Death masks of great Russian writers: what secrets do they keep?

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Painters, photographers, sculptors have always sought to capture the appearance of famous people. The latter, in addition to creating statues and busts, were honored to remove death mask from the face of the departed. These masks are the last evidence of the earthly life of the great. In our review - the death masks of Russian poets and writers. The death of each of them was painful, so it seems that the plaster casts keep not only the memory of them, but also the ominous secrets of their death.

The death masks of famous people are not just a cast that captures a faded face. This is a "reflection" of the last feelings, emotions, experiences. "Wonderful genius" of Russian literature, Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, passed away hard. Wounded in a duel by Dantes, he experienced inhuman suffering, the torment lasted two days, and the doctors were powerless to help him. However, the mask, made at the request of Vasily Zhukovsky by the sculptor Samuil Galberg, radiates peace, tranquility and humility. Biographers often expressed the idea that the poet died without anger and thirst for revenge, he even asked his friends not to take revenge on his killer.

Demise Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol became one of the most mysterious in Russian history. According to one version, the great writer was buried alive in a lethargic sleep. It is difficult to judge whether it is true or not, but after opening his coffin, it was discovered that the body of the deceased was bent in an unnatural position, the lining was scratched with nails, and the head was completely absent. The sculptor Nikolai Ramazanov, who took off the mask, claims that Gogol was dead, and the official report on his death states that he was diagnosed with cardiovascular insufficiency. Before his death, Gogol was weak, refused to eat, and his body temperature was so low that he was covered with loaves of warm bread.

One of the harshest death masks is considered to be a cast from the face. Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy. The last to work with the deceased was Sergei Merkurov (this sculptor is the author of 300 masks, including even a cast of Lenin's face). He recalls that, in the guise of a famous writer, he was struck by a half-open right eye and a thick, angrily raised eyebrow.

The poets of the Silver Age are a separate page in the history of Russian literature. Vladimir Mayakovsky Sergei Yesenin, Alexander Blok … All of them passed away in a tragic way. Many people still do not want to believe either in the fatal shot of the singer of the revolution, or in the hanging of a poet who is known as a drunkard and a hooligan. There is debate about Blok's illness, and, perhaps, Vladislav Khodasevich described his dying state in the best way: “Before his death, he suffered greatly. But what did he die of? all sick, because he could no longer live. He died of death."

Blok's death mask is the face of the poet-sufferer. Art critics have often talked about his likeness to the face of Jesus Christ. Of course, it is difficult to assume that such an image was created by the sculptor on purpose, rather, this is the inner essence of the great poet.

Mayakovsky's death mask was removed by the same Sergei Merkurov, who had a chance to correct a poorly obtained cast of his colleague Konstantin Lutsky. The mask turned out to be scary, with a sloping nose and a deformed face. And this despite the fact that the poet's face was not asymmetrical. At the sight of a mask, the version of a violent death does not seem so implausible. Yesenin's mask is just as mysterious. It clearly shows a broken forehead, which once again confirms the version that the poet could have been killed in the Angleterre Hotel. The secrets of the death of great writers fascinate us again and again. So, according to one version Nikolay Gogol died not from cardiovascular failure, but from poisoning. Among other versions, the cause of his death was cancer or mental illness …