Izstāde "Melancholia imaginativa"

The exhibition "Melancholia imaginativa" reveals the characteristics of figures in Aleksandra Beļcova's portrait painting. The theme of melancholy in European art has a long history. “Melancholia” (translated from Greek as “black bile”) in antiquity was considered not only as a feature inherent to one of the temperament types, but also as an ailment that negatively affects human thoughts and psyche.

The Renaissance changed the attitude of thinkers and artists towards melancholy, it began to be valued as a sign of a genius, thinker, scientist. Philosopher Marsīlio Fičīno gave this variety of melancholy the name "Melancholia imaginativa".

Since the times of the ancient world, the tradition of depicting melancholic figures developed in art. In the portraits painted by Aleksandra Beļcova, it acquires an individual shade. The vicissitudes of the artist's life, prolonged illness with tuberculosis, and to a certain extent the tendency towards introversion determined the interpretation of the figures, which fits into the typology of "Melancholia imaginativa". Both in self-portraits and in portraits of other people, Beļcova emphasized a mood of bright sorrow at a moment of pensiveness.

The exposition provides a small insight into the history of the concept of melancholy and the iconography of melancholic figures, offering visitors' attention both previously unexhibited works by Aleksandra Beļcova and already known portraits that acquire a new resonance in the context of the theme.