The moon of the garden of Gethsemane: I. E. Repin and A. P. Chekhov

Religious paintings are a specific form of reading the Gospel text. Based on I. E. Repin's work “Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane” the author aims at revealing biblical texts as primary sources in the process of visualizing the Gospel events by the artist. The article does a research of the history of the picture, brings to light its compositional and coloristic features. While analyzing sacral reality depicted in the painting a theological dialogue between I. E. Repin and A. P. Chekhov is explored. The author notes the following results. Discussion about the presence of the moon on the night of Gethsemane events reveals the nature of the relationship of these people, their devoutness in life and work. Moreover, the author expresses a new hypothesis. Priest D. V. Rozhdestvensky, who consulted the writer on the question of the presence of the moon in the biblical events, could be a prototype of Ivan Wielkopolska in the story “Student” by A. P. Chekhov. It is concluded that by means of the moonlight I. E. Repin strived to convey a spiritual reality, to express a dramatic character of betrayal and Divine predetermination of Atonement.