Dear friends, you and I continue our journey through the Bible gallery from creation to ascension. These are paintings by famous artists who are located in many museums around the world, but they all tell Biblical stories. You and I have come to a picture painted by Alexander Andreevich Ivanov and it is called "the appearance of Christ to the people."

It took the artist twenty years to create this monumental work of art, from 1837 to 1857, most of which Ivanov spent in Italy. In addition to the painting, many separate sketch plots preceding the main work, which depict a particular fragment of the canvas in more detail, have survived to this day.

Alexander Andreevich Ivanov was the first artist who, before starting work, decided to thoroughly study all the features of the place and the era that he was going to depict. He investigated a huge number of archaeological and historical sources, including the Gospel. The plot was taken from chapter 3 of the Gospel of Matthew. The artist has done a colossal work, the results of which we can see in the painting "The Appearance of Christ to the People."

The great merit of the author is his deep understanding of the human soul. Ivanov looked for each participant in the picture among real people, looking for the traits of character and appearance he needed, then wrote a sketch from him, and after the initial sketches he brought the participant into the general plot of the picture, adding the necessary emotions to him.

This is one of the largest paintings and it is located in the Tretyakov Gallery 5.40 up and 7.50 meters long. This is one of the most recognizable paintings in the world.

In the foreground we see the figure of John the Baptist, as described by the Evangelists. The next day John sees Jesus coming to him and says: behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.

In the center, although we can see that there are large figures in front, but a small figure of Jesus Christ at a distance is in the center.

Dear friends, today, when we show you this picture, we also want to say "behold the Lamb of God!" We want to tell you about Him, He who came into this world to save all people who want to receive salvation, not excluding anyone.
Please note that each of the people who are here are different types of people who are in this world today.

Just behind the figure of John the Baptist, we see the young disciple John prostrate like this. The aspirant so Ivanov called this man with his face and with all his appearance shows that he is striving, he is pleased. He looks towards Jesus Christ, afraid to lose sight of Him.
Behind him, as if following his call, we see the figure of Andrey. This is no longer a young man, but he also looks closely at the approaching Jesus.
Behind them, we guess the figure of Peter. Peter, who kind of listens, but he listens - do you know how many people are listening today?
Next is the image of another apostle, who is kind of doubting. The person who doubts Nathanael who reflects - “Is this the Messiah? And even if the Messiah, does it promise me something good. " The doubter named him Ivanov. How many people are doubting today when they hear about Jesus Christ?
Here we see more figures of a young man and an elderly man coming out of the water. Ivanov seems to be saying - look, Jesus Christ is coming for all generations.
On the right side, we see a nude figure of a mature man by the water and a boy is standing next to him - they seem to be trembling so slightly. Trembling so Ivanov called them. Trembling are those people who always worry about what would happen if they believe in Jesus Christ. And today we meet such people.
And for some, John's words are a blow to their pride. For the Pharisees, this Messiah is an unnecessary competitor. Look at their angry, displeased faces.
We also see here, such a man sits like a well-fed "master". His face is not visible. We see only the face of the slave, which is painted with a special paint. He serves and this is a person who seems to be doing well here too - Ivanov writes that this self-righteous person does not strive much for Jesus, he just happened to be here just a witness of this situation.
You will hardly see one curious detail if you do not know about its existence. Take a closer look at the very small figures in the thick of the foliage. They behave somewhat differently than the people in the foreground.
The main characters of the picture experience different feelings, but rather surprise, joy or distrust. And these people stretched out their hands: they are full of faith and a thirst to draw closer to Christ. It seems that they are very close to Christ. Despite the fact that they will be born 100, 500, 1000 years after the events depicted. They no longer have doubts about the significance of Christ. They already know what He did for them.

So we see different types of people in this picture. And today put yourself in one of them - who are you doubting or aspiring? Are you young or old? Maybe you are rich or dearest, who are you? Remember Ivanov, in this picture I wanted to say - whoever you are you need Jesus - here is the Lamb

God! Make a conclusion for yourself.

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