Alexander Ivanov (1806-58). It could be argued that Alexander Ivanov, son of the history painter Andrei Ivanov, was the most significant Russian artist of the second quarter of the nineteenth century, although he spent most of his life in Italy. His philosophical insight, Romantic-Realist style, and innovative studies characterize the directions of Russian art in the nineteenth century.
Uniquely gifted and trained to fulfill his potential, Ivanov lived in the city of his birth, St. Petersburg, until his departure for Italy. He studied initially with his father, a professor at the St. Petersburg's Academy of Arts, and became an official student at the Academy in 1817. In 1830 the artist moved to Rome with support from the Society for the Encouragement of Artists. While he devoted much of his time to copying the works of the Italian masters, he also created his own compositions. He focused on Old and New Testament subjects since they offered the psychological complexity that fired his imagination and tested his facility as a realist.
"The Appearance of Christ to Mary Magdalene after the Resurrection" was conceived by the artist as a test of his abilities to execute an even more ambitious multi-figure composition. The depiction of complex emotion in the kneeling figure of the Magdalene particularly captured the attention of viewers.
Ivanov was obsessed with the artist's power to express nuances of emotion. While twentieth-century artists and critics perhaps place less emphasis on the expression of emotion, any evaluation of Ivanov's oeuvre must take that aspect of his work into account. The artist's peers were so impressed by "The Appearance of Christ to Mary Magdalene after the Resurrection" that they awarded him the title of Academician.
After 1833, when Briullov's "Last Day of Pompeii" created such a sensation, Ivanov began to consider doing a similarly large work. A deeply religious man, Ivanov was taken with the subject of the first appearance of Jesus to the people announced by John the Baptist. Ivanov chose the episode because he felt it embraced the religious, historical, and philosophical ideas with which he was most concerned: the spiritual and moral transformation of mankind.
"The Appearance of Christ to the People" (1836-1855) combines a number of separate events in the Gospel: the preaching of John and his baptism of the people in the foreground and the coming of Christ in the distance.
Ivanov intended for his painting to surpass in spiritual profundity and natural truth all previous religious painting in the West. So he undertook the most extensive studies, and consulted every artist whose opinion he respected. The result, of course, was that this work took indefinitely long and that he changed his composition again and again.
When the painting was finally exhibited in St. Petersburg in 1858, after 20 years of painful effort, it failed to rouse the enthusiasm that had greeted Briullov's work. Ultimately, the work can be called a noble failure. His figures are serious and full of varied feeling. The emotions of the listeners range from doubt and skepticism to sudden, overwhelmed conviction. But there's an unresolved tension between the pursuit of idealism and a commitment to realism, too much of a contrast between the naturalistic background and the classical, contrived groups in the foreground. By the middle of the 19th century the conflicting claims of naturalism and idealism could no longer be reconciled; when the former took precedence it necessarily destroyed the latter. One indication of
Ivanov's less than total success is the figure of Jesus, who seems almost insignificant. The artist was true to naturalistic linear perspective, which worked against the depiction of a spiritual experience.
Despite the fact that it was never completed, the epic nature of the canvas inspired many Russian painters of the later nineteenth century.
