All I can say Miguel is that it is just beautiful and your words say it all.

Happy New Year!

Love,

Sara

Quote:

Dear Friends,

Though unfinished, Dawn, the below masterpiece painted circa 1930, is, to me, one of Nicholas Roerich's most accomplished works. It also is one of his least known paintings. I have just found it at the website of the Nicholas Roerich Museum of New York here.

What makes this painting so extraordinary is, to a great extent, and also in my opinion, the amount of exquisite detail that can be seen in the comparatively small mountain peaks in the middle of the painting - the ones that come next to the big one on the left. Of course, the texture of the canvas may help to achieve this sort of detail if this part is done with an almost dry brush and particular delicacy, but even so, I seem to perceive such a degree of loving care in its execution that it makes me wonder whether Roerich was consciously looking here for a special effect, or this effect was achieved automaticaly as a consequence of the love he put in it.

Summing up, all in this painting speaks of love to me. The color, the sky, the forms and shapes, all.

Hugs,

Luis Miguel Goitizolo

You are so right.

A great painting and the colour is glorious.

Roger

Quote:

Quote:

Hello Luis,

What is the origin of the subject in these two pictures?

There is a spiritual meaning as well as volcanic, I assume?

Fire

1943. Tempera on canvas. 45.5 x 78.4 cm Museum of Oriental Art, Moscow * * * Fire Blossom His Country Series 1924. Tempera on canvas. 83 x 109 cm Nicholas Roerich Museum, New York

Hello Roger,

That is a most interesting question. It makes me think 'how little we know' as in your recent thread (maybe not so recent?) And, it is so many things that we know so very little about. I know fire is one of the four traditional elements and the main regenerative one, together with water, for all traditional cultures like, for example, the Indian and the Tibetan. In the present case, I believe it means the fire that not only cleans and purifies but also warms the earth's bosom for a rebirth.

In the Hindu ceremony of fire (Agni hotra), for example, where the cosmic manifestation's cyclic creation and destruction is represented by a square fire on which cereals offered to the deity slowly burn, the idea of the regeneration of the universe is implicit.

Below is a fascinating video that among other things deals with Agni Yoga, "the fiery world of N. Roerich," and the BP spill! I just found it by searching for 'Nicholas Roerich and fire' at Google.

Another site (http://www.tanais.info/art/en/roerich85more.html) took me to the painting below which, according to the Russian editors of the page, reflects "Nicholas Konstantinovich [feeling] that his epoch was the epoch of radical historical changes. The topic of revenge was accented in Roerich’s art for the first time in 1914 just before the war. It was reflected on canvas The Last Angel (1912). Over the earth that is in flames in crimson clouds there is an apocalyptic angel which renders according to deserts for evil made; and there are flashing summer lightning’s on the skyline they notify about new life on the purified earth. Roerich as though expects fires of the future war. Not casually Maxim Gorky named of Roerich "the Great Intuitionist"

[...]

"In the years immediately preceding World War I, Roerich sensed an impending cataclysm, and his paintings symbolically depicted the awful scale of the conflict he felt descending upon the world. These works marked the birth of Roerich the “prophet” " (my underlining).

Nicholas Roerich - The Last Angel (1912, tempera on cardboard)

(N. Roerich also painted another, in my opinion, inferior version of The Last Angel in 1942.)

I hope this will give you enough food for thought.

Hugs,

Miguel

Luis,

That is fascinating.

I watched and absorbed the information.

It is wonderful how many times that when we dig deeply int the classics, the arts and into history that we find these same symbols and answers.

Roger