Vincent van Gogh, Wheatfield with Crows, 1890. Oil on canvas, 50.2 cm × 103 cm. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.
Starting with Vincent van Gogh...
Over a field of ripe wheat flies a flock of crows, which, looking carefully at the golden mantle, seems almost to be heading for that little road, which appears in the foreground of the support, aimed at cleaving through the yellow stalks and then getting lost in nature itself. The boundary of the latter is determined, in its lower part, by borders of green grass, as well as by abundant clay soil, which finds its place under a dark sky, in which swirl black clouds, which seem to reproduce the same motion of the birds in question. Well, the theme of the article is precisely these latter animals within the narrative of art history, a topic that could be addressed by referring only to the painting described above, none other than Vincent van Gogh's highly renowned Wheatfield with Crows (1890), continuing the narrative with the equally famous The Tree of Crows (1822) by Caspar David Friedrich and Saints Anthony Abbot and Paul the Hermit (1634-1660) by Diego Velasquez. Wanting, however, to skip over widely exploited topics, I will proceed to illustrate other paintings of ravens, executed by great masters, certainly less well-known than the mainstream ones mentioned above. Then, in keeping with the latter intent, I will acquaint you with the work on the subject of Alexei Kondratievich Savrasov, Vasily Vereshchagin, August Friedrich Schenck, John William Waterhouse, Marie Spartali Stillman and Lovis Corinth, starting with the masterpiece of the first painter in question, The Rooks Have Returned (1871).
Alexei Savrasov, The Rooks Have Returned, 1871. 62 cm × 48.5 cm. Tretyakov Gallery.
Alexei Kondratievich Savrasov: The Rooks Have Returned (1871)
First of all, it is good to introduce the artist (Aleksej Kondrat'evič Savrasov; 1830-1886) , by simply saying that he was a Russian painter primarily a landscape painter, who distinguished himself by giving birth to the lyrical style of the genre in question. In propisito of The Rooks Have Returned (1871), however, the work, preserved at the State Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow), is considered to be Savrasov's best-known work, as well as a necessary painting for the development of Russian landscape painting. Moreover, The Rooks Have Returned was the result of the artist's long study, which took place between Yaroslavl and in his subsequent move to the Lostroma Governorate, where, in the village of Molvitino, he was able to draw inspiration from the features of the Church of the Resurrection. In any case, the work was completed in Moscow, the capital in which the masterpiece met with great success, as it was immediately recognized as a work capable of giving voice to the artist's simple soul, unmistakably sensitive and close to the reality of nature and its changes. In fact, the painting captures the moment when, every year, the crows return to their nests in the vicinity of spring, precisely before the snow of winter has completely thawed, a rather predictable and repetitive instant, which, through the miracle of art, is transformed into a sacred rite to be contemplated silently, as well as with great and unprecedented attention.
Vasily Vereshchagin, The Apotheosis of War, 1871. Oil on canvas, 127 cm × 197 cm. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.
Vasily Vereshchagin: The Apotheosis of War (1871)
The Russian painter Vasily Vasilyevich Vereshchagin (1842-1904) was a war artist who, being a member of the Order of St. George, was famous mainly for the graphic nature of his realist scenes, which, precisely because of such peculiarities, suffered ostracism from a part of the Russian intelligentsia, so much so that some of them were never printed or exhibited. As for The Apotheosis of War, on the other hand, the painting depicts a pile of human skulls, probably the result of a battle or siege, which find their place within a desolate landscape set outside the walls of the city of Samarkand, a place where the artist previously found himself fighting for the Russian Imperial Army in what were the operations to conquer Russian Turkestan. However, what has just been described is lacking in the dark presence of a flock of crows, having arrived, or still arriving, at the aforementioned and gloomy banquet, while the mute mountains observe the scene, acting as the dividing line of the painting, and thus separating the empty steppes from the immensity of the sky. Finally, the description ends with the artist's own words, who, on the frame of the work, wrote: he dedicated the painting "to all the great conquerors, past, present and future," probably wishing to oppose the onset of death, which, personified by skulls and ravens, has always presented itself as the most tragic enemy of the memory of human life.
August Friedrich Schenck, Anguish, 1878. Oil on canvas, 151 cm × 251.2 cm. National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.
August Friedrich Schenck: Anguish (1878)
August Friedrich Albrecht Schenck (1828-1901), a painter mainly active in France, was born in the town of Glückstadt, a German municipality at the time Danish. Speaking of the latter master, it is important to make it known that his best-known work is precisely the one that depicted, among other things, a flock of crows, namely, Anguish (1878). The canvas in question immortalizes, as the main subject, a mother sheep distressed over the death of her son, whose lifeless body is surrounded by a group of black birds, ready and waiting to devour him. Important is the observation of the details of the work, such as the air condensing near the mouth of the mother lamb, an animal that had just finished emitting an agonizing wail of grief, while a trickle of blood advances in the white snow, spreading from the mouth of the deceased baby mammal. The sky under which such nefarious events occur presents the saddest peculiarities of the winter period, showing gray and cloudy, like a face that at any moment may burst into a shower of weeping. Finally, it is curious to know how there is another version of the work, namely The Orphan, Remembrance of the Auvergne (1885), a painting that, housed in the Musée d'Orsay, presents the lamb above the lifeless body of its mother.
John William Waterhouse, The Magic Circle, 1886. Oil on canvas, 183 cm × 127 cm. Tate Britain, London.
John William Waterhouse: The Magic Circle
The modern Pre-Raphaelite John William Waterhouse (1849-1917) was a British painter, whose work, born a few decades after the dissolution of the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood, presents, both the influence of the latter, and that of the Impressionists who were his contemporaries, a fact that generated the development of "borderline" stylistic features, which are mainly realized in mythological or Arthurian subjects. His work in which the necessary presence of ravens is concretize is The Magic Circle, an oil painting aimed at depicting a sorceress intent on using a wand to draw a fiery circle on the earth, through which the intent of bringing to life a ritual space, where a ceremonial event can take shape. The woman is definitely the pricipal character of the painting, who is accompanied by ravens and a toad, presences painted as popular symbols of witchcraft activities, which find their place within a misty, somewhat unreal, mystical and, without a shadow of a doubt, magical landscape. The subject of The Magic Circle should not surprise us, as the master often resorted within his pictorial work to the explication of themes concerning magic and the power of prophecy, indelibly linked to the image of a woman enchantress, always ready to evoke the famous Circe of the Odyssey.
Marie Spartali Stillman, Antigone Giving Burial Rites to the Body of Her Brother Polynices (date not known), oil on canvas, further details not known.
Marie Spartali Stillman: Antigone Giving Burial Rites to the Body of Her Brother Polynices (date unknown)
Marie Eufrosyne Spartali (1844 - 1927) was one of the favorite models of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, an influential artistic association for Victorian painting, which saw her, later, also trained as a painter, whose long career was esteemed by such greats of the "genre" as, for example, Dante Garbiel Rossetti. Speaking, however, of her work that tells us about ravens, it is Antigone Giving Burial Rites to the Body of Her Brother Polynices, an oil painting among the earliest by the painter, who at that very time was learning the technique in question from one of the leading exponents of the Pre-Raphaelites, namely the British master Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones. That painting depicts a scene from the Greek tragedy Antigone, precisely the one in which the latter heroine is intent on mourning her dead brother Polynices, while he is lying on a windswept rock within a desolate landscape. Antigone, who in this very context tries to bury her brother's body, goes against the wishes of King Creon of Thebes, who imposed a specific decree by which Polynices was not even to be mourned. The latter decision is due to the fact that Polynices, who wanted to ascend the throne of Thebes, died besieging the city, behaving in the manner of an enemy, to whom Creon did not want to pay funeral honors. Accordingly, the painting depicts the moment when Antigone opposed the above-mentioned law by trying to give her brother a proper burial, a fact that, when discovered, cost her her freedom and, subsequently, her life, as the woman, once imprisoned, decided to hang herself, an event that led to the extreme gesture of Aemon, Creon's son as well as the woman's betrothed. Then the ravens in the play might also represent a kind of providential saving alternative to the damage implied by the burial, for if only they had had the pleasure of devouring Polynices' body there would have been no further bloodshed.
Lovis Corinth, Landscape with a Large Raven (1893), oil on canvas, 96 × 120 cm, Städelsches Kunstinstitut und Städtische Galerie, Frankfurt.
Lovis Corinth: Landscape with a Large Raven (1893)
Lovis Corinth (1858-1925) was a German painter, engraver, and writer whose work synthesized elements of Impressionism and Expressionism. He initially began as a primarily naturalistic artist but later evolved his style through the use of vibrant colors, primarily focusing on portraits, nudes, landscapes, and biblical scenes, all characterized by extraordinary vitality and power. Regarding landscapes, one of his notable works is "Landscape with a Large Raven" (1893). This painting effectively represents the artist's work in the 1890s when he began dedicating himself earnestly to this subject. In the case of this masterpiece, it seems to "evoke" the nearby example of Vincent van Gogh's "Wheatfield with Crows" (1890). Similarly to the latter painting, in "Landscape with a Large Raven," these birds symbolize ominous, unmistakable, and impending omens of death, captured as they soar through the sky, being the only living beings to animate an otherwise deserted countryside. While we are well aware of Vincent's inner turmoil, which consistently manifested in his artwork, it's important to note that Corinth too was afflicted by a deep melancholy, a prominent feature of his moments of depression. This melancholy was often concealed behind the more traditional image of his social life and the generally more positive aspects of his work. Finally, it is impossible to conclude this collection of crow-themed artworks without mentioning other examples such as Arnold Böcklin's "Ruin by the Sea" (1881), Stanislaw Siestrzencewicz's "Crows Before the Sleigh" (c. 1900), Jakub Schikaneder's "The Last Journey," Egon Schiele's "Landscape with Ravens" (1911), and Marie Spartali Stillman's "The Pilgrim Folk" (1914).
Olimpia Gaia Martinelli
