|
The picture was painted on the Serbian front in 1914. Soldiers, like living corpses, are lying in the desolate landscape - this is how Mednyánszky wanted to express his opposition to war. Mednyánszky had by that time given up details for summing up, his deep humanity had become wider. His pictures depicting battlefields are generally gloomy with figures appearing against of a dark background. In this picture, two dark figures are clearly separated from the white of the snow covered background. The arrangement of the composition is unique in Mednyánszky's art - in his pictures, light vaguely glimmers out of darkness, but in the case of this picture, cold colours of dark patches appear in the strong light. Mednyánszky was brilliant at depicting the relationship between man and nature. The two soldiers are 4-5 meters away from the spectator and their proportions are in accordance with this distance.
Mednyánszky painted the picture on a canvas of delicate texture, he treated paint very simply and worked with delicately tinted colours. He used rather dry oil so the painting looks like tempera or water colour. The unglazed mature chalk basis and the dry oil give the impression of dismalness. The backgound disappears behind the two figures. The cover of the soldier is grey and the figure becomes bigger towards the spectator - it is a highly touching expression of reconciliation with death.
|
