Masters of sculptural portrait
At the beginning of the XVIII century. mostly foreign sculptors worked in Russia. Their works embodied the features of a baroque ceremonial portrait, as well as the simplicity and clarity of the art of classicism. An outstanding master of monumental and decorative sculpture was the Italian Bartolomeo Carlo Rastrelli (1675-1744), the father of the famous architect, who was invited from France in 1716 to public service to glorify the “deeds of Peter”. He continued his activity during the reign of Anna Ioannovna (1693-1740), and then Elizaveta Petrovna (1709-1761 / 62). The most remarkable thing in his creative heritage is the ceremonial portraits of crowned heads, made in the Baroque style.
The best of them is a bronze bust of Peter I, which masterfully conveys the majestic image of the Russian emperor. Back in 1719 Rastrelli removed the mask from the face of the living Peter. Working on the bust of Peter I, the sculptor retained the most important features of his appearance. The portrait is replete with lush details. Thrown up draperies, armor, decorated with bas-reliefs depicting battle scenes and the king himself. In the appearance of Peter, intelligence, will and energy are emphasized, his formidable gaze directed into the distance is especially impressive.
The sculptural group of Empress Anna Ioannovna with the little arapchon, made by him, is well known.
In the second half of the 18th century. sculpture lost its purely decorative character, they began to see in it one of the means of expressing a new artistic ideal, glorifying civil valor, military exploits and patriotism.
In 1766, at the invitation of Empress Catherine II, the French sculptor Etienne Maurice Falconet (1716-1791) arrived to create an equestrian monument to Peter I. Fulfilling such a responsible order, the master abandoned the canonized image of the victorious emperor, surrounded by allegorical figures of virtue and glory. He expressed in it his own understanding of the personality of Peter – a far-sighted ruler and progressive reformer who played a decisive role in the historical fate of Russia. He showed the Russian tsar exactly the way that enlightened Russia and Europe perceived him. In a letter to D. Diderot, he explained his author’s intention in the following way: “My tsar stretches out his beneficent hand over the country. He climbs the rock, which serves as his pedestal – the emblem of the difficulties he has overcome. “
The familiar silhouette of the monument, towering on the Senate Square of St. Petersburg, has long become a kind of symbol of this city, the personification of the controversial Peter’s era. It is clearly visible from all sides and looks especially impressive against the blue sky. With a firm and domineering hand, a mighty rider pacifies a rearing horse at the very edge of a rock that serves as his pedestal. In the confident gesture of the outstretched right hand, turned towards the sea, recaptured from the Swedes, one can hear the well-known Pushkin lines: “Here the city will be laid to spite an arrogant neighbor.” The pose, the gesture of the hand, the raised head of the rider are full of dignity and majestic strength.
The head of Peter I was performed by the talented student of Falcone, Marie Anne Collot. Solving the portrait in generalized monumental forms, designed for perception from a distance, she gives the face of the sovereign exaggeratedly sharp features. In his wide open eyes, one can read the imperiousness and inflexibility of character.
An important part of Falcone’s ideological concept is the granite pedestal of the equestrian statue, made of a solid monolithic block brought from the outskirts of St. Petersburg and processed in the form of a sea wave. The sculptor demonstrated the masterful technical solution of the monument: he achieved an amazing integrity and organic unity between the rider, horse and pedestal. The figure of the horse rests only on its hind legs. A snake trampled by a horse and personifying envy and deceit is at the same time an additional fulcrum for a heavy bronze composition in which the horse’s tail is connected to a pedestal.
On August 7, 1782, the monument to Peter I was solemnly opened on Senate Square. Since then, it has become a true decoration of the city on the Neva, the famous “Bronze Horseman”, sung by A. Pushin:
O powerful lord of fate!
Aren’t you right above the abyss
At a height, with an iron bridle, you
raised Russia on its hind legs?
At this time, Russian masters appeared in Russia, who were educated at the Academy of Arts and abroad. Among them should be named F.I.Shubin.
Fedot Ivanovich Shubin (1740-1805) was the son of the Kholmogory Pomor. Like his famous fellow countryman M.V. Lomonosov, he went through the harsh school of life. Even in his youth, he mastered the art of bone carving. Thanks to Lomonosov’s petition, Shubin was sent to study at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, and then trained in Europe. In France he became interested in portrait sculpture, and in Italy he studied the art of Roman sculptural portrait.
Every work done by this remarkable sculptor is a testament to his immense talent. In the processing of marble and bronze, he showed exceptional skill, found expressive techniques for conveying heavy and light fabrics of a suit, openwork foam of lace, soft strands of hairstyles and wigs. It is no coincidence that Shubin’s tombstone says: “… and under his hand the marble breathes …”
But the main thing in the work of the great master is the faces of his heroes, in which he was able to sharply and accurately capture the fleeting expression, facial expressions, glance, turn, head position. At the same time, the sculptor never stopped at conveying the external similarity with the model, he was interested in the contradictory and complex inner world of a person. In each of his works, he asserted the value of the human person. Never repeating himself in the choice of composition, he retained a special rhythmic pattern. His sculptures are always designed to be viewed from different points of view.
Shubin created a whole gallery of portraits of famous and lesser-known persons of the era of Catherine II: monarchs and noble nobles, valiant generals and commanders, high-ranking officials of the imperial court and large industrialists. His creative credo was the words of the poet G.R.Derzhavin:
They do not weave glory to us,
Not our ancestors’ names;
Some dignity is crowned
And honor is crowning us alone …
FI Shubin possessed a special skill “to speak the truth to kings with a smile.” In “Portrait of Paul I” he boldly destroys the canons of the ceremonial representative portrait, showing the autocrat as he was in life. His round bulging eyes, a short upturned nose, a slightly protruding jaw, and a protruding lower lip accentuate how “remarkably bad” he was. The greatness of the monarch is underlined by solemn vestments.
Subsequently, a significant contribution to the development of monumental sculpture was made by M. I. Kozlovsky (1753-1802), F. F. Shchedrin (1751-1825), I. P. Martos (1754-1835) and B. I. Orlovsky (1793- 1837).
The sculptor Ivan Petrovich Martos entered the history of Russian art as an unsurpassed master of memorial plastics, the author of the famous tombstones in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra and the park mausoleums of Pavlovsk. But the monument to Kuzma Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky, erected on Red Square in Moscow in 1818, brought him special fame and glory. The construction of the monument was supposed to perpetuate the liberation of Moscow in 1612 from the Polish intervention. For the first time, it was erected not in honor of statesmen or military leaders, but representatives of Russian society, who became the embodiment of civic valor and patriotism. Such people were Kuzma Minin, the inspirer of the Nizhny Novgorod militia, and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky, who led the army that drove the Polish invaders from Moscow.
In developing the images of Minin and Prince Pozharsky, the sculptor skillfully combined the features of ancient heroes with the national characteristics of the Russian people. The monument consists of two bronze figures placed on a rectangular granite pedestal, decorated with bronze bas-reliefs. Standing Kuzma Minin, with an energetic gesture of his right hand, points to Pozharsky at the Kremlin, urging him to stand up to defend the Fatherland. With his other hand, he hands the prince a great battle sword. Leaning with his left hand on a shield with the image of the Savior Not Made by Hands, and holding the hilt of the sword with his right hand, Pozharsky, overcoming the pain from his wounds, is going to rise from his bed.
In the monument to Minin and Pozharsky, that lofty patriotic idea of civic duty and feat in the name of defending the Fatherland was laid, which turned out to be close and understandable to every Russian person.
Together with the Pokrovsky Cathedral, it is perceived today as one of the brightest and unforgettable symbols of the capital of our Motherland.
