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- Restoration of the monarch: "Ivan the Terrible" returned to the Tretyakovka exposition
Restoration of the monarch: "Ivan the Terrible" returned to the Tretyakovka exposition
Ilya Repin's painting "Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan November 16, 1581" returned after restoration to the permanent exhibition of the Tretyakov Gallery in Lavrushinsky Lane and will not leave it again. The museum told Izvestia that the long-suffering masterpiece will always be in the same place - in the Repin Hall, where a climatic vandal-proof capsule created especially for the canvas is attached to the wall. A landmark event GTG marked the opening of an exhibition dedicated to the history of the work: until next November, the company of "Ivan the Terrible" will make up sketches and archival documents. "Izvestia" among the first to see the new home of the great work and appreciated its neighborhood.
Accepted the capsule
The dramatic stage of the life of the famous painting by Ilya Repin, which began six years ago, has finally come to an end. On May 25, 2018, a vandal damaged the canvas, after which it underwent a long, unprecedentedly difficult restoration. "Izvestia" reported in detail on the progress of this work, including showing the restoration miracle table, made according to an individual project specifically for "Ivan the Terrible". We wrote about the first demonstration of the restored work. It happened on May 23, 2022. Then it was possible to see that the museum specialists had done the impossible: not only removed the visible defects, but also rid the canvas of a number of old problems that could not be solved before.
And yet it was too early to put an end to this story. In order to return the rarity to the exposition, it was necessary to create an anti-vandal capsule that would guarantee protection from similar incidents and at the same time ensure constant temperature and humidity. The museum had been working towards this goal for two and a half years: we had never made or ordered a display case with such characteristics. The main problem is the required size of glass: almost 3 meters wide. At the same time, it must be not only durable, but also anti-reflective.
As we can see, the problem was solved. The capsule is built into the wall and painted in a common color with it (dark red, echoing the color of the painting), the image on the painting in the original frame is clearly visible, and the lamps on the ceiling of the hall are only slightly reflected in the upper part of the glass. In principle, this is a common problem for museum works of large format, it is almost impossible to achieve complete leveling of glare in such conditions (and even without protection from vandals).
Now this is the permanent home of the painting. It has been "out of Moscow" before - the last trip outside Moscow took place during the Great Patriotic War, when the collection of the State Tretyakov Gallery was evacuated to Novosibirsk. Since then, the Tretyakovka has not issued it for exhibitions, but, however, in special cases movedit between museum buildings. In particular, for restorations. And this is by no means only the one that began in 2018.
A century of restorations
The canvas has repeatedly required the intervention of specialists before. After the first assassination attempt - in 1913 it was cut with a knife - the canvas was duplicated using imperfect materials available at the time, and already in the 1920s the curators had to state that the state of the work was alarming: the paint layer was peeling off and crumbling. For almost a century they tried to maintain the condition of the painting, but did not dare to proceed to the most difficult thing - the removal of the old base, glued in the 1910s. In addition to realizing the risks, the lack of suitable equipment was also an obstacle: the usual tables of restorers are not suitable for such a large and complex thing.
And here, as the saying goes, there was no luck, but misfortune helped. After the attack of 2018, it became impossible to postpone the large-scale work. Then the gallery, with the support of sponsors, ordered a special table and chair for the restoration workshop, and the approaches to the treatment of the seriously ill work were developed by an international consilium of specialists - of course, after a thorough study of the materials of the canvas and its features by all means available today.
The progress of the work to save "Ivan the Terrible" is clearly shown at the exhibition, the opening of which is timed to coincide with the return of the painting to the exposition. There are photographs, restorers' reports, and even an art installation involving the very same chair: by covering it with a white cloth, the artist Diana Machulina made an elegant allusion to Michelangelo's "Pieta", which in its time was also attacked. The message can be read as follows: just as the Virgin Mary held the bleeding Christ on her knees, restorers suffer over wounded works - and believe in their resurrection.
Images of the king
However, the most interesting part of the new exposition (if we do not count "Ivan the Terrible" itself) are eight paintings by Repin, which clearly demonstrate how the images of the Tsar and his son crystallized. Among them there is a sketch of 1885, already quite accurately embodies the future composition, but with a significant difference in the figure ofthe Terrible: the murderer looks not to the right, over the head of the tsarevich, rolling his eyes in horror, but to the left, as if trying to understand what his victim saw a moment earlier.
It seems to be a detail, but the degree of expression is considerably lower. The portrait studies are also revealing: Repin borrowed the features of Grozny's face from the composer Blaramberg and the painter Myasoedov , but there is no proper emotional intensity in their images (masterfully done, with psychological accuracy). Another sketch, without a specific prototype, is much closer to the final version. Ilya Efimovich painted a not-young man with a silent cry of despair in his gaze. And yet in the end the painter went much further, showing not just horrified father, but a man insane.
For his time Repin did an unprecedented thing: from realism stepped to expressionism (by the way, Munch's "The Scream" will appear only a decade later). Coupled with the very fact of direct accusation of the first Russian Tsar in a crime, this could not fail to amaze contemporaries. From the very first days of demonstration of the painting at the exhibition of the Itinerant artists, it provoked heated controversy and outrage, and in the end, the Emperor himself limited the display, however, did not prevent Pavel Tretyakov to buy it for his gallery.
As we can see, "Ivan the Terrible" causes a sharp reaction in many people to this day. Fortunately, now it is protected from inadequate manifestations much better than ever, well, and the exhibition reveals the secret of its impact. It will work until the beginning of November 2025, and then the sketches, chair-installation and showcases with documents will pass the baton to Repin's works, which are now exhibited at the "Peredvizhniki" in the new building of the State Tretyakov Gallery. The place of "Ivan the Terrible" itself is assigned to him forever.
