The monument to Peter 1 in the Peter and Paul Fortress of St. Petersburg is one of the main attractions of the city. This monument is not like the others in that to this day it causes conflicting assessments of St. Petersburg residents, tourists, and art historians.
What is special about this creation?
The author of the monument, the famous sculptor Mikhail Shemyakin, embodied in the work the exceptional personality of Peter, the ambiguity of his character and undertakings.
The composition itself is already unusual. The monument to Peter 1 is an image of a man sitting on a high bronze chair.
The strange proportions of the sculpture are striking. A small head, not at all like the head of a king, whom we are used to seeing in feature films, sits on a huge, strong body that impresses with its massiveness. The disproportion is so noticeable that the image makes tourists stop at the sculpture for a long time and look at it with intense attention.
Why is the monument to Peter the Great so unconventional?
The fact is that M. Shemyakin for the image of the headThe king used the famous posthumous wax mask, taken from the deceased king by the father of the famous architect Rastrelli. This mask most accurately conveys the facial features of the autocrat. Based on the wax image, a wax figure of Peter was made, which is now kept in the Winter Palace.
Chemiakin, creating a monument to Peter 1, copied the pose of the king, his facial features, and the shape of his head. This sculptural portrait of the head today more accurately conveys the true facial features of the autocrat.
However, depicting the body, the sculptor deliberately increased the proportions by one and a half times. The result was a grotesque, almost caricature figure, emphasizing the originality and inconsistency of the personality of the ruler of Russia. This is how M. Shemyakin makes the audience think about how ambiguous, often contradictory, and sometimes even grotesque the history of Russia is.
Shemyakinsky monument to Peter 1 - the first unofficial image of the autocrat. The author emphasized the metaphysical nature of the image, the psychological nakedness of the personality, the vitality of the figure.
Pyotr's fingers, clutching the armrest of the chair, are terribly tense. They look like long claws. So the sculptor emphasized the psychological nature of Peter, his readiness to cling to the enemy, to win with his bare hands. The same tense fingers testify to the subtle nervous nature, furious temperament, and strong character of the king.
The monument to Peter1 in the fortress was installed recently: in 1991. On the side of the pedestal, Shemyakin carved an inscription testifying to the reverence of the sculptorto the founder of Petersburg. Behind the monument are the ruins of the Naryshkin bastion as another evidence of history.
The monument was highly appreciated by many cultural figures and politicians. Foreigners love to look at it, and newlyweds come to the fortress and lay flowers at the feet of the great Russian Tsar.
However, there are opponents of this monument. Some St. Petersburg residents have repeatedly raised the issue of moving the monument outside the city limits or to the Winter Palace. But for now, Peter remains in his place in the Peter and Paul Fortress, carefully looking at the tourists and reminding them of the ambiguity of Russian history.
