Biography where the root

Add to the office to the office more than the years ago in Russia lived an artist whose name and creativity are practically forgotten, but who made a significant contribution to the development of folk art of Russia. The article is dedicated to the biography of Vasily Korene, the author of the “Bible of the Poor” and the man who influenced the unique style of the Russian Lubka.

The biography of Vasily Korene has reached a little reliable information. It is known that the artist was born around the year in modern Belarus, the city of Dubrovno Vitebsk region. During the Russo-Polish War-his hometown was besieged and destroyed, as a result of which the young Vasily Korn went to live in Russia. In the year, the Meshchanskaya Sloboda was created in Moscow - the area that was conceived for the settlement of immigrants from the Commonwealth, mainly Belarusians.

It was there that in the same year, after several years of wandering around Russia, that Vasily Koron settled. The plan of the philistine settlement with the craft with which he was engaged was wood engraving. The root began to engage in engraving already in Russia, as evidenced by the fact that his work was noticeably different from the Ukrainian and Belarusian traditions.

And even despite the belonging to the Russian engraving school, the artistic style and technique of the execution of engravings of Vasily Korene were extremely distinctive. For this reason, his work during his lifetime was not in great demand and could not compete with more familiar engravings and xylography of other Moscow masters.

Probably, for this reason, as well as because of a strong fire in the Meshchanskaya settlement that occurred in the year, the work and working accessories of Vasily Rown of that period have not been preserved to our time. Despite the fact that the artist, judging by the preserved information, lived in the Meshchanskaya settlement at least up to a year later, he was forced to wander in different cities in order to find earnings.

Just in M, probably still in Moscow, and with years Vasily Koron created the work of his whole life, thanks to which he nevertheless went down in history - a engraved Bible in pictures, known today as the "Bible of the Poor". Photo album: Creation of the world. Vasily Koron - gg. Creation of the world. The unique style of engraving and painting of the work, which had no analogues, was at the junction of the influence of traditional Russian and Western religious art.

The then church perceived such a non -canonical visual interpretation of the Bible hostile. For this reason, the entire circulation of the book, which was 1 copies, was seized and burned after a few years. The only partially preserved to this day the Bible Korene is kept today in the Russian National Library in St. Petersburg. What is the historical significance of Vasily Korene and his work?

According to the hypothesis of Antonina Sakovich, who studied the biography of the root, its Bible could have a decisive influence in the development of such a direction of art as Russian Lubok. Engravings with “funny sheets” were created in Russia earlier, and their history goes into the European tradition of making “folk” engravings. Russian Lubok did not immediately find his own face and a recognizable look.

Also, the epicenters of the formation of Lubka in Russia at that time are considered Moscow and the Volga region. Just in the Volga region, judging by some reports, Vasily Korin finished his monumental work. This explains a long break in the creation of engravings, from up to year. Removing the seventh press. There are no iron arguments in favor of the fact that Vasily Koron was involved in the creation of a popular picture.

However, there is reason to believe that he was his forerunner, and the recognizable style of Lubka was formed, among other things, thanks to the Row Bible. Bright and living colors, simplicity and naivety of images, accessibility for the “wide” audience - all this, including under the influence of the European Lubka, has acquired a unique and recognizable look from the root.

At first, Lubok was a creative outlet for ordinary people, then he was institutionalized and became the subject of the manufactory, and today the popular picture can be considered the “place of memory” of Russian culture. In addition, the format of a colorful plot illustration with the accompanying text can be considered the progenitor of the form of comics. Lubka’s traditions are continued by the representatives of naive art.

It is likely that without Vasily the root, the artist of the poor and incomprehensible by most contemporaries, all this might not have been. Kazan cat, Astrakhan mind, Siberian mind.