There is much talk about this portrait of Alexei Tolstoy by Pyotr Konchalovsky: about the accents the artist has placed, about the subtext, about Tolstoy's reaction to the still life that had sprung up around him, whether it is mockery and derision or rev

There is much talk about this portrait of Alexei Tolstoy by Pyotr Konchalovsky: about the accents the artist has placed, about the subtext, about Tolstoy's reaction to the still life that had sprung up around him, whether it is mockery and derision or reverence, whether it is proper for a writer to have himself recorded in the company of brimming plates. Yet I should like to observe, setting aside politics and any assessment of Tolstoy's character and work, that the set of victuals is very strange indeed, and cannot fail to carry some special meaning. Does anyone eat all at once, with a single saucer and a single set of cutlery before him, a leg of pork, a roast chicken, a whole salted salmon, tomatoes, cucumbers, bread, fancy rolls, washing it all down with vodka, red wine and, presumably, some cordial from an emerald-coloured glass? As for the figure 1799 on the decanter, it is evidently meant to hint at the year of Pushkin's birth, so that the viewer may draw a certain parallel for himself