Loxuru
Graf von Kreuzigung
The Lost Panorama
A recurrent topic on the forum are stories and pics of classical scenes of crucifixion in the Roman arena. Among these pics are reproductions from what was once a monumental panorama painting, entitled “The martyrdom of Christians in Nero’ circus”. A masterpiece from the Polish painter Jan Styka (1858-1925).
I got curious about this panorama painting. It is often mentioned on the internet, but little is revealed about what happened to it. Eventually I found some information, that allowed to reconstruct its history as far as possible. These are the results up to now (as far as I found out, this information was not yet presented on the Forum – correct me if I am wrong). I particularly wondered, whether it still existed somewhere.
Panorama paintings were extremely popular in the late 19th and early 20th century. They toured throughout Europe and the US, in order to be displayed in rotundas, circular buildings, often erected for the purpose.
Previously, Jan Styka had painted ‘Golgotha’, a huge 60 m long and 14 m high panorama, representing the crucifixion of Christ. According to sources (Wikipedia), it was to be shown at the 1904 World Fair in Saint Louis (running simultaneously with the Olympic Games held that year in the city). But US customs confiscated it, because of problems concerning payment of customs taxes. It then got lost for 40 years, to be rediscovered in a basement in Chicago. It is now on display in Los Angeles.
The as yet most complete information of Styka’s next panorama, The martyrdom of Christians in Nero’ circus (1897), I found on the site of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society (IOPS). It is a Russian site. The IOPS was founded in 1882 to support research on the Holy land (related to Russian Orthodox religion) and to support Russian pilgrims. After the Bolshevik revolution, it was incorporated into the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. In 1992, the Society was restored by its original name. So, the language of the IOPS site is Russian. I do not master Russian at all, and although some parts of the text are also available in English, these are limited. So I had to rely on Google translator, almost sentence by sentence. Although the results are sometimes awkward (the translator struggles with grammar, I guess, and Styka’s name is translated as ‘joint’), it nevertheless gives a good idea of the content. But be aware that I occasionally had to interpret the translation. The information on the panorama is found on an extensive page of the IOPS website, about pieces of art on evangelist themes on large paintings and panorama’s. Because of the extent of that web page, I have not translated all of it, only the section on Styka’s panorama. Beware that, since I found the site, it has been under reorganization, so some of the links had changed recently (and as the site is also very large, and I got lost in the links in Russian, it is better to have a link directly to the page concerned). The link below is where I found it most recently.
Styka started to work at the panorama around 1897. He was clearly inspired by scenes from the successful novel Quo Vadis (1895) by Henryk Sienkiewcz (1846-1916) (Nobelprize in Literature in 1905). Later, Styka also painted more scenes and illustrations based on, or even for the novel.
The scene is the racing track of the circus, the stands being crowded with onlookers. The central figure is the apostle Peter, about to be crucified upside down, surrounded by some followers. Behind him, tens of crosses are erected, most of them carrying already a victim. More crosses (I estimate there must be about 300 at all) are hidden by the spina, left of Saint-Peter. To the right, the view extends to the emperor’s loge. In the arena, many people, most of them naked or nearly naked, dwell around, waiting their turn to be executed.
In 1900, the panorama was on display in Paris (where also a World Fair and Olympic games were held). Actually, one can still find posters announcing this exhibition (they are even for sale). The posters show a crucified naked woman, seen from the back. On the panorama, she is facing Nero’s loge.
After Paris, the panorama traveled through Europe, and seems to have been shown in Warsaw and Kiev. In 1912, according to the IOPS website, it was put on display in the Russian town of Saratov, located on the Wolga, some 700 kilometers southeast of Moscow and 200 kilometers north of Wolgograd. It was a huge success, but then the owner of the panorama had a dispute with the town council, the owner of the exhibition rotunda, about the rent. Eventually, the painting was confiscated by the council. But then it was left to neglect. On January 15th, 1915, the roof of the rotunda collapsed under the weight of a load of snow, which the council had failed to have removed. The panorama was heavily damaged. Some saw it as a bad omen for the fate of Russia in the ongoing war.
Fragments of the painting were kept stored in a warehouse in Saratov. A local painter named Theodore Maksimovic Korneev proposed to restore it. But meanwhile, the Bolsheviks were on power, and religious art was less appreciated. Attempts have been made by Korneev to ‘recuperate’ it politically, by exposing it in a planned ‘Museum of the Revolution’, as a display of capitalist decadency in the Roman Empire.
But in 1929, Korneev was arrested and banished to Archangelsk. Since, the fate of the panorama is unknown. Is it still stored somewhere? Is it in hands of private collectors? Will it ever ‘resurrect’, like ‘Golgotha’. Or is it lost? It’s a mystery up to date.
http://news.jerusalem-ippo.ru/index...ent&task=view&id=4331&pop=1&page=0&Itemid=327
A recurrent topic on the forum are stories and pics of classical scenes of crucifixion in the Roman arena. Among these pics are reproductions from what was once a monumental panorama painting, entitled “The martyrdom of Christians in Nero’ circus”. A masterpiece from the Polish painter Jan Styka (1858-1925).
I got curious about this panorama painting. It is often mentioned on the internet, but little is revealed about what happened to it. Eventually I found some information, that allowed to reconstruct its history as far as possible. These are the results up to now (as far as I found out, this information was not yet presented on the Forum – correct me if I am wrong). I particularly wondered, whether it still existed somewhere.
Panorama paintings were extremely popular in the late 19th and early 20th century. They toured throughout Europe and the US, in order to be displayed in rotundas, circular buildings, often erected for the purpose.
Previously, Jan Styka had painted ‘Golgotha’, a huge 60 m long and 14 m high panorama, representing the crucifixion of Christ. According to sources (Wikipedia), it was to be shown at the 1904 World Fair in Saint Louis (running simultaneously with the Olympic Games held that year in the city). But US customs confiscated it, because of problems concerning payment of customs taxes. It then got lost for 40 years, to be rediscovered in a basement in Chicago. It is now on display in Los Angeles.
The as yet most complete information of Styka’s next panorama, The martyrdom of Christians in Nero’ circus (1897), I found on the site of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society (IOPS). It is a Russian site. The IOPS was founded in 1882 to support research on the Holy land (related to Russian Orthodox religion) and to support Russian pilgrims. After the Bolshevik revolution, it was incorporated into the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. In 1992, the Society was restored by its original name. So, the language of the IOPS site is Russian. I do not master Russian at all, and although some parts of the text are also available in English, these are limited. So I had to rely on Google translator, almost sentence by sentence. Although the results are sometimes awkward (the translator struggles with grammar, I guess, and Styka’s name is translated as ‘joint’), it nevertheless gives a good idea of the content. But be aware that I occasionally had to interpret the translation. The information on the panorama is found on an extensive page of the IOPS website, about pieces of art on evangelist themes on large paintings and panorama’s. Because of the extent of that web page, I have not translated all of it, only the section on Styka’s panorama. Beware that, since I found the site, it has been under reorganization, so some of the links had changed recently (and as the site is also very large, and I got lost in the links in Russian, it is better to have a link directly to the page concerned). The link below is where I found it most recently.
Styka started to work at the panorama around 1897. He was clearly inspired by scenes from the successful novel Quo Vadis (1895) by Henryk Sienkiewcz (1846-1916) (Nobelprize in Literature in 1905). Later, Styka also painted more scenes and illustrations based on, or even for the novel.
The scene is the racing track of the circus, the stands being crowded with onlookers. The central figure is the apostle Peter, about to be crucified upside down, surrounded by some followers. Behind him, tens of crosses are erected, most of them carrying already a victim. More crosses (I estimate there must be about 300 at all) are hidden by the spina, left of Saint-Peter. To the right, the view extends to the emperor’s loge. In the arena, many people, most of them naked or nearly naked, dwell around, waiting their turn to be executed.
In 1900, the panorama was on display in Paris (where also a World Fair and Olympic games were held). Actually, one can still find posters announcing this exhibition (they are even for sale). The posters show a crucified naked woman, seen from the back. On the panorama, she is facing Nero’s loge.
After Paris, the panorama traveled through Europe, and seems to have been shown in Warsaw and Kiev. In 1912, according to the IOPS website, it was put on display in the Russian town of Saratov, located on the Wolga, some 700 kilometers southeast of Moscow and 200 kilometers north of Wolgograd. It was a huge success, but then the owner of the panorama had a dispute with the town council, the owner of the exhibition rotunda, about the rent. Eventually, the painting was confiscated by the council. But then it was left to neglect. On January 15th, 1915, the roof of the rotunda collapsed under the weight of a load of snow, which the council had failed to have removed. The panorama was heavily damaged. Some saw it as a bad omen for the fate of Russia in the ongoing war.
Fragments of the painting were kept stored in a warehouse in Saratov. A local painter named Theodore Maksimovic Korneev proposed to restore it. But meanwhile, the Bolsheviks were on power, and religious art was less appreciated. Attempts have been made by Korneev to ‘recuperate’ it politically, by exposing it in a planned ‘Museum of the Revolution’, as a display of capitalist decadency in the Roman Empire.
But in 1929, Korneev was arrested and banished to Archangelsk. Since, the fate of the panorama is unknown. Is it still stored somewhere? Is it in hands of private collectors? Will it ever ‘resurrect’, like ‘Golgotha’. Or is it lost? It’s a mystery up to date.
http://news.jerusalem-ippo.ru/index...ent&task=view&id=4331&pop=1&page=0&Itemid=327
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