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Oedipus at the Sphinx

oil on canvas 80 x 100 cm (32 x 40 in.) 1991

It is a theme from the ancient Greek mythology. Sphinx was a half-woman, half-lioness and lived on a rock near Thebae. Sphinx asked to passers-by a unsoluble riddle and then, not having received the answer, devoured them. Oedipus (the future tsar of Thebae) has solved this riddle. Just after the Sphinx has rushed from a rock. Works of the artist Ilyas Faizulline are allegorical. You don`t need to searchan action of concrete events (exception - historical events is exception) in his works . You can see the Egyptian statue of the Sphinx with a beaten off nose at the painting (the nose has been beaten off by arabs; soldiers of Napoleon have completed this barbarous business, having shot her from guns). Before a statue - the future tsar of Thebae Oedipus who has guessed a riddle. In a cave - a tomb of pharaon Rhamses. The lion and a lioness are attribute of the artist (he is Lion on a horoscope and he is very much loves this strong and beautiful animal). The sphynx in imagination of the artist is a universal symbol of power, titanic beauty, a symbol of eternity (an inscription on a stone hieroglyphs "Eternity"), and the person on this background looks fragile and defenceless.