Roses in Blue Jugs 1917

Konstantin Alexeevich Korovin’s "Roses in Blue Jugs" is a still life, overflowing with blooms. Roses, symbols of love and beauty, are arranged in a blue jug, an intimate and domestic scene. Yet, observe how these roses differ from the idealized roses we find in Renaissance paintings. In Botticelli's "Primavera", roses are symbols of divine love. Here, they possess a raw, untamed quality. This transition mirrors a broader shift in cultural consciousness, from a world of rigid symbolism to a modern focus on individual emotion and sensory experience. Consider the colour blue of the jugs, which once was associated with the Virgin Mary, but here becomes simply a vessel for the display of nature’s beauty. Such shifts in the symbolic weight of colour tell us a story about how we choose to remember and interpret the world around us. These roses are not merely decorative, they are a powerful force, engaging us on a subconscious level. Just like the constant reinvention of symbols, they return to us transformed, carrying echoes of the past into the present.