Exercise 11. Choose a historical picture and speak of its role to the Russian people.

Exercise 12. How can you explain the predominance of genres in different art schools?

- the Renaissance – Madonna compositions;

- European classicism – painting, based on the religious and mythological plot;

- British Golden Age of painting – portraiture;

- French Impressionism – landscape painting;

- Russian Critical realism – genre painting (contemporary life scenes and historical painting).

Exercise 13. The speech below is what a guide said about Surikov’s picture “Boyarinya Morosova”. Read the guide’s description and write down its plan. Use the vocabulary necessary for your own description against each point of the plan.

In front of you is the Boyarinya Morosova. This amazing epic canvas belongs to the brush of Vasily Surikov, an outstanding Russian Itinerant and was painted in 1887.

The subject of the painting is based on a historic fact that actually occurred during the reign of Tsar Alexey Mikhailovich, the father of Peter the Great and depicts a tragic event arising from the religious schism (raskol) that shook the country in the 17^th century. The schism was the form of spontaneous protest by he masses against oppression, poverty and spiritual enslavement.

Cold winter morning in Moscow. The street is filled with throngs of people. Seated in an ordinary peasant sledge Boyarinya Morosova, the first Boyarinya of Moscow, is being driven off to exile for her unbending adherence to the old believers, the so called dissenters (Raskolniki).

The Boyarinya forms the centre of the composition and immediately attracts viewers’ attention. Burning and fanatical are the woman’s eyes as she looks into the crowd, pale and inspired is her face, marked by an inner storm of emotions. With the motion of her hand raised in an eloquent gesture with two fingers making the sign of the cross, the symbol of the dissenters, she calls upon the people to stand firm in defense of their religious ideals. The artist captured with superb skill Morosova’s spirit that no amount of torture could break.

The crowd surrounding the sledge is made up of a rich variety of vivid types, some distressed and sympathizing, some jeering and spiteful, some just gazing in idle curiosity. The Boyarinya’s sister, Princess Urusova, who is walking by the sledge, is ready to share her fate. The kneeling old beggar woman worships the heroic martyr. The pilgrim is absorbed in deep thought. The young girl is standing with a brightened expression in her eyes. All the parts are brought together with great mastery revealing Surikov’s great sense of composition. From the compositional point of view the picture is divided into two parts with the sledge bearing the Boyarinya in the centre.

Surikov spells out the great national tragedy with such force and power, with such a deep insight into the human nature that the story seems to be unfolding live, not on canvas. The crowd is portrayed in a superbly realistic manner; one can feel it’s heaving motion and agitated state. Due to the overall effect of the swaying crowd, the running boy and the fresh ruts in the snow, the sledge seems to be moving before our very eyes.

This was a theme new to art, and Surikov used new expressive means to give it substance – an original and dynamic compositional arrangement, a harmonious selection of pure, sonorous colours and a play of light and shadow. The tragic figure of Morosova, which is the conceptual centre of the picture, stands out as a dark patch against the motley crowd. Bluish tints predominate in the canvas. The blues, the reds and the yellows merge into one another and create a harmonious whole. The background of the picture, a Moscow landscape, repeats the blue, yellow and red colour scheme of the shawl worn by the Princess Urusova with its white background.

The picture is a remarkable example of Russian Critical Realism and will ever rank among the masterpieces of pictorial art.