'Herod's Daughter' (Ivan Kramskoy, 1886) - GREAT RUSSIAN CHRISTIAN ART [1]
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A few of the most famous Russian Christian artists:
19th C: Repin [2] Ivanov [3] Polenov [4] Kramskoy [5] Nesterov [6] [7]Semiradsky [8]
Contemporary: Ryzhenko [9] Glazunov [10] Morgun [11] Afonina [12]
Our top 10 favorites: A purely subjective list [13] of paintings and artists we love.
To see all of the over 100 paintings in this series, click here [14].
About this series: As we learned about Russia's traditional faith, Russian Orthodox Christianity, we discovered an enormous, mostly forgotten treasure of striking Christian paintings, mostly unknown in the West, starting from approximately the early 1800s, and continuing to this day.
So far we have cataloged over 150 images, and are discovering more all the time. We will gradually be getting them all online. If you know of a painter or sculptor which we can add to the series, please let us know in the form below. You can see the entire list [14] of what we already have online here.
'Herodias' is a painting by Russian artist Ivan Kramskoi on a religious topic. The painting was completed in 1886. The size of the canvas - 55" x 46". Located in Tretyakov Gallery.
Link to high resolution image [15].
The picture is created on a religious plot. Herod's daughter, Herodias, wished that the head of John the Baptist be brought to her on a platter. Her wish was fulfilled. The fact is that John condemned the marriage of Herodias to her uncle. A woman has long wanted to take revenge on him for this. And finally, this opportunity presented itself to her.
Kramskoy depicted the moment when the head was already brought to Herodias. She looks at her and enjoys a long-awaited victory. The artist was able to draw Herodias as realistic as possible. Herodias is beautiful. Her dark face is framed by lush hair, gathered in a spectacular hairstyle. Dark skin and regular features attract the eyes of the spectators. She is gorgeous, but the beauty pushes her away. You can feel its rigidity, which is seen through the eyes of the girl.
Details:
Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoi (1837 - 1887) was a Russian [16] painter and art critic [17]. He was an intellectual leader of the Russian democratic art movement [18] in 1860-1880. Kramskoi came from an impoverished petit-bourgeois family. From 1857 to 1863 he studied at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts; he reacted against academic art and was an initiator of the "revolt of fourteen" which ended with the expulsion from the Academy of a group of its graduates, who organized the Artel of Artists
About the Great Russian Christian Art series:
Russia has a wonderfully rich heritage of Christian and Bible-themed painting which reached its zenith in the second half of the 19th century, as part of the realist school. Many of the canvases are enormous, filling an entire wall of a large public hall. Some of them took decades to complete [19]. They are a striking and beautiful testimony to how deeply ingrained Christianity is in Russian history, culture, philosophy, thought, indeed, in her very soul. They are a delight to behold.
As Russia emerges as a leader in the return to traditionalism, this style of painting is again in vogue, and there are also several contemporary Christian painters creating extraordinary canvases. Indeed, Moscow has an excellent art academy dedicated to this style [20], a topic we covered in the profile of Ilya Glazunov, a leading, recently deceased painter in this genre. See: A Conservative Russian Lion With Real Mass Influence – The Painter Ilya Glazunov [21]
Many of these paintings and artists are hardly known in the West, dismissed by the secular, atheist, globalist modern 'art' vogue. We are delighted to bring you this series, which consists of several dozens of works. You can see all of the works in this series by clicking here [14].
We think you’ll enjoy them as much as we do.