Comments | alexandral: Joy of beautiful paintings

alexandral

Joy of beautiful paintings

Jan 04, 2007 17:05

Art of Mikhail VrubelOne of my most beloved painters, Mikhail Aleksandrovich Vrubel, was born in my home city, Omsk, Siberia in 1856. His manner of painting is wonderfully unique and influenced by Late Byzantine style, though he is considered to belong to Art Nouveau wave ( Read more... )

paintings

Comments 39

kiaforrest January 4 2007, 17:15:29 UTC

WOW!
These are gorgeous!
I really like Pan's fingers - the flute and those Bold eyes!
Thanks for sharing!

alexandral January 4 2007, 18:20:36 UTC

I am so glad you liked them - aren't Pan's eyes fabulous? They are as old as the Earth and very young at the same time. And he seems to know EVERYTHING.

nutmeg3 January 4 2007, 17:19:24 UTC

Wow! Those are stunning. And very modern in the way of so much current fantasy art / illustration. If you'd told me he was a contemporary artist, I would have believed you without question.

alexandral January 4 2007, 18:21:59 UTC

This is so interesting that you noticed this. I grew up with his paintings and never gave it a thought, but Vrubel's art does seem to be so much ahead of his time.

baleanoptera January 4 2007, 17:20:12 UTC

Ooo *stares in wonderment* These are absolutely gorgeous! I agree that the Demon one is beautiful, but I also like the dark, mysterious Azriel and the Siren.

The Azriel picture looks inspired by medieval art and icons, which would make sense since you mention his inspiration from Late Byzantine style.

I just going to stare a little at these images, and marvel at them. Thank you! :)

alexandral January 4 2007, 18:28:44 UTC

I am so glad you liked the paintings! Actually, your posts about the paintings inspired me to post some of my favourite art. :D

Siren means "Lilac" in Russian, like the flowering bush, but I like that it takes the different meaning in English. Azriel in Russian is "seraph with six pairs of wings".

The Azriel picture looks inspired by medieval art and icons, which would make sense since you mention his inspiration from Late Byzantine style.

Vrubel painted icons and also he excelled in ceramics and stained glass. He was trying to apply for painting of St Vladimir's Cathedral in Kiev, but failed.

baleanoptera January 4 2007, 18:57:52 UTC

*blushes* I truly honored that I could have inspired such a great post. But once again - thank you for posting! This was so great.

And it's really interesting about the different meaning of Siren in Russian and English. I does change the way one views the picture.

And now I know the story behind you "Swan princess" icon. I have wondered who the artist was you see. ;)

alexandral January 5 2007, 10:28:34 UTC

And it's really interesting about the different meaning of Siren in Russian and English. I does change the way one views the picture.

Actually in Russian Siren is "Sirena" and Lilac is "Siren", I never noticed it before but I think that this similarity is not accidental.

And now I know the story behind you "Swan princess" icon. I have wondered who the artist was you see. ;)

I want to re-make it now I have found a good picture again, I don't like the font.

Thread 16

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alexandral January 4 2007, 18:33:36 UTC

EEEEEE! I am so glad you had a chance to see them live. I have seen them in Tretyakov's gallery in Moscow.

Isn’t it actually painting “The Demon” that supposedly led to his nervous breakdown?

A!! That was his second painting from this cycle - "Fallen Demon" (the one with the gorgeous looking man is called "Seating demon", actually ). I have added "Fallen Demon" to the post and you can see it now, but it is not one of my favourites. Apparently, Vrubel kept re-painting the face of Demon for the "Fallen Demon" numerous amounts of times and this led to the breakdown.

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alexandral January 5 2007, 10:25:57 UTC

It looks already very tormented and tortured to me :P

It does, doesn't it? It aways fascinates me how much of the artist's soul one can see in his works. This is why I like this painting less then the "Seated demon", it is very depression-inducing. :D Also I adore Lermontov's poem (he is my favourite among Russia poets, it is such a pity he didn't live long).

gobi_rex January 4 2007, 19:47:56 UTC

Eh, I remember seeing these in person, they are absolutely stunning. Pictures don't do them justice, unfortunately.

I don't remember having seen Azriel before. It's so mermerizing.

Thanks so much for sharing these, Alexandra.

alexandral January 5 2007, 10:31:28 UTC

I am so glad you enjoyed it!

I don't remember having seen Azriel before. It's so mermerizing.

I don't remember seeing it too, though it is supposed to be in Tretyakov's. In Russian it is called "Shestikrily seraphim", like in Pushkin's poem (one of my favourites!!!)