Musical Images as a Reflection of the Artistic Universalism of Marc Chagall
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lived in our precinct. In the afternoons he worked as a sales clerk at the
ironmongers, and in the evening he taught the violin. I rasped with
difficulty. He beat the measure with his leg and constantly said: “Perfectly!” I
thought: “I will become a violinist and enter the conservatory.
20
”
Childish recollections played a significant role in Chagall’s creative
development. The violin, although it did not become his main vocation,
entered deeply into his artistic consciousness and occupied an everlasting
place within his works. Klezmer melodies, which accompanied the main
events in Jewish provincial life, became a vivifying medium, feeding all his
creativity; Jewish traditional music was a unifying element, a “theme song,”
in his works.
On the painter’s canvases fantastic images of stringed instruments
frequently appear - violins, cellos, mandolins and harps (depicted with
various degrees of realism) - as well as musicians playing instruments. A
precisely selected colour palette conveys the character and emotional state
of the “sounding” fragment.
An entire thematic gallery is formed by the portraits of violinists
depicted in the process of performing, including Sitting Violinist, Violinist
(fig. 1), Street Violinist (fig. 5) and other works shown below (fig. 2-4, 6).
The soul of a klezmer ensemble, the violinist is always the most delicate and
poetic exponent of the eternal melancholy and hope of the Jewish people.
Chagall frequently depicts him alone, or surrounded by animals, or by
listeners some distance away from him. Dressed in traditional clothes, the
violinist on the one hand symbolizes Chagall’s native, small-town
upbringing (it is not without meaning that the painter used the expressive
image of a green-skinned violinist for the panel decorating a Jewish theatre,
and elsewhere; see figs 1 and 2). On the other hand, the violinist personifies
the eternal, the timeless. Concentrated, as if illuminated by inner light, face
of the musician personifies the spiritual-creative element, the creative
energy of art, sent out into the world.
The mystery of musical performance in Chagall’s works is
comparable to prayer; it offers reconciliation with the hardships of everyday
existence and opens a way to the sphere of the highest ideals. In Chagall’s
art, we do not see ceremonial portraits of violinists: almost all are
“inscribed” into the surrounding atmosphere, closely connected with the
surrounding world and yet, at the same time, rent from it. They are
generalized images, based on family members and close associates of the
painter, such as his Vitebsk friends and neighbours (in particular, his Uncle
Neuch, whose unskilful but sincere music-making Chagall describes in My
Life). The character of these depictions is mainly lyrical, even intimate,
20
Ibid.
www.cclbsebes.ro/muzeul-municipal-ioan-raica.html / www.cimec.ro
L. G. Safiullina, G. I. Batyrshina
72
although sometimes dramatic, social-critical notes appear. For example, the
watercolour The Musicians (1908) shows a blind violinist, playing for alms in
the company of another miserable disabled individual.
21
The colour of not only the violinist’s face, but also his clothes,
instrument and interior elements are of great symbolic importance, as well
as the background selected by the painter. Non-standard, sometimes
shocking combinations, aimed at revelation of ingenuity, the “distance” of
the performed set the “key-note” of the whole picture, bear aesthetical
information to the viewers. A paradigmatic example is the above-mentioned
green violinist who Chagall depicts several times: in A Violinist (1912-1913,
fig. 1), on the panel Music for the State Jewish Chamber Theatre and in
Green Violinist (1923-1924, fig. 2), duplicating the successfully-rendered
image of the panel. A violinist in the picture Juggler, found in the lithography
The Musicians against a Green Background, is depicted against a green
background, which to Chagall means joy, welfare and love for life.
The range of Chagall’s colour “score” is deeply impressive: faery blue
(Blue Violinist, fig. 3), passionate red (A Violinist and an Inverted World, fig. 4),
flushed orange (Street Violinist, fig. 5), fervent yellow (A Violinist and a Cock,
fig. 6) and depressing black-brown (The Musicians, 1908).
21
A detailed analysis of the watercolour The Musicians is carried out by Miriam Rajner in the
article Chagall’s Fiddler (Rajner 2005).
Fig. 1. A Violinist, 1912-1913. Oil on
canvas, 188/158 cm. Amsterdam,
Stedelijk
Fig. 2. A Green Violinist, 1923-1924. Oil
on canvas, 198/108.6 cm.
New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim
Museum
www.cclbsebes.ro/muzeul-municipal-ioan-raica.html / www.cimec.ro