IZUGRAPHS ***

Somebody christened the nature of the Russian North as "opaque," "not bright" and modest. Yet, nowhere in the country is such brightness and expression of contrasting colours and is polyphonic, as in North-Western Russia.



The beauty of these places is presented not only by various landscapes, combining the low mountains, hills, valleys, folds, lakes and rivers, framed by forests, meadows, shrubs. It is determined by variation by now and then of successive scenic moods. It sometimes changes just a matter of seconds, not to mention the changes associated with the four seasons.



A forest lake from a deep-blue hue can be instantly transformed into a silver-lilac just because a light comic breeze blows out of the forest. Likewise, a field of rye and birch forest, river and meadow grass change their colour depending on the strength and direction of the wind. But apart from the wind, there is the sun and the sky, the time of day and night, the new moon and the full moon, heat and cold.



Innumerable combinations of all changes immediately reflected on the landscape, the originality of the smells, sounds, or then absolute silence that happens in the early morning of a white windless night or a winter icy windless night. To ignore an endlessly changing landscape, you have to be deaf and blind or morbidly fascinated by something else.



Recall short, almost black and white winter days, followed by seemingly one graphic: white fields, dark woods and hedges, gray houses and buildings. Even in such time, snow has its shades; what to say about the sun on a frosty morning and sunset! There are no names for the colours of many states of the sunset or morning sky. To say that the dawn is crimson (or purple, or lilac) means almost nothing to say: it changes every minute, its colours and hues on the horizon line and above, and the border between the dawn and the sky does not exist. And what name to call a colour of the winter crust blinding with sunshine, in the shade of bluish-glowing in-depth and silver, as it melts under the direct rays? The frosty sun produces the same richness of colour tones, like during warm spring and summer or autumn. But even in dense clouds, especially before the beginning of spring, the winter landscape is heterogeneous, the snow is bluish. With a faint yellow, the forest gave a smoky lavender, the slightly bluish with brown over the near willow, bluish alder tree, with a bright green of pines and subtle coloration of ash trees. This pre-spring condition is associated with peacefully quiet, a smell of snow, tree's flesh, hay, stove smoke.



And who among the most brilliant painters have depicted at least a few states of night deep-purple sky with massive clusters of stars, leaving in perspective infinity?



 Spring and summer sky changes its colour as ruthlessly fast, does not stint on their shades and intensity, its generosity to paint is truly unlimited. And how varied is the green colour of the North-West!



The greenery of flax, for example, varies with its growth, flowering and ripening; the green grass also varies greatly. Meadows, blooming in spring with white, pink, blue, pale after mowing, suddenly become a spring-bright green. Winter wheat stays green until late fall, even before the winter. Always change the green colours of the forest and the colour of the water surface in lakes and rivers. Water is either bright, steel, sometimes blue, something blue to ink density; then suddenly, especially in the silence of the first autumn frosts, it is greenish.



There is no need to talk about autumn landscapes; their beauty and multiplicity are well known.


How could all this not resonate in the soul of people, not be imprinted in their works and creations? Nature was, of course, the first and foremost mentor to a person in their eternal quest for beauty.



Art was born in the depths of people's everyday life. It is a quiet fashion that grew and ripened, sometimes transparent even for the artist. Without a strong soil layer, also a talented farmer gets wilted flowers that bloom briefly and lightly. This common everyday layer formed during the centuries, fertilized with thousands of diverse, interconnected and interchangeable customs and skills.



The life of a person under normal circumstances always is creative. But, on the other hand, a plowman or a carpenter's work is original because purely mechanical, repetitive, learned once and for all movements used only by people with limited social and physical skills.



Many people think that physical labour cannot be creative; that inspiration goes only to those who have the pen, bow or slide-rule in their hands. But moreover, original work denied physical effort, that is purely intellectual (even if a person runs daily on the tennis court or swimming pool), is hardly sufficiently creative. The subtle, harmonious combination of intellectual and physical effort in labour often was violated in the past, in peasant life, and frequently a shift occurred in the direction of natural gravity. But a breach to the other side is no better, if not worse ...



Before starting to cut down a tree, a lumberjack will think over where it is bent upon, which side has the thick needles, and what other trees are nearby. The first blow of the axe lets the lumberjack feel the hardness or softness, dryness or humidity of wood. Feeling the rhizomes or swamp unsteadiness under the feet, shining sun, wind force and even the distance to the village and thousands of other little things make the lumberjack a creative person.



The Russian stove had never been built of brick but from raw clay. Clay was churned, daubed. Mouldings, ledges, depressions, ledges were sculptured by hand and therefore had an oval shape. Labour of the stove-mason combines some, albeit remote, features of the sculptor and architect (modelling, composition, proportionality, plan and knowledge of the material.)



Understanding the Pskov city architecture suggests a surprising similarity of the stove building or of ordinary skill with the skill-building Pskov churches. Oval, soft, rustic forms of these small churches are indeed akin to somewhat of the Russian stove, its warmth and coziness, its daily necessity.



 How does the work of a mason or wood-cutter become similar to sculptor or architect work? The great mystery of creation, creativity, inspiration does not give up to a rational conclusion. The artist exists possible in any person, but no one knows where and when he wakes up (and if he will wake up at all).
The impetus for this revival can be any small thing, such as spring egg, coloured with broth from the onion skins. A brown-ocher or reddish-brown colour gives a pair of Easter eggs decorative brightness. And when they lie in the snow-white plate but still together with others, different tone, then, thinking about it, the child immediately runs home from a festive street.



A white linen shirt miraculously transformed if it was dunk into the infusion of alder bark. Maybe in such moments, the mind awakens from sleep?



Nature and life tightly surround everyone, even those without artistic inclinations. And they, having no taste, dress tastefully (in obedience to tradition), have no ear for music, participate in the singing (with all), not possessing the artist's gift, admire the autumn forest. But what then to say about those who are born with talent?



Lessons of colour or black and white graphics a child takes from infancy, watching as his father or grandfather cut out "towel" and trims, as a sister or grandmother crochets lace chooses stitch, weaving bright rags. He will not necessarily become a painter or builder later. Talented or just artistically appreciative people often combine several capacities, like Gogol's Vakula, who managed to create a beautiful devil. Craftsmanship allowed a person to be the blacksmith or the builder. But art demanded loyalty from a man to something singular, although Andrei Rublev could, perhaps, no worse than the other build chambers and churches.



Folk artists often mastered several crafts, thinking: "Extra craft do not hang up on the shoulders." Those notorious street painters, which at one time often were ridiculed by satirists and feuilletonists, could, on occasion, dig a well and layout the oven. A carpenter has fashioned for himself a cupboard, felt a child's urge to paint it. With plenty of experience and paints, he did not ask a true painter for a favour but himself worked with the brush. And then the cupboard door turned into outlandish boyar gate towers, appeared to have vases with flowers and wavy patterns. Lovely were those cupboards with pink and green floral ornaments on a white background.



The owners built themselves painted chests, used later as benches for the autumn and winter parties. So, on the chest of Athanasius, Ozerkov (hamlet Lobanikha) was depicted as a magnificent stylized lion with around, not a beastly face, with a thin raised paw and a small tail. The bushy tail bends somehow very elegant and funny. Yes, and the lion was smiling.



The ceiling was painted with precise coloured divergent circles in the same house. They diverged from the center and from which hung the wooden bird made of plates. A full-length brave soldier with a mustache was painted at the gates of the basement of a house (Gryazovets county). Each mustache was only slightly shorter than the soldiers' swords. In the middle of the last century, people began to paint the gables of houses covered with planks in Vologda and Arkhangelsk villages. Images of the clocks, birds and wildflowers on the balconies and towers are preserved in many places that are not washed away by rain, not weathered by centuries of wind. Colourful tables, chests, rakes, perches, chests, spinning wheels, spoons, etc., quite well matched unpainted floors, clean white walls and skillfully carved benches. All this was not created by professionals but by the owners themselves, who were carpenters, blacksmiths, cabinet makers, stove builders, whose primary business was arable farming.



The brightness of decorative fabrics, garments, home furnishing, inherent in everyday life, coupled with the beauty of nature, influenced a person from birth. This surroundings in itself, to some extent, is art, and in such circumstances, it will wake up the artist's soul. Among many middle-level talents were born many good artists, and among them became outstanding and, finally, the brilliant.



The transition to high art from a colourful everyday household is inconspicuous. It is smooth, not sharp, and it would not be worth remembering if, at some time, the art was accompanied by personal vanity.



It is not difficult to imagine the difference between self-love in art and love of art in oneself. Let's recall that even the most beautiful works of Russian icon painters are not signed, that the names of the founders of architectural masterpieces are known only from legends. The artist did not put his signature on his artistic creation, not because he did not know letters, as now it is presented by another "over the hill" researcher. The purpose of the artist was not self-assertion. He did not assert himself in the world but claimed the outside world through himself.



The artistic genius of the Russian people became known chiefly through the spoken word, architecture and painting. Experts divide the art of painting into everyday paintings and religious paintings. But to what category include the fantastic miniatures that adorn the handwritten holy books? Or the same little devil painted by a Gogol's blacksmith?



Icon painting, preceded by mural paintings, left the most tangible evidence of numerous national artistic genius. For the relatively small number of subjects, millions of high-grade works of art were created. An icon, or two or three, were present in every Russian house, and in every cathedral and church, in every chapel was set up the iconostasis - a group placed in a specific order of the icons. Keeping in mind here also monastic cells, ships and soldiers' portable chapels, one can imagine many icons written in Russia.



The Russian icon is a phenomenon unique; it is known worldwide, spread one way or another around the world. The variety of art schools and styles within the iconography art does not interfere but helps its artistic integrity, its complete independence.



What unites all the schools and styles of Russian icon painting art? What makes it a one-piece set?



However much we may disclose, the mystery of artistic creation will remain a mystery. A discovered secret will belong to science rather than artistic creativity.



For many years, an army of curious scientists and art historians tried to solve the mystery of creation, opening up one after another of its little private secrets. And already, it would seem, is about to close, very close and inevitably a remarkable discovery. But no, creativity, again and again, moves away from the prying feelings of the rationalistic mind.



In the North, three icon-painting subjects were most beloved by people. Born of peasant origin, an icon painter, of course, painted the image of the Savior, but, following the popular taste above all created images of the Virgin Mary, St. George and St. Nicholas. This is not by accident. Strength and depth of maternal love are not put by people to any doubt. The cult of motherhood spiritualized entire Northern life. The maternal theme sounds in all kinds of folk art. Christianity and paganism did not compete when it came to Mother. The image of the Virgin was in almost every house. She was called the patroness not for nothing.



Even in ancient times, the last chance before the execution was an appeal to the mother of the man on whom the fate of the convicted person depended. The most effective prayer of the people was considered maternal, but the mother, in turn, turned in prayer to the Mother, too.



St. George on a white horse represented the military force capable of protecting from a creeping evil. The icon with his image was considered mandatory in the house. But the most beloved of all saints was in the North St. Nicholas the Miracle Worker. He was called simply, Nicola, and respectfully - St. Nicholas. In a rare home, there was no icon with his image: to popular belief, Nicola was protecting young and old, in the woods and water, battle and labour. Picturesque images of St. Nicholas are very diverse; he is kind and affectionate, stern and fierce, thoughtfully tender, then disapproving. There is a remarkable icon with his image in the Novgorod Church of St. Sofia. But perhaps the most beautiful picture of St. Nicholas was a fresco of Dionisio in Ferapontov Monastery - in a Russian pearl in the necklace of world culture.




From the village Timonikha and neighbouring villages, some old ladies walked on foot to the Ferapontov monastery, and it lasted until the early 20s. They walked on country roads and boggy paths, all with one overnight stay in transit. A rare traveller could go without sleep for 80-90 kilometres. In three hundred meters from Timonikha, village Lobanikha is mentioned in the ancient books with the second, not a very respectable name. Standing above the lake, the Nicholas churchyard opened the way to Alferov and Pomazikha villages, now extinct. Also behind a small forest is Ploskovo and Ezovo villages - vast and ancient settlements decimated over the last 30-40 years.



Across the river Ustyug, taking the swamps, you can get to other villages, which were numerous and now disappear one after another. Cloudberry bogs suddenly disappear, the forest parts at once, and the white walls of the Ferapontov monastery friendly shine in the sun.



Not very long ago, Ferapont probably thought where to cut the cell, among some pleasant wooded hills and two light reaches of lakes, located one above the other, connected by a noisy river.



Similar to these places, a white stone convent was built - not bulky, like a toy, with two towers above the gates with the cozy, low fence. A low-height church building with the semi-circular upper part of outer walls and thin brick attracted Dionisio, maybe because of its intimate, small size, and here the great Russian painter told his sons to stop and settle ...



In one year, Dionisio had accomplished his feat and painted the church with the help of his sons. There was at this time the mother of his sons? Unknown. Most likely, she was no longer alive. In the image of Our Lady, artists have invested so much of their sad love, so much filial and conjugal affection, loyalty and reverence that the mural, despite the considerable damage, now moves souls.



By the location and placement of murals under the arches on the walls of the spherical and curved surfaces, you can learn from Dionysian compositional skill. There is something to remember for all those involved with art: the architect and writer, musician and sculptor, playwright and art critic. Graphics and colour paintings and perfect rhythm: it again forces remember such words and concepts as harmony, proportionality, harmony.



The image of St. Nicholas, written in the right hemisphere of the nave, was to Dionysii evidently a proper take-off, inspired enthusiasm, the complete disappearance and dissolution of the "self" in art ...



Like all great works of art, Nicola Dionysii is perceived at different times in different ways, even by the same person. There is the highest wisdom and strong insuperable spirit, earthly man beauty, in the form of Northerner peasant, a citizen of Novgorod, warrior and provider.



Nicola looks at us with the very eyes of Dionysii for the past five centuries. He looks as if appealing to conscience, with a mournful reproach or as if with encouraging approval, penetrating with his gaze into the very depths of our soul and instilling in it the courage.



And the memory of the ingenious icon painter (izugraph) Dionysii lives not only in our hearts. It lives in the colours of forests, fields, waters, stones and skies of our beloved North.