{"id":850,"date":"2020-03-25T03:42:25","date_gmt":"2020-03-25T03:42:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-spring-2020\/?p=850"},"modified":"2020-03-25T03:42:25","modified_gmt":"2020-03-25T03:42:25","slug":"religious-iconography-and-the-significance-of-darkness-in-tamara-and-the-demon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-spring-2020\/gbatista\/religious-iconography-and-the-significance-of-darkness-in-tamara-and-the-demon\/","title":{"rendered":"Religious iconography and the significance of darkness in tamara and the demon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I found Makovsky\u2019s\u00a0<em>Tamara and the Demon\u00a0<\/em>to be a fascinating piece of art that echoed the Academy\u2019s heavy emphasis on religious iconography and used color to send a powerful message of virtue over evil. At first glance, when looking at the painting, the eyes are drawn to the faces of Tamara and the Demon because the painting as a whole is rather dark, and their pale faces catch the viewer\u2019s attention as a contrast to the darkness. This darkness is meant to feel enveloping to mirror the Demon\u2019s power and capability of destruction in Lermontov\u2019s poem <em>Demon.<\/em>\u00a0 The darkness is given a heavy presence in the way it surrounds Tamara completely. Her figure is shown as pure and holy with her white dress, meant to pay homage to the character\u2019s empathy in Lermontov\u2019s poem, who sees a soul in pain rather than a tyrannous demon. This purity acts as a rebellion against evil, which ties to the poem, where Tamara is so virtuous that she takes pity on a demon, wishing to soothe its pain. This is also expressed in the painting, as the white symbolizing purity shines in the darkness.<\/p>\n<p>Also catching my eye is a chalice filled with burning candles above Tamara, which illuminates a slate that I believe portrays Mary holding a baby Jesus, drawing the eye to her in the sea of darkness. This addition adds to Tamara\u2019s image as a holy woman, but also connects the demon\u2019s embrace of Tamara to common religious iconography. With the demon holding a limp and sullen Tamara, the execution of the painting is heavily reminiscent of a Piet\u00e0, where Mary holds the body of Jesus. Having been trained in the Academy, I\u2019m sure Makovsky would have been aware of a Piet\u00e0, and with the image of Mother Mary in the background, I\u2019m confident that the imagery of Tamara in the demon\u2019s arms is meant to mimic the artistic staple that is the Piet\u00e0.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m not usually very astute when it comes to deep artistic analysis, but I am quite confident in my assertions regarding Makovsky\u2019s <em>Tamara and the Demon<\/em>. The parallels to Lermontov\u2019s poem and Makovsky\u2019s training in the Academy are on full display in this work, and the use of dark space to highlight lighter areas send a powerful message of virtue shining in darkness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I found Makovsky\u2019s\u00a0Tamara and the Demon\u00a0to be a fascinating piece of art that echoed the Academy\u2019s heavy emphasis on religious iconography and used color to send a powerful message of virtue over evil. At first glance, when looking at the painting, the eyes are drawn to the faces of Tamara and the Demon because the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1018,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-unit-8-russian-revival-social-critique"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1018"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/russian-2240-spring-2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}