Vernissage

Twelve sheets of the calendar

Do you love Bruegel? If yes, then you should go to the FLNR conference hall, where on 12 February, the exhibition of 12 paintings from the Bruegel 2023 calendar of the Museum of Art History (Vienna, Austria) was opened.

The calendar was published in 2022 on the eve of the 500th jubilee of the great Dutch artist of the Renaissance Peter Bruegel the Elder (1525-1569).

"I am very grateful to FLNR for such a beautiful idea," JINR Director Grigory Trubnikov said. "Today, we are not opening a new particle, we are not launching a new accelerator, but we are opening an exhibition of copies of paintings from the Vienna Museum.

"This is an unusual activity for me to talk about a great person born 500 years ago," the author of the idea and curator of the project, FLNR Scientific Leader Yuri Oganessian began the introductory word. "Bruegel lived in the Renaissance, this is an amazing era and the creations of a person that lived at this time deserve great attention.

And like a real scientist, he began with definitions. The word "jubilee" has an interesting etymology. It comes from the Hebrew "Jovel" that means "ram's horn" and later, acquired the significance - "year of freedom". This was called the 50th year established by the Prophet Moses, when the sold and laid lands returned to the former owners, slaves received freedom, debts were forgiven to debtors, the Torah was read to the people and the earth rested from field work. The Romans had a jubilee year when the pilgrimage to Rome with a visit to papal basils provided Catholics with a complete indulgence.

Afterwards, Yuri Oganessian touched the topic of the role of personality in history. Head of the Florentine Republic, the patron saint of science, arts and poets Lorenzo Medici played a huge role in the Renaissance. Another epoch - making personality of that time is Georgio Vazari, an Italian artist, architect and writer. It was from his books that we learned about the era in details. The term "Renaissance" itself belongs to Vasari, so he outlined the return of a person to his natural harmonious state in relations with nature. It was in Italy that the Renaissance originated, gradually, it expanded north and Peter Bruegel became a representative of the northern Renaissance. Yuri Oganessian cited one of the versions for the list of ten most famous paintings of the Renaissance, although he does not understand the ratings of this kind. The top ten included the painting "Games of children" of Bruegel and the "Garden of earthly pleasures" by Jheronimus Bosch. With great pleasure, the speaker touched the art of Bosch in general and his paintings "Ship of fools". And about Bruegel, his paintings and fate, we heard a small lecture, deep and interesting, with the explanation of the biblical plots of some paintings. The landscapes of Brueghel became innovative for his time, he masterfully, often with humor, portrayed scenes of peasant life, which he received the nickname "peasant" for. Of the 45 paintings, more than 30 are dedicated to the image of nature, the village and its inhabitants. He never wrote custom portraits. His paintings influenced the further development of art.

The sons of Peter became artists, although he did not have time to give them the secrets of skill: Bruegel passed away when his children were very small. Nevertheless, Peter Bruegel the Younger became the best copyist of his father's paintings.

We also learned the history of this exhibition. The daughter of Yuri Oganessian, flying to him on an anniversary, bought a calendar at the Museum of the History of Arts as a gift when she made a transfer in Vienna. The quality of printing of the publication allowed exposing individual sheets of the calendar, designing them within the framework on the drawing easels, equipped with specially purchased increased glasses with a 10-fold increase, allowing to consider the smallest details of the paintings. "We do not have these canvases, but after the exhibition one will have emotions," Yuri Oganessian invited the guests to view the exhibition.

The exhibition can be visited on Fridays from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM.

Olga TARANTINA
photo by Elena PUZYNINA