“I imagine both Jews and Christians rising up against me. The Jews will say: “What kind of Christ did he do?” and the Christians will say: “What kind of Christ did he do?” But I don’t care about all this,” so in the spring of 1873 to his friend, art critic Sculptor Mark Antokolsky writes to Vladimir Stasov about his new work “Christ before the judgment of the people.” The marble original of the sculpture is in the Russian Museum, and its bronze copy is kept in the funds of the Voronezh Regional art museum them. I.N. Kramskoy.
Man of "another tribe"
The life of an artist has not been easy since childhood. He was the sixth child of a poor innkeeper; life in his family was not easy. One day his father beat him because Mark drew a water carrier with a horse on the stove. After this incident young artist I drew only at night; I had to pay my breakfast and lunch for paper and pencil.
“My childhood,” writes Mark Antokolsky, “is too gloomy, so gloomy that I remember with a shudder. I was an unloved child, and I got it from everyone. Whoever wanted to beat me, even the servants; and no one caressed me. I wore out old clothes, they called me “the idol”, “tin hands”. I served as a workhorse in the family. Only my mother did not humiliate me.”
People started talking about Antokolsky’s talent after they saw a reproduction of Van Dyck’s painting “Christ and the Virgin Mary” made from wood. Rumor reached the governor, and his wife, using her connections, helped appoint him to study at the Academy of Arts.
This sculptor had to go through many obstacles. “We must remember that he is a Jew and, therefore, before achieving anything, he had to suffer and suffer as much as an artist of any other tribe does not have to suffer and suffer in our country,” writes Stasov in his work “Twenty-five years Russian art". – Wouldn’t it please my reader just to imagine our ugly and insane relations towards the Jews and to put in contact with such relations a young man, almost a boy, deprived of any means, connections, patronage and help, and even knowing the Russian language poorly? What had to happen here every hour? Shameful prejudices, mistrust, antipathy, ridicule - this is the environment in which Antokolsky had to start in the 60s. Moreover, to begin first of all the Jews: before him, none of this talented tribe dared or could come forward with a claim to artistic talent, on an equal basis with other mortals.”
However, the Jewish sculptor, despite all the vicissitudes, not only continued to engage in art, but, moreover, dared to take on subjects of Russian history: he created such works as “Ivan the Terrible”, “Peter the Great”, “Yaroslav the Wise”, “Ivan III". By the way, it was these works that Stasov considered the pinnacle of Antokolsky’s creativity. After them another begins creative period artist. “Strong drama, ebullience, excitement and impulse are no longer among the motives of his works,” writes Stasov. “He leaves all these elements aside and instead chooses other aspects of mental life as subjects for depiction: from now on, the elegiac note, the note of regret, quiet sorrow, meek reproach, sounds most powerfully in his creations.”
It was during this period, at the beginning of 1874, that Antokolsky completed the statue “Christ before the judgment of the people.”
"Christ" and the people
In February 1874, the artist wrote to Stasov: “This is a great holiday for me, because this was the most difficult thing for me that I have done so far. I left it open for a few days for the artists here. It’s awkward to tell you all the reviews about this statue, but I can say that there was general delight. I will not change my intention not to send him to Russia for now. I think that in this way I will save 2-3 pounds of blood, which I need for future work. As for how personally satisfied I am, I really can’t say, because I gave everything that was in me to this statue, and now I’m tired and empty.”
First in the “judge-connoisseurs” new job Mark Antokolsky invited his laundress. “And when I saw that the statue made an impression on her, only then did I myself feel that the work was a success, that I expressed exactly what I wanted,” he admits.
This is how the sculptor explains the image he created: “I want to present Christ from the side where he was a reformer, who rebelled against the Pharisees and Sadducees for their aristocratic injustice, who rebelled for truth, for brotherhood, for freedom, for that very blind people who with such in rage and ignorance he shouted: “Crucify! Crucify him!” I imagined him at the moment when he stands as a victim and says: “I forgive them, because they don’t know what they are doing.” I give him a purely Jewish type, his head is covered with a cap; I based this on the words of the prayer: “Forgive me for walking with my head open”; Moreover, as you know, in ancient times she starred in sacred places not a head covering, but shoes, and finally, in hot climates it is not possible to walk with your head open.”
Appreciated in Europe talented artist: at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1878, Antokolsky received a medal and the Order of the Legion of Honor for the sculpture “Christ Before the Judgment of the People.”
But in Russia, “Christ” in a Jewish striped tunic and with a cap on his head was treated differently.
So, in 1880, the newspaper “St. Petersburg Vedomosti” published a long article by the artist Levakov, where he ridiculed the artist’s sculpture: “Christ of Antokolsky depicts a Jew, his hands tied and presented to customs for smuggling.” Similar articles were published in Novoye Vremya.
"Against him<…>others rose up, but only here and nowhere else in Europe. Everywhere, with this statue, he aroused only delight and enthusiasm, caused recognition of his great talent and a loud statement that there had never been such a Christ in sculpture, writes Stasov. - Some of us remained indifferent, others made stupid remarks about the cap on the head (which, however, looking at the statue from the front, is not even visible at all), about the Jewish truthful costume, about even the type itself, while these same ones are few to reason people have never been embarrassed by either the classical Roman toga on the numerous “Christs” that have so far appeared in art, or the classical and academic type given to them. It’s possible to imagine Christ as a Roman and an academic model, but as a Jew, there’s no way!”
Antokolsky’s “Christ” was highly appreciated by Repin and Turgenev. They unanimously called the work brilliant, and Savva Mamontov gave money for marble and bronze copies of the sculpture. Stasov noted that there has never been such a Christ in European art. However, the critic still gave preference to Ivanov’s Christ “for the fact that he does not consist entirely of complacency and forgiveness: standing at the pinnacle of such a universal cause as a new religion, Christianity, one cannot breathe only these, however, wonderful, feelings.<…>It is necessary to have dominance over everyone not only by morality, heart, soul, but also by spirit, intellect, power of thought and will.”
Indeed, the image of Christ created by Antokolsky is, first of all, not only a God-man, but moral ideal, ethical symbol. With his “Christ” he warns the modern “Pharisees”, those who to this day shout “Crucify! Crucify him!”: “Jesus of Nazareth appeared when Israeli morality began to decline, when religion and power began to abuse their rights. But the Moscow Pharisees, either due to the narrowness of their minds or the crookedness of their souls, interpret my work the way they want.” In other words, they forget Sacred History and do not want to think that the blind Russian people could suffer exactly the same fate as the Jewish people 2000 years ago... Although, of course, there were and will be isolated exceptions that are pleasing (in Russian history there are similar individuals found more among the clergy, since the monastery was the only refuge for honest people). But it is precisely these people who are the heroes of human drama. Honesty suffers, but evil triumphs.”
One of the early reviews of Russian sculpture.
The sculpture “Christian Martyr” or “Not of this World” was made by the famous Russian sculptor M.M. Antokolsky in 1887, commissioned by P.M. Tretyakov. Marble sculpture can now be seen in the permanent exhibition of the State Tretyakov Gallery.
Mark Matveevich Antokolsky (1843-1902) - second realist sculptor half of the 19th century century, participant of the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions.
Antokolsky Mark Matveevich was born in the city of Vilna into a poor Jewish family. Mark was the youngest, seventh child in the family. His parents ran a small tavern in Vilna, but they were not rich people and very religious. As a boy, Antokolsky drew everywhere he could - on the table, on the walls, although no one taught him how to draw. Soon he began to sculpt figures of people and animals from clay. At night, instead of resting after exhausting work in the tavern, where he helped his father, secretly from those around him, the boy devoted himself to his favorite pastime - sculpting or carving small figures from wood. Judaism prohibits the depiction of humans and animals, so the parents had a sharply negative attitude towards their son’s hobby.
But in 1859, when Mark grew up, he was apprenticed to a woodcarver. Having accidentally seen a reproduction of Van Dyck’s painting “Christ and the Virgin,” Mark repeated it, carving figures out of wood. His work became famous in the city. The wife of the Vilna Governor-General Vladimir Ivanovich Nazimov, A.A., found out about the talented apprentice. Nazimova, a famous patron of the arts. She managed to obtain the consent of Antokolsky’s parents to move their son to St. Petersburg.
Mark Antokolsky. Photo.
At the request of A.A. The young man showed Nazimova his works made of wood and bone to the professor of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts N.S. Pimenov. They liked them, and from 1862, at the age of 19, Antokolsky was allowed to attend a sculpture class as a volunteer. At the same time, he was forced to take up drawing, since the provincial’s artistic training was extremely weak. First, Mark Matveevich entered the class of the famous sculptor, professor of the Academy N.S. Pimenov, and then the engraver and sculptor I.I. Reimers, whom Mark Matveevich always remembered with great gratitude.
In 1864, Antokolsky was awarded a silver medal for the high relief “Jewish Tailor”, and in 1868 - a gold medal for the high relief “The Miser”.
Jewish tailor.
Stingy.
MM. Antokolsky had been ill for a long time, and after graduating from the Academy at the end of March 1871, on the advice of doctors, he left St. Petersburg, moving to Italy - first to Naples, and then to Rome, where he worked on the statue of Peter I, the sculptures “Christ before the Judgment of the People”, “The Death of Socrates” "and others.
Speaking about the work of Antokolsky, it must be said that most of his works were on historical and religious themes, which are characterized by attention to historical details, the designation philosophical problems, psychologism. In Antokolsky’s works one can really feel his individuality, humanism, and the power of images, each endowed with its own character. All the sculptor’s works were performed in realistic manner and carry the idea of the “Itinerants” about truth, “realism of life.”
Mark Matveevich Antokolsky died in Germany at the age of 59, and was buried at the Preobrazhenskoye cemetery in St. Petersburg.
First of all, the following are distinguished: famous sculptures Antokolsky, as “Mephistopheles”, “The Chronicler Nestor”, “Ivan the Terrible” and “Christ before the Judgment of the People”, which are in the collection of the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg. The "Christian martyr" usually remains outside close attention and consideration, despite the fact that it is also monumental and located in the country's leading gallery.
Mephistopheles.
Ivan the Terrible.
"Not of this world" - shining example artistic “handwriting” of the master. Women's images were quite a rare occurrence In Antokolsky’s work, the order was atypical. This work, like his other works, is distinguished by its brilliant execution technique and deep internal subtext, in in this case religious.
The plot seems simple and not at all dynamic. A lonely girl sits on a bench, as if in a park, surrounded by pigeons. Birds huddle near her, collecting grains from the ears, and only a few pay attention to the girl and look at her with interest. The “martyr” herself is dressed in a tattered long shirt to the floor, possibly made of burlap, and on her knee she holds a sign with Christian symbol, her hair is tied into a bun, which does not distract from the main thing - her face. It is raised to the sky, as if exposed to the sun, the eyes are closed. The girl is all in her thoughts and with a certain rapture listens to inner music, is in her own harmony. Her mouth is slightly open, but it’s hard to imagine her making a sound; it’s more like an internal dialogue.
She is not interested in what is happening around her - she simply does not notice it. But for others, the girl became invisible...even pigeons, timid birds, did not perceive her at all, one even sat on her arms, the other ruffled her feathers and pressed against her. But she doesn't pay any attention. All she needs she already has is God in her heart.
Antokolsky raises the topic of martyrdom for faith. (His “Christian Martyr” was the last such image that he embodied in sculpture). Religious themes are primarily indicated christian sign. The Cross of Constantine is a monogram known as "Chi-Rho" ("chi" and "rho" are the first two letters of the name of Christ in Greek). Legend has it that Emperor Constantine saw this cross in the sky on his way to Rome, and along with the cross he saw the inscription “By this victory.” According to another legend, he saw a cross in a dream the night before the battle and heard a voice: “With this sign you will win.” They say that it was this prediction that converted Constantine to Christianity. And the monogram became the first generally accepted symbol of Christianity - as a sign of victory and salvation.
This sacred symbol carved on a rather massive tablet, which the girl holds with amazing ease, barely touching it with her fingers. Her sincere faith became her “cross.” She is not understood by people, but she is in harmony with herself and God. This is her happiness, which no one shares. For people, she is just strange, on her own mind. The girl remains alone in the earthly world, but finds her home in Christianity. She, like a non-covetous woman, gives up everything for the sake of communication with God in her heart, she is dressed in the cheapest, simplest clothes, neglects her beauty, hiding herself. She is ready to accept torment for her faith, wanting to remain in her religion.
The sculpture corresponds to natural dimensions; the sculpture is round and designed to be viewed from all sides. Due to this presentation, it can easily fit into the world around us, to become a frozen part of it. But, nevertheless, Antokolsky does not allow the viewer into the space of the sculpture, and it truly becomes “Not of this world.” This is facilitated not only by the image of the girl: the work is also separated from us by a pedestal, rises above the ground of our world and is carried away into its own. The pedestal is made of a different marble (with black veins), which separates it from the ensemble and focuses attention on the functional side.
The neutral color of the pure white marble in the sculpture itself also plays a role: it is so pure that it seems like just a concentration of light, merging with space. (Many visitors don't even notice the sculpture right away, despite its relatively large size.)
The sculptor handles the material very skillfully. He does not try to pass off marble as something else, but at the same time the stone in Antokolsky’s hands has become soft. He masterfully conveys the texture of things - the coldness of a stone bench, the plumage of birds, the smoothness of skin, the roughness of fabric. He achieves the effects he needs by using different techniques grinding. The girl’s hands and face are processed more carefully than the rough fabric of her dress or fluffy pigeons. Her skin appears very smooth; The polishing is not mirror-like, which makes it more natural.
The sculptor works in a realistic manner, so many details can be seen. MM. Antokolsky reproduces seams on clothes and shows strands of hair. The area of land around the girl is decorated in a very interesting way: it is dotted with ears of corn, made using the bas-relief technique. You can’t even notice them right away; they are almost merged with the plane.
But despite such detail, the author does not go into extreme details, which could spoil the impression and distract from the main thing. The viewer sees everything as a whole, in masses. For example, birds do not have every feather cut out - they become soft due to the “mounds”, as if sculpted, and not sculpted from stone.
“Christian Martyr” evokes a feeling of silence, purity, and harmony. But this agreement is not with the world, it is inside the sculpture itself. Despite the fact that in appearance it is complete silence, events take place inside the work - there is music in the girl’s soul, many emotions and feelings that give her this harmony and happiness.
MM. Antokolsky managed to convey a seemingly moral heavy topic Christian martyrdom with amazing tenderness and ease. He himself, as a believer, handles this topic very subtly and shows the viewer that sincere faith is always happiness. "Not of this world" is one of best works MM. Antokolsky, and undoubtedly occupies a special place both in his work and in all Russian art. This is an incredible combination of silence and music, embodied in stone.
Christ before the judgment of the people. 1874–1878
Antokolsky M.M.
Bronze
195 x 71 x 61
Russian Museum
Annotation
Antokolsky's work was formed under the influence of the revolutionary democratic ideas of the 1860s and was directly related to the art of the Wanderers. Antokolsky's works have always worried his contemporaries with the relevance of his issues, whether he drew his themes from biblical and gospel tales, or from national Russian history. The sculptor interprets the image of Christ from the position of a democratic artist. He showed a Man suffering for the high idea of the people's good. In this statue, the author presents Christ as a historical figure, as a reformer who rebelled against the Pharisees and Sadducees. Christ is depicted in a calm pose, with his hands tied behind his back. He is wearing a striped tunic, an oriental cap, and sandals. These everyday details destroyed the traditional image of Christ that had developed in the canonical art of previous eras. According to the sculptor, his Christ is given as he “appears in the 19th century.”
Author biography
Antokolsky M.M.
Antokolsky Mark Matveevich
(1842, Vilna – 1902, Bad Homburg, Germany)
Sculptor. Studied at Imperial Academy arts as a volunteer student with N.S. Pimenov and I.I. Reimers (1862-1870). In 1871 he received the title of academician for the statue “Ivan the Terrible” (plaster, Kensington Museum, London). He lived in Italy (1871-1877) and France (1877-1902), coming to Russia every year. At the World Exhibition in Paris he was awarded a gold medal and the Order of the Legion of Honor (1878). Since 1880 - professor, since 1893 - full member of the Imperial Academy of Arts, as well as an honorary member of the Paris, Berlin and Urbino Academies of Arts. Among the most famous works, stored in the Russian Museum - statues “Ivan the Terrible” (1871, bronze), “Christ before the judgment of the people” (1878, bronze), “Spinoza” (1882, marble), “Mephistopheles” (1883, marble), “Ermak” (1891, bronze); portraits of S.P. Botkin (1874, marble), I.S. Turgenev (1880, plaster), Empress Maria Feodorovna (1887, marble), Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna (both 1896, marble). Monuments to Peter I created according to his models were installed in Peterhof, St. Petersburg, Taganrog, and Arkhangelsk.
Continuation
Vladimir Solovyov: “Jews have always treated Christians in a Jewish way. But Christians rarely treated Jews in a Christian way.” This is the whole Jewish question, which has become main theme Antokolsky. He cut stones to melt hearts of stone. And he considered his main enemy to be Pharisaism, the indifference of people confident in their righteousness.
beginning of the article
Only Alexander II abolished the barbaric recruitment of Jews into the army. And he also put an end to the St. Petersburg humiliations of Mark Matveevich.
M. Antokolsky. The attack of the Spanish Inquisition on Jews during their secret celebration of Easter. Sketch 1868-1902
At first, as the patroness of the academy, she stopped by Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna. She shook hands with him three times. I congratulated her many times and ordered for myself a sketch of the Inquisition’s attack on the Jews. Some people feel nothing when they are very shocked. They get tetanus. So it was with Antkolsky. Only when he was left alone did he surrender to his joy and his tears flowed uncontrollably. And soon the sovereign himself came to see Mark Matveyevich. Having examined the “Inquisition” and the “Grand Inquisitor Terrible”, he said: “Good, very good!”
Antokolsky. Ivan the Terrible
From that day on, people flocked to Antokolsky in a crowd.
“You know,” Antokolsky shouted, running to Repin and gasping with excitement, “do you know who I had just now? Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev!
" What you!" - he shouted back. And his eyes became completely round with amazement.
I. Turgenev:
“I find this statue a masterpiece of historical insight, psychology and excellent execution. And this was done by a small young man, poor as a church rat, sickly, who began to work and learned to read at the age of twenty-two.”
Rome, February 1874, M. Antkolsky to Stasov:
“Every day I have something new: today my arm hurts (he had acute rheumatism), tomorrow I have a headache, after tomorrow my stomach hurts, there’s an abscess. In Vilna they are already saying that I died (they were in a hurry). And I began to receive telegram after telegram asking if he was still alive? And yet I do not lose courage. What will happen and how a person will end up is not difficult to guess. And that’s why I don’t think about myself, but work and work as much as I can, and dedicate the present to the future. Really, life is easier this way.
Yesterday I finished Christ. This is a big celebration for me because it was the hardest thing I have done so far. I left it open for a few days for the artists here. It’s awkward to tell you all the reviews about this statue, but I can say that there was general delight! I will not change my intention not to send him to Russia for now. I think that in this way I will save two or three pounds of blood, which I need for future work.
As for how personally satisfied I am, I really can’t say, because I gave everything that was in me to this statue. And now I’m tired and dull.”
Later, Mark Matveevich admitted: “I was the first to invite a laundress to be a connoisseur judge. And when I saw that the statue made an impression on her, only then did I myself feel that the work was a success, that I expressed exactly what I wanted.”
M. Antkolsky to Stasov:
“By the judgment of the people I also mean the present trial. I am convinced that if Christ had risen now and seen to what extent He was exploited, to what extent His ideas were brought by the fathers of the Inquisition and others, then He would probably have rebelled against Christianity just as He rebelled against the Pharisees, and would have given Himself ten more times. crucify for the truth."
Antkolkolsky - Elizaveta Grigorievna Mamontova:
“Jesus the Nazarene appeared when Israeli morality began to decline, when religion and power began to abuse their rights. But the Moscow Pharisees, whether due to narrowness of mind or crookedness of soul, interpret my work the way they want. In other words, they forget sacred history and do not want to think that the blind Russian people could suffer exactly the same fate as the Jewish people two thousand years ago.”
M. Antokolsky. Mephistopheles
Although, of course, there have been and will be isolated exceptions that are encouraging in Russian history. Such personalities are found more among the clergy, because the monastery was the only refuge for honest people. But these people are the heroes of human drama. Honesty suffers, but evil triumphs. All this reinforces me in my idea to portray Mephistopheles - a ghost through which all human vices are visible.
M. Antokolsky. Mephistopheles
The statue of Christ before the court of the people turned out to be so topical that it was understood and appreciated not only by Repin or Stasov and Turgenev, who unanimously called it brilliant, or by Savva Ivanovich, who gave money for a marble and bronze copy of the sculpture. On international exhibition in Paris, Antokolsky received the main prize - a large gold medal and the Order of the Legion of Honour.
M. Antokolsky. Christ before the judgment of the people. 1876
He stood up for the people, for brotherhood and for freedom, for that blind people who with such rage and ignorance shouted: “Crucify, crucify Him!”
M. Antokolsky:
“I represent Him at the moment when He stands before the judgment of the people for whom He fell as a sacrifice. I chose this moment firstly because this is where the knot of drama was tied up. His emotional movement at this moment is unusually grandiose. Indeed, only at that moment only He could say: “I forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing.”
“I am a Jew and will remain one forever.”
- How is this, does this fit in with Jewishness?
- Like all Christians, you forget the origin of your Christ: after all, He was a Jew. And can there be anything higher than His love for humanity?
Mark Matveevich Antokolsky
Mark Matveevich Antokolsky (Mordukh Matysovich Antokolsky, October 21, 1843, Vilno, Russian Empire- June 26, 1902, Frankfurt am Main, German Empire) - famous realist sculptor, academician in 1871, professor of sculpture since 1880.
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MARK ANTOKOLSKY. CHRIST before the judgment of the people.
Pilate says to them: “What will I do to Jesus who is called Christ?” Everyone tells him: “Let him be crucified.” The ruler said: “What evil has He done?” But they shouted even more loudly: “Let him be crucified. “Pilate, seeing that nothing was helping, but the confusion was increasing, took water and washed his hands before the people, and said: “I am innocent of the blood of this Righteous One; look." And, answering, all the people said: “His blood be on us and on our children.” ( Gospel of Matthew.)
M. Antokolsky. Christ before the judgment of the people. 1876
Rome. Spring 1873. Mark Antokolsky to Stasov: “I made a sketch - Christ before the judgment of the people. Are you surprised? I imagine how Christians and Jews will rise up against me. The Jews will probably say: “How did he make Christ?” And Christians will say: “What kind of Christ did he make?” But I don’t care about all this. Please, don’t say a word about everything to anyone, only Repin.” (from the editor: Christ of Antokolsky was depicted in the guise of a religious Jew).
“I barely understood his broken language,” writes Ilya Efimovich, “and could hardly restrain a smile from the distorted words. I asked my comrades about him - who is this foreigner? They looked at each other: Foreigner? Yes, this is a Jew from Vilna. And really unbaptized? - I was surprised. Cross himself, of course. After all, their faith does not even allow them to engage in sculpture, so why should he give up art? How do you look at the religious attitude of Jews towards the plastic arts? - I asked him one day. I hope that this will not at all prevent me from practicing my art, and I can even serve it for the benefit of my people. He assumed a proud posture and continued with great determination in his eyes: I am a Jew and will remain one forever. How is it possible, you just told us how you worked on the Crucifixion of Christ. Does this fit in with Jewishness? Like all Christians, you forget the origin of your Christ: after all, He was a Jew. And can there be anything higher than His love for humanity? Mark’s energetic eyes sparkled with tears, and he said somewhat mysteriously: I have plans a whole series stories from His life."
Mark Antokolsky to Stasov: “It seems to me that until now no one has interpreted Him the way I imagine Him. After all, until now Christianity has gone against Christ in the name of Christ; Until now He was in the hands of the exploiters, but now everyone who denies Christianity is drawing closer to Him. The thing is that one respectable man from Moscow ordered me to work with a plot of my choice, and he wants to devote one room in his house to this, for a special impression and solid lighting. So I'm counting on a whole life-size setting here. However, I haven’t thought enough about all this yet.”
Savva Mamontov was a respectable man. A year ago, he and his wife came to Italy for treatment, and they became such friends with the young sculptor that Savva Ivanovich himself began to sculpt and not badly, and Mark Matveevich, his mentor, became the organizer of the famous Mamontov circle, the future Abramtsevo campaign.
“He was a thinker in mind,” recalled Elizaveta Mamontova, “and in all his conversations there were always many original thoughts that raised more and more new questions. In these conversations, in correspondence, the plot was born, which was generously left to Antokolsky to choose from.”
Firstly, he himself was eager to understand how religion crucified Christ. How could it happen that an official spiritual organization destroyed the purpose of its existence, killed God? And secondly, he, like all his friends, wanted to educate the people. “You know,” he told Stasov, “I think exclusively only about Russians, and also about Russian Jews, because no one needs education in general as much as a Russian Jew.”
Polish Jews early 20th century
Polish Jews 1925
Mark Antokolsky to Stasov:
“Who has not seen and does not know those masses of poor, ragged and hungry Jews who spend day and night in the synagogue, where they sleep on bare boards in the most infectious atmosphere of 40 and 50 people in one room, who has not seen these exalted or eccentric faces, when they study the dark, confusing, but their favorite Talmud, you cannot imagine the environment from which the statue of Jesus came.”
Jewish children early 20th century Krakow
“My childhood,” writes Antokolsky, “is too gloomy, so gloomy that I remember with a shudder. I was an unloved child, and I got it from everyone. Anyone who wanted to beat me, even the servants; and no one caressed me. I wore out old clothes, they called me “the idol”, “tin hands”. I served as a workhorse in the family. Only my mother did not humiliate me.”
Kipnis. Jewish Life, Lublin 1926
Mark was the sixth child of a poor innkeeper. Once he drew a picture of a water carrier and a horse on the stove; when he saw them, his father stamped his feet for a long time, shouted, and then beat the young author. From then on, Mark Matveyevich worked only at night, secretly, and paid for paper and pencil with breakfast and lunch.
One day he carved a reproduction of Van Dyck’s painting “Christ and the Virgin Mary” from wood. They started talking about him, it reached the governor, and the general’s wife, kind woman, using St. Petersburg connections, managed to send him to study at the Academy of Arts, where he ended up in the same room with Repin; poor, but happy: “I was about to take my clay Jews to the photographer,” he told a friend, “but I decided that it would be better to take my pockets to the tailor first. Since I had just received some money, I wanted to fix my pockets so that I would have somewhere to keep them. But the tailor took my money for mending my pockets, and the photographer did not want to accept pockets instead of money.”
Ilya Repin wrote about him: “His soul was sincere and spontaneous. Stasov alone supported Antokolsky in his desecrated, humiliated and insulted world of Jewry. He understood Stasov and revered him as a spiritual father. The bold flight of noble altruism in Stasov and his adoration of real national art inspired Antkolsky and inspired him. Living life and the especially close history of his tragic people, the bleak fate of his native tribe, filled his soul with high drama. His ideas in art were his heart, his blood.”
Menachem Kipnis. Jewish tailor
Stasov: “I hope you all have seen and know his wooden figurine – ? What is the thing? Small in size, but large enough to carry the entire new sculpture onto the real road.”
Most of all, Vladimir Vasilyevich fell in love with Antokolsky for the high relief “Attack of the Inquisition on Jews in Spain during their secret celebration of Easter.”
(on the attitude of the Inquisition towards Jews, see Jewish Enz.)
The attack of the Spanish Inquisition on Jews during their secret celebration of Easter. Sketch 1868-1902
M. Antokolsky. The Spanish Inquisition's attack on the Jews, fragment
“I was amazed,” Repin writes about his first impression of the “attack of the Inquisition,” “I began to distinguish figures full of drama and mystery. I felt terrified. I stood there for a long time, petrified, in silence. We were all wondering what to do next, how to preserve this unprecedented experience in sculpture. What to do with wet clay that has begun to dry out due to air movement and fall apart. It was molded even without a frame.” It was decided to photograph the composition. But the fifty bonus rubles received for it were spent on mending his pockets. Stasov probably helped later. To him alone, already working on the statue of Christ, Antokolsky told about the events that prompted him to create the Inquisition.
Antokolsky to Stasov: “It seems that it was in the fifty-first year: the Jews suddenly received the most merciful decree - to give recruits. It was necessary to catch such a person who does not have a passport. It is difficult to convey to you the despair, the screams and groans that came from the lips of poor, defenseless mothers, whose children were taken away from them, and sometimes even those who were not even seven years old. Our neighbor, a widowed seamstress, saved only one son from her entire family, a thin and weak boy with big eyes. How she took care of him, how she shook over him. But he was torn from her alive. And then she still lay there and cried: either she felt that he was standing guard in the field in the night blizzard, or it seemed to her that they were beating him - oh, my little bird, my darling, with his rods, blood was flowing, oh for what... But She didn’t languish for long. She died prematurely, alone, without consolation, without hope, but with faith, with love.”
Cherry. Polish Jews, early 20th century
Mark was hidden by a Christian. Coming out of the shelter, when the recruitment had passed, he still found the farewell scene. Amid the general turmoil, the officer commanded: “On the march!” The carts started moving and the screams mixed with kisses intensified even more, but suddenly someone shouted: “The rabbi has arrived!” It was as if an electric current ran through and the same sound burst from every chest: “Ask our ancestors why we suffer so much.” And nothing could stop these desperate, wild screams, as if the pressure had broken a valve somewhere. Everyone was crying. The rabbi was crying. And I cried.
The most terrible, most amazing things, if they happen in front of us every day, we get used to it and become indifferent. In fact, make a comparison, take the fact of killing babies and the fact that I just told you. The question is, what is better for a poor and believing mother - the fact that her child is now in heaven, turned into an angel? Or constantly feel that he is being tormented, that it is her testament as much as she is his, but there is an abyss between them...
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