Return to the Origins: The Image of the Easter Procession in the Works of E.A. Titova (On the History of the Creation and "Second Birth" of the Canvas of 2001)

Abstract

The subject of the research is the monumental canvas by E. A. Titova, a distinguished figure in the arts of the Republic of Tatarstan and a graduate of the Creative Studio of Painting of the Russian Academy of Arts (hereinafter referred to as the Creative Studio of Painting RAA) titled "Return to the Roots. Easter Procession" (2001, canvas, oil, RAA collections). Its compositional, coloristic, and lighting solutions, history of creation and display ("second birth" of the canvas within the exhibition activities of 2023-2024). The object of study is the combination of coloristic and compositional solutions of the painting, techniques used to create an air-light environment, the system of realistic images, iconographic parallels with Russian and Western European religious painting, and the history of the work's creation in the context of the activities of the Creative Studio of Painting RAA in Kazan under the guidance of the People's Artist of the USSR K. A. Yakupov. The methodology is interdisciplinary, combining historical and cultural analysis, iconographic methods, and formal and stylistic analysis. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that the canvas by E. A. Titova from the RAA collections is being subjected to scientific research for the first time; the history of its creation has been reconstructed; features of coloration, composition, and air-light environment have been identified; iconographic parallels with masters of the 19th century (V. G. Perov, K. A. Trutovsky, N. K. Pimonenko, I. S. Goryushkin-Sorokopudov, V. E. Makovsky, S. F. Kolesnikov, B. M. Kuztodiyev, M. A. Mokhov, F. V. Sychkov, M. V. Nesterov, P. N. Filonov) and Western European artists (P. Brueghel the Elder, F. Goya, J. F. Lewis, E. Berna) have been determined; information about exhibitions from 2023 to 2024, marking the "second birth" of the canvas, has been introduced; it has been shown that the return of the work to the audience coincides with the social sentiments of the early 2020s. Evidence of increased viewer attention to the thematic orientation of painting in contemporary society is presented. The area of application of the research results includes museum and exhibition activities, pedagogical practices in higher education institutions (art history courses, cultural studies), scientific studies on the history of Russian painting in the 20th-21st centuries, and educational programs of the Creative Studios of RAA. Conclusions: The work of E. A. Titova represents a synthesis of impressionistic solutions of light, symbolism of color, and academic painting, reflecting the image of the religious procession as a metaphor for communal unity and continuity of generations.