Death of Nero (picture)

The plot of the picture is associated with the dramatic events of the history of Ancient Rome that occurred in 68 . When working on the picture, Smirnov adhered to the description given in the book of Suetonius “The Life of the Twelve Caesars ” ^[2] . When Emperor Nero was overthrown by rebel forces, he tried to hide in the villa of the freedman . Upon learning that the Senate had ordered him to be found in order to put him to a painful execution, Nero began to prepare for death, repeating: “What a great artist is dying!” ( Latin Qualis artifex pereo ). When the horsemen who were entrusted to seize him approached the villa, Nero, having resorted to the help of the adviser on petitions , “thrust his sword into his throat” ^[7] . After the death of Nero, his remains were collected by the breadwinners Ekloga and Alexandria and the concubine in order to bury them “in the family tomb of Domitius , on Garden Hill from the side of the Field of Mars ” ^[7] .

The focus on the canvas is the image of three women who came for the remains of Nero. Their figures are located on the right side of the picture - thus, the left side of the canvas looks somewhat lightweight ^[8] . Acta (Actaea) - the concubine and former lover of Nero - looks at the "open body of the tyrant's suicide" ^[9] , while her majestic figure is opposed to the "insignificant appearance of Nero" ^[8] . The expressive images and slave nurses of Ekloga and Alexandria are described as follows in the book “History of Russian Art”: “Slaves carrying a stretcher were also successful. There is a lot of feeling in the rhythm of the bent figures: the effort that is noticeable in the hands, the anxiety expressed in the convulsively bent shoulders, the tense expression on the faces of both women indicate that a significant event has occurred. Particularly expressive is the figure of an old slave wrapped in a dark gray cloak ” ^[10] .

All the women in the picture stand silently, and their silence “is akin to the silence of death, it seems, broken only by the quiet rustling of a dry leaf sliding along the marble steps” ^[9] .

One of the features of the color scheme of the picture is the dominance of red tones, represented by diverse shades ^[2] . Three women are depicted against the background of a wall ( Italian: rosso pompeiano ), which resembles the color of gore ^[9] . The act holds in its hands a “scarlet embroidered with gold”, with which she is going to cover the dead body of Nero ^[10] - the image of this bedspread ( drapery ) against the background of the red wall was a difficult color task ^[2] . Nero’s body lying motionless in a pool of dark red blood contrasts sharply with the cheerful white sculpture “The Boy with a Goose” depicted at the left edge of the canvas ^[11] .

The critic Vladimir Chuyko, in an essay on art exhibitions of 1889, reported that Smirnov attached a French text from the book of the writer and historian Ernest Renan's “Antichrist” to his painting “The Death of Nero”. Quoting from Renan: “Ses deux nourrices et Acté, qui l'aimait encore, l'ensevelirent secrètement, en un riche linceul blanc, broché d'or ...” (“Two of his nurse and Actaeus, who still loved him, secretly buried it in a rich white shroud embroidered with gold ... ”), Chuyko claimed that in the text cited by Smirnov, the word “ blanc ” (“ white ”) was deliberately omitted, precisely because the artist intended to depict a red coverlet, which, according to Chuiko, too harsh eyes ^[12] . In this case, the color of the bedspread indicated by Renan was in full accordance with the description given in the book of Suetonius, according to which the body of Nero was wrapped in white fabrics trimmed with gold ^[7] .

In general, the color scheme of the canvas is dominated by twilight tones corresponding to diffused light; in particular, there are no highlights and deep shadows in the picture ^[8] . Art critic Elena Gordon believed that through the abundance of different shades of red in combination with gray, which had a psychophysical effect on the viewer, the artist tried to achieve an “extra-artistic, shock effect”. Thus, the spectator seemed to become “an accomplice of artistic mystification” - in particular, the Pompeii-red wall was perceived as “a bloody veil covering the horizon.” Thanks to the horizontally elongated canvas, a narrative effect was created that could be compared to the action of a widescreen film ; the transition of the viewer's gaze from one part of the picture to another resembled the movement of an imaginary camera of a cameraman ^[13] .

As a pensioner at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vasily Smirnov left for Italy in 1884, visiting Vienna on the way. From May 1884 he settled in Rome , but traveled a lot until the fall, having visited several other Italian cities, as well as France , England , Belgium , Holland , Germany and the Czech Republic ^{[6] [14]} .

Returning to Rome in the fall of 1884, Smirnov settled with the artist Vasily Savinsky , who, like him, was a student of Pavel Chistyakov . Savinsky often corresponded with Chistyakov and, in particular, in January 1886 wrote to him: “You ask, what is Smirnov doing? He begins a picture on the subject: dead Nero, and Actaeus came to bury him. He used to start another picture: “The Apostles Peter and John at the Sepulcher of the Lord,” but now he abandoned Jacobius on the advice, and he himself says that he is dissatisfied with the composition ” ^{[14] [15]} .

However, the first completed work of Smirnov during his stay in Italy was the painting “Triumph of Poppea over Octavia”, completed in 1887, the plot of which was also associated with the biography of Nero: it depicts the moment when Poppea Sabina , the second wife of Nero, receives as a gift the head of his first wife - Claudia Octavia . The whereabouts of this picture are currently unknown ^[16] .

In the summer of 1887, the artist traveled to Russia - apparently, this trip was connected with the death of his father, Sergei Semyonovich Smirnov. After that, Vasily Smirnov returned to Italy, where in 1888 he completed work on the painting "Death of Nero." This painting was sent to Petersburg as a final report on his retirement trip, and for him on October 31, 1888, the Council of the Academy of Arts awarded Smirnov the title of academician ^[4] . After that, the canvas was exhibited at the Academic Exhibition of 1889, and it was acquired by Emperor Alexander III ^[5] .

In January 1889, Vasily Smirnov received the post of supernumerary adjunct professor at the drawing classes of the Academy of Arts, but in October of the same year, due to developing consumption, he was forced to return to Italy ^[5] . He failed to recover: in December 1890, returning to Russia, the 32-year-old artist died in a train car between Kubinka and Golitsyno stations ^[17] .

In 1898, the painting was transferred from the Gatchina Palace to the then-created Russian Museum of Emperor Alexander III (now the State Russian Museum ) ^[1] . Currently, the painting “The Death of Nero” is exhibited in Hall 21 of the Mikhailovsky Palace , where, in addition to it, there are large-format works of other artists and academics - “ Christian Martyrs at the Coliseum ” by Konstantin Flavitsky and “ Frin at the Poseidon Festival in Elevzin ” by Henry Semiradsky ^{[18 ]} .

The art critic Dmitry Sarabyanov called the picture “The Death of Nero” famous and noted that “of the“ bloody ”paintings of the academic community this certainly stands out for its spectacularity.” He further wrote: “Smirnov skillfully arranged the figures and objects in space and on the surface of a narrow elongated canvas, keeping the figure composition in one plane and, as it were, separating from it and bringing the corpse of the great tyrant directly in front of the viewer, lying in a picture pose on stone slabs. He allowed the viewer to become the closest witness to the spectacular death, theatrical suicide of the “great actor”, thereby satisfying the spectator's curiosity and introducing the crowd to an intriguing historical secret ” ^[19] .

Art historian Natalya Mamontova noted that Smirnov, being one of the followers of late academism , tried to follow the path of his predecessors in the implementation of the “big form”. At the same time, the plastic filling of this form in his works contained new ideas and techniques that reflected the trends of European art of that time. As a typical example of the decorative-symbolist inclinations of the artist Mamontov, he cites the painting “The Death of Nero”, “the composition of which and the sonorous expressive-decorative color scheme reflected not only the artist's inherent decorative skills, but also the lessons of modern art” ^[20] .

In the encyclopedia “Painting of the Russian Salon”, Gennady Romanov and Alexander Muratov recognized the importance of the artistic contribution of Vasily Smirnov, in particular noting the painting “The Death of Nero” brilliantly performed during his stay in Italy, which was subsequently praised by the Imperial Academy of Arts. They noted that this painting, “unlike the works of Flavitsky or Semiradsky , does not repeat the multi-figured patterns of Bryullov’s school, differs from the Wanderer's narrative and variegation of Bronnikov ”, and claimed that Smirnov “is close to Western European Art Nouveau , anticipates it in this picture” ^{[21 ]} .

Art critic Nonna Yakovleva believed that this painting by Smirnov can also be regarded as a harbinger of some works of the Moscow artists - artists who were members of the World of Art association, which was formed in Russia in the late 1890s. In her book Russian Historical Painting, she wrote: “Three dead objects: the emperor’s body, a dry leaf and the“ Marble boy with a goose ”- sound like a quiet chord, a premonition of that hymn to art, whose eternal value is compared to the fragile vanity of human fuss on the stage history will be given to sing to the masters of the “World of Art" ” ^[9] .

• Goldstein S. N. , Lyaskovskaya O. A. Historical painting // In the book “History of Russian Art”, vol. 9 , pr. 1 , ed. I.E. Grabar . - Moscow: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1965. - S. 143-175 .
• Gordon E. S. Russian Academic Painting of the Second Half of the 19th Century // Bulletin of Moscow University , ser. 8 (History). - 1984. - No. 3 . - S. 66-78 .
• Leonov A.I. Russian art: essays on the life and work of artists. - Moscow: Art , 1971. - T. 2.
• Mamontova N. N. Vasily Sergeevich Smirnov, pensioner of the Academy of Arts (Russian artists in Italy in the last third of the 19th century) // In the collection of articles “Russian Art of the New Time. Research and materials. Vol. 10: Imperial Academy of Arts. Cases and people ”, 312 p. ) - Moscow: Research Institute of Theory and History of Fine Arts of the Russian Academy of Arts, 2006. - S. 238-248 . - ISBN 5-88451-205-8 .
• Romanov G. B. , Muratov A. M. Painting of the Russian Salon, 1850-1917. Encyclopedia. - Moscow: Golden Age, 2004 .-- 599 p.
• Sarabyanov D.V. History of Russian art of the second half of the XIX century. - Moscow: Publishing house of Moscow University, 1989. - 381 p.
• Yakovleva N. A. Russian historical painting .. - Moscow: White City , 2005. - 656 p. - (Encyclopedia of World Art). - ISBN 5-7793-0898-5 .
• State Tretyakov Gallery - collection catalog / Y. V. Brook , L. I. Iovleva . - Moscow: Red Square, 2006. - T. 4: Painting of the second half of the XIX century, book 2, N — I. - 560 s. - ISBN 5-900743-22-5 .
• State Russian Museum - Painting, XVIII - beginning of XX century (catalog). - Leningrad: Aurora and Art , 1980. - S. 305. - 448 p.
• History of Russian Art / M. G. Neklyudova . - Moscow: Visual Arts , 1980. - T. 2, Prince. 1 . - 312 p.

• Smirnov V.S. - Death of Nero. 1888 (unspecified) (HTML). Virtual Russian Museum - rusmuseumvrm.ru. Date of treatment November 8, 2017.
• Death of Nero. Smirnov V.S. (Neopr.) (HTML). Artefact (project of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation) - ar.culture.ru. Date of treatment April 7, 2019.
• An interactive view of the hall of the State Russian Museum, which contains the painting "Death of Nero" (Neopr.) (HTML). Virtual tour of the Russian Museum - virtual.rusmuseumvrm.ru. Date of treatment November 8, 2017.
• Interactive view of the hall of the State Russian Museum, in which the painting "The Death of Nero" is located (go right), www.virtualrm.spb.ru