From the Gates of Hell to the Novy Kuchuk-Koy: Rodin’s traditions in the park ensemble by A. T. Matveev

Abstract

In the work of Auguste Rodin a great place is dedicated to the topic of internal psychological conflict, which is expressed in the reflections and expressive poses of the heroes. The motif of the person's internal lack of freedom, inherited by the sculptor from Michelangelo, was expressed primarily in the «Gates of Hell», with figures of restless souls, «Three shadows» and «Bronze Age». Antite this theme was a harmonious, departing from the reflection imaginative world of Mayol. Alexandr Terentievich Matveyev, during his studies at P.P. Trubetskoi and later in France, studied both these creative systems, creating on their basis their own method. In the 1910s, one of the main resources for searching for his theme for Matveyev was an order for the sculptural decoration of the estate Novy Kuchuk-Koy in the Crimea. By this time, the sculptor was already a member of the «Blue Rose» association and accepted the aesthetics of meditative meditation, the motif of eternal sleep, which the painter Pavel Kuznetsov applied in the design of buildings and bridges Kuchuk-Koy. The result of this creative community was a large suite of figures – groups and stand-alone statues on pedestals. Rodin's theme of despair and tragic experiences of adult heroes turns into a sculpture of Kuchuk-Koy in the theme of life-sleep, in the melancholic poetry of life and creative maturation.