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| Keywords: Golgotha by Repin.jpg Artwork Creator Ilja Jefimowitsch Repin Executed with apparent disregard for technical finesse Repin ™s Golgotha offers a starkly unconÂventional interpretation of familiar subject matter It is a Crucifixion without Christ whose body has already been removed from the place of execution leaving yawning emptiness at the center of the painting Two dead thieves remain tied to their crosses A third cross rests on the ground its nails its crossbar and the surrounding area saturated with Christ ™s blood With brutal realism Repin depicts a pack of carrion dogs licking the blood; one positioned at the foot of the empty cross looks out of the painting as if in response to the viewer ™s presence The desolate feeling of emptiness created by Christ ™s absence is countered by a pinpoint of light in what appears to be his tomb in the background outside the city wall While working on the painting Repin was engrossed with the events surrounding Christ ™s resurrection Indeed Christ ™s absence from Golgotha might be seen as presaging the moment of resurrection a subject Repin depicted the following year in his Morning of the Resurrection The artist ™s reputation as a leading figure in Russia ™s powerful Realist movement had been established in the 1870s by his painting ÂBargehaulers on the Volga State Russian Museum St ÂPetersburg When he painted Golgotha fifty years later in the wake of World War I and the Russian Revolution separated from friends and associates in Russia by a redrawn border with Finland the artist was beset by anxiety for his homeland and by physical handicaps that included the atrophy of his right hand The difficulty and expense of obtaining canvas for a large-scale work like Golgotha prompted him to use ordinary linoleum reversed to expose its burlap backing as a surface for this painting While never primarily a religious painter Repin renewed his allegiance to the Russian Orthodox Church at this time Religious subject matter not previously of major consequence in his work presented itself as a vehicle for the feelings of hope and despair called forth by contemporary events - 1921 1922 Oil linoleum cm 214 0 176 0 Institution Princeton University Art Museum cite book Steward James Christen Princeton University Art Museum Handbook of the Collections Revised and Expanded Edition 2013 Princeton University Art Museum Princeton NJ 978-0943012414 2nd 221 cite web Golgatha y1979-59 http //artmuseum princeton edu/collections/objects/32455 Princeton University Art Museum object history exhibition history credit line Gift of Christian Aall accession number y1979-59 http //artmuseum princeton edu/collections/objects/32455 Princeton University Art Museum online collection PD-old-auto-1923 1930 DEFAULTSORT Repin Ilya; Golgotha; Princeton University Art Museum Religious paintings by Ilya Yefimovich Repin European paintings in the Princeton University Art Museum 1921 Paintings in the Princeton University Art Museum 1921 European art in the Princeton University Art Museum 1921 Modern art in the Princeton University Art Museum 1921 Golgotha in art | ||||
