Хелп. Нужно описание картины Марка Шагала 'над Витебском'(Above Vitebsk)1914 на английском.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mbell1975/6227475891/

“Study for Over Vitebsk” was created by Chagall in 1914. It was an oil painting on canvas depicting a man with a walking stick and a beggar’s sack floating over Chagall’s hometown of Vitebsk, Russia. It symbolized the plight of the Eastern European Jewish population who was being forced to move regularly. The suspended figure appears in shadows, giving the impression that he is ceasing to exist. His facial features are not clearly discernible, as if they do not matter. Chagall’s probable intention was to show the world how it felt to be on the outside of a marginalized culture, and how it felt to be disembodied from the community and the world during times of persecution. This piece was a draft for the larger, similar work titled Over Vitebsk, created in the same year.

On the left, the figure with the sack and the staff hovering over the Jewish village Vitebsk is not identified; it passes over the snow-covered road from the direction of an impressive Russian church toward a large house, fenced off and shuttered (apparently a synagogue). In this manner, the artist emphasizes the vulnerable condition of the Jews in the time of his childhood, who, like him, were on the verge of becoming refugees. Thus it appears that the hovering figure is the Wandering Jew. In the picture on the right, the hovering figure waving its hand in blessing (not holding anything but accompanied by a Torah scroll), is identified as the prophet Elijah. In both cases, the image watches over the Jews from above, as in various Jewish traditions regarding Elijah.

The images of people floating in the air, especially the iconic beggar man in the painting "Over Vitebsk", represented the plight of the wandering, homeless Jewish outcasts, who were persecuted and oppressed in Russia and drifted around like refugees. It was of particular interest to compare two versions of "Over Vitebsk" that Chagall painted (1914 and 1915), with the second rendition displaying Cubism influences. The church and the snow were depicted with more angular lines in the second painting and the beggar man's face is now obscured.

The Newspaper Seller (1914) reflected Chagall's interpretation of the sobering effects of World War I. The morose looking vendor seems laden with the burden of the distributing the bad news of more deaths to the people of the town. This painting hung in the Chagall home and his small daughter always wondered why the man looked so sad and worried that it was her fault.

http://www.chagallpaintings.org/article3-over-vitebsk.html
http://torontohappenings.blogspot.com/2011/12/ago-chagall-and-russian-avante-garde.html
[ссылка появится после проверки модератором]

Against the backdrop of a snow scene, 'Over Vitebsk' underlines Chagall's delicate use of color, and this helps to make the surrealistic element of the painting more prominent. It's almost as if the painting was of a normal winter's day in early 20th Century Russia (Vitebsk is now in Belarus), when the artist decided to include the unexpected to jolt the viewer out of any notion of a safe, picture postcard image.

Ambiguous Quality of the Painting

The central character in 'Over Vitebsk' is wearing a hat, has a cane, and a bag over his shoulder. He seems to be an old man, and may be a gentleman of the road. Chagall has empowered this individual by making him a great size, though it is unclear whether he is actually unsure on his feet, or has the ability to fly over the houses. This is probably the ambiguous playfulness of Chagall's nature being expressed here. He wants to leave that element of doubt in the painting.

http://www.helium.com/items/2248229-artwork-over-vitebsk-by-marc-chagall