Savior of the world: 50 paintings from the history of the earthly life of the Savior of the world, known exclusively by Russian artists, with explanatory text for them, and a map of Palestine

Contents List of figures A few words about the composition and purpose of the publication 2. Nativity of the Virgin Mary. 3. Presentation of the Blessed Virgin into the church. 4. Annunciation of the Mother of God. 5. Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ. 7. Worship of the sages to the born Lord. 10. Baptism of the Lord Jesus Christ. 12. The appearance of Christ to the people. 14. Expulsion of traders from the church. 16. Preaching to the weary and burdened. 17. Jesus Christ in the house of Martha and Mary. 19. Pardon for a sinner. 22. Blessing of the loaves. 23. Healing the paralytic. 24. Resurrection of Jairus' daughter. 25. Transfiguration. 26. Healing the demoniac. 28. Ceremonial entry into Jerusalem. 31. Gethsemane prayer. 32. The Flagellation of the Lord Savior. 35. "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me." 37. “Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit!” 40. Burial of the Savior. 42. A miraculous image. 44. Resurrection of Christ. 45. Appearance of the risen Lord to Mary Magdalene. 46. The appearance of the Lord to the disciples on the way to Emmaus. 47. The appearance of the Lord to the Apostle Thomas. 48. Ascension of the Lord. 50. Mother of God, Intercessor of Peace. Map of Palestine. According to the nature of our spiritual-physical nature, we are not content with knowing certain truths in their height abstracted from life, but we seek to represent them in a living, impressionable image. The very expression “presentation of truth” already suggests that truth is presented to the mind in some figurative way. To help the mind in assimilating the truth are the heart with its feelings and the imagination with its images. Hence the great importance of painting both in all spheres of life, and in the most sublime of these spheres - the field of ideas and ideas related to religion. There was a cruel attempt to take away from faith and the church the ability to express ideas and ideas related to religion in living and impressionable images. This terrible struggle for icons in the history of the church was waged for more than a century and ended in a glorious victory - faith over superstition. God wanted our ancestors to accept the holy faith soon after this glorious victory. It is known that the ambassadors of Prince Vladimir were most likely and most captivated by the beauty of the St. Sophia Church and the grandeur of the divine service performed in it. This love for church appearance has poured into the life of our people in an abundant stream, and for us it is of particular importance how to write this or that sacred person, in what image to present this or that historical truth and theological idea. In Christianity, painting as an art rose to immeasurable heights compared to the examples of the ancient world. The ancients knew how to depict only earthly beauty and perfected plasticity in sculpture. The mental gaze of Christians is presented with images of unattainable heavenly beauty, revealed to us by our Divine Redeemer and imprinted on the faithful and obedient heralds of the great truths of Revelation and the accomplices of His holy work and ministry. Here, in this celestial sphere, the greatest artists drew their inspiration and left us pearls of art incomparable with any jewels in the world. There is an inexhaustible supply of inspiration here. The depths cannot be exhausted: the sea is limitless. It is also impossible to reach heights: it is unattainable. Due to this inaccessibility of the ideal, some dissatisfaction with works of art is inevitably felt, no matter how high they may be. This dissatisfaction encourages artists to strive higher and higher in order to get closer and closer to the truth. They seemed to have achieved some success in depicting some high holy faces. Such are, for example, the image of the Mother of God in the Sistine Madonna by Raphael, in the famous image of our Vasnetsov, the image of John the Baptist in Ivanov’s painting “The Appearance of Christ to the People.” But the image of the God-man is still a high, insoluble problem for the most gifted artists. And who will ever be able to describe the greatness and beauty and this wealth of wisdom and goodness, which the Only Begotten Son of God, who became incarnate and became man for our salvation, showed to the world? However, attempts to capture at least a small part of this unattainable height are worthy of all attention and respect: where should the flight of thought and imagination go, if not to this indescribable beauty? In these attempts one cannot fail to recognize the most noble and sublime impulses of the human spirit, and they are dear to us, although they are not perfect. There are sometimes several artistic images of the same sacred subject that are outstanding in design and execution. Representing the impulses of the human spirit to embrace a great, unattainable object, they help to clarify the characteristic features of a particular sacred person or event. This album contains paintings related to the history of the Savior of the World, belonging exclusively to Russian artists. The Russian mind worked in their outline, our native art is visible, the Russian fantasy, the Russian soul was imprinted in one way or another. Recently, Russian painting has achieved remarkable success and is showing clear signs of its originality. In this originality one can see traces of the deep influence of the covenants of Orthodoxy, preserved by our people from Orthodox Greece, from which we accepted the holy faith in the era of its lively and joyful mood, after suffering severe iconoclastic turmoil. Our painting, having assimilated the technical successes of the West and adopted the sacred precepts of the East, apparently has a glorious future in this art. The purpose of the publication is to help student youths in mastering the great truths proclaimed by the Gospel, about the life of the Savior of the World, by familiarizing them with those highest ascents of thought that the outstanding artists of our native painting achieved in moments of inspiration, and with those sublime contemplations that they captured in their best creations. This familiarization, in addition to the immediate benefit of the most clear, congenial to us in spirit, presentation of the Gospel truths for the assimilation of their minds and hearts by students, should influence the development in them of artistic taste, which is so important in overall spiritual development. But since the life of the Savior of the World represents a model that every Christian believer who desires the salvation of his soul must follow, the publishers of this collection of the best examples of our native art, depicting the highly instructive events of Gospel history, hope that it is useful not only for students of youth and young men, but will help those who have already entered into life and are passing through its sometimes difficult path to delve into the highest examples of faith and piety indicated to us by the Gospel. To rise from the earthly and corruptible to the eternal and divine, taking advantage of those flights of thought and sublime contemplations that our brush artists have captured for us in their outstanding creations. You might be interested in: