Mikhail Aleksandrovich Vrubel “The Seated Demon”

Mikhail Aleksandrovich Vrubel (March 17, 1856 – April 14, 1910) was born in Omsk. In 1880 he finished the Law faculty of St Petersburg University and then he studied at the Imperial Academy of Arts.
M.A. Vrubel is one of the founders of symbolist movement. His pictures are very emotional and fabulous. His painting’s background is quiet and silence, which may possibly be heard. He shows some moments and emotions that couldn’t be expressed in words.

One of his well-known pictures is Demon. Mikhail Vrubel was looking for the image of spirit freedom. The Seated Demon is young and yearning for the real world which is beautiful and attractive, but he is divested of it and couldn’t join it. He is sorrowful, wistful and strong, but at the same time he could find nothing to use his force. Deep in his thoughts he feebly embraced his knees. The background of the demon is a queer landscape. It is formed of red, crimson, brown and golden mosaic patches. The demon himself becomes similar to the fiery sky covered with the violet clouds; fantastical flowers; the attachment of the stones and ingots. He is surrounded with rocks and cliffs that look like semi-precious stones. The demon seems to be its’ part. He is master of this world.
Mikhail Vrubel knowingly chooses a kind of cramped format of this canvas. The artist cut the figure off and in that way he emphasizes the demon’s infirmity. The beginning of the infinity and concreteness of the limits are combined with each other.
The demon doesn’t display an imperious triumph, but his grief is expressed in the look. The demon is an ideal person. When you see this picture you get the impression of fantastical, improbable world, but this world is lifeless and fixed.
The seated demon is a myth of Mikhail Vrubel himself. The image is doleful, but this is the dole of youth. It is far from hopelessness and the demon is full of belief in his powerful wings.
The demon is not a devil, but he is an angel and symbol of passionate creature that rises in rebellion against God.