Today, December 7 at the Gallery of Art European and American countries XIX - XX centuries Pushkin Museum. Pushkin presents "Childhood. Adolescence. Youth. Works from 11 international and 8 national museums to introduce viewers to children's images in fine arts from the Renaissance to the present day.

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For centuries, Western European and Russian history, myths and realities of childhood reflects the important issues of philosophy and religion, moral and social ideals, pedagogical theories and practices of upbringing. The task of the exhibition - to identify major themes and genres of painting, sculpture, graphics and photographs, in which the interpretation of childhood is common human sense. On examples of works by Botticelli, Rubens, Van Dyck, Goya, Strozzi, Murillo, Renoir, Moreau, Tropinin , , Repin , Ye and other great masters appear before the audience not only the history of and development of a "children's genre, but also a history of identity formation from the cradle to adolescence. Total viewers to see 160 works.

developing the concept of the exhibition, the organizers of the chronologically repelled from the Renaissance, when interest in the identity of the person experiencing an unprecedented growth. Artists with the same emphasis was studied and passed in the portraits of personality, both adults and children. Significance was also an appeal to antiquity, it was in ancient Greece, his childhood was first recognized as a distinct phenomenon. This section of the exhibition presented works such as "Madonna and Child" kruga Botticelli, Portrait of a Boy "by Agostino Carracci, Portrait of a Girl" Hansa Boka Elder, etc.

significant place in the Exhibition take pictures on mythological subjects (Leonello Spada "David and Goliath, Anthony van Dyck" Cupid ", by Francisco de Zurbaran" Infant Jesus ", etc.). Paradoxically, the gods and heroes of the familiar children's joys and sorrows, they are capricious, play, show irresponsibility. According to legend, their path is predetermined from birth, yet the role of education in their fate remains important. Mentor of Achilles, according to legend, was a wise centaur Chiron, he taught the heroes of science, medicine, military affairs. This story imprinted on his film "Educating Achilles centaur Chiron, the artist Jean-Baptiste Reno.

exhibition poses problems place children in the history of their relationship with the surrounding reality. On the one hand, these themes illustrate the formal portrait XVII - XVIII centuries (François de Troyes, "Portrait of Adelaide of Savoy», Borovikovsky «Portrait Naryshkina in childhood," Peter Paul Rubens "Portrait of Clara Serena Rubens and others), on the other - paintings of the XIX century, has raised the social themes of" children without childhood, forced to earn or beg ( Evgraf Sorokin «Beggar Girl-Hispanic", Ludwig Knaus' first profit, Basil Calisto "audit Pet Orphanage", etc .).

Francisco Goya Children, inflatable bull bubble. 1778. Source: museum.ru /gmii

Paying attention to children who not only played an active role in history (Anthony van Dyck "Children of King Charles I», unknown artist of the second half of XVIII century "Portrait of Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich in childhood", etc.), but also became its victims, as happened with the heirs of King Edward IV, who first imprisoned in the Tower, and then secretly killed. Paul Delaroche in the film "Children of King Edward" depicts a dark, dark room and small frightened children who huddle together, with no hope of salvation.

most striking section of the exhibition are images of children directly , fragility and depth of their inner world. Thanks to the skill of the artist's typical child spontaneity and liveliness of the perception of the audience are transferred, as a precious gift. We are going through the process of re-opening of the world, remember its brightness and the wonders lurking in every subject. With a touching children seriously inquiring look at the portraits of Dutch and English masters, filled with warmth and tenderness of family portraits and scenes in the paintings of Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Pera Hillestrema, Peter Zakharov, Konstantin Makovsky, Valentin Serov, Ludwig Knaus, Ilya Repin, Zinaida Serebryakova .

In the early twentieth century when there was the desire to transform the language of art , to release him from the rules clear from excessive rationality, artists begin to learn from children. Children's perception becomes an example of absolute, objective relationship to reality. Children do not just write, and take their creativity as a basis for developing their own language in art. Section of the exhibition tells about the way contemporary art from children's drawings to the avant-garde, are the works of Jean Dubuffet "restless life," Karel Appel "Hip, Hip, Hooray!" Joan Miro's "Constellations».

Vladimir Clavijo-Telepneva , etc.

Museums - project participants: National Portrait Gallery (London); Kunstsammlungen Dresden. Art gallery; "Old Masters", Gallery Residence Liechtenstein (Salzburg), Tate Gallery (London), National Museum of the Prado (Madrid), Museum d'Orsay (Paris), Prince of Liechtenstein Foundation - Collection of Prince of Liechtenstein (Vienna), the National Media Museum (Bradford), Victoria and Albert Museum (London), Catherine Edelman Gallery (Chicago), Catherine Edelman Gallery (Paris), Pushkin Museum. A. On the Pushkin State Hermitage Museum, State Russian Museum, State Tretyakov Gallery, Saratov Art Museum ANRadishev; Yaroslavl Art Museum, Museum-apartment Brodsky; assembly B. Clavijo-Telepneva.

exhibition will run until February 13, 2011.

Source: museum.ru /gmii