| The Bronze Horseman | |
|---|---|
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| Artist | Étienne Maurice Falconet |
| Year | 1768–1782 |
| Type | Equestrian statue |
| Location | St. Petersburg |
TheBronze Horseman (Russian:Медный всадник,romanized: Medny vsadnik,lit. 'copper horseman') is anequestrian statue ofPeter the Great in theSenate Square inSaint Petersburg, Russia. It was opened to the public on 18 August [O.S. 7 August] 1782. Commissioned byCatherine the Great, it was created by the French sculptorÉtienne Maurice Falconet. The statue influenced an 1833poem of the same name byAlexander Pushkin, which is widely considered one of the most significant works ofRussian literature. The statue is now one of the symbols of Saint Petersburg.
The statue'spedestal is theThunder Stone, thelargest stone ever moved by humans.[1] The stone originally weighed about 1500tonnes, but was carved down during transportation to its current size and weight of 1,250 tons.
Theequestrian statue ofPeter the Great is situated in theSenate Square (formerly the Decembrists Square), inSaint Petersburg.Catherine the Great, a German princess who married into theRomanov line, was anxious to connect herself to Peter the Great to gain legitimacy in the eyes of the people.[2] She ordered its construction, and had it inscribed with the phrasesPetro Primo Catharina Secunda MDCCLXXXII inLatin andПетру перьвому Екатерина вторая, лѣта 1782 (Petru pervomu Ekaterina vtoraya, lěta 1782) in Russian, each meaning 'Catherine the Second to Peter the First, 1782', an expression of her admiration for her predecessor and her view of her own place in the line of great Russian rulers. Having gained her position through apalace coup, Catherine had no legal claim to the throne and wanted to represent herself as Peter's rightful heir.
In correspondence with Catherine the Great,Denis Diderot suggested French sculptorÉtienne Maurice Falconet, a friend of his, for the commission. The empress followed his advice and Falconet arrived in Russia in 1766.[3]
In 1775 the casting of the statue began, supervised by caster Emelyan Khailov. At one point during the casting, themould broke, releasing molten bronze that started several fires. All the workers ran except Khailov, who risked his life to salvage the casting.[3] After being remelted and recast, the statue was later finished. It took 12 years, from 1770 to 1782, to create the Bronze Horseman, includingpedestal, horse and rider.
Thetsar's face is the work of the youngMarie-Anne Collot, then only 18 years old. She had accompanied Falconet as an apprentice on his trip to Russia in 1766. A student of Falconet andJean-Baptiste Lemoyne, Collot was calledMademoiselle Victoire (Miss Victory) by Diderot. She modelled Peter the Great's face on hisdeath mask and numerous portraits she found in Saint Petersburg. The right hand of the statue was modelled from a Roman bronze hand, found in 1771 inVoorburg in the Netherlands at the site of the ancient Roman townForum Hadriani.[citation needed]
On 7 August 1782, fourteen years after excavation of the pedestal began, the finished statue was unveiled in a ceremony with thousands in attendance. Conspicuously absent was Falconet, as a misunderstanding between him and the empress turned into a serious conflict. As a result, he was forced to leave Russia four years before the project was completed. Catherine largely forgot about him afterwards, and came to see theBronze Horseman as her own oeuvre.[3]
The statue portrays Peter the Great sitting heroically on his horse, his outstretched arm pointing towards the RiverNeva. The sculptor wished to capture the exact moment of his horse rearing at the edge of a dramatic cliff. His horse can be seen trampling aserpent, variously interpreted to represent treachery, evil, or the enemies of Peter and his reforms.[4] The statue itself is about six metres (20 ft) tall, while the pedestal is another seven metres (23 ft) tall, for a total of approximately 13 metres (43 ft).[5]
For the pedestal, arapakivi granitemonolithboulder known as theThunder Stone (Russian:Гром-камень,romanized: Grom-kamen) was found atLakhta, 6 km (3.7 mi) inland from theGulf of Finland in 1768.[6] The Thunder Stone gained its name from a local legend thatthunder split a piece off the stone. Falconet wanted to work on shaping the stone in its original location, but Catherine ordered it be moved before being cut.[7] As it was embedded to half its depth in the ground and the area was marshy terrain, the Russians had to develop new methods to dig up and transport the colossal stone. Marinos Carburis (Μαρίνος Χαρμπούρης), aGreek from the Island ofKefallonia and serving aslieutenant-colonel in theImperial Russian Army, offered to undertake the project. Carburis had studied engineering inVienna and is considered the first Greek to hold a diploma in engineering.[8]
Carburis directed workmen to wait for winter, when the ground was frozen, and then had them drag the large stone over the frozen ground to the sea for shipment and transport to the city. He developed a metallicsled that slid overbronzespheres about 13.5 cm (6 inches) in diameter, over a track. The process worked in a way similar toball bearings. Making the feat even more impressive was that the labour was done entirely by humans; no animals or machines were used in bringing the stone from the original site to the Senate Square.[8] After Carburis devised the method, it took 400 men nine months to move the stone, during which time masterstonecutters continuously shaped the enormousgranite monolith.[3] Catherine periodically visited the effort to oversee their progress. The largercapstan was turned by 32 men, this just barely moving the rock. A further complication was the availability of only 100 m of track, which had to be constantly disassembled and relaid.[8] Nevertheless, the workers made over 150 m of progress a day while on level ground. Upon arrival at the sea an enormous barge was constructed exclusively for the Thunder Stone. The vessel had to be supported on either side by two full-size warships.[8] After a short voyage, the stone reached its destination in 1770, after nearly two years of work. Amedal was issued to commemorate its arrival, with the legend "Close to Daring".[7]
According to the fall 1882 edition ofLa Nature, the stone's dimensions before being cut were 7 by 14 by 9 metres (23 ft × 46 ft × 30 ft). Based on the density ofgranite, its weight was determined to be around 1,500metric tons (1,700short tons).[8] Falconet had some of this cut away shaping it into a base, so the finished pedestal weighs considerably less.
A 19th-century legend states that while theBronze Horseman stands in the middle of Saint Petersburg, enemy forces will not be able to conquer the city. During the 900-daySiege of Leningrad by the invading Germans during the Second World War (Leningrad being the city's name from 1924 to 1991), the statue was covered withsandbags and a wooden shelter. Thus protected, it survived 900 days of bombing and artillery fire, virtually untouched.[4]
The Bronze Horseman is the title of a poem written byAleksandr Pushkin in1833, widely considered to be one of the most significant works ofRussian literature. Due to the popularity of his work, the statue came to be called the "Bronze Horseman". A major theme of the poem is conflict between the needs of the state and the needs of ordinary citizens.
In the poem, Pushkin describes the fates of the poor man Evgenii and his beloved Parasha during asevere flood of theNeva. Evgenii curses the statue, furious atPeter the Great for founding a city in such an unsuitable location and indirectly causing the death of his beloved. Coming to life, the horseman chases Evgenii through the city. The poem closes with the discovery of the young man's corpse in a ruined hut floating at the edge of the river.
In 1903 the artistAlexandre Benois published an edition of the poem with his illustrations, creating what was considered a masterwork ofArt Nouveau.
The poem has inspired works in other genres:Reinhold Glière choreographed a ballet based on it, andNikolai Myaskovsky's10th Symphony (1926–7) was inspired by the poem. The statue itself has been seen as the inspiration or model for a similar statue which appears inJoseph Conrad's 1904 political novelNostromo, thus implicitly linking the political events inNostromo with Conrad's 1905 essay "Autocracy and War" on the subject of Russia and his eventual 1912 novelUnder Western Eyes (and also with the Pushkin poem and with the political issue of Poland).[9]
59°56′11″N30°18′08″E / 59.9364°N 30.3022°E /59.9364; 30.3022