Dear Planeteers!

Spring is still waiting to come, so I start my next Project on my workbench!



1. Day, March 12, 2018

As most of you probably know, this is my favorite painting...:





It's name is "The Zaporozhian Cossacks write a letter to the Turkish Sultan" and it was painted by Ilya Tefimovich Repin ..:




Repin has been working on his Cossack project for more than 20 years. If one deals with the history of this picture in detail, one finds surprisingly many versions of the painter.

At first he drew a few dozen sketches ...:








This was followed by a preliminary study, which can be seen in Minsk (Belarus) at the National Museum ...:



In 1896 Repin painted a similar Varaiante 1.74 x 2.65 meters from the painting, which can be seen in the Museum of Fine Arts in Charkiv/Ukraine (formerly Charkov) ...:




And finally, the final version of the picture (1890-1891), 3.58 x 2.03 meters tall. As Tsar Aleksandr. III. Buy it for 35,500 gold rubles, it was the most expensive picture of its time. It hangs today in the Pushkin Museum in Saint Petersburg ...:

There is - also from Repin's hand - a very accurate scaled down version of this great original. This image was bought by Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III before the First World War. Baroda for the museum he founded. It is still there today in Gujarat, India ...:




The picture shows a historical scene ...:


In the early autumn of 1676, the Turkish sultan Mehmed IV.



...wrote the following letter to the Zaporozhian Cossacks:
"I, Sultan and Lord of the High Door, son of Muhammad, brother of the Sun and the Moon, grandson and governor of God on earth, ruler of the kingdoms of Macedonia, Babylon, Jerusalem, great and little Egypt, king of kings, lord of lords, incomparable knight, invincible commander, hope and consolation of the Muslims, terror and great protector of the Christians, command you to give up Zaporozhian Cossacks voluntarily and without any resistance and to no longer disturb my empire by your raids.Sultan Mehmed IV "
What had annoyed the Sultan so much was that during the first Ottoman-Russian war (1676-1681), the Cossacks used the opportunity to plunder the rich and rich Crimean peninsula that was part of the Ottoman Empire.
And not only that!

The Cossacks had also the impudence to defeat a hastily enlisted Ottoman army on the lower reaches of the Dnieper destroyed.

The Zaporozhian Cossacks did not hesitate long in answering the Sultan. It has been preserved and one of the most beautiful pieces of obscene literature that we know.

Her answer letter was:

"You Turkish devil, brother and comrade of the cursed devil and Lucifer's incarnate secretary! What a knight are you to hell if you can not even kill a hedgehog with your bare ass? What the devil craves eats your army We will not have any sons of Christ under your charge, we will not fear your army, we will fight with you on land and water, your mother will be fucked!


Babylonian kitchen-boy, wheel-maker of Macedonia, goat-shepherd of Alexandria, brewers of Jerusalem, suckers of great and little Egypt, pig of Armenia, tartar goat, criminals of Podolia, hangman of Kamenetz and fool of the whole world and underworld, besides our God's fool , Grandson of the devil of Satan and the hook of our cock. Pig-eating, mare's ass, butcher's dog, unbaptized forehead, fucked be your mother!


So the Zaporozhians answered you, Glatzkop! You are not even fit to guard Christian pigs. Now we have to break up. We do not know the date because we do not have a calendar. The moon is in heaven, the year is in the book and we have the same day as you. So kiss our butt!


Signed: The camp ataman Ivan Sirko together with the whole camp of the Zaporozhian Cossacks. "

So far the story of the letter told in the painting.


**contunued next post**

In all versions of the painting, a portly red Cossack stands in the center, who keeps his stomach laughing.

Even if its location changes several times depending on the version, so is the thickness - and not the Ataman Ivan Sirko! - always the center of the picture composition!




I have long been fascinated by this guy - my favorite Cossack in my favorite picture, so to speak!

Nine years ago I sculpted him myself in 90 mm ...





... and mounted it in the original painting using "Photoshop" ...:




But since I rebuilt a 1:10 bust of "Young" into a true Ivan Sirko with the help of Heinz (who designed the head) in 2014, like the famous Ataman after a forensic facial reconstruction by Professor Gerasimov from Leningrad really looked ...





... I wanted to place a bust of the portly red laughing Cossack next to it.

And Pavol Ovecka (aka "offo") sculpted it for me last year ...:










Since Ilja Repin gave all the main actors of his famous painting the lineaments of friends and acquaintances, we also know the "model" for this Cossack:

It was long assumed a the friend of the painter, the writer Vladimir Giljarowskij...



... was the model for the red Cossack - today we know, however, that it was the director of the St. Petersburg Conservatory, Aleksandr Rubez ...:




Only one thing the Cossack, about whom we know so much, does not have: a name!

In order not always have to write from the "fat red laughing Cossacks", I have decided to give him a name:

From now he is called "Artjom" (Russian) or "Artem" (Ukrainian). Both means "bear" - and I think that suits him like a fist on the eye!

In the following weeks I will try to paint "Artjom" as exactly as possible, whereby "exactly" means, for example, that I do not just want to render his clothes in appearance, but want to do a thorough research, like the original templates from the 17th century ( or their reconstructions!), which must have been present also Ilja Repin, when he painted his picture ...


Cheers

Hi Martin,
pulling up a chair so I can follow.
Am I right in thinking there was a vignette based on this painting on offer somewhere?
Slainte
L.H.

Yep - from "Irbis" in 75 mm, sculpted by Igor Kordyukov (No. IM75-17)...:

http://irbis-miniatures.com/magazin/product/cossacks-writing-a-letter-to-the-turkish-sultan

If 90 mm it would be mine...!


Cheers

Another remarkable presentation Martin and one more beautiful project.Will follow.The Irbis vignette is perhaps one of the best renditions of a painting in 3 dimensions I have ever seen but its price........ouch!!!!

Oda.

A good sculpture, but he does not laugh, unfortunately.

Great project.
Gordon

Tkanks mates!

@Nap and Oda: Not commercial, only for my collection!

-----------------------------------

2. Day, March 13, 2018

Before the bust is primed, there is still one - literally! - to change tiny detail:

"Artyom" wears a cross around his neck ...:




As far as good and right!

Indeed:

If we creep into the picture with an extreme cut-out magnification, it is noticeable that the guy's neck-cross looks different in the painting:




And that's right, because in the 17th century, the commonly used form of silver crosses in this corner of the world looked like this:




So I changed the cross of the bust with "Milliput" ...:




And when I had the above photo on the screen, I noticed that I have broken something - the modeled "string" on which the cross pendant is worn around the neck is broken in two places.




No big deal, the "Milliput" was already mixed!

I just made the cord anew quickly ...:




Cheers

another great project and a great history lesson again martin.
will be following with great interest again.

tony

Great backstory and inspiration. Looking forward to seeing more

The level of historically accurate detail you incorporate in your work trully sets the standards as to what Historical Miniature Modelling is all about (to my eyes at least).Hats off for that!

Oda.

Admirable!

Goo,goo, Martin

3. Day, March 14, 2018
















Cheers

4. Day, March 15, 2018


Basically, Ilya Repin has created his red Cossack as a caricature ...:




And I once juxtaposed the two professional sculpts by Igor Kordyukow (for Irbis) and Pavol Ovecka (for me):




While Igor recreated the caricature of the figure (left) virtually 1: 1, Pavol kept the facial features, but transformed the Cossack into a real person - which I like very much and much better, because I wanted it that way!

However, before I start painting, I have looked closely and thought about which elements of the caricature I can adopt - very reserved and discreet - for my bust without falsifying them too much.

I've decided to work on the bushy eyebrows: they now appear slightly arched upwards.

Then I optically reduced the size of the eyes by adding the Cossack's slip-eyelids from the painting.

And finally, the mouth was shown a little wider open by an optical trick (change of shape lower lip):







One - quite desirable! - side effect is: Artjom looks kinda happier now ...!
I had originally thought about changing my nose and making it a bit more bumpy at the top. That's what I left, though!

It is not so big (see Repin painting). And besides, I have something else in mind with the tine:

When ready painted the nose should look like the Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky (1839 - 1881) ...:



If I made them thicker, that meant exaggerating the intended effect!

Then I would have landed again at a caricature, which I do not want ...

Cheers

5. Day, March 16, 2018


The reworked face - ready sculpted...:







I think the work was worth it ...!
Next Monday I'll start painting.


Cheers

He does look happier now!!!Looking forward to seeing him become more "colourful".

Oda.

Actually, I did not want to paint today, but ...

My wife had her birthday a few days ago and my mother-in-law came to visit. And the two wanted to go shopping together.

And if TWO women go shopping, I'm standing there anyway just stupid in the way!

So it's painting...:


6. Day, March 17, 2018

If we look at an extremely close-up magnification of "Artjom" (which I have additionally sharpened a bit with "Photoshop"), then our Cossack has little black pig's eyes!






And something else stands out: The eyeballs are not white, but go a bit towards rosa/red.

These "bloodshot" eyes can have two causes:

A violent retarded conjunctivitis...



... or years of alcohol abuse!



In both cases, many of the many that bleed through the eye burst!

From a distance of one meter we take the veins individually but no longer true, but the "white in the eye" appears pink to red - thus "bloodshot" ...:





As a cause, I type converning "Artjom" for years of alcohol consumption!

Our friend looks like he tasted more "Samogon" (black burned) in his long life (he is in his early 70s) than I would wish my worst enemy!



I took these colors for the iris ...:



The brown is added to the black, because it does not really have extremely deep black eyes - it is always a little brown in it, which you can see clearly when light catches the eye ...:





With these colors I have painted the unhealthily looking tint of the eyeballs ...:



Finally, the two inevitable reflex points come with pure white.

At these reflex points I hang with a violent love-hate!

I HATE 'em, because you can mess up a nice eye with the last touch, so to speak!

I LOVE 'em because only with these two points does a figure begin to "live"!

Right now I LOVE reflex points ...:







So much for today.


Cheers