Back in the 15th century, Cornelius Agrippa of Nettesheim wrote: "Be afraid of the painter's brush - his portrait may turn out to be more alive than the original." Hardly anyone would argue that Ilya Efimovich Repin (1844-1930) is one of the greatest Russian painters. But - a strange circumstance: many who had the honor of becoming his sitters soon died …
Among the "victims" of the artist were Mussorgsky, Pisemsky, Pirogov, the Italian actor Mercy d'Arzhanto. As soon as the artist took up the portrait of Fyodor Tyutchev, he also died … True, in all cases there were some objective reasons for death, but here's a coincidence … Even the hefty men who posed for Repin's painting "Barge Haulers on the Volga", they say, prematurely gave God their soul …
The most terrible story happened to the painting "Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan on November 16, 1581", which in our time is better known as "Ivan the Terrible kills his son." Even balanced people, looking at the canvas, felt uncomfortable: the murder scene was written too realistically, there was too much blood on the canvas, which seemed real …
When the canvas was exhibited at the Tretyakov Gallery, it began to make a strange impression on visitors. Some were sobbing in front of the painting, others fell into a stupor, and others had hysterical fits. And the young icon painter Abram Balashov on January 16, 1913, cut the canvas with a knife … He was sent to a hospital for the mentally ill, where he died. The canvas was restored.
It is known that Repin hesitated for a long time before taking on a picture of Ivan the Terrible. And for good reason. The artist Myasoyedov, from whom the image of the king was painted, soon
in anger he almost finished off his young son, whose name was Ivan, as well as the murdered prince. The image of the latter was written from the writer Vsevolod Garshin, who later went mad and committed suicide by throwing himself into a flight of stairs …
By the way, the very story that Ivan the Terrible is a filicide is just a myth. It is believed that Ivan the Terrible killed his son in a fit of anger with a staff in his temple. The reasons for different researchers are different: from everyday quarrels to political friction. Meanwhile, none of the sources directly says that the prince and heir to the throne was killed by his own father!
So, in the "Piskarevsky Chronicle" it is said: "at 12 o'clock in the summer night of November 7090 on the 17th day … the death of Tsarevich John Ioannovich." The Novgorod Fourth Chronicle reports: "The same year (7090), Tsarevich John Ioannovich died at Matins in Sloboda …" The cause of death is not named.
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In the 60s of the last century, the graves of Ivan the Terrible and his son were opened. The prince's skull was free of damage characteristic of a brain injury. Consequently, there was no filicide ?! But where did the legend about him come from then?
There is a version that its author is the Jesuit monk Possevin. The latter was sent to Moscow as an ambassador from the Pope. He offered the Orthodox Church to come under the rule of the Vatican, but did not find support from the Russian tsar. Possevin, meanwhile, witnessed a family scandal. The sovereign was angry with his pregnant daughter-in-law, the wife of Ivan's son, for her "obscene appearance" - either she forgot to put on a belt, or she put on only one shirt, when it was supposed to wear four. In the heat of the moment, the father-in-law began to beat the unfortunate woman with a staff. The prince stood up for his wife: before that, his father had already sent his two first wives to the monastery, who could not conceive from him, and John the Younger was afraid that he would lose the third one, since his father would simply kill her. He rushed to the priest, and he, in a fit of rage, struck with his staff and pierced his son's temple …
By the way, during exhumation, the remains of poisons were found in the prince's bone tissues, which may indicate that John the Younger died from poisoning (which was not uncommon in those days), and not from a blow with a solid object!
Nevertheless, it is precisely the version of filicide that is presented in Repin's painting. And it is presented with such extraordinary plausibility that you involuntarily believe that everything really happened. Hence, apparently, and "deadly" energy.
Once Repin was commissioned a huge monumental painting "The ceremonial meeting of the State Council." The painting was completed by the end of 1903. And in 1905, the first Russian revolution broke out, during which the heads of the state officials depicted on the canvas flew. Some lost their posts and titles, while others paid with their lives altogether. Thus, the minister VK Pleve and the Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, the former governor-general of Moscow, were killed by terrorists.
In 1909, the artist, commissioned by the Saratov City Duma, painted a portrait of Prime Minister Stolypin. He had hardly finished his work when Stolypin was shot dead in Kiev.
Who knows - maybe, if Ilya Repin hadn't been so talented, such tragic consequences might not have happened …
TRINITY MARGARITA