Vrubel's painting "Pan": the Greek Satyr or the Russian Goblin?

Mikhail Vrubel was one of the most talented and original Russian artists. Each of his paintings is characterized by emotional depth and unique vision of the characters. No one could imagine the demon and satire as beautiful and complex as Vrubel had seen them. His Faust is calm and peaceful, Margarita is majestic and beautiful, and Mephistopheles is almost caring. Vrubel not only interpreted the existing, he created new worlds, in which nothing obeys prejudices and the established opinion.

Vrubel's painting "Pan" completely differently represents the viewer of the ancient Greek demigod, rebel, rowdy and sensualist Satire.

The artist's heritage

Mikhail Vrubel is a Russian painter, who possessed a unique gift not only for depicting reality, but for creating new worlds on canvas. Vrubel lived an amazingly rich, but at the same time hectic life.

His career saw many ups and downs - critics alternately called his paintings "terrible woes" and "a genius symphony of colors and forms," the Academy of Fine Arts repeatedly deprived him of his patronage, only to later again take him under his wing. Vrubel passed his whole complex creative path alone - he was never a part of professional partnerships, large joint projects and certain movements and trends in painting.

Today the work of Mikhail Vrubel is an integral part of Russian art and represents a bright, original page in its history. Many art historians trace in the paintings of Vrubel the influence of the High Renaissance, early Byzantine painting, modernist and impressionistic trends. However, as in the life of the artist, Vrubel's work not only has no similar, but can not be clearly defined by the terminology existing in modern art.

History Pictures

The painting by M. Vrubel "Pan" belongs to a series of paintings that critics call fabulous or folklore nocturnes. These paintings depict characters in the background of a night landscape: for example, such paintings as "The Swan Princess", "To the Night", "Lilac", "Swan" and others.

Many of the scenes of his paintings Vrubel found in theatrical and ballet productions, in travels and stories about them, but the richest fount of inspiration for the artist was literature. Vrubel's painting "Pan" was created under the influence of the story of Nobel laureate Anatole France "Saint Satyr". The story impressed Vrubel so much that he painted the picture in a few days - over the unfinished portrait of his wife.

Vrubel's painting "Pan": analysis

Vrubel's paintings do not look like any other. All of them - motifs, tonal palette, characters and even individual brushstrokes - are unique and unrepeatable. Preferring dim and unremarkable landscapes, dark colors and deep plots, Vrubel managed to create the most vivid characters of Russian painting, among them Demon, Swan Princess and Pan. Vrubel's painting "Pan" is rightly considered the pinnacle of his "fairy-tale suite".

In addition to uniqueness, the artist's identity lies in the fact that Vrubel is a native Russian artist, in love with his folklore, native landscapes and rich culture. Even borrowed from other cultures, the stories emerged from the master's brush a little "Russified".

In no one picture this trend is not traced as vividly as in the canvas "Pan". Description of the picture of Mikhail Vrubel "Pan" speaks only of the "Russian spirit" - both in the picture and in its main character. The painting depicts a demigod of ancient Greek myths, but there is absolutely nothing Greek in the plot and composition.

Mikhail Vrubel, "Pan": description of the painting

Against the backdrop of the Russian night landscape, a character, incredibly like a bream, sits, pondering; His belonging to the Aegean myths is given only by a hoof. It is this that tells us that the old man did not sit on the stump, but on his goat's legs, and therefore he is not our leshy. On this difference ends.

Even goat hooves and the name of the painting "Pan" does not prevent the viewer from seeing in the sitting satire a character of native folklore. Vrubel replaced in his Pana carefree for serenity, riot at calmness, constant music for a brief moment of silence. There is not a picture and a bright variety of dishes and wines, there are no beautiful nymphs and dryads around the satire.

Pan is calm and a little sad, his bright blue eyes shine in the night with the light of unspeakable stories, untrodden trails and past days. The smart, smiling dryads are replaced by thin white birches, no less beautiful in their silence.

In general, the hero of the picture, and the landscape, and the color palette are filled with mysterious symbols of the captivating world of the artist. Vrubel's symbolism is emphasized by his interest in the dual nature of fairy-tale creatures. In many of his works Vrubel unites the mystical and human, creating a single inseparable image. That is why his "Pan", despite serenity, calm and kind look, nevertheless embodies the power and uncharted power of the behind-the-scenes, magical world.