Description of the painting by Sylvestre Shchedrin “New Rome. Castle of the Holy Angel

Description of the painting by Sylvestre Shchedrin New Rome. Castle of the Holy Angel

What is displayed on this canvas – the artist saw almost every day, because he lived very close to this place. The painting, which is one of the major milestones in the work Shchedrin. After all, the plot in it can be interpreted not in the way it used to be in his canvases. Here in the foreground are the old houses of poor residents that are beginning to crumble, located along the Tiber River. They are not dirty, they look pretty neat, but their age outweighs trying to look decent. Near the houses are boats of local residents, several of them are going to go out to the river, some empty ones.

A lot of people are on the shore, they are busy with their usual things, not at all distracted by the dirty waters of the river. Simple peasants are traced very carefully, adding vitality and brightness to the image. It seems that this is a pretty cool morning, because the sky is high and painted in cold silver-gray tones. However, everything in the picture is easy to breathe, there is a lot of air in the plot. It is written by the master of painting in the open air in oil on canvas.

If in the foreground are the old houses of local residents, then in the second, the background shows the “old” Rome. This is the castle of St. Angel and St. Peter’s Cathedral, which should personify the majestic, but not so important old view of Rome. Being in the depths of the picture, they are nothing more than just a kind of background. The urban poor and their dilapidated houses in the foreground point to a new Rome. This picture the author wanted to show a combination of the eternal and temporary, high and low in one image.


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Description of the painting by Sylvestre Shchedrin “New Rome. Castle of the Holy Angel