Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks
Tolstoy and Dostoevsky have been my all time favorite writers.
For sure, they are very different writers.
But the one common theme across both of their writings is an anguished obsession with understanding the human condition. It’s as if either writer is desperately looking for an answer to their search for the meaning of life.
Tolstoy’s art has a realist aspect to it. He has a way of articulating the conscious thoughts that his characters are feeling. For a kid growing up, that just feels so liberating.
Dostoevsky on the other hand deals with the unconscious/ subconscious. That’s pretty much why he was embraced by the prominent philosophers (such as Nietzsche) and psychologists (Freud) that followed. By creating certain personality types, he is kind of creating a theory that there are certain archetypes of humans.
I started reading both of these when I was 16 years old. The themes that these writers talk about are certainly incredibly meaningful for a teenager.
Both Tolstoy & Dostoevsky examine key morality questions, with the backdrop of a strong christian thought prevalent in both their writings.
In that same era (the late 1850s) - Ilya Repin was the foremost painter. Similar to Tolstoy & Dostoevsky, Repin is intensely focused on opening a window into the minds of the characters that he’s painting.
Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks
I can go on an look at this image for hours.
The painting is set in the late 17th century, when the Ottomon Empire under the Sultan Mehmet IV was waging war against the Zaphorozhian Cossacks in what is now the modern-day Ukraine.
The emperor sent the Cossacks a letter demanding that they submit to him.
The painting is capturing the moment when they are replying to the king, and adding a whole set of insults in the letter itself.
Every expression in the painting is unique, and tells so much about each of the characters and their personalities.
Head on over to Wikipedia to get lost in this picture.
Ivan the Terrible and his Son
Ivan the Terrible and His Son is another famous painting by Ilya Repin. It’s a painting that I would call violent - it captures the moment of realization when it dawns upon Tsar Ivan what a terrible murder he has committed.
Ivan the Terrible was the first Tsar of Russia, from 1547 till his death in 1584. During his reign he sought to consolidate the power of the Tsar over the other princely nobility. His rule also marked considerable geopolitical turbulence - he waged war on Livonia (modern-day Estonia & Latvia), and his political police carried out a massacre in Novgorod in 1570 amidst considerable famine & plague.
He was known to give in to fits of insanity and rage.
The painting, Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan on 16 November 1581, captures the aftermath of one such moment.
The look of terror in Ivan’s eyes when he realizes he has killed his son in his fit of rage. To me, the picture captures that exact moment when a man comes to term with what his insanity has made him do.
It’s tragic.
