В начале 1870-х Антокольский создал одно из самых значительных своих произведений, ставшее вершиной творчества мастера и принесшее ему известность. Через личность Ивана Грозного скульптор стремился проникнуть в существо тех трагических противоречий, которые характеризовали сложную и жестокую эпоху русского самодержца. Принципиальное новшество трактовки и подчеркнутый реализм изображения проявились в том, что главный акцент перенесен на психологическую характеристику образа "мучителя и мученика". Не только страшные муки совести определяют его внутреннее состояние, но и накипающая злоба, жажда мщения, гнев и неиссякаемая сила духа. Все это отражено в выражении лица первого русского царя, в жесте руки, вонзившей посох, в соединении несоединимого — поминального синодика и трона, монашеского одеяния и неукротимости страстей. Замкнутая композиция с элементами асимметрии отражают сосредоточенность образа и его внутреннюю борьбу. Скульптура открыла новую страницу в истории русской станковой пластики, в которой, по словам Стасова, был представлен "первый живой человек и первое живое чувство". Интересно, что профессора Академии художеств отказались рассматривать ее, как вещь "далёкую от общепринятых канонов". Но на Александра II и великую княгиню Марию Николаевну, покровительствовавшую Академии, скульптура произвела сильное впечатление. Император даже заказал бронзовый отлив статуи. А в 1872 скульптура академика Антокольского была показана на Международной выставке в Лондоне, и Кенсингтонский музей заказал для своего собрания гипсовый слепок. "Иван Грозный" стал первой работой русского мастера, попавшей в коллекцию зарубежного музея.
Повторения: гипс – Кенсингтонский музей (Лондон); мрамор (вариант) – ГТГ; бронза – Музей истории религии и атеизма; в уменьшенном размере: мрамор – Иркутский художественный музей; терракота – Музей истории УзССР; гипс тонированный – Николаевский художественный музей. За эту статую в 1871 М. Антокольский получил звание академика.
Антокольский Марк МатвеевичСкульптор.
Обучался в Императорской Академии художеств в качестве вольнослушателя у Н. С. Пименова и И. И. Реймерса (1862-1870). В 1871 получил звание академика за статую «Иван Грозный» (гипс, Кенсингтонский музей, Лондон). Жил в Италии (1871-1877) и Франции (1877-1902), ежегодно приезжая в Россию. На Всемирной выставке в Париже был награжден золотой медалью и орденом Почетного легиона (1878). С 1880 – профессор, с 1893 – действительный член Императорской Академии художеств, а также почетный член Парижской, Берлинской и Урбинской Академий художеств. Среди наиболее известных произведений, хранящихся в Русском музее – статуи «Иван Грозный» (1871, бронза), «Христос перед судом народа» (1878, бронза), «Спиноза» (1882, мрамор), «Мефистофель» (1883, мрамор), «Ермак» (1891, бронза); портреты С.П. Боткина (1874, мрамор), И. С. Тургенева (1880, гипс), императрицы Марии Федоровны (1887, мрамор), императора Николая II и императрицы Александры Федоровны (оба – 1896, мрамор). Созданные по его моделям монументы Петру I были установлены в Петергофе, Петербурге, Таганроге, Архангельске.
Tsar Ivan IV (the Terrible) (1530–1584)
Ivan IV was the son of Grand Prince Vasily III, of the House of Rurik, and Elena Glinskaya, who came from a line of Lithuanian knights. He was crowned in 1547 as the first “Tsar of All the Russias”. With the participation of a narrow circle of close associates he carried out a number of reforms in the 1550s. At the first Zemsky Sobor (Assembly of the Land) in 1549 a law code for the whole of Russia, the Sudebnik, was adopted and a regular army of streltsy – people under arms who carried out permanent military service for pay – was established. The Stoglavy Sobor (Hundred Chapters Assembly) was summoned in 1551 to unify religious rites and deal with matters of canonisation. Ivan conducted successful campaigns to absorb the Khanates of Kazan (1552) and Astrakhan (1556), as well as Bashkiria (1557). He was defeated in the Livonian War to gain access to the Baltic (1558–1583). Clashes with boyar circles opposed to Ivan led to the formation in 1565 of the oprichnina (from the Old Russian oprich, meaning “special” or “apart”) when, after separating off part of the country and the troops under his own personal rule, the Tsar took extreme measures to crush the old boyar families so that power could be further centralised. Ivan supported the development of culture, the building of churches and enlightenment. According to various sources he had as many as seven wives. He was called “Terrible” (Grozny) by the people because of the savage executions of political opponents. Historiography has given him an extremely ambiguous evaluation.
Antokolsky sculpted one of his most notable work at the beginning of the 1870s. This sculpture represented the pinnacle of Antokolsky’s work and brought him fame. Through the figure of Ivan the Terrible, the sculptor aimed to capture the essence of these tragic conflicts, which characterized the difficult and hard times under the Russian ruler. The major innovation of this representation and the vivid realism of this display come from the fact that the main priority was given to the psychological traits of this “tyrant and martyr”. It is not only the terrible suffering of his conscience that defines his inner state. His growing rage, his hunger for revenge, his anger and his tremendous mental strength also define it. All these things are depicted on the face of the first Russian Tsar, in the movement of his hands poking his staff and in the union of elements that cannot be combined as: his necrology and his throne and his monastic dress and his furious rage. This enclosed composition and its asymmetrical elements show his concentration and his internal struggle. This sculpture opened a new page for the easel art, in which were presented “the first living man and the first living feeling” according to the art critic Vasily Stasov. It is interesting that the professors at the Academy of Arts refused to examine it as they regarded the sculpture to be “far from the conventional canons”. However, the sculpture made a strong impression to Alexander II and Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna, who patronized the Academy. The Emperor even ordered a bronze version of this statue. In 1872 the sculpture of the academician Antokolsky was shown to the International Exhibition in London and the Kensington Museum ordered a copy in plaster for its collection. “Ivan the Terrible” was the first work of a Russian master, which was acquired for the collection of a foreign museum.
Other versions of this sculpture exist: in plaster in the Kensington Museum in London; in marble in Tretyakov Gallery; in bronze in the State Museum of the History of Religion. It was also created in small-scale: in marble in the Art Museum of Irkutsk; in terracotta in the Museum of History of Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic; in tinted plaster in the Nikolaevsky Art Museum. Antokolsky received the title of academician in 1871 for this sculpture.
Antokolsky Mark Matveyevich 1842, Vilna - 1902, Bad Homburg vor der Höhe, GermanyThe sculptor Mark Antokolsky moved to St Petersburg in 1862, where he studied under Nikolai Pimenov and Johann Reymers at the Imperial Academy of Arts. In 1871 he started work on his sculpture of Ivan the Terrible (plaster, Kensington Museum, London). During the early 1870s he lived in Italy, before moving to France in 1877, although he visited Russia every year. Antokolsky was awarded a gold medal and Légion d’honneur at the Exposition Universelle, Paris in 1878 and was later made a professor, then full member of the Imperial Academy of Arts, where he held solo exhibitions in 1880 and 1893. He was also an honorary member of Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Akademie der Künste in Berlin and Accademia di Belle Arti in Urbino.
