The book contains a story about the life of the remarkable Lithuanian artist M. K. Ciurlionis and an in-depth study of his multifaceted creativity. The author, a famous writer and scientist, reflects on the nature and figurative system of the still mysterious art of Ciurlionis, analyzing mainly his paintings. A number of reproductions of Ciurlionis’s paintings have been replaced by higher-quality analogues that have found their way onto the World Wide Web. CONTENTS: FROM THE AUTHOR PREFACE PURPOSE AND LIFE Road Prelude childhood"I will not be happy"At the turn of two centuriesArt and the spirit of the eraAcademia"Accustomed to dreaming with sounds"Lithuanian RenaissancePetersburgFinaleThe fate of artSKETCHES ON PAINTINGREFLECTIONS IN WORDSSKETCHES ON MUSICARCHETYPAL PAINTINGTriptych "The Prince's Journey"Semantics of the image CloudVisual dictionary CiurlionisFundamentals of archetypal paintingGallery of coincidences and differencesNew argument in an old dispute: Ciurlionis - KandinskyNOTESBIBLIOGRAPHYINDEX NAMELIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS