The Triumph of Venus

The space of all the paintings in the series is intentionally divided into two clearly separable planes. For the foreground, the artist selects dramatic multi-figure plots full of movement and vivid emotions from the lives of the gods (both Christian and ancient), while in the background the fiery stigmata of realities are burning, embodying the recently lived (but still burning us) century of scientific and technological progress. The new "backdrop" adds a different dimension to the classic play. The recent enthusiasm for progress suddenly takes on the features of mythology and is also perceived as conditional "antiquity".

A modern artist does not have the time available to Renaissance masters, when the rendering of each image is infinitely improved and improved by stringing layers and layering. Rudyev does not try to match or copy the manner of the old masters. He preserves the conventions and stops where the picturesque exercises could still be continued and continued. But convention is much more important here than copying. Let's not forget that behind the author's back (and a man who lived most of his life in the 20th century) is the Soviet school of monumental painting, where the heroic figures and poses of the builders of communism, as in the divine Utopia, were copied from ancient gods.