The Bronze Horseman: Falconet's Monument to Peter the Great - Hardcover

Schenker, Alexander M

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0300097123 ISBN 13: 9780300097122

Publisher: Yale University Press, 2003

Synopsis

This is a comprehensive treatment of the most consequential work of art ever to be executed in Russia - the equestrian monument to Peter the Great, or "The Bronze Horseman", as it has come to be known since it appeared in Alexander Pushkin's poem bearing that title. Schenker deals with the cultural setting that prepared the ground for the monument and provides life stories of those who were involved in its creation: the sculptors Etienne-Maurice Falconet and Marie-Anne Collot, the engineer Marin Carburi, the diplomat Dmitry Golitsyn and Catherine's "commissar" for culture, Ivan Betskoi. He also touches upon the extraordinary resonance of the monument in Russian culture, which, since the unveiling in 1782, has become the icon of St. Petersburg and has alimented the so-called "St. Petersburg theme" in Russian letters, familiar from the works of such writers as Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Gogol and Bely.

About this title

Review:

"Mr. Schenker manages to encapsulate engagingly the history of St. Petersburg, of the Enlightenment in France, of equestrian sculpture from the Romans on, and of the engineering and casting of bronze figures, while telling the very human story of two sculptors."--Priscilla S./i>"""--Priscilla S. Taylor "Washington Times "

About this edition

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0300097123
• ISBN 13: 9780300097122
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 416