"Artist of Russian origin from the small village of Vitebsk." Reims Cathedral writes nonsense about Marc Chagall

A photograph of an English-language information stand, installed in Notre-Dame de Reims Cathedral, was sent by readers of "Nasha Niva". The text on it begins with the following phrase: "A French painter of Russian origin, Marc Chagall (1887—1985) was born in a small village in Belorussia called Vitebsk".

In translation, this means: "French artist of Russian origin Marc Chagall was born in a small village in Belarus called Vitebsk".

It's simply appalling how an official stand in one of France's main tourist and historical sites could allow so many crude factual errors in one small fragment of text — and this in times when any information can be verified in a minute on the internet.

Павялічыць

The phrase "Russian origin" is historically incorrect. Marc Chagall came from Belarusian Jews. In European practice, he is often called "Russian" or "of Russian origin" solely based on his birth within the then Russian Empire. However, historically, the Jewish population only appeared in Russia as a result of the partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth at the end of the 18th century. It was then that the so-called "Pale of Settlement" was introduced, which confined Jews to the annexed lands of Belarus, Ukraine, and Lithuania, while they were forbidden to live in original Russian territories.

Furthermore, the birthplace itself is incorrectly identified. Marc Chagall was not born in Vitebsk, as indicated on the stand, but in the town of Lyozno. He spent his childhood years in his grandfather's house in Lyozno, as well as in Vitebsk itself, which later indeed became the central image of all his works.

Павялічыць

Finally, calling Vitebsk a "small village" is ridiculous, even when referring to Chagall's time. At the time of the artist's birth in 1887, Vitebsk was a major economic center and the capital of the Vitebsk Governorate. According to the data of the First General Population Census of 1897, 65,871 people lived in the city. For comparison, the population of Reims itself in France at the end of the 19th century was about 100,000 people. Vitebsk was quite comparable in scale to large French cities. And in some ways, it was advanced in the empire: for example, an electric tram started operating here already in 1898, a year earlier than in Moscow.

Павялічыць

Reims Cathedral today. Photo: Wikimedia Commons / Sebastian Mierzwa

Finally, the name of the city is not transliterated from the Belarusian language — Vitebsk instead of Viciebsk. But the authors couldn't even manage the country's name! In the English text, it is called not Belarus — which is the official international norm — but Belorussia. Even during Soviet times, in international documents (for example, at the UN), the country was spelled differently — Byelorussia, and in French, the country is called Biélorussie. Where Belorussia came from is unclear.

Reims Cathedral, built in the 13th century, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a historical place for the coronation of French monarchs. During the First World War in 1914, the building was severely damaged by German artillery, destroying numerous medieval stained glass windows.

Павялічыць

Павялічыць

In 1971, the leadership approached Marc Chagall with a proposal to decorate the windows of the central chapel in the crown of chapels, which closes the elongated axis of the temple.

The work was carried out in cooperation with local masters Charles Marq and Brigitte Simon, whose stained-glass workshop in Reims dates back to 1640. Especially for Chagall, French masters restored medieval technologies from the 13th century to create a special blue glass color, which became the background for the entire composition.

The grand opening of the stained-glass windows took place in 1974. The composition consists of three large pointed windows: the central one is dedicated to the biblical figures of Abraham and Christ, the left one to the lineage of the kings of Judea, and the right one draws a parallel between biblical history and the history of French kings who were crowned in this cathedral.

• 1
• 0
• 4
• 25
• 0
• 1
• 4
• 0