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Monument to Peter the Great (The Copper Horseman) opened
7 (18) August 1782 in St. Petersburg was inaugurated equestrian monument to the first Russian Emperor - Peter I, created at the behest of Empress Catherine II by a French sculptor Etienne Falconet.
In August 1766, E. Falconet signed a contract to work in Russia, according to which he was instructed to carry out a sketch of the monument to Peter I and implement it in the field.
The master had made a small model of the monument in 10 months. Falconet portrayed Peter as a horseman, lifting his horse on its hind legs. "When I decided to mold a horse galloping, standing on its hind legs, I did not quite remember how it looked like, wrote the sculptor. So, I ordered to build a platform giving it the same slope as my pedestal would have. …I made a horseman to gallop: first, not once, but over a hundred times; second, in different ways; third, on different horses." Since Falconet failed to achieve a complete portrait similarity with the person of Peter, this work was perfectly fulfilled by his student - Marie Anne Callot: the head of the emperor was made according to her model.
In July of 1769 the model of the life-size monument was completed. Until May of the following year it had been realized in plaster and trimmed. Upon completion, during 14 days the workshop was open to the general public.
To create a pedestal of the monument, granite blocks were needed, but they could not be found in the vicinity of St. Petersburg. In early September 1768, farmer S. G. Vishnyakov reported that near the village of Konnaya Lahtai, in the woods, there was a rock, also called "Thunder-stone," which was once split by a lightning stroke. Two years later, in September 1770, a giant granite boulder weighing 1.6 tons was delivered to St. Petersburg.
After approval of the large model and pedestal installation, August 25 (September 5) 1775 the statue was cast under the guidance of the cannon master, Emilian Khailov. To strike the monument, in January 1776 was signed a contract with the watch making master Sandots. In 1777, the upper parts of the sculpture were completed which were not good at the first casting.
In 1778, Falconet was forced to leave Russia, and the completion of the monument was entrusted to Yu. M. Felten. The famous architect made solder the joints of the monument, it was raised on a pedestal and under the hooves of the horse a snake created by Fedor Gordeev was placed.
7 (18) August 1782, in presence of a large number of people, the monument in the center of the Senate Square was inaugurated. Sculptor portrayed Peter in a dynamic state, put on him a simple and light clothing, replaced a rich saddle with animal skins so that particular elements would not catch the eye and attract attention from the image of the tsar-legislator. The pedestal in the form of a huge rock represents the difficulties he had overcome and the serpent under the feet of a rearing horse symbolizes hostile forces.
The role of Peter as a general winner is underlined by a laurel wreath crowning his head and a sword hanging at his belt. On either side of the monument there is an inscription in Russian and Latin: ”To Peter the First. Catherine the Second. 1782.
Later the monument got its name owing to the famous poem by Pushkin, "The Bronze Horseman", but in fact it was made of bronze.
Lit.: Доклад императрице Екатерине II от Сената о месте для постановки монумента императору Петру Великому / Сообщ. Жан-Жанк // Русская старина. 1872. Т. 5. № 6. С. 957-958; Иванов Г. И. Камень-Гром. Историческая повесть. СПб., 1994; Кнабе Г. С. Воображение знака: Медный всадник Фальконе и Пушкина. М., 1993; Памятники архитектуры Ленинграда. Л., 1975; Пирютко Ю. М. «Медный всадник» // Санкт-Петербург: энциклопедия. СПб.; М., 2004; Топоров В. Н. О динамическом контексте трёхмерных произведений изобразительного искусства (семиотический взгляд). Фальконетовский памятник Петру I // Лотмановский сборник. М., 1995. Вып. 1; Три века Санкт-Петербурга: энциклопедия в 3-х т. Т. 1. Осьмнадцатое столетие. Кн. 2: Н-Я. СПб., 2003.
Based on the Presidential Library’s materials: