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Another prominent pupil of Gillet was
Mikhail Ivanovich Kozlovskii, 1753-1802. He too went abroad to complete his
studies and lived in Paris for a number of years. Probably for this reason hi
sculptures followed the late baroque style and are less realistic than
Shubin's. Kozlovskii liked give movement and grace to his statues. There is an
intensity in them such that even the dresses look as if they will not stay
still. Allegorical scenes taken from mythology were the main subjects of his
sculptures. His "Samson tearing apart the lion's jaws" decorated the
park in front of the Peterhof palace until the Germans melted it during the
last world War. Based on photos, the sculptor V. L. Simenov reproduced it and a
new Samson stands now at the same place. Kozlovskii's preference for the naked
body, as the best way for a sculptor to express his talent, is shown in his
"Sleeping Amour" and "Amour with Arrow". His monument of
Suvorov does not show the famous
field marshall dressed in a rich Russian uniform, but instead as Mars, the God
of war, dressed and looking like a young Roman soldier with sword in hand,
ready to protect the papal crown and the thrones of the Italian kings. The
monument was erected on the Mars Field in Saint Petersburg in 1801 and
commissioned by Emperor Paul I to commemorate Suvorov's victory in Italy. This
explains why Mars replaced Suvorov on the pedestal.
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