Dialogue of music and painting

Can music and painting have something in common? Can musical values ​​be expressed through artistic means? An attempt to combine these two elements was made by Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, one of the most important Lithuanian artists of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Čiurlionis connected closely with the Warsaw community; in this city he studied in the field of music and painting. Therefore, his special interest in the idea of ​​the synthesis of arts is not surprising. One of the artist's first works, in which musical clues appear, is the painting Murmur of the Forest. The composition, created in 1904, has similarities with the painting of Wojciech Weiss, probably known to the artist, entitled Evening ray. The work itself presents a forest thicket, shown in such a way that tree trunks bring associations with harp strings.

In the following years, the artist developed exploration at the interface of music and painting. The type of musical tale is the triptych Sonata No. 5 (Sea Sonata), one of the artist's several sonata cycles. As in many works from this period, the musical theme has already been suggested in the title itself. The painting composition is divided into three parts entitled Allegro, Andante and Finale. At the same time, the atmosphere and structure of each of them is to correspond to the specificity of the musical form mentioned in the name. In the Allegro part, which usually has a fast pace, an analogous effect has been achieved through meticulously rendered elemental movement of sea waves. The Andante form - thanks to the axial composition - is balanced and calm. The Finale painting, which closes the whole series, depicts small boats floating uncertainly on the surface of the sea, over which a giant wave hung. Its form reveals the inspiration of Japanese graphics. The spontaneity of this performance is in harmony with the solutions used in musical works, in which the final may take a dynamic form. In addition, the artist composed his initials in the central part. He used a similar procedure in several other paintings and in musical compositions. The element of the sea recalled in the sonata also fits in with the artist's interests - Čiurlionis has repeatedly returned to this motif both in terms of artistic expression and in music, e.g. in the symphonic poem Sea, one of his most famous compositions.