This is an illustration of the plot from Golubinaya kniga (Russian religious
verses) of Yegoriy, Princess and the Dragon. Heartless tsar decides to
sacrifice his daughter to the dragon as she converted to Christianity. She is
saved by Yegoriy the Brave sent by God. In exchange for life and peace of the
kingdom princess Oleksafiya demands the father to take the Christian faith and
to build three churches: in the name of the Mother of God, the Holy Trinity and
the Yegoriy the Brave (St. George). Roerich has depicted the most dramatic
moment: in the sinister twilight the dragon entwines the princess, but the
heavenly messenger had already raised his sword.
Nicholas Roerich
Slavs on the Dnieper. (1905)
“In the Russian chronicles of the XII century it
is said that for a long time the shores of river Dnieper were populated with tribes."They
had own customs and laws of their fathers, and traditions."The picture
shows one of the aspects of the life of the pagan Slavs - the collection of
tribute princely retinue.” (A.Yuferova, Nicholas Roerich.)
Building the Ships. (1903)
Roerich’s talent of a painter resurrected
ancient images of the Slavic land. Slavs were not primitive
savages. Their diverse labor, development of the social order are shown in Building a Town, Building the Ships, Slavs on
the Dnieper, Gathering tribute
and many other paintings based on deep knowledge of historical material.
"When addressing the topics of prehistory, N.Roerich
reveals the formation of the human principle, the growth of consciousness,
talks about creative discoveries, inventions of primitive people, finds peculiar
beauty in them, poeticises the bright world around them," wrote Boris Mikhaylovsky.
Building the Town. 1902
“I had a painting called Building the Town. In it, I wanted to express the aspiration to
create, when in the midst of building up new strongholds pile up towers and
walls. Since then it has been joyfull to go back to the same concept of creativeness,
which is a natural opposition of destruction.[...] In our days, when we have
gone through so much destruction, each building is particularly valuable. Recently
various wordly-wise men have been assuring us that the world is in the throes of material
depression, an unprecedented material crisis, and because of this any building
is inappropriate. [...] The crisis of the world is not material, but it is
spiritual. It can only be healed by spiritual renewal. [...] Now the whole
world is sharply divided into light and darkness, creation and destruction. [...]
It is now more precious to see building. After all, we all know how a builder is
surrounded by difficulties, what a devotee he should be to overcome the
onslaught of destruction, chaos and darkness. Indeed, the darkness is
dissipated by the light, but then the light should be more intense than the
darkness to dispel it. [...]
The Messenger. (Tribe has risen against tribe).1897
In November 1897, the Imperial Academy of Art
held an exhibition and a solemn act of awarding the title of artist. This title
was given Nicholas Roerich for his painting The Messenger. Tribe has risen against tribe, or, as it was listed
in the reports of the Academy, Slavs and
Vikings.
Tribe has risen against tribe - how many
spectacular moments this theme promises an artist: a sudden attack, lights of
fires... But there is no ostentatious admiring of the old. At first glance, the
plot seems to be very modest and non-winning. A messenger with a rower thread through a river at night. An internal war broke out, and he is quick to warn the
neighbors, or perhaps, to ask for their help. The messenger is rather old and has
seen a lot in his life. Therefore, he has been outfitted for the dangerous path.
He is concerned. He has to find the words so that people believe him and
respond. Will it be possible to stop the blood feud or will it flare up even
more? The landscape on the painting takes the viewer into the past. Peaked tent
buildings surrounded by a fence are seen on the shore. In some places, there
are muted lights of twinkling fires. The soft light of the moon pulls out of some
dark figures floating in a boats, increasing their anxiety and alertness. The
picture captures one’s imagination and makes the viewer empathise.
Idols (1901)
The Sinister (1901)
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