Terra sebv s acta mvsei sabesiensi s

L. G. Safiullina, G. I. Batyrshina 

 

98

 In these scenes, “the colour depth of decorations and costumes 

intensifies the sounding music, reflecting the circular motions of the 

actors.”

48

 As related by his relatives, Chagall worked on Aleko with Leonid 

Myasin to the music of Tchaikovsky, and on the declamation of Aleksandr 

Pushkin’s poems by his wife Bella

 

Rosenfeld Chagall, striving for a genuine 

concord between music, poetry, painting and choreography.  

His scenography for Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute, staged in New 

York in 1967, became the concluding chord of Chagall’s theatrical career.  

“Chagall repeatedly confessed his love for Mozart, considering The  Magic 

Flute the best of operas, and the whole music of the Austrian composer - 

‘harmonic, spiritual and religious.’ The Magic Flute was especially close to him 

in its combination of serious and ‘comic’ (folk) opera, love story with 

grotesque and buffoonery, religious-philosophical (masonic) problematics 

with a fairy tale.”

49

  

In last years, Chagall developed an interest in stained glass art, into 

which he also implemented musical plots. In his stained glass composition 

American Windows, which consists of six parts and was created for the Art 

Institute of Chicago, commissioned by the City Hall for the USA 

bicentenary, reminiscences of his early works appear.  

 

 

 

Fig. 49. The Firebird in the Enchanted Forest. A sketch of curtain for the Firebird ballet by I. 

Stravinsky, 1945. Paper, watercolour. Private collection 

 

                                                 

48

 Cramp 2008. 

49

 Apchinskaya 2010. 

www.cclbsebes.ro/muzeul-municipal-ioan-raica.html   /   www.cimec.ro

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Musical Images as a Reflection of the Artistic Universalism of Marc Chagall 

 

99

 

 

Fig. 50. The Firebird. Decoration for overture of the Firebird 

ballet by I. Stravinsky, 1945 

 

As in the series of panels for the State Jewish Chamber Theatre, 

Chagall uses cubist devices creatively, allegorically presenting music, dance 

and theatre on separate panels.

50

 Another three panels are devoted to the 

fine art, the Declaration of Independence of the USA and symbols of 

American national identity (national emblem, the Statue of Liberty against 

the background of silhouettes of American architecture). Amongst these, 

appear the outlines of Vitebsk streets, the Eifel Tower, silhouettes of lovers, 

animals and fish also emerge. Such return in the later life line to the images 

of distant past in another context, makes the painter’s artistic development 

concentric, thus summarising his search for a world outlook.  

 

 

                                                 

50 

In 1920 Chagall created four panels for the Moscow theatre, personifying the synthesis of 

theatrical art: Music, Dance, Drama (Theatre) and Literature. 

Fig. 51. Windows of America. First and second stained glass panels,

1977. Chicago, Arts Institute

www.cclbsebes.ro/muzeul-municipal-ioan-raica.html   /   www.cimec.ro

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L. G. Safiullina, G. I. Batyrshina 

 

100

 

In this work Chagall unites different arts, different parts of the world 

(Europe and America), religions (Christianity and Judaism) and various 

painting techniques, summing up all the impressions of his life.  

The theme of music is distinctly highlighted in the first stained glass 

panel of the Windows, devoted to musical art (fig. 51). It depicts a 

trumpeting angel, descending from the top of a gold throne. His splendid 

image creates a sense of the sound of solemn hymns. The violin and a page 

of printed music hanging in the air intensify musical effect. The curved 

body of the violin is echoed in the shape of the guitar, matching with it, 

repeating, endlessly scattering their contours across the whole glass panel. 

The wind player’s figure is also “doubled,” but in scarcely distinguishable 

hatching, bleeding through only with sunlight. Chagall’s virtuosic play of 

colours and shadings, achieved through the technique of incomplete glass 

painting, makes a strong emotional impression: “Colour, as a magnet ... 

draws the eye ... Multitude of shades of dark blue, blue, cornflower blue, sky 

blue ... - the colour of the bottomless sky 

... the magic world of Chagall’s fantasy.”

51

 

Grace Calderon felt

52

 that in this panel the 

painter manages to convey the pathetic 

character of blues melodies, famous in 

Chicago - the city of Muddy Waters and 

Buddy Guy - since olden times.

53

  

Glorifying God with a trumpet 

fanfare, the ascension of a solemn 

Halleluiah skywards is represented in the 

stained glass of Chichester Cathedral in 

England (fig. 52). The narrative is based 

on lines from psalm 150: “... any breath 

praises the God.” It is one of the most 

sonorous of Chagall’s works, where the 

sound of shofars, trumpets, violins, 

keyboards (possibly a small organ), 

tambourine and cymbals merge in one 

musical greeting. The image of King 

Solomon riding a biblical donkey (mule) harp in hand is placed at the top of 

                                                 

51

 http://vankaremnikiforovich.blogspot.ru/2010/08/blog-post_2546.html, accessed 25 

June 2014. 

52

 http://gracecalderone.blogspot.ru/2014/03/america-windows-marc-chagall-1977-art.html, 

accessed 17 June 2014. 

53 

Muddy Waters and Buddy Guy are famous Chicago bluesmen. 

Fig. 52. Stained glass window, 1978. 

Chichester Cathedral 

www.cclbsebes.ro/muzeul-municipal-ioan-raica.html   /   www.cimec.ro

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