The Bronze Horseman Photo

Photographer’s Note

St.Petrsburg - Senate Square - The Bronze Horseman

"There, by the billows desolate,
He stood, with mighty thoughts elate,
And gazed..."
Pushkin A.S. "The Bronze Horseman"

The Bronze Horseman, a monument to the founder of St.Petersburg, Peter the Great, stands on Senate Square, facing the Neva River. The monument was built in the times of the Empress Catherine the Great as a tribute to her famous predecessor on the Russian throne, Peter the Great. Being a German princess by birth, she wished to establish a line of continuity with the earlier Russian monarchs. That's why an inscription on the monument is in Latin and Russian.

The monument was created by the famous French sculptor Etienne Falconet. The pedestal is made of a single piece of red granite shaped as a cliff. From the top of this cliff Peter leads Russia forward, while his horse steps on a snake which represents the enemies of Peter and his reforms.

Cormac, robjol has marked this note useful

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Cormac (26461) 2005-05-12 15:59

A very dramatic angle for this statue - the curve of the stone pedestal matches the curve of the statue - well done! I really like your note also. I will be travelling to St. Petersburg in 3 weeks, so I appreciate the photo and the information. I hope you post some more photos from the area.

temka (256) 2005-05-18 10:28 [Comment]

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batalay (21408) 2008-02-28 4:59

Hello Olga,

The great German physicist Werner Heisenberg once said, "Never underestimate how much pleasure it gives a man to see what he already knows." So it is for me with this great statute of Peter the Great. I've seen it twice (in 1990 and 2001), but did not have a good digital camera to take such a superb photograph. Beautifully composed, exquisitely exposed photograph, one of the first statues (if not the first, to actually achieve balancing an equestrian statue on just two hind legs. It looks like the statue was cast in 1782. Leonardo made sketches in the late 15th century for such a statue, but it never came to fruition.

Warm regards,

Bulent