Sphinxes on the Robespierre embankment history. Anatoly Migov

June 7 marks the 25th anniversary of the opening of the most scandalous monument to Peter I, created by Mikhail Shemyakin in 1991, in the Peter and Paul Fortress. This is a gift from a famous artist to his hometown and... Peter, whose birthday is celebrated on June 9. How was this controversial monument, as well as other controversial works of the master, created?

"Peter the Spider"

Bronze Peter I, sitting on the throne in Peter and Paul Fortress, is one of the most controversial and interesting images of the reformer tsar. The idea of ​​creating a monument, like many things in Shemyakin’s life, came by chance. His workshop had long kept a copy of the Tsar’s lifetime wax mask, made back in 1719 by Rastrelli. Today it is believed that it quite accurately shows the true face of Peter. One day Vladimir Vysotsky saw her and suggested that the artist sculpt the emperor: “You draw Peter a lot, but why have you never made a sculpture?”

In 1980, Vysotsky died and Shemyakin, in memory of his friend, began work in the USA.

The figure of Peter surprises with its violation of natural proportions. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org / Tara-Amingu

“I began to create the first sketches in clay. Immediately in life-size,” Shemyakin recalled. “We took the wrapped models into the park and put them on a chair. Here it turned out that from a distance of 5 meters Peter gave the impression of a very short man, although he was two meters tall. And I began to enlarge the torso. Until he came to the proportions of a Russian icon. On them, after all, the apostles have a tiny head and a long body...”

Shemyakin worked on the sculpture for 8 years. The inscription on the side plane of the pedestal reads: “Founder of the Great City of Russia to Emperor Peter the Great from the Italian sculptor Carlo Rastrelli and from the Russian artist Mikhail Shemyakin. 1991 Cast in America." By the way, to read these words you have to bow your head, so the sculptor once again forces us to be respectful to the emperor.

The figure surprises with its violation of natural proportions: the face resembles the inhabitants of the Kunstkamera, the head is bald and cartoonishly small, the body is too large, the torso, legs and arms are very elongated. The creepy fingers especially stand out. They are so long and thin that wits called the monument “Spider Peter”.

“My work was created not for contemplation and admiration, but for reflection on the tragic fate of Russia over the last three centuries,” says the sculptor. “Perhaps this understanding does not come immediately.”

When the monument was first created, many experts, including famous architects, advocated its installation in the Summer Garden. However, the first mayor of the city, Anatoly Sobchak, intervened and the “shocking” sculpture was unveiled near the Commandant’s House of the Peter and Paul Fortress. This happened in June 1991, on the eve of the return to Leningrad of the historical name of St. Petersburg, which further added fuel to the fire. A wave of criticism immediately fell on Shemyakin’s creation.

There were so many attacks that in the first days they even had to post guards near the sculpture to avoid vandalism. But over time, people got used to the new image of the autocrat sitting on the throne and it became a landmark of St. Petersburg. Moreover, he is a wish-granter. The legend is firmly established that if you rub Peter’s long fingers, everything you wish for will come true. With your right hand, money will flow; with your left hand, creative inspiration will descend. Well, if you sit on your knees, everything will be fine in your personal life. And, judging by how the long fingers literally shine and the knees are almost worn out, dreams come true...

Skeleton Sphinxes

This monument to the “Victims of Political Repression”, in which the motifs of the famous St. Petersburg sphinxes are reinterpreted, was erected in 1995.

“The place opposite the famous Kresty prison was not chosen by chance,” says Shemyakin. “During the years of Stalin’s repressions, prisoners and the faces of sphinxes languished there - the personification of the cruel regime. On the side of the residential buildings they have young female profiles, and on the side of the “Crosses” they have corroded, exposed skulls. Between them is a stylized prison window with bars. This is how the life of the country is reflected - one half lived in ignorance, the others died, no one knows why.”

Along the perimeters of the granite pedestals there are copper plates on which are engraved lines from the works of Shalamov, Gumilyov, Mandelstam, Akhmatova, Zabolotsky, Andreev, Likhachev, Brodsky, Bukovsky, Solzhenitsyn, Vysotsky. It seems to show how close life and death, freedom and imprisonment, happiness and tragedy were at that terrible time. The bodies of sphinxes are thin and bones protrude through the skin, and in the high position of the head one can read terrible anxiety.

In the 70s, for behavior that was inappropriate, from the point of view of the regime, he was placed in a mental hospital with a diagnosis of “sluggish schizophrenia.” Photo: www.globallookpress.com

Probably, while creating these sculptures, the artist also remembered his own life. In the 70s, for behavior that was inappropriate, from the point of view of the regime, he was placed in a mental hospital with a diagnosis of “sluggish schizophrenia.” And in 1971, they kicked me out of the country within a few hours, without even allowing me to say goodbye to my parents. For what? The bosses did not like the new movement “metaphysical synthetism” invented by the rebel. True, subsequent life showed that the authorities, without suspecting it themselves, did Shemyakin a huge favor. He received recognition abroad and became a citizen of the world. Today, kings and heads of state are friends with him. And now he comes to Russia whenever and for as long as he wants. He was also given an apartment on Fontanka, on behalf of Vladimir Putin. As the artist himself said, when the official to whom the president gave the order asked how long it would take to provide Shemyakin with housing, the head of state replied: “We kicked him out in ’71, so the turn has come...”

Two destinies

A special page in Shemyakin’s life is his friendship with Vysotsky, whom they met thanks to Mikhail Baryshnikov in 1974.

“Our friendship was born really suddenly, but it was clear that this would be forever,” Shemyakin recalled. - It felt like we had known each other for a long time, but we had only been apart for a very long time. And now we need to speak out, tell each other something important and necessary for both of us.”

Vladimir Vysotsky in the film "Vertical". Photo: Still from the film/ “Vertical”

Vysotsky dedicated his songs to Shemyakin, who, in turn, drew illustrations for the works of Vladimir Semyonovich. The famous “On Bolshoy Karetny” is dedicated to their joint sprees. In total, Shemyakin created 42 illustrations “on the theme of Vysotsky” - one for each year of the legendary actor’s life. The monument to the poet erected in Samara also became unusual. It opened on January 25, 2008, on the bard’s 70th birthday. In the center of the composition is the figure of Vysotsky in the role of Hamlet and with a guitar in his hands. On the right is a man in a raincoat, personifying the “black man” and the destructive forces that accompanied the artist on his life’s path. On the left, against the background of the bars, is a guard with a bunch of keys. Closer to the center is a woman with the face of Marina Vladi, symbolizing the Beloved and the Muse. The monument was erected near the Samara Sports Palace, where in 1967 Vysotsky gave the first concerts in his life to an audience of six thousand.

Children and evil

This is the most scandalous monument to Shemyakin (installed in 2001 on Bolotnaya Square in Moscow).

“The composition was conceived and carried out by me as a symbol and call to the struggle for the salvation of today’s and future generations... I, as an artist, with this work urge you to look around, hear and see what is happening. And before it’s too late, sensible and honest people need to think about it.”

There are 13 figures of vices in total, and they are deliberately tall, so that even adults feel their insignificance. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

There are 13 figures of vices in total, and they are deliberately tall, so that even adults feel their insignificance. Drug addiction, for example, is depicted as a bald man with a sly, unpleasant face. Behind his back he has broken wings, on which it is impossible to fly. There is a syringe in my hand. The obsequious smile seems to say, you just need to accept this “gift” and everything will be fine... Prostitution opens its arms in the form of a half-woman, half-frog. She has a beautiful body and elegant clothes, but there is no expression in her bulging eyes, and her grin is repulsive. Sadism is shown by a rhinoceros in a butcher's "outfit" with an evil face. You can feel that this is someone who likes to torture the weak because he is stronger. The Pillory is also prepared - this is for those who turn a blind eye to terrible events only because they are a thing of the past. The war is also depicted with wings, but in armor and a gas mask. She hands the guys a toy - Mickey Mouse. But the mouse is shackled in a bomb...

The monument is among the top 10 most controversial monuments in the capital. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org / Glavkom_NN

Shemyakin sculpted the monsters so vitally, they are so disgusting in their inclinations that the monument, in addition to supporters, also found many opponents. It is among the top 10 most controversial monuments in the capital. And after the attack by vandals, the authorities installed a fence and security, now the vices can only be seen from 9 am to 9 pm. If only this were the case in life...

Residents of St. Petersburg, and many of its guests, are well aware that sphinxes are not at all uncommon in this city. They are one of the decorations of the city, and everyone has already become accustomed to them. But why sphinxes and how many of them are there? Let's take a walk through the places where these unusual and mysterious creatures “settled”...

Different peoples also had different ideas about the sphinxes. Among the ancient Egyptians, sphinxes were creatures with the body of a proud lion and the head of a man. Often the faces of the Egyptian sphinxes resembled the faces of their pharaohs. Among the Greeks, the sphinxes were winged, had the body of a lion or dog and a female head and chest.

Sphinxes on the front embankment

These are the only real sphinxes from Ancient Egypt in St. Petersburg; they are more than three thousand years old. They are very large - more than 5 meters long and 4.5 meters high. The weight of each of them is 23 tons.

« In terms of craftsmanship - the figures are carved from the strongest Egyptian red-brown-gray granite - the abundance of inscriptions and good preservation, the Neva Sphinxes have no equal in the world. Even Egyptian museums and the Louvre do not have such exhibits.» V. Struve

They have long since taken root in this northern city, becoming its integral part.
But how did these huge sphinxes from a distant country get here?

The history of the appearance of Egyptian sphinxes in St. Petersburg

At the beginning of the 19th century, Europe was swept by a passion for oriental culture, and St. Petersburg did not escape this. An Egyptian vestibule appears in Pavlovsk, an Egyptian pyramid appears in Tsarskoye Selo, and in the city itself an Egyptian bridge appears, and soon these Egyptian sphinxes. Since the 14th century BC. e. they guarded the sanctuary of Pharaoh Amenhotep III in Thebes. Years, centuries, millennia passed, and time had no power over them.

But when the civilization of Ancient Egypt fell into decline, the temple collapsed, and the sphinxes were buried for a long time under a thick layer of sand. They were dug up only in the late 20s of the 19th century, after which it was decided to put them up for sale.

One of these sphinxes somehow caught the eye of officer Andrei Muravyov, who was in Egypt at that time. This hitherto unprecedented creature amazed the Russian officer so much that Muravyov immediately sent a letter to the Russian ambassador with a request to discuss with the emperor the possibility of purchasing sphinxes for Russia.

However, Nicholas I did not immediately approve of this idea, and then a long fuss with papers followed. But when everything was prepared, it turned out that France had already bought the sphinxes in order to decorate Paris with them.

However, the French did not have time to get them out of Alexandria; the revolution of 1830 began, and they had no time for the sphinxes. Then they agreed to resell them to Russia. And finally, in the spring of 1832, the sphinxes arrived in St. Petersburg. A Greek ship called the Good Hope carried them from Alexandria for a whole year.

While loading onto the ship, the cable of one of the sculptures broke. The huge sphinx fell, breaking the side of the ship, and almost sank it. He himself also suffered in this case - part of his chin was broken off, his face was also damaged, on which the rope left a deep mark.

For two years the sphinxes stood in the courtyard of the Academy of Arts, waiting in the wings. Finally, the pier was completed, and in 1834 they were placed on high pedestals made of Finnish granite.
And since then they have been a magnificent decoration of the Neva embankment in the front part of the capital.

Their eyes are directed into infinity, and sometimes it seems that these ancient sphinxes are hiding some secret from us. After all, they have seen so much in this life...

A.S. Pushkin often walked along this embankment, admiring the sphinxes.
« ...the faces of these sphinxes are like a riddle that needs to be solved».

Many poets dedicated poems to them:

« Did the magic of the white night lure
You are in the haze, full of polar wonders,
Two beast-divas from hundred-century-old Thebes?
Has pale Isis captivated you?
What secret has petrified you
A laughing twist of cruel lips?
Midnight waves unceasing spill
Are you happier than the stars of St. Nile? Vyacheslav Ivanov

« Eyes fixed, silent,
Filled with holy melancholy
It's like they hear the waves
Another, solemn river.
For them, children of millennia,
Only a dream vision of these places...” V. Vryusov

And in our time they also do not go unnoticed:

In 2002, a very large and complex work was carried out on their restoration, after which the ancient sculptures appeared in their original form and even looked younger in appearance.

Sphinxes in the courtyard of the Stroganov Palace

These two granite sphinxes are the very first to appear in St. Petersburg. Since 1796, they decorated the pier at the dacha of A.S. Stroganov. Since 1908, after the dacha was rebuilt, they were transported several times until they finally took their final place - in the courtyard of the Stroganov Palace.

Sphinxes on the Egyptian Bridge

This ancient bridge with four cast iron sphinxes received its name because it was decorated in a style characteristic of Egypt. However, Pavel Sokolov’s sculptors are more reminiscent of Greek sphinxes than Egyptian ones - after all, they have female appearances.

Many have heard about the tragedy that happened on this bridge in 1905. The bridge collapsed, unable to withstand the load, when a cavalry squadron drove onto it. Most likely, this happened due to errors in calculations during the construction of the bridge.

A wooden bridge was temporarily built at this site. But they were able to replace it with a solid stone one only in 1955. And although the design of the new bridge was significantly inferior to the original one, the Egyptian motifs were still preserved. And, of course, his guards - the magnificent sphinxes - also took their places.

Sphinxes on the Malaya Nevka embankment

Historians agree that these sphinxes represent nothing more than the original test castings of the sphinxes from the Egyptian Bridge. They are very similar to each other.

Apparently, for some reason, rejected, these sphinxes were stored somewhere for a long time, and in 1971 they were installed on the pier of the Malaya Nevka embankment. However, time did not spare them, and at the beginning of the 21st century these sphinxes required urgent restoration.

It was carried out with funds allocated by Mostotrest. After that
The restored sculptures were displayed in the courtyard of this organization for several years, but in 2010 they were returned to their original location, on the embankment.

Sphinxes in the courtyard of the Mining Institute

In the courtyard of the Mining Institute, located on Vasilievsky Island, among the greenery of the ancient garden, small and graceful sculptures of sphinxes appeared in 1826.
These sculptures have a rich dark color and very expressive female faces. No wonder they are considered the most feminine. The author of these works is the sculptor A. Postnikov.

Sphinxes on Sverdlovskaya (Polyustrovskaya) embankment

Sculptures reminiscent of the sphinxes from the Stroganov dacha appeared here at the end of the 18th century, and somehow disappeared in the 19th century. And only during the restoration of the pier, carried out in 1985, it was decided to install the same sculptures here again.

Sphinxes on the Robespierre embankment

In 1995, two eerie bronze sphinxes appeared opposite the famous St. Petersburg “Crosses”. For people on the embankment, these sphinxes look quite traditional - they have ordinary female faces.

One of the smallest sphinxes on the helmet of the goddess of wisdom. Sculpture of the goddess - on the building of the Russian National Library on Nevsky Prospekt

There is great interest not only among residents of St. Petersburg,
but it also evokes feelings among guests of the northern capital.

In which the motifs of the famous sphinxes on the University Embankment are rethought. Located opposite the notorious Kresty prison on Voskresenskaya Embankment. The author of the project is Mikhail Shemyakin.

The monument in the form of two bronze sphinxes on granite pedestals was opened on April 28, 1995. These unusual sphinxes face the residential buildings on the embankment with their profiles like young female faces, and the Neva and the Kresty prison on the opposite bank are pitted, exposed skulls. Between the sphinxes on the parapet of the embankment there is a stylized window of a prison cell with bars.

The height of the sphinxes is 1.40 m, the height of the plinth is 0.17 m, the height of the pedestals is 1.60. [ ]

Along the perimeters of the granite pedestals there are copper plates on which are engraved lines from the works of V. Shalamov, N. Gumilyov, O. Mandelstam, A. Akhmatova, N. Zabolotsky, D. Andreev, D. Likhachev, I. Brodsky, Yu. Galanskova, A. Solzhenitsyn, V. Vysotsky, V. Bukovsky:

• All his comrades fell asleep, / only he alone is not sleeping: / he is all busy casting a bullet, / that will separate me from the earth... / Nikolai Gumilyov, 1917;
• ... St. Petersburg! I still have addresses / where I will find the voices of the dead... / Osip Mandelstam, 1930
• ... I would like to call everyone by name, / But the lists were taken away and there is nowhere to find out ... / And if they shut my exhausted mouth, / To which a hundred million people are shouting ... / Because even in the blessed death I am afraid / To forget the rumble of the black marus, / To forget how hateful she clapped door / And the old woman howled like a wounded animal. / And let the melted snow flow from the motionless and bronze eyelids / Like tears, / And let the prison dove hum in the distance / And let the ships quietly sail along the Neva... / Anna Akhmatova, 1935-1940;
• ... So they walked in their pea jackets - / two unfortunate Russian old men, / remembering their native huts / and yearning for them from afar... /... The guards will no longer catch up with them, / the camp convoy will not overtake, / only the constellations of Magadan / will sparkle, becoming above your head... / Nikolai Zabolotsky, 1947-1948;
• … No! We are not architects of palaces / who create under the sun and wind / domes and crowns, / erecting in the blue eye - / in the depths of a Russian prison / I work on the mysterious meter / until the dawn border / in my dim window... / Daniil Andreev, 1956;
• I can repeat what I said before: / there is no fear in truth. / Truth and fear are not compatible. / Dmitry Likhachev, 1987;
• January passed outside the prison windows / and I heard the singing of prisoners, sounding in the brick host of cells: / “One of our brothers is free.” / You also hear the singing of the prisoners / and the tramp of the silent guards, / you yourself are singing, singing silently: / “Goodbye, January” / Turning your face to the window, / you are still taking sips of warm air, / and I am again wandering thoughtfully / from the interrogation for interrogation along the corridor / To that distant country where there is no longer / neither January, nor February, nor March. / Joseph Brodsky, 1961;
• ...You may win this fight, but you / will still lose this war. The war / for democracy and Russia, a war / which has already begun and in which / justice will inevitably win... / Yuri Galanskov, 1966;
• … That’s why everyone who dug deeper / experienced it more fully - those in the grave will no longer / tell. / No one / will ever tell the main thing about these camps... / Alexander Solzhenitsyn;
• Everything is taken into the pipes, the taps are turned off, / at night they just whine and whine, / what is needed... we need to pour salt into the wounds, / to remember better - let them hurt! / Vladimir Vysotsky;
• Unhappy is the country where simple honesty / is perceived at best as / heroism, at worst as a mental / disorder, for in such a country the land / will not produce bread. Woe to that people in whom the sense of dignity has dried up, for their children will be born deformed. And if / there is not at least one in that country / to take upon himself the common sin, / the wind will never return / to normal. Vladimir Bukovsky, 1995;
• The smell of larch was faint but clear, and no force in the world could drown out this smell, put out this green light and color. A faint persistent smell - it was the voice of the dead. On behalf of these dead people, the larch dared to breathe, speak and live. Varlam Shalamov, “Kolyma Tales”.

The monument also shows a facsimile of the signature

Prison "Crosses". In the foreground is a memorial to the victims of political repression.

"To the victims of political repression"- a monument on the banks of the Neva in St. Petersburg, in which the motifs of the famous sphinxes on the University Embankment are reinterpreted. Located opposite the notorious Kresty prison on Voskresenskaya Embankment. The author of the project is Mikhail Shemyakin.

The monument in the form of two bronze sphinxes on granite pedestals was opened on April 28, 1995. These unusual sphinxes face the residential buildings on the embankment with their profiles like young female faces, and the Neva and the Kresty prison on the opposite bank are pitted, exposed skulls. Between the sphinxes on the parapet of the embankment there is a stylized window of a prison cell with bars.

The height of the sphinxes is 1.40 m, the height of the plinth is 0.17 m, the height of the pedestals is 1.60. [ ]

Along the perimeters of the granite pedestals there are copper plates on which are engraved lines from the works of V. Shalamov, N. Gumilyov, O. Mandelstam, A. Akhmatova, N. Zabolotsky, D. Andreev, D. Likhachev, I. Brodsky, Yu. Galanskov, A. Solzhenitsyn, V. Vysotsky, V. Bukovsky:

• All his comrades fell asleep, / only he alone is not sleeping: / he is all busy casting a bullet, / that will separate me from the earth... / Nikolai Gumilyov, 1917;
• ... St. Petersburg! I still have addresses / where I will find the voices of the dead... / Osip Mandelstam, 1930
• ... I would like to call everyone by name, / But the lists were taken away and there is nowhere to find out ... / And if they shut my exhausted mouth, / To which a hundred million people are shouting ... / Because even in the blessed death I am afraid / To forget the rumble of the black marus, / To forget how hateful she clapped door / And the old woman howled like a wounded animal. / And let the melted snow flow from the motionless and bronze eyelids / Like tears, / And let the prison dove hum in the distance / And let the ships quietly sail along the Neva... / Anna Akhmatova, 1935-1940;
• ... So they walked in their pea jackets - / two unfortunate Russian old men, / remembering their native huts / and yearning for them from afar... /... The guards will no longer catch up with them, / the camp convoy will not overtake, / only the constellations of Magadan / will sparkle, becoming above your head... / Nikolai Zabolotsky, 1947-1948;
• … No! We are not architects of palaces / who create under the sun and wind / domes and crowns, / erecting in the blue eye - / in the depths of a Russian prison / I work on the mysterious meter / until the dawn border / in my dim window... / Daniil Andreev, 1956;
• I can repeat what I said before: / there is no fear in truth. / Truth and fear are not compatible. / Dmitry Likhachev, 1987;
• January passed outside the prison windows / and I heard the singing of prisoners, sounding in the brick host of cells: / “One of our brothers is free.” / You also hear the singing of the prisoners / and the tramp of the silent guards, / you yourself are singing, singing silently: / “Goodbye, January” / Turning your face to the window, / you are still taking sips of warm air, / and I am again wandering thoughtfully / from the interrogation for interrogation along the corridor / To that distant country where there is no longer / neither January, nor February, nor March. / Joseph Brodsky, 1961;
• ...You may win this fight, but you / will still lose this war. The war / for democracy and Russia, a war / which has already begun and in which / justice will inevitably win... / Yuri Galanskov, 1966;
• … That’s why everyone who dug deeper / experienced it more fully - those in the grave will no longer / tell. / No one / will ever tell the main thing about these camps... / Alexander Solzhenitsyn;
• Everything is taken into the pipes, the taps are turned off, / at night they just whine and whine, / what is needed... we need to pour salt into the wounds, / to remember better - let them hurt! / Vladimir Vysotsky;
• Unhappy is the country where simple honesty / is perceived at best as / heroism, at worst as a mental / disorder, for in such a country the land / will not produce bread. Woe to that people in whom the sense of dignity has dried up, for their children will be born deformed. And if / there is not at least one in that country / to take upon himself the common sin, / the wind will never return / to normal. Vladimir Bukovsky, 1995;
• The smell of larch was faint but clear, and no force in the world could drown out this smell, put out this green light and color. A faint persistent smell - it was the voice of the dead. On behalf of these dead people, the larch dared to breathe, speak and live. Varlam Shalamov, “Kolyma Tales”.

The monument also shows a facsimile of the signature

Monument to Peter I in the Peter and Paul Fortress, Leningrad (St. Petersburg), Russia. (The author's copy is located in Claverack, USA) 1991.

The lifetime mask of Peter I, made by sculptor Bartolomeo Carlo Rastrelli in 1719, was used in the work on the monument. Peter, sitting in a large bronze chair with armrests, looks unusual and even mysterious. Based on the works of B.K. Rastrelli, Mikhail Shemyakin created a complex, contradictory image, far from the prototypes and making one think about the tragic history of the city and the country. The appearance of the sculptural composition expresses Shemyakin’s understanding of Peter’s personality. Its features emphasize vitality, informality, psychology, and metaphysical nakedness. On the side plane of the pedestal there is an author’s inscription: “To the Founder of the Great City of Russia, Emperor Peter the Great, from the Italian sculptor Carlo Rastrelli and from the Russian artist Mikhail Shemyakin. 1991 Cast in America"

“In the manner of great monumental sculpture, Shemyakina’s majestic Peter engulfs the very air in which he dwells and captures it in his seated timelessness. In this absorption of space, sound is also removed from its bronze surroundings and hidden inside this wonderful Peter, in whose sitting pose nobility and deep nobility are revealed.” Leonid Baskin 1991.

A unique monument, the fame of which has already spread throughout the world, during its existence it has turned into a kind of curiosity for foreigners and guests of the city. Despite the relatively small “age” of the monument, city traditions have already appeared around it: St. Petersburg residents and guests of the city often touch Peter’s bronze hands and feet - for good luck. Newlyweds also come to the monument to lay flowers at its foot.

Monument to “Victims of Political Repression” (Metaphysical Sphinxes)

Monument to the “Victims of Political Repression” (Metaphysical Sphinxes). St. Petersburg, Russia 1995

The monument is a gift from the artist M.M. Shemyakin to his hometown of St. Petersburg. The sculptures of metaphysical sphinxes were created by Shemyakin in 1994. The place for the monument was symbolically chosen opposite the famous Leningrad prison “Crosses”, where prisoners languished during the years of Stalin’s repressions. Installed opposite the Kresty prison, famous for its dark history, the sphinxes are not just one of the city’s sculptures. Their faces - half human, half rotten skulls - are the personification of the brutal Stalinist regime.

Monument to the “Primary Architects of St. Petersburg”

Monument to the Architects-Prime Builders of St. Petersburg. St. Petersburg, Russia 1995

Materials: pink granite, polished - architectural volume; bronze - applied reliefs, sculptural composition; brass - overhead text boards. Height - 500 cm. The monument was built in the Sampsonievsky Garden (formerly the Karl Marx Garden) near the Sampsonievsky Cathedral, on the site where there were two cemeteries - Orthodox (the first in St. Petersburg) and “German” (foreign).

The granite arch of the monument, crossed by a cross, is oriented towards the perspective of Sampsonievsky Cathedral, resembling a window (a symbolic image of St. Petersburg). In front of the “window” on the east side there is a bronze table with a map of St. Petersburg, a candlestick, a pipe and a skull on it. A bronze chair was placed nearby (the model was authentic Dutch furniture from the 17th century). On the eastern side of the arch there is a bronze medallion with a portrait of Peter the Great on top, and on the abutments of the arch there are eight bas-reliefs by Mikhail Shemyakin (copies of medals from Peter’s time, portraits of D. Trezzini and F.B. Rastrelli, metaphysical compositions).

Monument to the 200th anniversary of the death of Giacomo Casanova

Monument to the 200th anniversary of the death of Giacomo Casanova, erected in front of the Doge's Palace, Venice, Italy. 1998

The bronze composition is dedicated to the famous writer Giacomo Casanova, who died two hundred years ago far from his beloved Venice. The figure of Casanova froze on a Venetian balcony, carefully holding a mechanical doll by the hand. The role of honorary sentries of History is played by six-breasted sphinxes located on the sides of the brilliant adventurer. Each of the pedestals is decorated with a bronze mask, developing the theme of the theater of life.

Tombstone of S. Kramarov

Tombstone for S. Kramarov, San Francisco, 1999.

In San Francisco (USA), at the Jewish memorial cemetery, there is a monument to the actor Savely Kramarov, created by his friend the artist Mikhail Shemyakin: a dressing room table with masks of tragic roles he did not play and a book with the names of his best films (“My Friend, Kolka”, “The Elusive Avengers” ,

“Gentlemen of Fortune”, “Twelve Chairs”, “Big Change”). On the left is a curtain, on the right is a portrait of Kramarov, which no one has seen before - a kind and sad smile of a man laughing at the turns of his own fate.

Tombstone of M.V. Manevich

Tombstone of M.V. Manevich, St. Petersburg, 1999. (arr. V.B. Bukhaev)

In St. Petersburg, on the Literatorskie Mostki, a tombstone monument to M.V. Manevich (vice-governor of St. Petersburg, 1996-1997). The sculptor is Mikhail Shemyakin, the architect is his constant collaborator Vyacheslav Bukhaev. Among the tombstones stands a two-meter granite ball. He, like an extinguished star that fell on the sinful earth, breaks himself and breaks the slab on which he landed. Traces of bullets and a bronze medallion with a portrait of Mikhail Manevich clarify the symbolism.

Monument to Professor Harold Uecker "Plato's Dialogue with Socrates"

Monument to Professor Harold Uecker "Plato's Dialogue with Socrates." Hofstra University, Hampstead, NY New York, USA. 1999

Monument to professor of philosophy and psychology Uecker, installed at the ancient Hofstra University, founded by the Dutch, opposite the building of the Faculty of Philosophy. His favorite thinkers, Socrates and Plato, are depicted (Plato talking with a bust of Socrates). In the monument, Plato sits at a table and points with his finger at a ball with an all-seeing eye. The ball rests on a book and on a bronze manuscript recording the names of famous philosophers of all times and peoples. Opposite the table at which Plato sits is a bronze column. Now students sit on it and, as it were, enter into a dialogue with geniuses.

Monument to Peter the Great in Dettford

Monument to Peter the Great in Dettford, London, UK. 2001

Monument to the great Russian Tsar, who came to England in 1698, where he studied the science of shipbuilding.

Monument "Children - Victims of Adults' Vices"

Monument “Children - victims of adult vices”, Moscow, Russia 2001.

The monument “Children – Victims of the Vices of Adults” is an allegorical sculptural composition symbolizing the fight against evil and human vices. Shemyakin himself says that he conceived his work as a symbol of the struggle for the salvation of present and future generations.

The monument is installed in the park on Bolotnaya Square. The composition represents figures standing in a semicircle, personifying the vices: Drug addiction, Prostitution, Theft, Alcoholism, Ignorance, Pseudo-learning, Equality, Sadism, For the unconscious, Exploitation of child labor, Propaganda of violence, Poverty, War, and in front of them in the center are sculptures of a boy and a girl blindfolded.

Monument "Tsar's Walk" in Strelna

Monument "Tsar's Walk" in the park of the Konstantinovsky Palace in Strelna (St. Petersburg), Russia. 2003

The composition, installed on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, represents Peter the Great and his wife Catherine the Great on a walk, accompanied by a dwarf and two greyhounds. According to Mikhail Shemyakin, this is the first sculptural image of Catherine, who had not previously been represented in bronze.

Tombstone of A.A. Sobchak

Tombstone of A.A. Sobchak, St. Petersburg, 2003.

The tombstone is designed as a pulpit, behind which we see a professor in a university doctoral robe. The work was done at the request of the widow and, of course, out of gratitude - after all, it was on the initiative of Anatoly Alexandrovich that my monuments to the “Victims of Political Repression” and “Prime Builders of St. Petersburg” appeared in the city - Mikhail Shemyakin.

Monument to Vladimir Vysotsky in Samara

Monument to Vladimir Vysotsky, Samara, Russia. 2008

The monument to Vysotsky is a multi-figure bronze composition. The figures in the composition symbolically represent the key themes of Vladimir Semenovich’s life: love for a Woman, opposition to the irrational destructive principle, the thirst for freedom. The figure of a warden with a bunch of keys against the background of prison bars seems especially relevant in our time. The height of the monument is 5 meters, the area of ​​the composition is 25 square meters. meters.

Monument to the “Victims of Terror” in Vladikavkaz

Monument to the “Victims of Terror”, Vladikavkaz, Russia 2010.

Mikhail Shemyakin presented this monument to the Republic of North Ossetia (Russia).

“Monument to the Victims of Terror” is dedicated to the Beslan tragedy (terrorists seized a school building with students and kept them in inhumane conditions for several days. 186 children died, over 800 were injured)

In the center of the sculptural composition are children frozen in silent protest, trying to stop the army of advancing monsters. And behind the kids’ backs is the wheel of fate and a scroll depicting all those who died as a result of terrorist attacks.