8/1/2023 0 Comments Andrei rublev iconographer![]() HORSES and BIRDS (once free animals now domesticated)ĭOORS and ROADS (always leading the hero on to new discoveries and revelations) Tarkovsky uses these elements to form visual motifs that reappear throughout the film, motifs that remind the viewer of the natural world. Alchemists believed four elements made up the world: earth, air, fire and water. The film’s prologue introduces the subject of alchemy. If this happened, the bell makers could be executed because the cost was so great. During the process of firing the metal in a clay mold many things could go wrong causing the bell to fail. ![]() The making of a bell was a complex and expensive affair, filled with danger. Bells stood between the people and the sky, and summoned them to God. The power of this bell as a symbol cannot be overestimated. The larger towns were generally dominated by a single church and if the town was rich enough, it’s towers held a bell. It is a meticulous portrait of an age and a profound reflection on the journey a great artist takes that helps him persevere and endure.īells are another important image in this film. That said, this film can’t be taken as a true biography as there is almost nothing known about the artist beyond the works he left behind. Andrei Rublev was a painter of Icons, and one of the few who gained legendary status. Painting them was one of the few ways an artist could survive at the time. which were believed to be the “living word of God” and were treated this way by a majority of the peasants. Icons were small paintings of the Virgin Mary, Christ, saints, angels, etc. ![]() The religious Icon is a major image in Andrei Rublev. You want to be on the lookout for this new way of telling a story and constantly pulls the viewer into a new way of seeing. As Bergman notes, it is the masterful way that Tarkovsky uses imagery in new ways to reveal his subject matter. The imagery and ideas in this film are extremely dense and it can be disorienting for viewers unaccustomed to reading imagery, or visual motifs. The pagan religions still held sway in the countryside and the church was continually looking for pagan heretics to punish brutally. One escape from these conditions lay in the monasteries of the Orthodox Church, but the church was poor as well. They worked from childhood till death with little if any relief. Suffering the most were the serfs (peasants), who made up the vast majority of the population. The stresses of hunger and disease dominated this period. The princes in turn had to pay off the Tartars who invaded from the south and held power in Russia for 200 years. This means hundreds of petty princes living off the toil of serfs, their unfortunate subjects. It takes place in the early 1400’s-a period we associate with the Renaissance, but while Europe blooms, Russia is still bogged down under the feudal system. Andrei Rublev is one of the most realistic portrayals of the Middle Ages we have.
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