Anna Karenina - Part 5

The old neglected palazzo, with its lofty carved ceilings and

frescoes on the walls, with its floors of mosaic, with its heavy

yellow stuff curtains on the windows, with its vases on

pedestals, and its open fireplaces, its carved doors and gloomy

reception rooms, hung with pictures--this palazzo did much, by

its very appearance after they had moved into it, to confirm in

Vronsky the agreeable illusion that he was not so much a Russian

country gentleman, a retired army officer, as an enlightened

amateur and patron of the arts, himself a modest artist who had

renounced the world, his connections, and his ambition for the

sake of the woman he loved.

The pose chosen by Vronsky with their removal into the palazzo

was completely successful, and having, through Golenishtchev,

made acquaintance with a few interesting people, for a time he

was satisfied. He painted studies from nature under the guidance

of an Italian professor of painting, and studied mediaeval

Italian life. Mediaeval Italian life so fascinated Vronsky that

he even wore a hat and flung a cloak over his shoulder in the

mediaeval style, which, indeed, was extremely becoming to him.

"Here we live, and know nothing of what's going on," Vronsky said

to Golenishtchev as he came to see him one morning. "Have you

seen Mihailov's picture?" he said, handing him a Russian gazette

he had received that morning, and pointing to an article on a

Russian artist, living in the very same town, and just finishing

a picture which had long been talked about, and had been bought

beforehand. The article reproached the government and the

academy for letting so remarkable an artist be left without

encouragement and support.

"I've seen it," answered Golenishtchev. "Of course, he's not

without talent, but it's all in a wrong direction. It's all the

Ivanov-Strauss-Renan attitude to Christ and to religious

painting."

"What is the subject of the picture?" asked Anna.

"Christ before Pilate. Christ is represented as a Jew with all

the realism of the new school."

And the question of the subject of the picture having brought him

to one of his favorite theories, Golenishtchev launched forth

into a disquisition on it.

"I can't understand how they can fall into such a gross mistake.

Christ always has His definite embodiment in the art of the great

masters. And therefore, if they want to depict, not God, but a

revolutionist or a sage, let them take from history a Socrates, a

Franklin, a Charlotte Corday, but not Christ. They take the very

figure which cannot be taken for their art, and then..."