Musical works that reflect portraits of people. Musical portrait

Portrait in literature and music

A good painter must paint two main things: a person and a representation of his soul.

Leonardo da Vinci

From experience fine views art we know how important it is for a portrait appearance models. Of course, the portrait painter is interested in the latter not in itself, not as a goal, but as a means - an opportunity to look into the depths of a personality. It has long been known that a person’s appearance is connected with his psyche, his inner world. Based on these relationships, psychologists, doctors, and simply people with developed powers of observation and the necessary knowledge “read” information about a person’s mental properties from the iris of the eye (the eyes are the “mirror of the soul”, “window of the soul”, “gate of the soul”), features face, hand, gait, manners, favorite pose, etc.

More than anything else, his face can tell about a person. not without reason, he believed that the face is the “soul of man”; as the Russian philosopher said, “it’s like a navigator’s map.” Lido is the “plot” of the book “Personality”. It is no coincidence that changing your face sometimes means turning into a different person. This interdependence of the external and internal gave impetus to the artistic imagination of writers - V. Hugo in “The Man Who Laughs”, M. Frisch in “I Will Call Myself Gantenbein”. It is facial disfigurement that seems to the hero of D. Oruzll’s novel “1984” to be the final destruction of his personality. Hero of the novel Kobo Abe“Alien Lido”, forced by circumstances to make himself a mask, begins to live under its influence double life. A mask that hides a face is the right to a different “image”, a different character, a different value system, a different behavior (remember Fantômas P. Souvestre and M. Allen and the film versions of their books, the plot “ bat"I. Strauss...).

Given how much physical description can reveal, writers often use it to describe a character. A skillfully done description makes the character’s appearance almost “alive”, visible. It’s as if we see individually unique provincials “ Dead souls" The heroes of L. Tolstoy are vivid.

Not only what a person looks like, but also the environment around him, the circumstances in which he exists, also carry information about the character. This was well understood, for example, by Pushkin, introducing Onegin to the reader in the first chapter of his novel, in verse. The author has few expressive touches of the character’s personal “I” (“a young rake”, “dressed like a London dandy”), and it is complemented by many details of Onegin’s upbringing, his social life with balls, theaters, flirtations, fashions, salons, dinners.

Obviously, the ability of “circumstances of action” to testify about people found its extreme expression in the short story of the modern German writer Hermann Hesse " Last summer Klingsor." The artist Klingsor, in order to paint a self-portrait, turns to photographs of himself, parents, friends and lovers; for successful work he even needs stones and mosses - in a word, the entire history of the Earth. However, art also tried the other extreme - the complete cutting off of the environment from the person, which we see in the paintings of the great Renaissance painters: Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael's paintings of nature are deliberately distanced from large-scale faces that attract the viewer's attention. Or we hear in operas: the central aria-portrait of Onegin “You wrote to me, don’t deny it” is in no way connected with the everyday sketches surrounding it - the song of the girls “Maids, beauties, darlings, girlfriends”; confessing his feelings to Liza Yeletsky in Tchaikovsky’s “Queen of Spades”, as if he does not notice the bustle of the noisy St. Petersburg ceremonial ball. Contrast organizes the viewer's or listener's attention, directing it to the “close-up” and relaxing it to the “background.”

Describing the color of hair and eyes, height, clothing, gait, habits, circumstances of the hero’s life, the writer does not at all strive to create a “visual series” work of art. His true goal in this case (and completely conscious one) lies much further: to consider in external signs human soul. This is how the great French portrait painter of the 18th century, Quentin de Latour, said about it: “They think that I capture only the features of their faces, but without their knowledge I plunge into the depths of their souls and take it entirely.”

How does music portray a person? Does she embody the visible? To understand this, let’s compare three portraits of the same person - an outstanding German composer late XIX- the beginning of the 20th century by Richard Strauss.

This is how Romain Rolland saw him (by no means an angel, but a living person): “He still has the appearance of an adult, absent-minded child with pouting lips. Tall, slender, rather elegant, arrogant, he seems to belong to a finer race than the other German musicians among whom he is found. Disdainful, satiated with success, very demanding, he is far from being on peaceful, modest terms with other musicians, like Mahler. Strauss is no less nervous than him... But he has a great advantage over Mahler: he knows how to rest, Easily excitable and drowsy, he escapes from his nervousness thanks to his inherent power of inertia; it has traits of Bavarian looseness. I am sure that after those hours when he lives an intense life and when his energy is extremely consumed, he has hours of seemingly non-existence. Then you notice his wandering and half-asleep eyes.”

Two other portraits of the composer - sound ones - were “drawn” by himself in symphonic poem"The Life of a Hero" and in "Home Symphony". Musical self-portraits are in many ways similar to the description of R. Rolland. However, let’s think about exactly which aspects of the personality are “voiced.” It is unlikely that, listening to music, we would have guessed that the prototype is “tall, slender, rather elegant”, that he has “the appearance of an adult, sensible child with pouting lips” and “wandering and half-asleep eyes”. But other features of Strauss the man, revealing his emotional world (nervousness, slight excitability and drowsiness) and important character traits (arrogance, narcissism) are convincingly conveyed by music.

A comparison of the portraits of R. Strauss illustrates more general pattern. The language of music is not particularly conducive to visual associations, but it would be reckless to completely reject this possibility. Most likely, the external, physical parameters of a personality can only partially be reflected in a portrait, but only indirectly, indirectly, and to the extent that they are in harmony with the mental properties of the personality.

It is not difficult to make one more observation. A pictorial portrait through external appearance seeks to capture the deep traits of a person, while a musical one has the opposite opportunity - “capturing the essence” of a person (his emotional nature and character), allowing for enrichment with visual associations. A literary portrait, occupying an intermediate place between them, contains an informative description and appearance, and the emotional and characteristic “core” of the personality.

So, any portrait contains emotion, but it is especially significant in a musical portrait. We are convinced of this by a noticeable phenomenon in the world musical culture- miniatures French composer late XVII - early XVIII centuries by François Couperin, composed for the predecessor of the modern piano, the harpsichord. Many of them depict people well known to the composer: the wife of one of the organists of the royal church, Gabriel Garnier (“La Garnier”), the wife of the composer Antoine Forcret (“The Magnificent, or Forcret”), the bride of Louis XV Maria Leszczynska (“Princess Marie”) , infant daughter of the Prince of Monaco, Antoine I Grimaldi (“Princess de Chabeil, or Muse of Monaco”). Among the “models” there are also people who clearly surrounded the composer (“Manon”, “Angelique”, “Nanette”), and even relatives. In any case, the method of recreating the human personality is the same: through individual emotion. His Manon is cheerful and carefree, appears solemnly majestic in the ceremonial portrait of Antonin, and Mimi’s appearance is painted in more lyrical tones. And all of them are like a continuation of the portrait gallery collected in the book of the great writer and philosopher Jacques de La Bruyère “Characters, or Manners of the Present Century.”

TO detailed description The operatic aria is also located in the emotional world of man. It is curious that in Italian opera of the 17th - early 18th centuries there was a tradition of highlighting in arias main emotion character, main affect. Basic emotions gave birth to types of arias: aria of sorrow, aria of anger, aria of horror, elegy aria, bravura aria and others. Later, composers try to convey not just one all-encompassing state of a person, but a complex of emotions inherent in him and thereby achieve a more individual and deep characterization. Such as in the cavatina (that is, the exit aria) of Lyudmila from the opera “Ruslan and Lyudmila” by Glinka. The composer is clearly inspired by Pushkin's image:

She is sensitive, modest,

Marital love is faithful,

A little windy... so what?

More the cuter the better she.

Lyudmila's aria consists of two sections. The first, introductory one, an address to his father, is imbued with light sadness and lyricism. A wide chanting melody that sounds in at a slow pace, is interrupted, however, by flirtatious phrases.

In the second, main section, we learn the main features of the heroine: cheerfulness, carelessness. Accompanied by “dancing” polka chords, the melody quickly overcomes complex leaps and rhythmic “beats” (syncopation). Lyudmila’s high coloratura soprano rings and shimmers.

Here is another musical portrait, “written” without the participation of the voice - the piece “Mercutio” by Sergei Prokofiev from the piano cycle “Romeo and Juliet”. The music radiates overflowing energy. Fast tempo, elastic rhythms, free transfers from the lower register to the upper register and vice versa, bold intonation breaks in the melody “revive” the image of a merry fellow, a “daring fellow” who “talks more in one minute than he listens to in a month”, a jokester, a joker, able to remain inactive.

Thus, it turns out that a person in music is not simply endowed with some emotion invented by the author, but certainly with one that is especially indicative of the original ( literary prototype, if such a thing exists, of course). And one more important conclusion: realizing that “one but fiery passion” nevertheless schematizes the personality, “drives” it into a two-dimensional flat space, the composer tries to come to a certain variety of emotional touches; the multi-colored “palette” of emotions allows us to outline not only the emotional world of the character, but, in fact, something much larger - character.

Municipal educational institution

Bolshevo Secondary School No. 6

with in-depth study of subjects

artistic and aesthetic cycle

__________________________________________________________

« Musical portrait»

Open lesson in 6th grade

During the seminar

“Creative development of personality in the lessons of HEC”

Music teacher

Shpineva V.I.,

Korolev

2007

Lesson TOPIC: Musical portrait (6th grade).

The purpose of the lesson : formation in students of the concept of a musical portrait and artistic means of creating a portrait in various types of art.

Tasks:

expanding the general cultural horizons of students;

formation of a culture of singing;

the formation of a deep, conscious perception of works of art;

development of artistic taste;

nurturing creative activity.

Lesson form : integrated lesson.

Equipment : piano, music Center, reproductions of paintings, projector, screen.

DURING THE CLASSES.

Organizing time. Musical greeting.

Teacher. Guys! You and I have already seen more than once how diverse the world of art is. Today we will talk about one of the genres of art – portraiture.

What are the features of this genre?

In what types of art can you create a portrait?

Give examples.

Students answer questions and give their own examples.

Teacher. The outstanding Italian painter, sculptor, architect, scientist, engineer Leonardo da Vinci said that “painting and music are like sisters, they are desired and understood by everyone.” After all, you may not know the language that Beethoven or Raphael spoke, you just need to watch, listen and think...

Continuing this thought, I would now like to invite you to consider a reproduction of the painting “The Swan Princess” by the Russian artist M.A. Vrubel.On the screen is a slide “The Swan Princess” by M. A. Vrubel.

Questions about the painting :

Describe the Swan Princess by Mikhail Vrubel.

What artistic means does the artist use?

What impression does this picture make on you?

Students answer questions emphasize the mystery, proud beauty of the fairy-tale bird girl, and celebrate the extraordinary gift of the painter who created the portrait of the fantastic creature. This is a fabulous bird girl, whose majestic beauty is characteristic folk tales. Her eyes are wide open, as if she sees everything today and tomorrow. Her lips are closed: it seems that she wants to say something, but is silent. The kokoshnik crown is strewn with emerald semi-precious stones. White airy veil frames fine features faces. Huge snow-white wings, with the sea rippling behind them. A fabulous atmosphere, everything seems to be enchanted, but we hear the beat of a living Russian fairy tale.

Teacher. In which literary work Are we meeting the Swan Princess? How does the author describe it?

Students answer questions by saying “The Tale of Tsar Saltan” by A.S. Pushkin. The teacher recalls lines from this work in which a portrait of the Swan Princess is given.

Teacher. We looked at a pictorial portrait, read a description of the character’s appearance in a literary work. But many composers have turned to this plot. I’ll now play you a fragment of a work by a Russian composer of the 19th century. What kind of work is this?

The teacher plays a fragment from N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera “The Tale of Tsar Saltan” on the piano.

Students recognize this work and say that it also contains a portrait of the Swan Princess.

Teacher. The French composer C. Saint-Saëns wrote “The Great Zoological Fantasy “Carnival of Animals”, which also features the Swan theme.

Listen to “The Swan” by Saint-Saëns and describe the character of the music.

The teacher plays the piano.

Student answers : Calm tempo, the accompaniment depicts a slight swaying of the waves, against which an unusually beautiful melody sounds. It is very expressive and therefore easy to remember. At first it sounds quiet, and then gradually the dynamics intensify, and the melody sounds like a hymn to beauty. It sounds broad, like a splash of a wave, and then it seems to gradually calm down and everything freezes.

Teacher. Pay attention to this point: in music, as in the visual arts, it is important not only to simply depict, convey the external appearance, but also to penetrate into the deep, spiritual essence of the character. This play is a prime example of this.

Students are shown a slide with two portraits: V.L. Borovikovsky “Portrait of M. Lopukhina” and A.P. Ryabushkin “Portrait of a Moscow girl XVII century."

Teacher. Now, guys, look at these two portraits, listen to the piece of music and think about which portrait this music is more suitable for and why.

Questions :

What is the nature of the music, its tempo, means of expression, what's your mood?

What are girls' characters depicted by artists?

Which portrait does this music best suit and why?

Answers: The music is romantic, “lacey”, conveys a feeling of calm and thoughtfulness. The portrait of Lopukhina evokes the same feelings.

Teacher. We looked at a picturesque portrait and listened to a musical portrait that was in tune with it. And now let’s sing in chorus the song that you and I learned: “Teacher’s Waltz” by A. Zaruba.

Students get up from their tables, form a choir and sing the song they learned in previous lessons.

Teacher. Think about what portrait this music paints for us?

Answers: Before us is a portrait of a teacher. The character of the music is smooth, measured, calm, like the character of a teacher.

Students take their seats.

Teacher. Listen to one piece now and try to answer the question: is it possible to see a portrait in this music? If so, whose?

The phonogram “Song of a Soldier” by A. Petrov plays .

Answers: The playful nature of the music paints an expressive portrait good soldier, who went through the battle and remained alive.

Homework : draw a portrait of this soldier.

Teacher. In conclusion, you and I will use musical means to create the image of our homeland, performing the Russian Anthem.

The guys get up.

Teacher. The anthem is a solemn song, majestic and proud. She is free, like the vast expanses of our Motherland; leisurely, like the flow of our deep rivers; sublime, like our hills and mountains; deep, like our protected forests. We sing the Russian Anthem and see Red Square, St. Basil's Cathedral, the Kremlin, our hometown, our street, our home...

Students sing the Russian Anthem.

The teacher offers to summarize the lesson.

What did you learn in this lesson?

Which musical composition did you like it the most?

Which painting made the strongest impression on you?

In what form of art would you like to create a portrait and who and how would you portray?

At the end of the lesson, students are asked to mark the most interesting answers of their friends, grades are given taking into account the opinions of the students.

Introduction

Modern musicology places high demands on the researcher. Among them, the most important is not only a deep theoretical understanding of the object under consideration, a comprehensive and versatile understanding of it, but also its practical development. To do this, it is not enough to have a good understanding of general issues history of music and master the “traditional” methodology theoretical analysis- own creative experience in this field is required musical art.

The idea of ​​music, however, is developed not only through the efforts of musicologists. The works of practicing musicians occupy a prominent place in musicology. Live connection with practice, direct sensation creative process composing or performing music is what particularly attracts researchers.

In this work, attention is paid to the creative heritage Soviet composer and teacher M.V. Antseva. With the revival of choral singing in Russia, Antsev's women's choirs are becoming increasingly popular, as they are distinguished by simple harmony, light texture and melody. Many of his choral works were written to poems by Russian classical poets, including the choral composition “Bells” to poems by Count A.K. Tolstoy.

A comprehensive analysis of this composition, presented in course work, will make it possible to more accurately organize practical activities on learning a piece with a training choir of students from the Department of Choral Conducting of OGGIK. This explains the relevance of the research being carried out.

Creative portraits of authors of musical and literary texts

choral vocal antsev text

Mikhail Vasilyevich Antsev was born in Smolensk on September 30, 1895. He came from a simple family: his father was a cantonist who served as a soldier for over 25 years, his mother was a Smolensk bourgeois. In very early childhood, M. Antsev lost his father, and he was raised by his stepfather. After graduating from high school, Mikhail Vasilyevich studied violin with L. Auer at the Warsaw Conservatory. Then he entered the St. Petersburg Conservatory, from which he graduated in 1895 in composition class with Rimsky-Korsakov.

In 1896, the composer's musical and pedagogical activities began. He gave a lot of strength and energy pedagogical work as a teacher of choral singing and others musical disciplines in general education and special education educational institutions. Obviously, it was at this time that he wrote a series of teaching aids related to choral art, among them: “ Brief information for singers-choristers", "Note terminology" (reference dictionary for teachers, singers and musicians), "Elementary theory of music in connection with the teaching of school choral singing", "Methodological anthology of class choral singing" and others.

At the same time, M. Antsev worked fruitfully as a composer. He composed for symphony orchestra, for violin, wrote romances and children's songs. He wrote “Cantata for the 100th anniversary of A. Pushkin”, “Hymn in memory of the 100th anniversary Patriotic War 1812." Both large works are intended to be performed by a choir and orchestra.

Among the choral works of a lyrical nature created during this period, we can name: “Lotus”, “Willow”, “In Spring”, “The Air Breathes Fragrance”.

The revolutionary events taking place in Russia could not remain out of sight of the sensitive, impressionable artist. They found a response in his choral works. Full of revolutionary pathos, the chorus “Don’t cry over the corpses of fallen soldiers” was first performed in St. Petersburg in 1905.

After the Great October Revolution socialist revolution M.V. Antsev conducted extensive musical and social activities. In 1918, in Vitebsk, he organized the People's Conservatory, where he taught theoretical disciplines. There, for two years, he led the State Choir he created. On the initiative of Mikhail Vasilyevich, a circle of Belarusian folk songs arose. The circle served mainly factory areas and Red Army units.

Their last years M. Antsev lived in Moscow. Here in 1934 he was elected an honorary member of the Expert Commission at the Moscow City Committee of Circle Leaders and performed these duties on a voluntary basis for more than three years, in 1936-1938. he was a member of the Attestation and Expert Commission at the Administration for the Arts.

In the post-October period, M. Antsev actively switched to revolutionary themes. He wrote music to the words of Demyan Bedny, Yakub Kolas, Yanka Kupala and other Soviet poets. In addition, the composer showed interest in folk songs, predominantly Belarusian, arranged them for the choir and solo singing with piano (Oh, share, etc.).

The range of his creativity is quite wide. He is the author of several textbooks concerning choral art and the performance of children's songs, romances, and plays for the violin. However, choral creativity most of all attracted the composer's attention. He has written over 30 a cappella and accompanied choirs, many choral arrangements folk songs.

Mikhail Vasilievich Antsev - composer-lyricist. This is already evidenced by the names of his choirs: “ Spring waters", "Sunrise", "Silence of the sea", "Brightly twinkling stars." Possessing a subtle artistic taste, the composer paid deep attention to the selection of texts. He turned to the poems of A. Pushkin, F. Tyutchev, A. Tolstoy, M. Lermontov, I. Nikitin, A. Fet and other poets. M. Antsev's choruses are imbued with free contemplation; they lack strong, dramatically intense development.

Although M. Antsev was a student of N. Rimsky-Korsakov, his work is rather close to P. Tchaikovsky. The melody in his choirs is expressive, calm, and easy to remember. It is simple, unpretentious, based on the existing intonations of a city song, hence the accessibility of its perception. Most often, the composer uses sequential development of the most expressive turns of the melody with precise construction initial level.

Continuous harmonic development conceals the dismemberment inherent in sequential movement and gives the melody greater solidity.

M. Antsev worked a lot with choirs, knew the specifics of their sound and took it into account in his compositions, so the choral parts are presented in convenient tessitura.

Unfortunately, creative heritage Mikhail Vasilyevich Antsev has not yet been studied, but it is undoubtedly of great interest.

After October revolution was one of the first composers to turn to revolutionary themes(choirs “In Memory of Heroes”, “Song of Struggle”, 1922). Author of works for violin and piano, choirs, romances, arrangements of folk songs, textbooks, including the books “Brief information for choir singers...” (1897), “Preparatory course in elementary music theory in connection with the teaching of choral singing” (1897), “Note terminology. Reference Dictionary..." (Vitebsk 1904).

Of his choral works, cantatas, women's and children's choirs a cappella and with piano accompaniment (“The Waves Slumbered,” “Bells”), and arrangements of folk songs are popular in choirmaster pedagogical practice. His mixed choirs such as “Sea and Cliff”, “Willow”, “Tears”, “Collapse”, “Song of Struggle” are especially famous. The Requiem “Do not cry over the corpses of fallen soldiers” (1901) to the words of L. Palmin stands out for its expressiveness and civic pathos. The composer also has spiritual compositions - a cycle of chants of the Divine Liturgy and individual chants.

Author literary text choral composition "Bells" - famous poet and playwright Count Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy. Born on August 24, 1817 in St. Petersburg. Early childhood spent in Ukraine, on the estate of his uncle A. Perovsky, a writer famous in the 20s. under the pseudonym Pogorelsky. Received home education, was close to court life. He traveled widely throughout Russia and abroad, from 1836 he served in the Russian mission in Frankfurt, and in 1855 he participated in the Sevastopol campaign. He died on his Chernigov estate.

As Tolstoy himself believed, his penchant for poetry was unusually facilitated by the nature among which he grew up: “The air and the sight of our large forests, which I passionately loved, made a deep impression on me. Which left an imprint on my character and on my life...” Admiration for splendor native land can be clearly heard in Tolstoy’s poems, especially in his landscape lyrics. The colors of his poetic sketches are bright and rich. In his lyrics, Tolstoy likes to turn to folk poetry for images and verbal formulas. Hence the frequent comparison of natural phenomena with human life, hence the special melodiousness, special language, close to a folk song.

Love to folk art, interest in folklore was reflected not only in lyric poems Tolstoy. The poet's appeal to the epic, to the ballad genre, beloved by the romantics, is also largely explained by his attention to Russian folk poetry, to its ancient roots. In the epic “Ilya Muromets” (1871), Tolstoy resurrects the image of the famous hero, “Grandfather Ilya,” who yearns for freedom and independence even in old age and therefore leaves the princely court of Vladimir the Red Sun. Drawing heroes Kievan Rus, Tolstoy admires their courage, dedication and patriotism, but does not forget that these are living people, ready to love and enjoy the beauty of the world. That’s why many of his ballads and epics sound sincere, and their characters are attractive.

Tolstoy writes ballads and epics not only based on folk epic epic, he also turns to Russian history. In his ballads, Tolstoy admires old rituals and customs (“Matchmaking,” 1871) and glorifies the Russian character, which even the Mongol-Tatar yoke could not change (“Snake Tugarin,” 1867).

Alexey Konstantinovich Tolstoy tried his pen not only in the genre of poetry. The image of Kozma Prutkov and his famous aphorisms is Tolstoy with cousins Alexey, Alexander and Vladimir Zhemchuzhnikov. His pen belongs famous plays historical content “The Death of Ivan the Terrible”, “Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich”, “Tsar Boris”. Tolstoy's satire was striking in its boldness and mischief.

Tolstoy began writing poetry very early. Tolstoy always valued the mastery of verse, although critics sometimes reproached him for “bad” (inaccurate) rhyme, or for an unsuccessful, too prosaic, in their opinion, turn of phrase. Meanwhile, it is precisely thanks to these “shortcomings” that the impression of improvisation is created; Tolstoy’s poetry acquires a special liveliness and sincerity. Tolstoy himself understood this feature of his work: “Some things should be minted, but others have the right and should not even be minted, otherwise they will seem cold.”

In the late 30s - early 40s they were written (on French) two fantastic stories- “Family of the Ghoul” and “Meeting after Three Hundred Years.” In May 1841, Tolstoy first appeared in print, publishing a separate book under the pseudonym “Krasnorogsky” (from the name of the Krasny Rog estate), fantastic story"Ghoul". He spoke very favorably about the story by V.G. Belinsky, who saw in her “all the signs of a still too young, but nevertheless remarkable talent.” Tolstoy was in no hurry to publish his poems. The first major collection of his poems appeared only in 1854 on the pages of Nekrasov’s Sovremennik, and the only collection during his lifetime was published in 1867. It included many now widely known poems, including “Bells.”

Description of the presentation by individual slides:

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Dream. In the magical canopy, show me my dear, My light, my kind genius, The object of my love... A.S. Pushkin Love painting, poets! Only she, the only one, is given the Soul of a changeable sign to transfer to the canvas. N. Zabolotsky. What genre do you think visual arts will we talk today? What other art can paint a portrait?

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The colors make it noisy and bright. I would introduce music here, the paintings would surround the air so that they would speak... S. Tyurin

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The paintings of Russian painters at the turn of the 17th – 19th centuries are consonant with poetry and music. The atmosphere of the portraits takes us into the world of Russia Pushkin era. It is believed that the portrait is the most indisputable achievement of our national school, it was thanks to him that Russian painting reached the level of European art. The 18th century in Russia is called the century of portraiture. The best Russian artists painted in the portrait genre: F. Rokotov, D. Levitsky, O. Kiprensky, K. Bryullov, I. Repin, M. Vrubel and others. Their portraits of women are as pure and transparent as the music and poetry of romances. Smart and noble faces those to whom they dedicated their poetic and musical dedications were captured by artists.

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Thanks to the “portrait harmonies” of the Russian artist Fyodor Stepanovich Rokotov, a special emotional vocabulary was formed to express the viewer’s impressions: “half-flickering, half-burning colors”, “unsteadiness, airiness”, “mystery and mystery”, “vibration of light and color”, “poetic fragility of feelings” , “hiddenness of spiritual manifestations”, etc. In addition to technical pictorial innovations, the artist opens up new possibilities for chamber, intimate portrait in the expression of a person’s spiritual world, as the main criterion of his dignity. It is often believed that Rokotov endowed the models with his own spirituality. F.S. Rokotov (1735-1808)

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F.S. Rokotov Portrait of Struyskaya Transparent, as if woven from air and light, the portrait of Struyskaya is the most famous work brushes by Fyodor Stepanovich Rokotov.

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A special place in the work of the artist F.S. Rokotov is occupied by a portrait of A. Struyskaya (1772). Exactly Perfect eyes the heroines of the portrait served as a source of inspiration for the creation famous poem Nikolai Zabolotsky: Do you remember how, from the darkness of the past, barely wrapped in satin, Struyskaya again looked at us from the portrait of Rokotov? Her eyes are like two fogs, Half smile, half cry, Her eyes are like two deceptions, Covered in the mist of failure. A combination of two riddles, Half-delight, half-fear, A fit of insane tenderness. Anticipation of mortal pain. When darkness comes and a thunderstorm approaches, Her beautiful eyes flicker from the bottom of my soul.

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This verse is a shining example poeticization of the image through painting. The airy, transparent brushwork creates a feeling of lightness of the fabrics and bottomlessness of the background. With the help of light, Rokotov masterfully highlights the face and at the same time unites the entire composition of the portrait into a single whole. It is no coincidence that this portrait is often called the “Russian Gioconda”. Many researchers of Rokotov’s work note that Struyskaya’s gaze in the portrait seems to be directed inward, the young woman was thinking about something important to her, very significant. It is this look that inspires Alexandra Petrovna’s entire face, makes it especially beautiful, reflects the rich spiritual world this woman, her deep mind.

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Consider female portraits of Russian artists, contemporaries of A.S. Pushkin and M.I. Glinka. - What features of their heroines did the artists strive to emphasize? - Which one of female images, captured in portraits of Russian artists, in your opinion, is most in tune with M. I. Glinka’s romance? What about the waltz?

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This portrait depicts Maria Ivanovna Lopukhina, from the Tolstoy count family. This beautiful young woman died of consumption a year after her wedding. The artist used the principle of still life - the environment helps to reveal the image. Borovikovsky shows no social status Lopukhina, and the personal traits of her character: lively mind, irony, tenderness, consciousness of her feminine attractiveness. The harmonious fusion of man and nature is characteristic of painting late XVIII V. Lopukhina is depicted against the background of a landscape, it echoes the appearance of a young woman: her slightly bent figure repeats the shape of bent ears of corn, birch trees are reflected in the dress, blue cornflowers echo the silk belt, and a soft lilac shawl echoes the drooping buds of roses. A hundred years later, the Russian poet Ya. Polonsky wrote about this portrait: She has long passed, and those eyes are no longer there And that smile is gone that silently expressed Suffering - the shadow of love, and thoughts - the shadow of sadness, But Borovikovsky saved her beauty. So part of her soul did not fly away from us, And this look and this beauty of the body will attract indifferent offspring to her, Teaching him to love, suffer, forgive, be silent.

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Musical portraits

Zinaida Volkonskaya, Elizaveta Gilels, Anna Esipova and Natalia Sats are real stars of past centuries. The names of these women were known far beyond Russia; their performances and productions were awaited by music lovers around the world. "Culture.RF" talks about creative path four outstanding performers.

Zinaida Volkonskaya (1789–1862)

Orest Kiprensky. Portrait of Zinaida Volkonskaya. 1830. State Hermitage Museum

After the death of his teacher, Sergei Prokofiev wrote: “I turned out to be her last winning student from that colossal phalanx of laureates whom she trained at her factory.”.

Natalia Sats (1903–1993)

Natalia Sats. Photo: teatr-sats.ru

Since childhood, Natalia has been surrounded by creative people. Friends of the family and frequent guests of the Moscow house were Sergei Rachmaninov, Konstantin Stanislavsky, Evgeny Vakhtangov and other artists. And her theatrical debut took place when the girl was barely a year old.

In 1921, 17-year-old Natalia Sats founded the Moscow Theater for Children (modern RAMT), artistic director which she remained for 16 years. One of the most authoritative Russian theater critics, Pavel Markov, recalled Sats as “to a girl, almost a girl, who quickly and energetically entered into the complex structure of the Moscow theatrical life and forever retained a responsible understanding of her life and creative recognition» . She sought to create a theater that would become for children of all ages a portal into a bright and fairy world, a place of unlimited imagination - and she succeeded.

The cult German conductor Otto Klemperer, having watched Satz's directorial works in children's theater, invited her to Berlin and offered to stage Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Falstaff at the Kroll Opera. For Satz, this production turned out to be a real breakthrough: she became the world's first female opera director - and, without exaggeration, a world-famous theater figure. Her other foreign opera productions also became successful: “The Ring of the Nibelung” by Richard Wagner and “The Marriage of Figaro” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at the Argentine Teatro Colon. Buenos Aires newspapers wrote: “The Russian artist-director created new era in the art of opera. The play [The Marriage of Figaro] is deeply psychological, as only happens in drama, and this is new and attractive to the viewer.”.

After returning to the USSR in 1937, Natalia Sats was arrested as the wife of a “traitor to the Motherland.” Her husband, People's Commissar of Domestic Trade of Israel Weitzer, was accused of counter-revolutionary activities. Sats spent five years in the Gulag, and after her release she left for Alma-Ata, since she did not have the right to return to Moscow. In Kazakhstan, she opened the first Alma-Ata theater young viewer, where she worked for 13 years.

In 1965, Natalia Sats, having already returned to the capital, founded the world's first Children's Musical Theatre. She staged not only children's performances, but also “adult” operas by Mozart and Puccini, and included “serious” musical classics in her symphony tickets.

In the last years of her life, Natalia Sats taught at GITIS, founded a charitable foundation for promoting the development of art for children, and wrote many books and manuals on music education.

Elizaveta Gilels (1919–2008)

Elizaveta Gilels and Leonid Kogan. Photo: alefmagazine.com

Elizaveta Gilels, younger sister pianist Emil Gilels, born in Odessa. The family of world-famous performers was by no means musical: father Gregory served as an accountant at a sugar factory, and mother Esther kept house.

Lisa Gilels first picked up the violin at the age of six, and she was taught the basics of musical art by the famous Odessa teacher Pyotr Stolyarsky. While still a teenager, Gilels declared herself a child prodigy: in 1935, the young violinist received second prize at the All-Union Competition of Performing Musicians. And in 1937, when she was 17, Elizaveta, as part of a delegation of Soviet violinists, made a splash at the Eugene Ysaïe Competition in Brussels. The first prize of the competition was awarded to David Oistrakh, the second - to a performer from Austria, and Gilels and her colleagues shared places from third to sixth. This triumphant victory glorified Elizaveta Gilels both in the Soviet Union and abroad.

When Soviet musicians returned from Belgium, they were greeted by a solemn procession, a participant of which was the talented, but in those years still unknown violinist Leonid Kogan. He presented his bouquet to Elizaveta Gilels, whose talent he always admired: this is how the future spouses met. True, they did not immediately become a couple. Gilels had recently become a star, actively performed and toured, and was also older. But one day she heard a performance by an unknown violinist on the radio. The masterly performance amazed her, and when the announcer announced the name of the performer - and he was Leonid Kogan - Gilels already became his big fan.

The musicians got married in 1949. Gilels and Kogan long years played in a duet, performed works for two violins by Johann Sebastian Bach, Antonio Vivaldi, Eugene Ysaï. Elizabeth gradually abandoned solo career: in 1952, the couple had a son, Pavel Kogan, he became a famous violinist and conductor, and two years later their daughter Nina, a gifted pianist and talented teacher, appeared.

Since 1966, Elizaveta Gilels began teaching at the Moscow Conservatory. Her students were violinists Ilya Kaler, Alexander Rozhdestvensky, Ilya Grubert and other talented musicians. After the death of Leonid Kogan in 1982, Gilels was engaged in systematizing his legacy: preparing books for publication and releasing recordings.