meanwhilebackinthedungeon:

– Fedor Bronnikov ..+-+.. Consecration –

Okay here’s how I read this picture: homeboy in bright white is the guy who commissioned this thing, as part of his “oh shit I’m old and mortal better tend to my legacy” thing. He gets to do the ceremonial duties, pouring out oil for his dead homies, dudes actually pushing it up are his servants.

At the stump in red with the sacrificial lamb is homeboy’s eldest son, the surrounding figures are his family, blondie at the stump in pink is a younger son.

And look at what’s stiffly vertical in this composition, that’s interesting. The herm isn’t. The herm’s whole purpose is to be vertical as a sacred object, but it’s like “oh nope, just a human creation being humped around by some sweaty dudes”. You can see the rough foundation that’d normally be buried underground.

Dude with the spade - the spade’s vertical which is correct because the spade represents the artifice and the work here and the work is what is true. Dude’s leg is only slightly off and he kind of gets a pass as being the close-enough respectability of labor.

Homeboy in white - straight up. Look at his face, look at the sculptured herm. That’s the dude. This is his legacy - he’s old now and thinking about eternity and transcendence. He is taking this seriously, he’s fucking loving this.

In the background, the tower of the compound on the hill - oh hi there, hazed out, you’re the even more impressive site of human creation we’re only recreating in miniature. Herms along the path and in the woods, that one that gets red at the base almost halfway to modeling the trees, the trees that shoot up higher and spindlier reminding you that the human creations are only inferior imitations of natural form.

Grandson with the fruit bowl, young enough to take his role in this seriously.

(The donkey’s standing up straight, doing his job, but looks sarcastic. I think that’s the point of donkeys.)

And look who’s not standing up straight.

Red son at the stump is frustrated, cheek in his palm waiting for this to be over. (You saw statue face and white homeboy’s face? Look at red dude’s face, you see the resemblance. Balding. Unfortunate.)

He’s old enough to realize this is theatrics, but not old enough to be the honored elder. Dad’s having fun spending his inheritance on a roadside dick statue. Awesome. He’s there because he’s obligated.

(Pink bro, what the hell. He says nothing to me.)

Granddaughter in pink is straight-ish, but not ramrod like the two males in the center. Slumped shoulders, garland hanging by her side she’s just putting up with this. Teenage girls were the same in 1874, when this painting was made, the same in whenever the hell it was set.

Naked babe taking the proceedings in uncomprehendingly, wife in blue kneeling propping the babe up, inducting him into the ritual.

The laborers of course literally wearing rags, all too busy exerting themselves to be either solemn or resentful and… IS STRIPEYSHORTS MCMUSTACHE EYEING UP GRANDDAUGHTER?

I THINK HE IS

holy shit

This is an amazing tableau on the subject of religion: an honorably ridiculous process by which old men fool young boys into taking them seriously.