Vladimir Polunin : "the Warriors" And "the Encounter"

Vladimir Polunin (1880-1957): "The Warrior Women" and "The Encounter," tempera on canvas, recto and verso, 121 x 76.5 cm, mounted in a wooden frame/chassis allowing both sides to be seen, 135 x 90.5 cm.
It is likely that the first is a fragment of the set design for one of Serge Diaghilev's ballets, for which he was one of the principal set designers in Paris and London in 1920, and that the canvas was subsequently reused for the second painting at the end of the 1920s.
This battle of Holy Warrior Women with radiant eyes was, moreover, a pendant to another depicting their faun-like adversaries. The other side, which seems to represent Christ raising a kneeling figure dressed in a shimmering silk robe in an almost futuristic landscape, is independent.
The tempera technique, used in broad, flat areas of very matte color, gives this work an aspect somewhere between illustration and icon.
Very Russian and close to artists like Léon Bakst or Ivan Bilibin.
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