Idols (1901)

While working on this paining Roerich wrote: "The sketch for "Idols" makes me happy – it is strong, bright, no drama in it, no sentimentality."  As in previous works of Nicholas Roerich, romantic elation is certainly inherent in "Idols". But this is no idyllic romanticism, dramatisation or tender emotion to the olden days. These are replaced by solemn severity, so characteristic of the ancient man before the face of Mother Nature. The painting shows ‘kapische’ (temple), enclosed by a solid palisade of logs. In the middle of the temple there stands a large wooden idol, next to it are several smaller ones. On the stockade are the skulls of sacrificial animals. A white-haired old man came to the pagan sanctuary. Boats floating on the river and the motionless grin of skulls tell him about the unity of life and death. He knows this truth of being and it does not scare him. This artist calls this integral worldview "a healthy pagan mood." Roerich has set himself a difficult task - to convey this mood in an expressive and authentic form. And he found it. Ring composition, generalising the lines of the drawing, rhythmic matching of the colored areas gave the painting solidity. Decoratively sonorous style of the "Idols" is far from the style, which was characteristic of "The messenger". By comparison, the "Idols" is a new stage of the artist’s creativity. This painting is the result of a complex synthesis of traditions of national painting with the experience of some Western artists contemporary to Roerich.



Idols (sketch), 1901. Russian State Museum, St Petersburg

Idols, 1901. (Krasnodar Regional Art Museum)