Works of art dedicated to the volcanic eruption. Famous works of art dedicated to children 

Art appeared almost immediately after the emergence of mankind, and over the centuries many of the greatest works in painting, sculpture and other areas of art have been created. Which of them is considered the best is a very controversial issue, because even experts disagree on this matter. Today we will try to compile a list of the ten most famous works of art of all time.

10 PHOTOS

one. " Starlight Night", Van Gogh.

The picture painted Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh in 1889. The inspiration for this work of art was the night sky, which he observed from the window of his room at St. Paul's Orphanage.

prehistoric cave drawings animals created about 30 thousand years ago. The Chauvet cave is located in the south of France.

Stone monolithic statues located on Easter Island in pacific ocean. It is believed that the statues were created by the natives of the island between 1250 and 1500 AD.

The most notable work French sculptor Auguste Rodin, created in 1880.

This painting, painted by Leonardo da Vinci between 1494 and 1498, is the scene of the last meal of Jesus with his disciples, described in the biblical gospel of John.

One of the most famous frescoes Michelangelo, located in the Sistine Chapel of the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican. The fresco illustrates the story of the creation of Adam from the biblical book of Genesis.

One of the most famous ancient Greek sculptural works, created sometime between 130 and 100 BC. marble sculpture was discovered in 1820 on the island of Milos.

In the picture painted Italian artist Sandro Botticelli, the scene of the appearance of the goddess Venus from the sea is depicted. The painting is in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy. 10. "Mona Lisa", da Vinci.

A masterpiece by Leonardo da Vinci, created approximately between 1503 and 1506. The painting is in the Louvre Museum in Paris.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti. "Joan of Arc". 1882 Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK

Joan of Arc

The story of Joan of Arc, a simple peasant woman who took up arms and, guided by the voices of the saints, went to save her homeland in the Hundred Years' War, enchanted the Pre-Raphaelites. However, about her exploits and tragic death everyone knows. Another thing is curious - Jane Morris, the groom's daughter, posed for this picture. Rossetti, together with a friend, the artist Burne-Jones, accidentally met her in the theater and, admiring the beauty of the girl, invited her to become a model. Jane later married the artist William Morris, learned Italian and French, mastered the piano, began to write good poetry and translate. Due to this transformation, she is considered one of the prototypes of Eliza Doolittle from Shaw's play Pygmalion. In the painting, Joan of Arc is depicted as if kissing a sword - a symbol of the liberation of the country. Her luxurious red hair is loose - Rossetti enjoyed painting the curls of Jane Morris, who, despite the fact that she was his friend's wife, also became his mistress.

Leon Bakst. Costume design for Cleopatra for Ida Rubinstein for the ballet by A.S. Arensky "Cleopatra". 1909 Collection of N.D. Lobanov-Rostovsky, London

Cleopatra

The Egyptian queen Cleopatra VII became famous for her intelligence and charm, thanks to which she won the hearts of such enemies of her country as the great commanders Mark Antony and Julius Caesar. Judging by the surviving sculptures and coins, Cleopatra was not a beauty - however, in art, this woman is usually portrayed as irresistible. According to legend, the queen sometimes allowed a man to become her lover for one night - but only on the condition that he would be executed the next morning. We know this plot from Pushkin's Egyptian Nights, but Theophile Gauthier's short story Cleopatra's Night is dedicated to the same story. It was this short story that became the basis of the ballet, the music for which was composed in 1900 by the composer Anton Arensky. The ballet premiered in 1908 at Diaghilev's Russian Seasons. The part of Cleopatra was danced by Ida Rubinstein. The success was overwhelming - largely due to the magnificent costumes and scenery by Leon Bakst. One of the surviving drawings is a sketch of the queen's outfit for the leading actress. Here, of course, no longer from the true Cleopatra, but from Ida Rubinstein. Although the ballerina was not considered a brilliant dancer, thanks to her character and temperament she entered the history of art (including Russian painting - let's remember her portrait by Serov), received excellent roles, became a star. She did not disappear in emigration, she gathered her own troupe.

Giorgione. "Judith". About 1504 State Hermitage, St. Petersburg

Judith

The story of the brave Jewish woman, the widow Judith, is known from the Old Testament. When the Assyrians besieged her native city, Judith dressed up in rich clothes and, posing as a traitorous prophetess, went to the enemy camp. She promised the Assyrians to show the way to the fortress and the commander Holofernes liked her so much that he invited her to dinner and tried to seduce her. However, Judith gave him wine to drink, and when Holofernes fell asleep, she cut off his head and returned in triumph to her native city. Confused enemies turned the siege. The plot of the death of Holofernes became one of the most popular in the Baroque era, but at that time the painters relished the scene of violence, depicting direct murder and blood flows. The painting by Giorgione was written earlier, in the era High Renaissance when peace and harmony were the ideal. It is these feelings that fill the canvas. Judith on it does not resemble a furious avenger and patriot, but a serene ancient goddess. At first glance, the severed head of Holofernes, which she tramples with her foot, may not be noticed.

Paolo Veronese. "The Vision of Saint Helena". Around 1580 Vatican Pinacoteca

Saint Helena

Elena, whose full name sounds like Flavia Julia Elena Augusta, one of the most prominent women Byzantine Empire. Actually, this empire was created by her son Constantine the Great. In addition, Elena is among the six women who are revered as equal to the apostles, that is, on a par with the apostles. Such great destiny nothing foreshadowed: Elena was born into a simple family and, apparently, worked as a servant in her father's tavern. There, the commander Constantius I Chlorus, the future Roman emperor, met her, to whom she gave birth to a son, Constantine. However, Constantius abandoned Helen to marry the daughter of his co-emperor. Elena waited for revenge when her son became emperor - he proclaimed his mother "August" (queen). Like Constantine, who made Christianity the state religion of the empire, Helen adopted this faith. According to life, once in a dream she had a vision - the queen was ordered to go to the Holy Land and find the cross on which Christ was crucified. Veronese just portrayed this dream. Helen really went to Jerusalem and excavated at Golgotha. The relics found by her four centuries after the execution (a cross, nails and an INRI tablet) are revered by Christians as genuine.

Not famous artist. Portrait of Elizabeth I (Armada portrait). 1590s Royal Museums Greenwich, UK

Elizabeth Tudor

Queen Elizabeth I of England went down in history as one of the greatest female rulers. She was able to stay on the throne, despite the dubiousness of her right to succession, numerous Catholic conspiracies and wars. And all this without a strong male shoulder: the queen loudly declared herself a "Virgin" and resolutely refused to marry. Among the key events of her reign is the defeat of the Spanish flotilla, the Invincible Armada, which was heading for the shores of England in 1588. More than a hundred Spanish ships fought for two weeks in the English Channel with English and Dutch ships. The allegorical portrait of Elizabeth, called the "Armada portrait", is dedicated to this particular victory. The picture is full of many details that are curious to look at. The windows in the background show two naval episodes of the battle. One depicts English ships just getting ready for battle, the other depicts how Spanish ships are shipwrecked off the Irish coast. The queen's hand rests on a globe, with her fingers "covering" America, which symbolizes England's dominion over the New World. The dress is embroidered with symbols of the sun, that is, power, and numerous pearl necklaces denote the moon, that is, the virginity of the queen. The armrest in the form of a sea siren is another reminder of the death of enemy ships.

John William Waterhouse. "Circe Invidiosa". 1892 Art Gallery South Australia, Adelaide

Circe

This magician from ancient Greek myths She received the gift of sorcery from her father, the sun god Helios. The sorceress Medea was her niece - and both of them were Colchis princesses, that is, they grew up on the coast modern Georgia. In her youth, Circe was married to the king of the Sarmatians - the people who lived on the territory of the present Black Sea region, but soon she poisoned him, seized power over the country and began to rule on her own. When Circe was overthrown, she fled to the ends of the earth and settled on her own island in the Mediterranean. All the men who got on the island, Circe turned into animals - some into pigs, and some into lions. Only the cunning Odysseus managed to escape this fate and win the heart of the sorceress. The author of the painting, the painter Waterhouse, belonged to art circle Pre-Raphaelites, who admired strong and mysterious women, beautiful ladies and Belle Dame sans Merci ("ruthless beauties"). Dressed in emerald, Circe on this canvas is both beautiful and ruthless: she pours a magic potion into the waves, where the beautiful Scylla, her rival in love with the sea god Glaucus, used to swim. The enchanted Scylla will turn into a monster (the tentacles are already visible in the waves) and settle on a rock opposite Charybdis.

About the most interesting exhibitions, concerts, auctions and others significant events from the world of art, read in.

Text: Sofia Bagdasarova

Volcanoes are considered one of the most impressive and scary natural phenomena. The eruptions of some of them, the most significant, have inspired many artists to create great works.

Canvas "The Last Day of Pompeii"

The most famous work of art about volcanoes was the painting "The Last Day of Pompeii". Its author is Karl Bryullov. It was written in the first half of the 19th century. Here the artist captured the eruption of one of the most powerful Italian volcanoes - Vesuvius. It happened in the summer of 79 AD. Its consequence was the complete destruction of three nearby cities, which were covered from above with a thick layer of volcanic ash and lava.

These cities were:

• Pompeii.
• Herculaneum.
• Stabiae.

The largest of them is Pompeii. It was a prosperous city where mostly wealthy Romans lived. There were summer estates of the nobility and the rich.

The eruption of Vesuvius has been described by many Roman historians. They testify that due to the dust that rose during the eruption and the fiery rockfall, the ships could not approach Pompeii. Therefore, the inhabitants of the city simply could not escape, and most of them died.

In the 18th century, Pompeii was unexpectedly discovered, and archaeological excavations began. Today there is a museum under open sky A that has a unique value. Many objects and houses here were buried under a layer of ash in an unchanged form and give a clear picture of the life of the Romans in that era.

Other works of art dedicated to volcanoes

In addition to Bryullov's painting, volcanic eruptions are the following works arts:

• The poem "Vesuvius Zev opened", the author - A.S. Pushkin.
• The poem "Volcanoes", author - B. Akhmadulina.
• The Last Day of Pompeii by Edward Bulwer-Lytton.
• Novella "Arria Marcellus", author - Theophile Gauthier.

All of them also describe the eruption of Vesuvius and the death of the city of Pompeii. Other similar incidents in art are practically not affected, perhaps because they did not have such a wide scale and number of victims.

The Novgorod Museum-Reserve has more than 150 works in its collections ancient Russian art dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Let's take a look at the 5 most curious "Virgins".

Wounded Mother of God

This fresco with a fragment of the face is one of the oldest Russian images of the Mother of God, created around 1130. A rare exhibit is exhibited for the first time, because the fresco was discovered quite recently - during archaeological excavations in 2014.

It is curious, but the excavations were carried out not in an open field and not on ruins, but in a building that has been perfectly preserved to this day - St. George's Cathedral of the St. George's Monastery. The fragment was found in the altar part of the temple (altar). The fact is that in the 1830s, ancient murals of the 12th century were knocked off the walls by order of Archimandrite Photius, and their crumbs were barbarously used to fill the floor. The fact that these sad eyes survived is a real miracle.

Sold Virgin

One of the amazing treasures of the Novgorod Museum-Reserve is a complex of double-sided "pills". These small holy icons on thin boards, which were placed on the lectern on holidays, were painted at the end of the 15th century. For centuries they have been kept in Sophia Cathedral, but after the revolution, the ensemble was divided and partly sold abroad. There were only 18 "pills" in the Novgorod museum.

Since the icons were church calendar, the great art critic Viktor Lazarev determined in the 1970s that there were not enough holidays, that is, there should be more icons. Eight tablets were found in the Tretyakov Gallery, a couple in the collection of the artist Korin, one in the Russian Museum. But the most interesting discovery It was committed in London: the antiquary Richard Temple sent Lazarev a photograph of a two-sided icon from his collection - with the Trinity and Our Lady Hodegetria on the back. She was exactly the right size and style for the others. And in 1987, Blanchett Rockefeller, widow of John D. Rockefeller III, bought this icon from Temple and donated it to the Novgorod Museum.

Watch and listen to a video tour of the halls of icon painting of the 15th-16th centuries of the Novgorod Museum-Reserve

Mother of God, invulnerable to arrows

To see the Mother of God on this large icon, you need to make some efforts, but in fact she is her main character. In the plot "The Miracle from the Icon of the Mother of God of the Sign" (Battle of the Novgorodians with the Suzdalians)" she is depicted twice - in the upper and middle register.

We see how a small square icon of the Mother of God of the Sign, where the Virgin Mary is depicted with her arms wide open in a protective gesture, is raised above the walls and the crowd, like a banner. She saves Novgorod from the troops Suzdal prince Mstislav Andreevich. This miracle happened in 1170.

The icon of Our Lady of the Sign from the 12th century depicted here is now kept in St. Sophia Cathedral (it did not come to the exhibition). And this large narrative icon, painted in 1460, is full of many details, historical characters and disappeared buildings.

Silk Mother of God

The miraculous icon of the Mother of God of the Sign of the 12th century, mentioned above, is not at the exhibition, since it was returned in 1991 Orthodox Church. For many centuries, for Novgorodians, it was the emblem of the city, its amulet, palladium. The icon was first kept in the Church of the Transfiguration of the Savior on Ilyina Street, and then in the Cathedral of the Znamensky Monastery. Of course, the shrine was richly decorated: it was covered with a gilded silver setting, and an embroidered veil was hung from the lower edge.

It is this veil of the 17th century that can be seen at the exhibition. It completely repeats the size miraculous icon. On canvas and silk fabric, with the help of gold and silver threads, the image of the shrine is carefully reproduced. You can see the saints in the margins and read their names - but on the original ancient icon these parts are so worn out that there is almost no paint layer left.

Mother of God with a detailed biography

Little is known about most ancient Russian icons - usually neither the name of the author, nor the date of creation, nor the circumstances of the order reach us. But the closer to the New Age, the more this situation changes. For example, thanks to the detailed inscription along the lower edge, much is clear about this icon of the Iberian Mother of God.

Although in style it resembles the 17th century, it turns out that in fact the icon was created much later - in 1827. It was written by the “Vyshnevolotsk tradesman” Ignatiy Eremeevich Chistyakov. The icon he created is a list of an image commissioned by the famous Patriarch Nikon for the Iversky Valdai Monastery he founded. That icon is indeed of the 17th century; it was painted in 1655. However, it is impossible to see it: when the monastery was closed in 1927, it was lost.

And Patriarch Nikon, in turn, followed in the footsteps of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, who seven years earlier, in 1648, ordered for the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin an exact copy of the very first Iberian icon from the Iberian Monastery on Athos. The royal image has been preserved, now it is in the Smolensk Cathedral

Great art takes a long time. All the works listed below are the painstaking work of great artists from around the world in different periods human existence. Greatest Works the arts are put together in the top 10.

10. Disco thrower

Popular Greek sculpture was created in 460-450 BC. The author of the work is the sculptor Miron. The original bronze statue has been lost. However, many copies have survived, mostly made of marble or a small layer of bronze.

Written in 1931 Spanish artist Salvador Dali, The Persistence of Memory is one of the most recognizable works of art. This work encourages people to think about their lifestyle, about how our time is spent. It is known that the artist was inspired by Einstein's Theory of Relativity when painting the picture.

Ancient greek statue was created between 130 and 100 BC. It is believed that the statue depicts Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty. The marble statue, 203 cm high, was created by Alexandrius of Antinous, although there are other versions of the creation of the sculpture. Hands were lost over time. Now this work of art can be viewed in the Louvre in Paris.

7. Scream


Most popular work Edvard Munch was painted in 1893. This picture was written with the help of oil and pastels on cardboard. This terrifying painting is in the National Gallery in Oslo, Norway.

6. Starry night


Starry Night was painted in 1889 by the famous Dutch Post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh. This work is one of the most famous contemporary culture. The painting is part of the permanent collection of the Museum contemporary art in New York. The piece was the inspiration for Don McLean's song Vincent, also known as Starry Starry Night.

5. Thinker


This bronze sculpture by Auguste Rodin depicts a naked man, whose dimensions are similar to those of a human. He sits on a stone with his hand to his chin and thinks about something. Naturally, this picture represents a philosophical trend. In total, about 28 full-size copies were poured, in which the height of a man is about 183 cm.

4. Creation of Adam


This grandiose work is located on the ceiling Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, Italy. Michelangelo painted the Creation of Adam between 1508 and 1512. This is just one of nine scenes from the book of Genesis, which are all painted in the center of the chapel's ceiling.

3. David


Another masterpiece from the Renaissance, created by the Italian artist Michelangelo. The David sculpture was created between 1501 and 1504. This 5-meter marble statue shows the naked biblical hero David. Since 1873, the statue has been in Florence in the Accademia Gallery.

This world masterpiece does not decorate a museum, but the wall of the dining room in the Santa Maria delle Grazie convent in Milan, Italy. It was painted at the end of the 15th century by the most famous artist of all time, Leonardo da Vinci. The painting depicts the scene of the last supper of Jesus with his disciples. This masterpiece is one of the main attractions of Milan.