Monument to Peter 1 in the Peter and Paul Fortress of St. Petersburg - one of the main attractions of the city. This monument is not similar to others by the fact that to this day causes conflicting assessments of St. Petersburg, tourists, art critics.
What is the peculiarity of this creation?
The author of the monument, the famous sculptor Mikhail Shemyakin, embodied the exceptional character of Peter, the ambiguity of his character and undertakings.
The composition itself is already unusual. 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 accustomed to seeing in feature films, sits on a huge, strong, impressive body. The imbalance is so noticeable that the image makes tourists stop at the sculpture for a long time and examine it with intense attention.
Why is the monument to Peter the Great so unconventional?
The fact is that M. Shemyakin used the famous posthumous wax mask taken from the deceased king by the father of the famous architect Rastrelli to portray the head of the king. This mask accurately conveys facial features of the autocrat. Based on the wax image, the wax figure of Peter was made, which is today stored in the Winter Palace.
Shemyakin, creating a monument to Peter 1, copied the pose of the king, and his facial features, and the shape of his head. This sculptural portrait of the head today more accurately than others conveys the true features of the autocrat's face .
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 extraordinary and contradictory personality of the ruler of Russia. In this way, M. Shemyakin makes the audience think about how ambiguous, often contradictory, and sometimes even grotesque is the history of Russia.
Shemyakinsky monument to Peter 1 - the first unofficial image of the autocrat. The author emphasized the metaphysical nature of the image, psychological nakedness of the personality, vitality of the figure.
Peter's fingers, clinging to the armrest of a chair, are terribly tense. They resemble long claws. So the sculptor emphasized the psychological nature of Peter, his willingness to cling to the enemy, defeat with his bare hands. These same tense fingers indicate a delicate nervous nature, frenzied temperament, and a strong character of the king.
The monument to Peter the Great was recently installed in the fortress: in 1991. On the side of the pedestal Shemyakin carved an inscription testifying to the sculptor's respect for the founder of St. Petersburg. Behind the monument are the ruins of the Naryshkin bastion as another evidence of history.
The monument was praised by many cultural figures, politicians. It is loved by foreigners, 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 Petersburgers have repeatedly raised the issue of moving the monument outside the city limits or to the Winter Palace. But while 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.