 | Widely considered the first Russian artist to truly achieve international recognition, Karl Pavlovich Briullov largely abandoned the Neoclassical style into which he was born in 1799, and his innovations eased the transition into the Romantic period. After receiving his formal training at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, Briullov briefly distinguished himself as a portraitist and genre painter before relocating to Rome. Briullov spent nearly three years there preparing The Last Day of Pompeii, painstakingly reconstructing the scene from artifacts discovered during the ongoing excavation of the ancient city's ruins. His dramatic treatment and generous use of chiaroscuro rendered a classical topic sublime and challenged other Russian historical painters to attempt similar complexity. Although he was hailed a master upon his return to Russia in 1841, Briullov was never again able to produce a work of such scale or depth. |
