Pagan themes in the works of artists of Vitebsk

Our life is so multifaceted and diverse that it is simply impossible to cover all aspects. However, there is such a wonderful part of it, without which it is difficult to imagine a modern person. It is the oldest and perhaps the most interesting of all aspects of life. These are myths, very diverse and unusual. Today, there are so many variations and types of them that it seems simply impossible to cover them all. However, I tried to do this on the example of the work of Vitebsk artists in 1995-2010.

Hey! This text has been translated into English using automatic Google translation. So I apologize for the inaccuracies in the text. The original in Russian can be seen here

This study was carried out by me in 2009-2010 as part of my master’s thesis “Mythology in the work of contemporary artists of the Vitebsk region”, which was successfully defended in the same year.

Pagan themes in the works of artists of Vitebsk.

Since ancient times, the so-called “remnants of the past” have been preserved – ancient pagan rituals, beliefs and superstitions that still live among the people. At least take the same holidays that are widely celebrated here in the Vitebsk region: Maslenitsa, Kupala, Dzyady and many others. And superstitions are about a black cat, about a mirror and other fears that are widespread among our people. We should not forget fairy tales, beliefs about the origin of cities, legends of various villages about ghosts that scare children. All this has been perfectly preserved to the present day.

Today, artists, as before, continue to display old, ancient, pagan myths in their paintings. And Vitebsk authors are no exception. In their works one can find favorite plots of old Slavic myths, which are no longer as popular today as they used to be in the days of ancient people. Now these myths are of secondary importance. Because other new religions overlap the old faith. To a greater extent, the Slavic faith was influenced by such a religion as Christianity. Therefore, today from the ancient pagan myths there are only separate fragments from the annals and miraculously preserved folk memories in the form of superstitions and celebrated days of festivities. And everything that has survived today should be viewed through the prism of Christianity, which once replaced paganism and therefore changed a lot of old myths in people’s memory. It follows that in the paintings of modern artists it is almost impossible to find an appeal to pure ancient myths, because. all of them will certainly be, albeit with small, but still serious and essential, elements of Christianity. This is the whole irony and tangible problem in the perception and understanding of the Slavic themes in the painting of Vitebsk artists. However, this does not at all prevent us from singling out and considering this direction separately, in relation to Vitebsk art.

Another problem with Slavic themes is that few artists address this topic. Artists today paint on the motives of various, whatever myths: ancient, Egyptian, Chinese, Japanese, Christian, “Eastern” and others, but not on Slavic motives. And the authors explain this situation quite simply, saying that in Slavic myths there are more descriptions of living beings than any storyline, legend or history. And it really is. After all, pagan mythology has not survived well to this day, unlike, for example, ancient or Egyptian mythology, which, thanks to their writing, quite well conveyed their mythology to their descendants, and which, in spite of everything, is so popular today. And therefore, Slavic myths retained more descriptions of living beings, and not any storyline, legend or history. Moreover, the description of the lower gods of the Slavic pantheon, rather than the higher ones, was preserved, even whose names are far from always fully and reliably known. After all, it is the lower deities that are closer to the common people. These are such creatures as mermaids, goblin, Yaga, brownie, bannik, water and many other interesting characters.

However, here we are not talking about the well-known Slavic mythology, which Viktor Vasnetsov, Ilya Repin, Konstantin Vasiliev and many others referred to, but about old, pagan, Belarusian myths. Although they belong to Slavic mythology, they are not Russian legends and epics, but have their own history, no less ancient and interesting. It is about her that we are talking about, it is about her that such Vitebsk artists as Viktor Shilko, Oleg Zakharevich, Alexei Litvin, Vadim Osipov, Yuri Shainurov and Viacheslav Shainurov write their paintings, who have repeatedly addressed this topic.

The most common myths, based on which artists paint their paintings, are carols and Kupala. For example, the Kolyada holiday is depicted in such works as “Koliada” by Viktor Shilko, and “Koliada” by Alexei Litvin. Kolyada in Slavic mythology is the embodiment of the New Year cycle and was mentioned in laudatory Christmas songs, carols, performed by young people walking around the yards and containing magic spells – wishes for well-being to the home and family, demands for gifts (from the owners), predicting ruin for the mean. Sometimes the gifts themselves are ceremonial cookies, a loaf, etc. called carols. Caroling could be accompanied by dressing up as a horse, goat, cow, bear and other animals that embodied fertility. Kolyada was an interesting and fascinating holiday, which was celebrated in the old days by the whole village. And, it is not surprising that so many paintings are drawn precisely to this myth. It describes a beautiful ritual of celebrating the new year, which is accompanied by the use of masks, songs and dances. So at Shilko’s work we see people singing and dancing – happy people who rejoice in the new year, every passerby, every new treat. People are dressed in colorful clothes and some have carol masks on their faces. In the center of the picture is dancing with an accordion, and in front of him, in bright red clothes with a clown mask, caroling. On the sides of them are two women, one of them with a tambourine. Unlike Litvin’s painting, Shilko’s work is written in a more realistic manner, when Litvin shows us a carol through abstraction. However, at work, a realistically painted temple with domes in the background immediately catches the eye and stands out. It has nothing to do with the holiday of carols, but the artist takes as a basis the modern interpretation of this holiday, which means that the church, as an integral element of today’s faith, can appear at work. This confirms our conclusions about the superimposed imprint of one mythology on another, which occurred with a change in political and spiritual trends in our lands in the 10th century. A large human figure and small images of a rider and a horse fit very organically into the work, and, since the work has an abstract character, it is necessary to pay attention to the overall color scheme and composition. The combination of large green and red spots perfectly conveys the general mood of the carol, because These are the colors most often found on this holiday.

But Oleg Zakharevich in the work “Mermaid” recalls a beautiful and tragic myth, which is well known in Slavic mythology. Mermaids, swimsuits, vodonitsa, rags and others, in Slavic mythology, are usually harmful creatures, into which drowned girls and unbaptized children turn before marriage (the legend of unbaptized children was formed later in the time of Christianity). They appear as beautiful girls with long flowing green hair. Before us appears the image of a beautiful girl with a fish tail, which is doomed to lie on a giant shell. Another attribute indicating that what is happening belongs to the underwater world is a fish swimming behind the back of a mermaid. The image of a mythical creature is beautifully conveyed. It clearly traces the sadness and sadness about the past life and the early departure from it. The overall range has a predominant brown hue, which expresses more longing than joy.

The pagan Belarusian mythology has an interesting, but rather complex and intricate internal structure, consisting of separate myths and legends, sometimes not even strongly interconnected. However, it still has some general structure that allows you to distinguish between higher and lower mythical creatures. Artists often turn to lower, more mundane and close to people creatures. And about the higher ones, little has been preserved in history. In the memory of people, a more detailed description of the appearance and habits of all sorts of brownies, banniks and goblin remains than the appearance of Perun or Dazhdbog. Therefore, now we have to rely more on what is better preserved.

A very interesting and original interpretation of Slavic myths by Vadim Osipov. For example, his work “Autumn Sacrifice”. It depicts grains and sliced ​​pumpkin. In the old days, these were the most popular products. Therefore, the well-being of the family and good luck in wintering depended on their number in the cellar. Bread and pumpkin were on the table every day, and a lot of dishes were made from pumpkin. Therefore, in order for the next year’s harvest to be as good again as this year, the ancient people made sacrifices to the gods – a pumpkin and grains. Hence the unusual reading of the plot in the work. The author, in the form of a still life, conveyed the rite that was once necessary, depicting a handful of grain and a chopped pumpkin.

And in the works “Ritual” and “Archaic Motif”, Osipov, without using specific pagan motifs of ancient Belarusian myths, conveyed the feeling of the old times, when people performed strange, in our opinion, rituals and danced to the sounds of tambourines and drums, worshiping the gods. He uses symbols from different eras. For example, in the painting “Ritual” Osipov depicts bowls and two figures who, raising their hands to the sky, worship the gods. In the center of the largest bowl is a bright yellow circle and an eight-pointed star, which means light, sun, warmth and life. Since ancient times, people have revered these gifts of the gods and brought tribute to them, so that these gifts would be with people further. Therefore, the picture shows a bowl as a symbol of the generosity and gratitude of the people towards the gods. So, using only symbols and general knowledge about the beliefs of the old Slavs, Osipov conveys on his canvases the feeling of being present at an ancient rite or ritual. Such an effect is created with the right range. The paintings are dominated by yellow, blue and red colors. Saturated yellow-red gamma pumps up the general state, forcing the viewer to be wary. Such colors bring the smell of fire. Namely, fire and disturbed feelings are the attributes of ancient times. This is how the artist imperceptibly brings the viewer to the idea of ​​primitive people who dance ritual dances in caves to the sound of a drum and sing unusual songs.

We also find motifs of Slavic myths in the works of Sergei Kukhto, despite the fact that he mainly painted paintings based on ancient mythology, as evidenced by the presence of various images, including centaurs, in the author’s compositions. For example, Kuhto’s painting, whose name we do not know, is thoroughly permeated with a pagan spirit hovering in the air, in a light fog, among bare trees and fallen leaves. The landscape in the picture seems unreal and fabulous. It is an autumn land, covered with leaves and covered with large and deep puddles, turning into swamps and lakes.

Above such water, in which the gloomy autumn forest is reflected, stands a girl, young and beautiful, but who wants to end her life here, in the Belarusian swamp, becoming one of the strange mythical creatures called mermaids. These inhabitants of forests and lakes have already been written above. They are one of the favorite subjects in the compositions of artists. And Sergey Kukhto was no exception and created a work based on these wonderful myths. Only his picture does not depict a pretty mermaid, but an unhappy girl who had a great grief, perhaps unhappy love. And now she is already standing naked, in bast shoes and with long, flowing hair near the water. This long flowing hair and naked body are well found in the overall color scheme. Bast shoes have been an indispensable attribute of clothing since ancient times, and the peasants stopped wearing them only at the beginning of the 20th century. All this, combined with nature, creates a feeling of an old Slavic, pagan motif. And this work shows the situation when the girl is alone with her pain and heaviness and is already preparing to enter the water. Therefore, her figure is naked, and her clothes are thrown back. And the last point that you should pay attention to is the color scheme of the work. It is made up of brown, red and golden hues with the addition of cold blue. In this scale, the figure of a girl is beautifully written, which is as cold as the surrounding nature.

Sergei Kukhto subtly felt the mythological motifs of the pagan Slavs who lived in the Belarusian lands and, using the legends about drowned women, wrote an excellent work that reflects the spirit of that time. However, this feeling of old myths is also present in the canvases of other artists such as, for example, Yuri Shainurov. His painting “Mother Earth” depicts a collective image of Mother Earth, which is actively present in many myths of the Slavs. The work is written in a symbolic-surrealistic manner, because. it is created from symbols that are assembled into a single composition based on Slavic mythology. The earth on the canvas is presented in the form of a woman who lies horizontally, and a lone traveler on a horse rides along it, following this earth to his goal. The first symbol at work can be called Mother Earth, already mentioned above, and the second – a person who is a collective image of people traveling around their Earth. The whole composition is complemented by thickened clouds and a gap through them above the rider, accompanying him on this journey. The whole work is written in a smooth manner of writing and sustained scale. In the picture, the author, using the Slavic belief that the Earth is alive, created a mythological plot in which we see all the beauty of the Earth and Nature.

Viacheslav Shainurov also turned to Slavic pagan mythology and wrote a work on this topic called “Marena”. Madder in Slavic mythology is a goddess associated with the incarnations of death, with seasonal rituals for causing rain. In spring rituals, a straw effigy was called her name – the embodiment of death (pestilence) and winter, which was drowned, torn or burned, which was supposed to ensure the harvest. The picture uses the image of the ancient pagan, Slavic goddess of death, who was the guide of the souls of the dead to the side of Darkness. She is contrasted with a young girl sitting on her knees, who escorts her loved one to another world. Not only the mourning figure, but the whole composition conveys the deep tragedy and inner tension of the situation. The artist in his work shows the image of Marena, who is not a negative hero, but carries the features of mercy and empathy. Indeed, according to the beliefs of the Slavs, death is sometimes a liberator from suffering. And it was also possible to negotiate with her, at least for a while, then she would come and take away everything that belongs to her. Next to life there is always death, which accompanies us from birth and sometimes takes our souls with regret and sympathy.

In addition to the work discussed above, the author created other canvases in mythological themes. These are such picturesque canvases as “The Source” and “The Hour of Past Faith”. When creating a compositional solution for the work “Istok”, several myths of the ancient Slavs were used, some of which are still common among the people. For example, a belief about a fern flower, which is still being sought today on the night of Ivan Kupala, in order to find a treasure indicated by an unusual color. The whole work is built on three figures, which are classic mermaids. They sit at a pure source, and next to them is the eternal guardian of the sacred flower. The landscape and scale of the work complement the general idea of ​​the mythological state of the depicted. Such a composition helps the viewer to remember old beliefs and legends told by grandmothers in childhood.

The Slavic theme in the paintings of Vitebsk artists today is not widely represented, but, be that as it may, the authors continue to study and paint pictures on this interesting topic.