Nicholas Roerich – a kind of author, whose work is distinguished by deep philosophical and lyrical motifs. The themes of his canvases are diverse and complex, inspired and sublime. Roerich’s favorite images of creativity, in turn, can be considered images of the sky and clouds.
The motif of the sky and clouds clearly sounds in such a famous work of Roerich as “Heavenly Battle”. The painting was written in 1912, in a difficult time for the history of Russia. An unusual canvas created on canvas made of cardboard using mixed tempera technique is currently stored in the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg.
The painting “Heavenly Battle” is filled not only with artistic images, but with symbols, in which, first of all, the features and the spirit of that era were embodied. Most of the work takes the image of the clouds, which are heavy images that carry an unknown, but becoming more visible and visible threat. The effect of tempera painting is reminiscent in part of a pastel sketch. The picture is characterized by numerous, contrasting transitions of light and shadow.
“Heavenly battle” is a kind of battle of Light and Darkness, the time when the elements come. Roerich’s painting demonstrates the beauty of a complex state of nature. The real confrontation unfolded in the sky. And this heavenly confrontation filled the whole space of the picture plane. Element scattered its boundaries far beyond the canvas, which shows all the power and greatness of natural forces. From the point of view of Roerich, even the wrath of the elements is filled with special beauty and cleansing freedom.
Roerich is the greatest master of transmitting mental states and a different range of feelings and moods. The artist embodies all the subtle transitions of the states of nature or of the spirit using the necessary colors from the position of tonality and color. The artistic method of Nicholas Roerich is distinguished by the openness of colorful images, the emotionality of form, the dynamics of lines and colors, the symbolism, the philosophy of works. Roerich’s paintings are precisely capacious prayers or laconic phrases of a sage, in which a striving for the sublime and simultaneous craving for simplicity and peace are wonderfully combined.
The painting “Heavenly Battle” reflects the interweaving, the “battle” of color and form, light and shade, sky and earth. Here the antithesis or opposition is clearly implemented, the reception of global contrast, the eternal confrontation of different forces. This philosophical phenomenon of the “eternal battle” was able to feel and convey the great genius of Roerich at that dim twilight time, the time of the start of new wars and revolutions.
As a true artist, Roerich lived in tune with the life of his Motherland, loved and hated with her, and even when this Motherland itself turned away from him, until the end of his days he kept this great creator faith, this great love for his native land, its history and the people. Therefore, the work of Nicholas Roerich still remains so great and valuable to us.
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