Н.В. Гоголь и А.А. Иванов в работе над картиной «Явление Мессии»

Abstract

The article presents an analysis of the creative dialogueАbstract: The article presents an analysis of the creative dialogueof Nikolai Gogol and artist Alexander Andreyevich Ivanov in the processof creating of the famous painting “The Apparition of the Messiah”by the latter. As a result of comparing the preliminary sketches of theartist, interpreting one of the drawings made by Nikolai Gogol forAlexander Andreyevich, as well as studying the similar religious andpolitical views of the writer and painter, a conclusion is drawn abouttheir fruitful cooperation in developing the concept of the famous painting.The compositional motifs prompted by Nikolai Gogol to AlexanderAndreyevich Ivanov and embodied in “The Apparition of the Messiah”include a number of interconnected and complementary Christian images.Transformed in baptism, ancient and modern humanity, what was depicted by the artist in the outlines of the temple, was the reconstructeddepicted by the artist in the outlines of the temple, was the reconstructed“fall of Adam”, the New Testament Noah’s ark — the ship of the Church,the “echidna” serpent of the baptised pagans. The latter image finds itscorrespondence in a whole series of Nikolai Gogol’s works of art, from“Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka” to “Dead Souls”. Nikolai Gogol andAlexander Andreyevich Ivanov find deep unanimity in the developmentof the main messianic content of the picture.