1913
Oil and paper collage on canvas
170,5 õ 163,5
The composition was created under the influence of French Cubism and the traditions of folk art which saw painting as a staged spectacle in colours.
The church appears to the artist as a fantastic architectural myth in which there is a melding of different periods and cultures. Lentulov strived to show the church “as if at once from all angles” and to convey “the fabulous and unrestricted fantasy of form and colour.”
The depiction of architectural forms is a convention. The composition combines different points of view. On the blue cupolas of the church golden paper stars have been glued; on serpentine columns designs have been copied. Not only the forms of the church but also the sky has been divided into “bands.” This comprises the means used by the artist to try to show the development of the image in time and space.
