The greatest feat of 18th-century transportational engineering came to a close when a 1,500-ton granite boulder was set in the Senate Square of Saint Petersburg in 1770. The boulder served as a base for Etienne Falconet’s 20-foot Peter the Great on Horseback. At the time, it was the largest statue in the world.
Commonly called “The Bronze Horseman,” the statue was commissioned by Catherine the Great to connect her triumphant reign to Russia’s last Tsar and first Emperor, Peter the Great (1672–1725). A century after Peter’s birth, the new reigning empress grandly expressed admiration for her predecessor. She solidified her place as one of Russia’s great rulers with an inscription that reads, “Catherine the Second to Peter the First, 1782.”
Russian Renaissance
Catherine II of Russia, between 1762 and 1764, by Vigilius Eriksen. Oil on canvas. The State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg. (Public Domain)
Russia experienced a renaissance of culture and science under Catherine II. Commonly known as Catherine the Great, her long and prosperous reign (1762–1796) advanced European Enlightenment ideals. Catherine’s vast art collection ultimately was the foundation for one of the world’s greatest museums—The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Four years into her reign, Catherine was determined to solidify a position gained through a coup against her husband Emperor Peter III (1728–1762). The German-born emperor Peter III held Prussian sentiments and switched sides during the Seven Years’ War, surrendering Russia’s war gains to Germany. The unpopular emperor reigned for less than six months until he was overthrown by his wife. He died just eight days after the coup. His death was officially due to colic and stroke, but rumors of an assassination and brawl remain.
Fortunately for Catherine, she had more in her favor than her husband had going for him. She was supported by strong majorities among government office holders and bureaucrats, the nobility, the army, Russian Orthodox bishops, and the Russian people.
It was both natural and pragmatic for Catherine to cast herself as a true heir to Peter the Great. Not only was her late husband the admired tsar’s grandson, but Catherine also shared Peter the Great’s Russian nationalism, an affinity towards western European philosophies, and belief in reformation. A devoted patron of the arts, she commissioned an unprecedented masterpiece to honor him and associate their two reigns while elevating Russian cultural life.
Portrait of Étienne Maurice Falconet, 1741, by Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne the Younger. Black, red, and white chalk, with stumping. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. (Public Domain)
In a correspondence with Catherine, French Enlightenment philosopher Denis Diderot (1713–1784) suggested his friend and sculptor Étienne Maurice Falconet for the statue’s commission. Though Falconet studied under King Louis XV’s eminent court sculptor Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne “the younger,” his career crafting Sevres porcelain figurines hardly constituted preparation for the monumental project.
Falconet first gained a public profile in 1757 with his marble statuettes “Seated Cupid” (“L'Amour menaçant”) and “The Bathers” (“Baigneuse”). Local experts gave assurance to Catherine that Falconet was qualified. Trusting Diderot’s recommendation, the empress hired Falconet. The young artist who had never sculpted anything larger than miniatures went east to create a work twice the size of the largest known statue: the “Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius.”
Falconet arrived in Russia in 1766 and immediately set to work. He and his assistant Marie-Anne Collot extensively researched every detail to ensure accuracy, from using Peter the Great’s death mask in conjunction with portraits—some of which were in far-away Moscow—to studying and drawing horses rearing from life. While Catherine oversaw the entire project, she rejected Falconet’s sketched portraits in favor of Collot’s version of Peter.
A portrait study for the Bronze Horseman, between 1768 and 1770, by Marie-Anne Collot. Plaster cast. State Museum of the History of Saint Petersburg. (Dmitry Ivanov/CC BY-SA 3.0)
While working on the model statue, Falconet encountered a problem; the horse’s hind legs were insufficient to support the weight of its body and rider. To solve the dilemma, Falconet created a third weight-bearing support, touching the horse’s tail to a snake on the ground behind it. With a horse trampling a serpent, the statue can be interpreted as Peter the Great stomping out treachery and enemies of reform. In time, this novel decision was widely copied, though tails usually touched the ground.
Back view of the "Bronze Horseman" trampling a snake in St. Petersburg, Russia. (NadezdaS/Shutterstock)
In 1768, a complete, large-scale experimental model of Peter the Great was unveiled to the St. Petersburg public. At this time, a boulder large enough to serve as a base for the statue was finally discovered.
The Thunder Stone
In 1768, a gigantic boulder was found in Lakhta, a historic village in St. Petersburg, Russia. Known as the “Thunder Stone,” it was the largest rock ever moved by humans. Over a nine-month period, 400 men advanced it 165 yards (just 1 percent of a mile) daily until a journey of less than four miles ended at the coast of the Gulf of Finland. Once there, it was loaded onto a ship specially designed and built to carry it across a few miles of the gulf and up Saint Petersburg’s Neva River to its destination. The boulder reached Senate Square on Sept. 26, 1770.
The Thunder Stone being transported in the presence of Catherine II, circa 1770, by I.F. Schley after Y.M. Felten. (Public Domain)
Twelve more years were needed to create the mold used to form molten bronze into the shape of the statue, sculpt the Thunder Stone into an appropriate pedestal, make the statue, and put it in place.
Falconet aimed to capture Peter the Great dramatically rearing his horse at the edge of a dramatic cliff. The beloved emperor is adorned in ancient Roman clothes—symbolic of Russia’s ambition to be a true successor to classical civilization. The completed Bronze Horseman itself stands about 20 feet tall. The pedestal adds another 23 feet, making the entire statue tower over 43 feet tall.
Opening of the Monument to Peter the Great on Senate Square, St. Petersburg, 1782, by A.K. Melnikov after A.P. Davydov. (Public Domain)
On Aug. 7, 1782, the finished statue was unveiled in Senate Square. Due to circumstances that led Falconet to return to Paris, he never saw the completed work. His assistant and future daughter-in-law, Collot, finished his design by sculpting Peter the Great’s face.
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James Baresel is a freelance writer who has contributed to periodicals as
varied as Fine Art Connoisseur, Military History, Claremont Review of Books,
and New Eastern Europe.
