venetsianov • Painting, 1820-th
, 65.5×51.2 cm
Description of the artwork «On the arable land. Spring»
"On the arable land. Spring" the most famous, but the most mysterious of the paintings of Alexei Venetsianov. Here are some facts that will allow a new look on a familiar canvas.
Ethnography is not the most important in the picture. Even though the sarafan and kokoshnik
Scholars of peasant life set Venetsianova to reproach, that the woman he harrow the land, i.e., engaged in "black" labour, in holiday attire. It is de belittles the real truth of life. The accusations are without merit for two fundamental reasons. The first ploughing for centuries been a holiday (and in pagan times it could even be accompanied by festivals to appease the gods of fertility). And secondly, least of all in this picture Venetsianov was going to pay a tribute to the Ethnography. His goal was not to record with photographic accuracy of daily peasant life, but to capture the very being in his eternal, timeless forms.
Why is the farmer behind the plow looks bigger horses?
The first in the Russian art of Venetsianov saw the labor of the husbandman as a sacrament, as something sacred. His peasant is written with violation of the proportional relationship and looks a better horse, because it is not a real woman, and an allegorical Spring. Its power and become akin to the art of high antiquity. And horses, one of accurate research comments "more like a winged Pegasus, than the starved peasant nags".
The picture has a "mirror effect"
The artist put in the picture a few interesting visual effects. The first is that he deliberately understated the horizon. This technique is used in iconography, but the secular Russian painting it to Venetsianov did not use one. A low horizon is needed to give the main character a sense of monumentality and solemnity.
Another trick in the second image, a "mirror" of a peasant woman. In the background we see a small, receding either the female figure with the horse. This is probably just another woman, processing a piece of the furrow. But it's hard to shake the feeling that it's all the same, our farmer spring with the first plan, made a circle and now leaving us in an uncertain future. Perhaps this technique of doubling needed Venetsianova to emphasize the cyclical nature of everything that happens in nature.
"On the arable land. Spring" is much smaller than it seems
Those who had known the painting only by Venetsianov reproductions and descriptions like ours, are affected by its small size when you first see the original in the Tretyakov gallery. Indeed, the message of the painting so powerful and widespread that in the first moment of real meeting with her it's hard to believe its size – only 51 to 65 inches.
Perhaps, "On the arable land. Spring" - part hypothetical venetsianovskoy "seasons"
In fact, a cycle such author's name Venetsianov was not. However, the interpreters, seeing the obvious thematic similarities of the films "On the arable land. Spring" and "At harvest. Summer" made that in the mid-1820s, the artist conceived a series of 4 canvases, each of which would correspond to the time of year. The role of the "autumn" picture was nominated "Haymaking" (long time hidden from the General public in a private collection, then for sale, and in 2001-m to year of battle carried away by the Tretyakov gallery, the National gallery in London). As for the "winter" quarter of the cycle, it is assumed that it was the missing painting called "Landscape. Winter." Maybe sooner or later she will come up from obscurity and we can see it for yourself.
Author: Anna Yesterday
Ethnography is not the most important in the picture. Even though the sarafan and kokoshnik
Scholars of peasant life set Venetsianova to reproach, that the woman he harrow the land, i.e., engaged in "black" labour, in holiday attire. It is de belittles the real truth of life. The accusations are without merit for two fundamental reasons. The first ploughing for centuries been a holiday (and in pagan times it could even be accompanied by festivals to appease the gods of fertility). And secondly, least of all in this picture Venetsianov was going to pay a tribute to the Ethnography. His goal was not to record with photographic accuracy of daily peasant life, but to capture the very being in his eternal, timeless forms.
Why is the farmer behind the plow looks bigger horses?
The first in the Russian art of Venetsianov saw the labor of the husbandman as a sacrament, as something sacred. His peasant is written with violation of the proportional relationship and looks a better horse, because it is not a real woman, and an allegorical Spring. Its power and become akin to the art of high antiquity. And horses, one of accurate research comments "more like a winged Pegasus, than the starved peasant nags".
The picture has a "mirror effect"
The artist put in the picture a few interesting visual effects. The first is that he deliberately understated the horizon. This technique is used in iconography, but the secular Russian painting it to Venetsianov did not use one. A low horizon is needed to give the main character a sense of monumentality and solemnity.
Another trick in the second image, a "mirror" of a peasant woman. In the background we see a small, receding either the female figure with the horse. This is probably just another woman, processing a piece of the furrow. But it's hard to shake the feeling that it's all the same, our farmer spring with the first plan, made a circle and now leaving us in an uncertain future. Perhaps this technique of doubling needed Venetsianova to emphasize the cyclical nature of everything that happens in nature.
"On the arable land. Spring" is much smaller than it seems
Those who had known the painting only by Venetsianov reproductions and descriptions like ours, are affected by its small size when you first see the original in the Tretyakov gallery. Indeed, the message of the painting so powerful and widespread that in the first moment of real meeting with her it's hard to believe its size – only 51 to 65 inches.
Perhaps, "On the arable land. Spring" - part hypothetical venetsianovskoy "seasons"
In fact, a cycle such author's name Venetsianov was not. However, the interpreters, seeing the obvious thematic similarities of the films "On the arable land. Spring" and "At harvest. Summer" made that in the mid-1820s, the artist conceived a series of 4 canvases, each of which would correspond to the time of year. The role of the "autumn" picture was nominated "Haymaking" (long time hidden from the General public in a private collection, then for sale, and in 2001-m to year of battle carried away by the Tretyakov gallery, the National gallery in London). As for the "winter" quarter of the cycle, it is assumed that it was the missing painting called "Landscape. Winter." Maybe sooner or later she will come up from obscurity and we can see it for yourself.
Author: Anna Yesterday
