Studio: international art (11.1897)

Marc Antocolsky

recruits. Not a very elevated idea, certainly, but Hartmann, were the first to give an impetus to

one which I believe comes nearest the truth. this special branch of art, Antocolsky may be
It cannot be denied but that Antocolsky has considered the greatest sculptor Russia has had.
rendered great services to Russian art. Sculpture His works are numerous. Those that are best
in Russia before Antocolsky's time never had the known are the Ivan the Terrible, already mentioned,

same development as the Mausoleum of the

painting. The reason ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Princess Obolensky, at

can be found in the I Monte Testaccio in

religious and ethno- Rome, the Death of

graphical conditions of ^^^^^ Socrates, and Christ

the country. The I Jflfl before the People.

orthodox faith has l^^'^^B Since his unpleasant

always been opposed m?' Jlw experience with the

to the sculptural repro- B^flFjM Champs-de-Mars Salon

duction of the human ■fw he exhibits exclusively

figure in the churches in his studio in the

and monasteries, for, I W ( Rue Bayen, Paris,

as early as the eighth W Jm where, some few years

century, it was forbid- ft ,\ \ , 3 jfl ago, he had no fewer

den to represent either & f f , | jLJM than twenty-three works

the virgin or the saints n - 1 '"lijjjl on view, creating a

^^^^^m | ' ^^^^^^^H great

explains why all the ■ I time. "All Paris"

religious buildings in * J I made a point of being

Russia are so profusely W ! I present. The life-sized

decorated with mosaics W \ ■ figures of Peter the

and paintings. " The ^* Great, Satan, Ophelia,

climate and the nature I loM Nestor, Saint Joint tin

of the materials gene- H Baptist, and the busts

rally used in their ■ • a of Turgeniew, Tolstoi,

architecture — wood Botkine, Poloivstow, the

and bricks — do not Grand Dukes Alexis

lend themselves to and Nicolas were much

sculptural decoration, admired by connois-

and it is barely fifty flj seurs.

years ago that the flj Strangely enough,

Russians have begun I ^ M . Jfl ^^^^^1 women do not appear

to ornament their L wk t0 inspire Antocolsky.

sacred buildings with pP -^Hp^gj^ They seem physically

marble and stone ^^^^ if \ and intellectually to be

figures, and that they ~* .1 Jm void of attraction for

have erected statues in ******» Jtk h\m. We look in vain

their cities. At the ifcll^^te^ ^or a Catherine II., a

commencement of the fcBl^^^J Judith, or a Lady Mat

present century there beth. The only female

were so few sculptors CHRI3T BEFORE THE rEOPLE figures exhibited by

- . L . _ . BY MARC ANTOCOLSKY , r,,-j

of any talent in Russia him here were a buna

that in order to execute Girl feeding Pigeons, a

the groups, statues, and hauts-reliefs in bronze, haut-relief of Ophelia, and a Sister of Mercy

of Saint Isaac, it was necessary to apply to Tending a Wounded Soldier. Only charity, in-

foreigners : Lemaire, Vitali, Bouilli and Salemann. firmity, and weakness have appealed to him in

Only two Russians, Klodt and Laganowsky, were woman. He has even portrayed Ophelia much

employed. weaker than she appears to us in Shakespeare.

Although Klodt, and later Mikesrhine and He has selected, as a type, a girl with a need

22 1