Mikhail Lomonosov has long been called a textbook person. Every student from a young age knows about an outstanding scientist, or at least about his existence, and learns his appearance in the portrait.
Mikhail Lomonosov: portrait of a scientist based on Schulze's drawing
In the painting of the XVIII century, paintings with the image of people were in special demand. This was largely due to the need of people to leave a mark on history and pass on information to descendants about how outstanding minds of their time looked.
Such a person as an outstanding scientist, a pioneer in many fields of science, an encyclopedist, a poet and just an excellent person with remarkable physical strength could not do without the attention of artists.
The portrait of Lomonosov has been familiar to everyone since childhood. Few people know that such a familiar image of a scientist has several interpretations and it is sometimes very difficult to distinguish the hand of the masters. Among the many works of art, the engraving portrait of Lomonosov by M. Schreyer based on a drawing by his colleague and teacher H. Schulze is of considerable interest to art historians.
The composition of the work is not much different from that of Fessard, but it can be noted that Schreyer introduces a number of interesting details. The scientist does not hold both hands on the table, but sits in an open pose, exposing his chest in a homely sloppy caftan. Mikhail Vasilievich holds notes in one hand, and a pen in the other. His facial expression betrays extreme thoughtfulness, but at the same time you can catch a hint of enthusiasm in his gaze. The viewer is presented with a portrait of Lomonosov, who is busy with the thought process and at the same time tries to carefully fix everything on paper. The books open in front of him lie in labor negligence.
An unexpected fact about the engraving.
Engraving by Schreyer, depicting a portrait of Lomonosov, has one feature over which art critics are still puzzling. It is assumed that the work was written according to Schulze's drawing, but he was born in 1749, which does not fit in with the date of the engraving - the end of the 18th century. A detailed examination of the picture reveals that in the open book in the foreground is the name of Peter I, and not Elizabeth, during whose time Lomonosov lived. The overall composition is stylistically built in the Baroque style, although the end of the 18th century is considered the period when classicism reigned in painting. Based on these discrepancies in the art world, there is an assumption that the portrait of Lomonosov’s hands of Schreyer went through several stages of his development, and the artist himself did not contact the scientist. Initially, a portrait of Mikhail Vasilievich was created, then Schulze made a drawing from him. At the last stage, Schreyer created his famous engraving based on a pencil sketch of his teacher and colleague.
Stylistic features of the engraving.
The baroque style mentioned above in the painting, which had no place in the 18th century, is explained by the artistic technique that came to us from the time of the Roman Empire. With the aim of writing an engraving depicting an outstanding scientist, Schulze, and, after him, of course, Schreyer also found a suitable prototype of the painting, which depicted Jean-Jacques Rousseau. And, taking it as a basis, they “planted” the head of Lomonosov on the thinker's body. It is this fact that explains the stylistic discrepancy in the engraving of Shreira with the canons reigning in painting at the end of the 18th century.