We  thing of Marc Chagall as the painter – poet of the twentieth century. He shares this distinction only with Paul Klee. For a painter to transform both the visible world and human emotions into visual poerty might well earn him a tirle of honor, yet it was on this point that criticism of Chagall began. Aimed at the poetic side of his art, it consisted of accusations of infatuation with literary, symbolic, folkloristic, and religious ideas, and was voiced especially by ideologists of Cubist and Constructivist persuasion.