L. G. Safiullina, G. I. Batyrshina
76
her hand in an indignant gesture. The drunken step of the woe-begotten
performer lacks secure footing - his leg, raised for stepping, threatens
complete loss of balance. One moment more and the sot will be on the
ground, yet even in this precarious moment, he keeps hold of the violin,
continuing his endless play-acting. This work is interesting both from the
viewpoint of depicting a “pre-zero-gravity state,” and the musician’s
appearance, endued with a beast-like face and powerful paws at the painter’s
pleasure. Possibly, it is a metaphor for the unenviable state of the drunkard,
gradually losing human features and grasping the violin as his only source
of salvation.
Fig. 8. Circus Maximus, 1968. Oil on canvas,
169.7/160 cm. Private collection
Fig. 9. A Violinist at Night, 1939.
Paper, pen, 43.2/28 cm. Private
collection
Fig. 10. A Violinist, 1926-1927. Paper, gouache, 49/
64 cm. Private collection
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Musical Images as a Reflection of the Artistic Universalism of Marc Chagall
77
However, this beast-musician in Chagall’s art is not merely a
paradoxical image. Lyrical images of animals playing music or carefully
holding instruments are frequently encountered in his works: a swine and a
horse with a violin (A Clown and a Nude with a Bouquet, Horsewoman), a
donkey-violinist (Strolling musicians), a fantastic flute-playing animal (Clowns-
Musicians), a cello-playing goat (Newly Married and an Eiffel Tower) and others.
A pathetic animal-violinist with a trustingly raised muzzle dissipates the
strain, condensed to the limit, in the picture The Angel’s Fall (fig. 11), which
contains overtly eschatological motifs. The simple melody of the performer,
as if directly addressed to the throwing down of blood red Lucifer,
consoles, brings hope for a possible favourable outcome. Burenina
interprets the theme of falling in this picture as “the underside of the flying
theme,” and in the image of Lucifer she sees another confession, of how
“the painter is falling head-down to earth.”
24
In Chagall’s artistic world, flying cow-violinists play music in the sky
above Vitebsk (The Cows above Vitebsk, fig. 12) as does the mysterious
monodactylous winged fish in the pre-sunset twilight (Time is the River without
Shores, fig. 13).
25
24
Burenina 2004.
25
Emily Genauer interprets the content of this picture in the following way: “The title of
this painting, paraphrasing a metaphor that can be traced back to Ovid, illustrates the
affinity between Chagall’s pictorial conceptions and poetry.… [T]he big elements of this
picture - the fish and the clock - are set against a blue-suffused riverscape. Only here we
find nostalgic recollections of home in Vitebsk - the winged fish, Uncle Neuch’s violin, the
old family pendulum clock” (Genauer, Chagall 1956).
Fig. 11. The Angel’s Fall, 1923-1947. Oil on canvas,
148/189 cm. Private collection
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L. G. Safiullina, G. I. Batyrshina
78
A goat with thrust-out chest, wearing
a two-piece outfit on whose shoulder a
small woman with flowers has made
herself comfortable, is ready to touch the
strings of his green violin (Spring, fig. 14).
As with the fish (fig. 13) one of his hands
is human, while the other is represented as
a bifurcated hoof. Thus, music is
interpreted as a guide between the earthy
and high-minded, low and high, real and
imaginary. It erases the boundaries between
the world of people and animals, destroys
the barriers, appeals to consensus and unity.
One of the most capacious of
Chagall’s pictures, demonstrating a thesis
about the unity of all living things, is A
Violinist (fig. 15). It depicts a musician, full
of inspiration, playing a cello which is
represented as his own body.
26
In this way, Chagall underlines the continuity
between the artist’s fate and his talent, the inseparability of the musician’s
26
The main hero of this picture again holds the bow incorrectly in the left hand, as does his
duet partner.
Fig. 12. The Cows above Vitebsk,
1966. Oil on canvas, 116/89 cm.
Private collection
Fig. 13. Time is a River without Shores
1930-1939. Oil on canvas, 40.5/32.3 cm.
New York, The Museum of
Contemporary Art
Fig. 14. Spring, 1938.
Lithography, 35/26 cm.
www.cclbsebes.ro/muzeul-municipal-ioan-raica.html / www.cimec.ro