The Court of Paris

The painting was presented at the exhibition "The New Middle Ages" at the State Museum of the History of St. Petersburg. The plot description is as follows: "The Trial of Paris. The Leningrad Affair. Vladimir Neumanns painting depicts two Leningrad poets from the Siege period: Olga Bergholz and Vera Inber. The artist has portrayed an invisible battle between them for the title of the Siege Muse. Their dispute should be judged by Paris, at the foot of whom lies a bell (a symbol of Bergholzs poetry), a crown (a gift from Juno), and green grass (Vera Inber wrote her Pulkovsky Meridian in green ink). It is known that Inber was officially recognized as the Blockade Muse (she received the Stalin Prize for her work in Leningrad), but it was Bergholz who received unofficial recognition for her poems about the heroic deeds of the Leningraders. Despite their rivalry, each of them has left their mark on the citys poetic history, as evidenced by the Latin motto inscribed on the bell: "Each is worthy."