''SONATA VI'' are two paintings, ''Stellar sonata. Allegro'' and ''Stellar sonata''. ''Andante'', of

Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis ( pl, Mikołaj Konstanty Czurlanis – ) was a Lithuanian painter, composer and writer. Čiurlionis contributed to symbolism and art nouveau, and was representative of the fin de siècle epoch. He has been ...

from 1908.

The artist

Čiurlionis was a Lithuanian composer and painter. His most famous musical compositions are probably the symphonic poems. ''In the Forest'' (Miške) and ''The Sea'' (Jūra). They are both in a late romantic idiom. As a painter Čiurlionis was a symbolist rooted in Lithuanian mythology, and his paintings were built in part by musical form principles.

"Musical" paintings

Čiurlionis painted seven pictorial sonatas. He originally numbered them (the titles were later adapted). His pictorial sonatas can be connected with

synaesthesia Synesthesia (American English) or synaesthesia (British English) is a perceptual phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. People who rep ...

, the fusion of music and art, and embody an original approach to synæstesis. The artist uses principles of

musical composition Musical composition can refer to an original piece or work of music, either vocal or instrumental, the structure of a musical piece or to the process of creating or writing a new piece of music. People who create new compositions are called ...

in the paintings associated with the structure of musical forms such as

sonata Sonata (; Italian: , pl. ''sonate''; from Latin and Italian: ''sonare'' rchaic Italian; replaced in the modern language by ''suonare'' "to sound"), in music, literally means a piece ''played'' as opposed to a cantata (Latin and Italian ''cant ...

fugue In music, a fugue () is a contrapuntal compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject (a musical theme) that is introduced at the beginning in imitation (repetition at different pitches) and which recurs frequently in the c ...

s or preludes. He united motifs from reality, spatial levels, dates and contrasting symbolic images into a single compositional system or cycle, based on the dynamics of rhythm. ''Stellar Sonata. Allegro'' is a vision of outer space with fantastic multi-layered images. The compositional elements of the painting are arranged in a complex varying

rhythm Rhythm (from Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") generally means a " movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions". This general meaning of regular recu ...

. To portray the third dimension he did not use perspective, but instead overlays of varying opacity. Čiurlionis imagines the universe as a grand

polyphonic Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice, monophony, or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords, h ...

symphony A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning com ...

, junctions of cosmic nebulae, stars and sunlight. The waves of this space ocean - the songs - mix together to form a rich, ornamented and beautiful network pierced by the path of the Milky Way. The movement in outer space is not chaotic, but rhythmic and harmonic. The symbol of order and

harmony In music, harmony is the process by which individual sounds are joined together or composed into whole units or compositions. Often, the term harmony refers to simultaneously occurring frequencies, pitches ( tones, notes), or chords. However ...

in the universe is an

angel In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God. Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles include ...

-like, a figure of light standing on a tapered tower of light. The second part of the sonata ( "Stellar sonata. Andante") is also solemn and monumental, but much more restrained: a few bands of cosmic fog blur one spherical planet, perhaps the Earth itself, and an angel goes slowly over the band of the Milky Way, and gives the impression of serene and magnificent music. This is one of the artist's most musical creations, full of the interplay of colors, rhythmic variations and a powerful imagination.Sonata No. 6 (Sonata of the Stars).
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References

{{reflist 1908 paintings Lithuanian paintings