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Lot Essay
Mark Antokol'skii (1843-1902), who studied at the Imperial Academy of Arts, St. Petersburg, between 1862 and 1868, was regarded as the most important Russian sculptor of the second half of the nineteenth century. Early in his career, the artist was drawn to subjects from Russian history, and his realistic portrayal of historic subjects brought him success not only in Russia but also in Europe. Unlike most of his contemporaries, Antokol'skii addressed complicated historical and philosophical problems in his sculptural work. In this sense, he was closely connected with the Russian painters of the time who formed the group known as the Wanderers (Peredvizhniki).
Tsar Ivan IV (1530-1584), Grand Duke of Moscow (1533-1584), was the first Russian ruler to formally assume the title of Tsar in 1547. Antokol'skii researched the life and psyche of the Tsar in great detail and also dedicated four months to the study of designs for the Tsar's throne and costume in the Kremlin Armory. The inspiration for the work built gradually, and in 1869 the sculptor assisted in the staging of the symphony Ivan the Terrible by A.G. Rubinstein. From 1862, when the novel The Silver Prince by A.K. Tolstoy was serialized, there was a surge of intellectual interest in Ivan the Terrible. This was followed by Lev Mey's The Tsar's Bride and The Maid of Pskov. In the latter, Ivan IV was portrayed as the fighter for the unity of Moscow State and a man of great energy and will power. This play was the inspiration for Rimsky-Korsakov's opera, The Maid of Pskov, from which Antokol'skii heard extracts in 1870, three years before its premiere in 1873.
For Antokol'skii, Ivan the Terrible had a complicated, multi-faceted character; by the artist's own definition, he was a "torturer-martyr" (Twenty-Five Years of Russian Art [Dvadtsat' pyat' let russkogo iskusstva], V.V. Stasov, St. Petersburg, 1883, vol. 2, p. 491). It was this quality that Antokol'skii sought to capture in his work. "[Ivan the Terrible had] the strength of an ill man, strength before which all of the Russian land trembled," Antokol'skii wrote. "The whole day he spent observing tortures and executions, and during the night his tired soul and body demanded rest. And when all was quiet, his conscious and imagination tortured him, and those torments were worse than torture" (Mark Matveevich Antokol'skii, His Life, Works, Letters and Articles, [Ego Zhizn', tvoreniya, pis'ma i stat'i], V.V. Stasov, ed., St. Petersburg, 1905, pp. 942-943).
The bronze figure Ivan the Terrible was exhibited in 1871, for which Antokol'skii was awarded a gold medal and the title of Academician, and was purchased by Emperor Alexander II for the Hermitage Collection (now in the State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, no. Sk-455.). The sculpture was pivotal in Antokol'skii's career, enjoying wide success in Russia and throughout Europe. It was subsequently produced in different media, for example, in marble for the Tretyakov Museum, Moscow, and The Irkutsk Museum, and plaster for the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. The latter work was commissioned in 1872 following the London exhibition of the same year, in which the bronze statue was included to great acclaim. The work was so successful that Antokol'skii produced a reduced version of the statue and also a bust in marble in 1874, such as the present lot.
For versions of Ivan the Terrible in ceramic, see Christie's, London, November 28, 2007, lot 14 and May 28, 2012, lot 315. For further information and a comparable version of the bust located in the Latvian National Museum of Art, see E.V. Kuznetsova, M.M. Antokol'skii Life and Work, Moscow, 1989, pp. 67 and 69, pl. 26 and 27.
Tsar Ivan IV (1530-1584), Grand Duke of Moscow (1533-1584), was the first Russian ruler to formally assume the title of Tsar in 1547. Antokol'skii researched the life and psyche of the Tsar in great detail and also dedicated four months to the study of designs for the Tsar's throne and costume in the Kremlin Armory. The inspiration for the work built gradually, and in 1869 the sculptor assisted in the staging of the symphony Ivan the Terrible by A.G. Rubinstein. From 1862, when the novel The Silver Prince by A.K. Tolstoy was serialized, there was a surge of intellectual interest in Ivan the Terrible. This was followed by Lev Mey's The Tsar's Bride and The Maid of Pskov. In the latter, Ivan IV was portrayed as the fighter for the unity of Moscow State and a man of great energy and will power. This play was the inspiration for Rimsky-Korsakov's opera, The Maid of Pskov, from which Antokol'skii heard extracts in 1870, three years before its premiere in 1873.
For Antokol'skii, Ivan the Terrible had a complicated, multi-faceted character; by the artist's own definition, he was a "torturer-martyr" (Twenty-Five Years of Russian Art [Dvadtsat' pyat' let russkogo iskusstva], V.V. Stasov, St. Petersburg, 1883, vol. 2, p. 491). It was this quality that Antokol'skii sought to capture in his work. "[Ivan the Terrible had] the strength of an ill man, strength before which all of the Russian land trembled," Antokol'skii wrote. "The whole day he spent observing tortures and executions, and during the night his tired soul and body demanded rest. And when all was quiet, his conscious and imagination tortured him, and those torments were worse than torture" (Mark Matveevich Antokol'skii, His Life, Works, Letters and Articles, [Ego Zhizn', tvoreniya, pis'ma i stat'i], V.V. Stasov, ed., St. Petersburg, 1905, pp. 942-943).
The bronze figure Ivan the Terrible was exhibited in 1871, for which Antokol'skii was awarded a gold medal and the title of Academician, and was purchased by Emperor Alexander II for the Hermitage Collection (now in the State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, no. Sk-455.). The sculpture was pivotal in Antokol'skii's career, enjoying wide success in Russia and throughout Europe. It was subsequently produced in different media, for example, in marble for the Tretyakov Museum, Moscow, and The Irkutsk Museum, and plaster for the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. The latter work was commissioned in 1872 following the London exhibition of the same year, in which the bronze statue was included to great acclaim. The work was so successful that Antokol'skii produced a reduced version of the statue and also a bust in marble in 1874, such as the present lot.
For versions of Ivan the Terrible in ceramic, see Christie's, London, November 28, 2007, lot 14 and May 28, 2012, lot 315. For further information and a comparable version of the bust located in the Latvian National Museum of Art, see E.V. Kuznetsova, M.M. Antokol'skii Life and Work, Moscow, 1989, pp. 67 and 69, pl. 26 and 27.