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.
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| Idols (sketch), 1901. Russian State Museum, St Petersburg |
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| Idols, 1901. (Krasnodar Regional Art Museum) |
