Between the Temples
Nicholas Roerich, “In a Monastery”, 1914, tempera on canvas
To me, In a Monastery (painted in Russia in 1914) - with its serenity and the warmth of light filtering through stained glass windows - is a calm before the storm as the Russian Revolution and World War I were about to ravage the country and claim so many lives. Or perhaps it is an oasis, a place where the light always shines while the storm rages outside.
As World War II followed on the heels of World War I, Roerich wrote:
"A quarter of a century has passed [since World War I], exactly a quarter, just one generation, and the virus of the same madness has broken out. This epidemic has started in the same inhuman way. Again, bombs are being dropped on civilians. Again, ships carrying peaceful travelers are being destroyed. Schools are shattered and children's bodies torn apart.
Of course, this war did not start just yesterday. Already in 1936, the evil germs were sprouting... Violence was rampant. Destruction was justified by citing the most astounding reasons. As often happens, the biggest missiles exploded when public opinion least expected them…
On August 1st, 1914, we were in a temple, on September 1st, 1939 we were up in the Himalayas. Both—temples. Back then we were not ready to believe in such human madness, and now the heart does not want to admit that a new horror has been born…
- Roerich's letter dated September 3, 1939, Himalayas (Roerich Museum)
Nicholas Roerich, Kanchenjunga, 1936, tempura on cavas. (The Himalayas, Roerich’s “other temple”. Kanchenjunga is the third tallest mountain in the world)
The letter continues:
"Once more, we will turn to art to remind us that destruction is unacceptable, once more we will hope that at least now humanity will understand what true values are, and what is the purpose of human evolution.”
Nicholas Roerich (1874, Russia – 1947, India) was a Russian painter, stage designer, art and architecture historian, writer, archaeologist, theosophist - and so much more. Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, he spent many years in America and travelled extensively through India and the Himalayas in search of spiritual knowledge.
Nicholas Roerich, Rocks of Ladakh, 1932, tempera on canvas
Short-listed for the Nobel Prize three times, Roerich advocated the importance of spiritual life and peaceful co-existence based on cosmic mentality. He is the author of The Roerich Pact for the protection of art and culture in peace and war. Signed by the United States and the Pan-American Union in 1935, the Pact has been superseded by The Hague Convention of 1954 but its distinctive three-dot Pax Cultura or "Peace through Culture" Banner is still recognised as a valid cultural protection sign.
More about the art, life, and philosophy of this extraordinary man can be found at the Nicholas Roerich Museum New York
COOL FACT
For the purposes of The Pact the three-dots-in-a-circle emblem of the Peace Banner represents the trinity of Art, Science, and Religion, yet according to the Roerich Museum “Roerich … knew that it represented a deep and sophisticated understanding of the triune nature of existence … and [he] also described the circle as representing the eternity of time, encompassing the past, present, and future.”
(Image: Nicholas Roerich, Madonna Oriflamma, 1932, tempera on canvas)