For a long time in Russia there was a pious custom to mark the days of remembrance of the most revered miraculous icons by religious processions. The witness of one of them in Chuguev in 1877 was I.E. Repin. A vivid and impressive sight served as the basis for the plot of the painting "Religious procession in the Kursk province." Completely, the idea of the picture took shape after visiting the famous Root Desert. It was there that the processions gathered the largest number of pilgrims.
"Religious procession in the Kursk province." Description of the picture
The work on the painting was finally completed in 1883. The canvas carries the viewer on a hot summer day. On a dusty road, in the midst of a sultry haze, an endless procession of procession moves from the depths of the picture. They carry the miraculous icon to the place where it was once shown to people.
All the details of the picture are painted with amazing concreteness. This is the sun that withers around, the rays of which are concentrated in the gold of the church vestments, the air filled with dust and the monotonous rumble of the crowd moving at the viewer, and, most importantly, the faces of the participants. In them, Repin was able to convey with extraordinary skill the consciousness of the significance of the work they are doing, and at the same time, attachment to purely earthly thoughts and passions.
But Repin's “Religious procession in the Kursk province” is not just a genre scene stating a certain event, it is a whole gallery of portrait images masterfully created by the artist. It depicts representatives of various sectors of the society of post-reform Russia. An accurate picture of social stratification and inequality is given in documents.
Repin's painting - criticism of hypocrisy and hypocrisy
Ilya Efimovich belonged to the well-known community of Wanderers, adhering mainly to the acutely social orientation of his works. Religious procession in Kursk province also belongs to this plot category. However, it should be understood that the criticism in this case is not aimed at religion in general and not at Orthodox ritualism, as they tried to interpret it during the period of the atheism, but only at the hypocritical and prudish expression of religiosity.
The “masters of life” and the rural poor
In the central part of the picture, deep, brightly and satirically depicted is a fat landowner with a swaggering and arrogant face, in an entrepreneurial way clutching an icon, and next to her is a rude rural warden, driving away a peasant who presses on all sides with a stick from her benefactress. In the artist’s work “Religious procession in the Kursk province”, a clear distinction is made between social groups. On the one hand, the “masters of life”, this is the landowner herself, and the retinue following her, and the entire so-called pure public, which makes up the main part of the procession, on the other hand, is “erratic“, as the lower strata of society are called, disenfranchised and disadvantaged. They accompany the procession on both sides, jealous of the salvation of the soul, they also want to bow to the shrine, but they are driven away from it by horse gendarmes and excessively zealous servants.
The figure of a beggar-cripple in the foreground of the painting “Religious procession in Kursk province” is very characteristic. He, like no one else, needs God's help and is trying to at least get closer to the shrine. It is evident that the hunchback is trying his best, but he is blocked by the stick of a man who has arrogated to himself the right to decide who should be miraculous and who should not.
Exposing the hypocrisy of the clergy
"Religious procession in the Kursk province" Repin is a satire on the representatives of church circles, replacing high spiritual service with worldly and vain concerns. This is, first of all, a group of priests, following the landowner carrying the icon, surrounding the important gentleman with a semicircle and conducting slavish conversations with him. Apparently, all their attention was given to a possible benefactor, and they did not care about the miraculous icon.
Pictures of the social life of society
The painting "Religious procession in the Kursk province" (the genre of which, of course, refers to the highly social), in the general opinion, is the most striking manifestation of the author's creative orientation. Repin was never attracted to small, episodic themes. He always took on large-scale stories, including diverse scenes of society. An outstanding master, Repin was able to combine sharp grotesque in his paintings with the deep personality and psychologism of his heroes.