Bronze Horseman

Categories / Capital/Heraldry, Symbols of St. Petersburg, State Awards
Categories / Architecture/Sculpture, Monuments
BRONZE HORSEMAN, the popular name of the monument to Emperor Peter the Great on Dekabristov Square. Originated from Alexander Pushkin's poem of the same name (1833); one of the best known Russian monuments and world monumental sculptures, and the first sculptural monument in Russia. It was erected on 7 August 1782. Empress Catherine II summoned French sculptor E.M. Falconet to work on the monument upon the suggestion of French philosopher D. Diderot. The master devised the original design for a monument to the creator, lawmaker and benefactor of his country; according to his design, the succinct form acquired a surprisingly profound inherent meaning. As the author admitted, Peter the Great's face did not come easily, and finally it was his apprentice, M.A. Collot, who moulded it. The silhouette of the rampant horse, held by the horseman's Imperious hand, is accentuated by the contour of the pedestal which is reminiscent of an electrical surge rushing upwards (see Thunder-rock). The moulding of the bronze sculpture was performed by master E.M. Khaylov in 1774-78 in Falconet's shop on Bolshaya Morskaya Street. In 1778, the sculptor left St. Petersburg, and work was finished by architect Y.M. Felten and sculptor F.M. Gordeev. The monument is 10.4 metres long. Peter's simple garment is connotative of traditional Russian dress, a laurel wreath symbolizes glory, the bearskin on the horse's croup symbolizes power, and the snake beneath the horse’s hooves is symbolic of good triumphing over evil. The inscription on the pedestal, in Latin and Russian, reads: From Catherine II to Peter I, which symbolizes the succession of the monarchs. The perfect combination of dynamic and static elements suggests an impression of stateliness and violent motion. Pushkin's poem imparts a universal interpretation of the monument: ?Ah, lord of doom?And potentate, 'twas thus, appearing?Above the void, and in thy hold?A curb of iron, thou sat'st of old?O'er Russian, on her haunches rearing! ?The Bronze Horseman has been embodied in many works of Russian literature, from V.G. Ruban Inscriptions to the Monument (the 1780s) to apocalyptical visions by F.M. Dostoevsky (The Adolescent), A. Bely (Petersburg), and V.V. Mayakovsky (The Last Tale of St. Petersburg), as well as in illustrations by painter A.N. Benois' To Pushkin's The Bronze Horseman (1905).

References: Аркин Д. Е. Медный всадник: Памятник Петру I в Ленинграде. М.; Л.,1958; Каганович А. Л. "Медный всадник": История создания монумента. 2-е изд., доп. Л., 1982.

Y. M. Piryutko. Bely Andrey (real name Bugaev Boris Nikolaevich)
Benois Alexander Nikolaevich
Catherine II, Empress
Collot Marie-Anne
Diderot Denis
Dostoevsky Fedor Mikhailovich
Falconet Etienne Maurice
Felten Yury (Georg Friedrich) Matveevich
Gordeev Fedor Gordeevich
Khaylov Emelyan Mikhailovich
Mayakovsky Vladimir Vladimirovich
Peter I, Emperor
Pushkin Alexander Sergeevich
Ruban Vasily Grigorievich
Dekabristov Square/Saint Petersburg, city
Аркин Д. Е. Медный всадник: Памятник Петру I в Ленинграде. М.; Л., 1958
Каганович А. Л. "Медный всадник": История создания монумента. 2-е изд., доп. Л., 1982 Thunder-stone
1782