For a long time in Russia there existed a piousthe custom to celebrate the days of memory of the most revered miraculous icons by the cross ways. Witness one of them in Chuguev in 1877 was I. Repin. A bright and impressive spectacle served as the basis for the plot of the painting "The Procession in the Kursk Province." Completely the same idea of the picture took shape after visiting the famous Root Desert. It was there that the cross processions collected the largest number of pilgrims.
Final work on the painting was completed in1883 year. Cloth carries the viewer on a hot summer day. On the dusty road, among the sultry haze, an endless procession of the procession is moving from the depths of the picture. They carry the miracle-working icon to the place where it was once shown to people.
All the details of the painting are written with a strikingconcreteness. It is the sun that is drying up all around, the rays of which seem to be concentrated in the gold of the church vestments, the air filled with dust and the monotonous roar of the crowd moving towards the viewer, and, most importantly, the faces of the participants. In them Repin succeeded, with extraordinary skill, in conveying the consciousness of the significance of the work that they are doing, and at the same time being attached to purely earthly thoughts and passions.
But "The Procession in Kursk Province" by Repin isnot just a genre scene, stating a certain event, this is a gallery of portraits masterfully created by the artist. It depicts representatives of various strata of the society of post-reform Russia. A documentary accurate picture of social stratification and inequality is given.
Ilya Yefimovich belonged to the well-knownthe commonwealth of peredvizhniki artists, adhering to the generally acute social orientation of their works. This category includes the "Cross procession in the Kursk province." However, it should be understood that criticism in this case is not aimed at religion as a whole and not on Orthodox ritualism, as they tried to interpret in the period of the God-fight, but only on the hypocritical and hypocritical expression of religiosity.
In the central part of the picture, in the depths, bright andsatirically depicted a fat landowner with a swaggered and arrogant face, clinging to the icon in a businesslike way, and next to it a rough village headman, driving away from his benefactor the peasants pouring peasants from all sides. The work of the artist "The Procession in the Kursk Province" presents a clear delineation of social groups. On the one hand, "the masters of life," this is the landlord herself, and the retinue behind her, and the whole so-called pure public, which constitutes the main part of the procession, on the other hand, is "glitzy", as it is customary to call the lower strata of society in Russia, deprived. They accompany the procession on both sides, jealous of the salvation of the soul, also want to bow to the shrine, but they are driven away from it by horse gendarmes and not too diligent master's servants.
A very characteristic figure of a beggar-cripple in the frontthe plan of the painting "The procession in the Kursk province." He, like no other, needs God's help and is trying to at least approach the shrine. It can be seen that the hunchback tries with all his might, but he is blocked by the stick of a peasant who has given himself the right to decide who should be near the miraculous and who does not.
"The procession in the Kursk province" Repin issatire and representatives of church circles, replacing high spiritual ministry with mundane and vain cares. This is, first of all, a group of priests who follow the landowner who carries the icon, surrounded by a semicircle of an important master and leading servile conversations with him. In all respects it is evident that all their attention is given to a possible benefactor, and to the miraculous icon they have no business.
Painting "Religious Procession in Kursk Province" (genrewhich, of course, refers to sharply social), by common opinion, is the most vivid manifestation of the author's creative direction. Repin never attracted small, episodic topics. He always took up large-scale stories, which included various scenes in the life of society. An outstanding master, Repin was able to combine in his paintings an acute grotesque with a deep individuality and psychology of his characters.
