Gamayun, a prophetic bird (picture)

In the foreground of the picture is a hybrid creature with the body of a bird and a female head ^[2] and toes ^[3] . The creature has a beautiful ^{[4] [3]} , tender ^[3] face of a "wild teenage girl", it is almost childish, but "with the right features." It is turned into the distance ^[5] , gloomy ^[4] , in deep thought ^[6] , alarming ^{[6] [1] [5]} , frightened ^{[2] [3]} , whitened ^[3] , mournful ^[1] , severe ^[7] ; with large, wide open, serious dark eyes ^[2] full of horror and confusion ^[5] . The mouth is slightly ajar, it is possible that the creature says something ^[2] . The creature’s wings are black, they are directed forward, the creature seems to be wrapped in them ^[2] , or trying to fence itself off from something ^[3] , or they are “crushed by the gusts of the storm” ^[5] . The feathers are disheveled, and the golden hair is disheveled ^[2] , stood on end ^[3] , which creates a “scruffy” look ^[2] . In the opinion of I. A. Sukhvanova, she sees something terrible in front of her, but is not able to look away and continues to prophesy ^{[2] [3]} .

The creature sits on the “outlandish” ^[3] shoot or trunk ^[2] growing out of the water, which has the shape of a question mark in mirror image. The curls on it, one of which is crowned with a fantastic flower, seem ominous. Together with two symmetrical branches at the base of the trunk, they form a “gloomy ornament” around the creature ^[2] . Stylized ^[2] “ghostly” white flowers ^[3] and “conventionally marked grass blades” ^[2] grow next to a tree from the water. The background of the picture is the vast expanse of water, and the “disturbing" sky merging with it ^{[2] [2]} . Both water and the sky are painted in red tones, or sunset ^{[2] [5]} , or fire ^[5] . “The red reflection also lies on the part of the feathers of the creature” ^[2] . According to I. A. Sukhvanova, the picture has an apocalyptic atmosphere, obvious even if you do not know its name ^[2] .

Gamayun is a legless and wingless mythical bird of paradise ever-flying with a tail in Russian literature of the 17th-19th centuries, portending the death of statesmen with its fall ^[9] . According to V.K. Bylinin and D.M. Magomedova, the artist could get acquainted with book descriptions of the hamayun while working on historical materials to illustrate the book " Grand Duke, Tsarist and Imperial Hunting in Russia " (1896-1911) N. I. Kutepova ^[1] .

However, the image created by Vasnetsov in the picture has little in common with them. V. K. Bylinin and D. M. Magomedova believe that this is more likely to be a “ contamination of motifs associated with ancient Russian birds of paradise in general” and with the image of the bird “alkion” ( alkonost ), in particular, than displaying ideas about the hamayun itself. The pink and purple tones of the picture, the black-gray wings of a bird, and the image of a tree with a bird above the water surface indicate a connection with the alkonost ^[1] .

In the opinion of I. A. Sukhvanova, the picture turned out to be “not quite Vasnetsov’s”, too fantastic and “ symbolist ” for him, despite the fact that the rest of his “fabulous” paintings were made quite realistically ^[2] . According to A. S. Troshin, the canvas "expressed increased decorativeness, the desire for sophisticated symbolism of the image" ^[5] . The painting is close to the works of contemporaries of the artist G. Moreau , M. A. Vrubel , G. Klimt and A. Mucha ^[2] . The apocalyptic atmosphere, as well as the use of a crimson-red color, is characteristic of Vasnetsov’s later works: “ Archangel Michael casts the devil ” (1914-1915), “ Baba Yaga ” (1917), “ Fight of Dobryni Nikitich with the seven-headed Serpent Gorynych ” (191818 ) and “ Carpet-plane ” (1919-1926) ^[2] . The face of the hamayun resembles the faces of the righteous from the artist’s sketches for painting the Vladimir Cathedral in Kiev ^[2] .

According to V.V. Stasov , a hamayun from Vasnetsov’s painting “greatly affects and carries away imagination in the distance” ^[10] . The picture was quite consistent with its time with its alarming forebodings ^{[2] [10] [5]} . She became famous almost from the moment of writing ^[8] . Together with the poem of the same name by Alexander Blok inspired by her in 1899, the painting gave impetus to the development of a new, non-mythological image of the gamayun bird in Russian culture ^[1] as things of a bird, “a multi-valued symbol of a mystical character” ^[6] . This image was widely known during the Silver Age of Russian culture , but with its end began to be mentioned less often ^[10] .

In Soviet times, the picture was reproduced little, becoming little known to the general public, compared with other works by the author on a "fairy" theme. However, now it is easily available on the Internet at the request of “gamayun” ^[2] . In the works of modern artists, following Vasnetsov, a hamayun is predominantly depicted as a bird with a female head ^[11] .

• “ Sirin and Alkonost. Birds of Joy and Sorrow ”(1896) - another painting by V. M. Vasnetsov on the theme of Russian mythological virgin birds ^{[1] [2]} .

• Ivanova, Yu.A. Gamayun, Prophetic Bird // Vasnetsov / Author-comp. Series S. T. Ismailova. - M .: Russian Encyclopedic Partnership, 2003. - 32 p. - (Children's Museum. Russian painting). - ISBN 5-901227-35-2 .
• Bylinin V.K., Magomedova D.M. From observations of A. Blok's bestiary: birds Gamayun, Sirin, Alkonost and others // Bestiary in literature and art: Sat. Articles / Scientific. ed. O. L. Dovgy, comp. A. L. Lvov. - M .: Intrada, 2012 .-- S. 41, 45. - 183 p. - ISBN 978-5-8125-1750-2 .
• Sukhanova I. A. The poem of A. Blok “Hamayun, the thing bird” (linguo-media aspect) // Language of Russian literature of the XX — XXI centuries. Issue 5 / Scientific. ed. O. P. Murashyova, N. A. Nikolina. - Yaroslavl: Yaroslavl State Pedagogical University named after K. D. Ushinsky , 2014 .-- S. 117-125. - 159 p. - ISBN 978-5-87555-976-1 .
• Troshin A. S. The peculiarity of ecfrasis in A. Blok’s poem “Gamayun, the bird of things” // Kazan Science . - 2015. - No. 4 . - S. 141-144 . - ISSN 2078-9963 .