Battle in the Heavens
1912
- tempera on cardboard. 66 x 95
- Ж-1978
Received in 1920 from the collection of Alexander Korovin, Petrograd
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Location in museum
The Rossi Wing
Open the panorama of the hall in the virtual tour
Room 41 - Period Late 19th century – Early 20th century
- CategoryLandscape
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Nicholas Roerich was interested in mysticism and a passionate believer in the ideas of «all-unity» and «Russocosmism». One of his favourite motifs was the ancient north — a bleak and uninhabited land of mighty hills and cold, clear lakes. Roerich’s paintings were regarded as insights into the archaic period of Indo-European civilisation. One of his finest works is Celestial Battle. Permeated with the divine light and «programmed» with the future history of the earth, the cumuli swirl above the distant figures of demons, messengers, knights on horseback, seafarers, sages and the silhouettes of the «prophecy stones». Roerich portrays a hypostasis of a former golden age, when man lived in harmony with himself and the cosmos. Russian Museum: From Icons to the Modern Times. Palace Editions, St Petersburg, 2015. P. 265.