Reflections on church painting

Contents About cardboard B-i About cardboard R-a I find that the description of the two cardboards made by you adorns these cardboards with many beautiful thoughts. With this description, the imagination is prepared, the eyes are prepared to see beautiful icons, almost alive, speaking a most instructive sermon. At least that's the mood I got. But when my eyes turned from reading to the drawings, my expectation was not realized: I saw not the icons of our Orthodox Church, but caricatures of icons. It was as if a singer from the Italian stage began to sing in his own way, with an outpouring of romantic feeling, our majestic Cherubic Song. A beautiful, sublime thought - to depict the indescribable Deity with the word He, from Whom are the rays! Why did the Angels turn their gaze away from the Deity depicted so beautifully? They should have taught those present to reverence the Divine; they should show the desire for the Divine with all their heart, with all their soul, with all their thoughts, with all their strength, as this is required, this is taught by the Savior Himself. In this state, by the very thing, are the Angels who stand before the glory of God, as Scripture reveals to us. On the contrary, here the Angels show little attention and respect to the Divine, not one deigns to look at Him, everyone yawns (excuse the expression) around. And the majestic Sy stands alone, separated, cut off from the whole picture! Did the artist really have an intention in his soul to write criticism of our time, to hint to us that God has been forgotten by us, that apparently we are stretching out our hands to Him, but in fact the thing itself has turned away from Him. The four upper Angels are female figures. This violates the tradition of the Orthodox Church, which always portrays Angels as beautiful young men. There is no example in all of Holy Scripture for an Angel to appear in the form of a woman. There are ladies and unimportant ladies here. Judging by the physiognomies, in which there is nothing Divine, which are too ordinary, one must assume that the models were nothing more than girls’ maids, and the model for the upper figure on the left side was some German wardrobemaid, already, apparently, elderly, with an expression of a carefree expression on her face - probably the feeling that was in her soul at the time when she stood before the artist. Take away the wings from the figures, put a chandelier in place of Sy and ask what the picture represents? - Dance. Boys served as models for the lower three Angels. And there are boys in the picture. There is not even an effort to make them into Angels. The middle one looks out of the window with the full attention of a child at the people walking on the street and the carriages driving by; and two assistants frolicked, played and glanced at something in passing - but not at God. They don't care about Him at all! In well-bred boys, the predominant feeling is innocence and tenderness. And here are healthy-built kids, capable of playing pranks, for whom the rod is not out of place. How careful and strict the choice of sitters must be! Their feelings, their characters, their morality, their abilities are transferred to the paintings. Due to the lack of much-needed sacred criticism in our newest icons, in which the art of painting has reached an undeniably high degree of development, sharp inconsistencies are also visible. I do not intend to count them, because they are countless, but I will express the inconsistency that often tormented my eyes when they saw in those eyes from which Divine Wisdom should shine an expression of a lack of mental abilities. A certain coachman, prominent, but of a very limited mind, having entered into my service, himself told me: “I was a model at the Academy for seven years, in such and such a church such and such an icon was painted from me.” He counted the icons for which he served as the original, which I don’t want to name! My heart can't stand this! But here is the reason for the stupid eyes on the icon: it is a faithful portrait of a stately coachman with stupid eyes. The icon painter must firmly know the dogmas of the Orthodox Church and lead a deeply pious life, because the purpose of the icon is to instruct the people with images. Therefore, icons must communicate true concepts, reverent, truly pious feelings. Otherwise, the icon will act as if a preacher, infected with false teaching or with only literary knowledge without theological knowledge, would act from the pulpit. The ancient warriors would never have remained in their helmets in front of the sacred image of the Life-Giving Trinity, carried out by the hands of the great saint of God, famous for his glorious miracles! The ancient pious warriors would have bowed their knees! Fast forward to the event itself: St. Sergius blesses Dmitry Donskoy for the campaign against Mamai. Under this circumstance, what awe there was! What serious thoughts and sensations must have filled each and every one. They went to the bloody Battle of Kulikovo, against countless hordes of Tatars, who had on their side not only superiority in numbers, but enormous moral strength - the memory of two centuries of victories and dominion. The Russians clearly saw that victory for them was extremely doubtful, and that the consequences of victory must be the most disastrous. Death was in front of everyone's eyes! It was adorned only by the fact that the thought of it was combined with the thought of a martyr's crown, because in the campaign against Mamai everyone recognized not only a domestic necessity, but also a religious necessity. And exactly! This campaign was more the fruit of faith than political calculations; the campaign is blessed by St. Sergius! When performing this blessing, could there have been a lightness and frivolity that is noticeable in others and even in some monks? Here the warriors could not have the feeling that our modern heroes have when they are in the playpen waiting for a divorce. There is a picture of Mikhail Feodorovich Romanov being installed as Tsar. There the feeling of reverence and piety is quite satisfactorily expressed on all the faces and in the poses of the figures. This feeling gives the painting unity of action, moral and religious dignity, the dignity of an icon. It’s not my place to judge the art itself, and therefore I don’t pay attention to the fact that the figure of Dimitri Donskoy seems to me to be in an unnatural position. But I must say that even today pious military people, intending to venerate the Holy Place, take off their weapons and put them aside. Why does Demetrius bring his sword so close to the icon? Isn't it for blessing? To do this, it is enough for the sword to lie on the ground. It is not like the feelings and concepts of a prince imbued with deep piety that he would dare to bring a weapon that sheds human blood so close to the Holy Place. In general, R-a’s cardboard, not animated by reverence and other sacred sensations, on the contrary, depicting a lot of secularism, is far from the dignity of an icon, having, perhaps, all the dignity of a painting. In your description, you praised the works of artists as artists - and praised them beautifully as a writer. Accept my words - this is a sincere, direct expression of my feelings; I did not stop at some rather harsh expressions so that the Truth would not suffer at all. Let the ear and delicate taste suffer a little! Agree! How much must the heart, the very eyes of a true son of the Orthodox Eastern Church suffer, when he sees in places belonging to holy icons only paintings, often of a beautiful brush, but almost always alien to theological knowledge and feeling.