Original artwork description:

The dismal, thickening clouds against the dark sky are cutting the composition through by a ragged rhythm, like a whirl pointing at the mundane madness. Everything in a mess: human bodies, horse corpses, abandoned military weapons… The dead tree is towering above the battlefield, stretching up its dry branches and highlighting the sacred requiem action. The priest is sprinkling the bodies of the dead by holy water, the wives mourning, having lost their husbands in the battle, and on the ground, stretching down, Margarita Tuchkova is bemoaning the body of her spouse. A fire is burning nearby – the personification of living love and memory. The main sense-group is shifted towards the left-hand margin of the composition. Thus, the artist stresses the universality of tragedy, the endless and bound-less sorrow.
The author avoids naturalism, by outlining the dead bodies in a reserved manner, in several touches. He noted in a talk that he was seeking, as far as possible, for an aesthetics in depicting death. Accord-ing to him, reminiscences of the Great Patriotic War of 1812, and even more so of the war in Chech-nya, are far too fresh. The 1812 war has almost become a myth in the modern consciousness. The very existence of Life of Margarita Tuchkova speaks about attitude to those events.
That is why in the historical composition Requiem for General Tuchkov, the artist managed to embody the idea of war, love and faithfulness.

Materials used:

Oil

Tags:

#historical #clouds #death #war #patriot #service #napoleonic war #general tuchkov #requem #margarita tuchkova #a.a. tuchkov #borodino #national hiros