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With the same determination that he applied
to everything else, Peter the Great decided that Russians also needed
sculptures to decorate the palaces and squares of Saint Petersburg and to pay
respect to and commemorate great Russian men. Since Europe had had monuments
for a long time, Russia had to have them too, despite the fact that this kind
of art was little known in the country, at least not in the form of monumental
sculpture and not in the sense that Peter understood it.
There is little information about the Russian religious wooden totem poles with
a sculptured human face on the top, which date from pagan times. There were
many effigies of Novgorod's "Domovoys," a deity believed to live in
the house and protect it, dating from pre or early Christian days, around the
10th - 12th centuries and a few other religious sculptures have recently been
found in the same region. In the area of Perm and some other remote sections
there are idols dating from the 15th century despite the fact that Christianity
was then already firmly established in Russia. The official Church was hostile
to any form of sculpture from the beginning, fearing primarily the return of
the pagan idol-worship that was deeply rooted among the peasants. This was one
of the reasons that sculpture was almost entirely absent from church
architecture or decoration. There were, though, relief stone carvings on the
facades of the cathedrals of Saint George in Yuriev-Polskii and Saint Demetrius
in Vladimir, and, to a lesser degree, some other very old churches. There were
also canopied altars and thrones for the tsar, prince or metropolitan made of
carved wood and sometimes gilded. Most cathedrals had one or two, for the
monarch and the bishop. Floral motifs prevailed as ornamental elements but
there were human figures too. All these items, regardless of the fact that some
of them were masterpieces of wood sculpture, were produced by very skilled
stone and wood-carvers rather than by sculptors. Since the distant past Russian
peasants had spent many days during the long winters carving and making all
sorts of wooden objects ranging from large cupboards and tables to toys, spoons
and matrioshkas, still produced by the millions. The enormous forests in the
country offered an unlimited supply of wood; through the centuries this has
been their main source of wealth. Like the New England first settlers, Russian
peasants developed "A reverence for wood" (Eric Sloane). They wanted
it to look more beautiful, and by improving each piece of it they developed a
particular kind of wooden sculpture. In Russian village homes there is hardly
any item made of wood that has not been carved and, often, painted and covered
with linseed oil. Russians who have a predilection for vivid colors, used them
unsparingly to embellish practically everything in their izbas, including their
implements, tools and even the yokes for the oxen and the izba itself. They
delicately carved designs from the rich national folklore, executed entire
fairy tales and sometimes made religious sculptures, or, to be different from
the others, they just freed their imagination and taste and created something
entirely new. Maybe they were not very practical, but there is no question that
the ancient Russians worked and lived with and were surrounded by more
beautiful objects than they are today.
The struggle for liberation from the Tatars served as an inspiration to many
artists, including carvers and sculptors. The figure of a strong young military
man became popular, and even some saints were presented as such. Saint George
the Dragon-Slayer was highly loved by the people, who saw in him the hero who
protects Russian lands and who best exemplifies good and justice triumphant
over evil, shown as a Dragon with bright red wings. It was for this reason that
Saint George (Gheorghii Pobedonosats) has for centuries been incorporated into
the emblem of the city of Moscow as well as the coat-of-arms of the Russian
tsardom.
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