The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-11-22
RUSSIAN WORKS OF ART.
Remarkable Monuments and Statues in the
City of St. Petersburg.

DIT. buckley s Letter.
Monument of Sir James Wylie: This cele-
brated Scotchman had most romantic career.
He was practicing medicine in ST. Petersburg
when certain count and favorite of the Emperor
Paul had an abs cess in his neck, and was near
DEATH The best medical men attended him with
out any benefit He was near death, when. on
the advice of his friends, he sent for Dr. Wylie
in the middle of the night He opened the tu
NOR, let out the matter, and the count was al
most restored to health at once. Paul made him
court physician. This was of the
lucky accidents by which many medical men
have emerged from comparative obscurity. 1t
was a proverb in Russia that DR.. Wylie had
made his fortune by cutting Count Kutuzofs
throat When Alexander assembled the throne
he retained Sir James Wyle, as did also Mich
olas. Under their regns he was president of
the Academy. In 1872, by the particular re-
quest of the Emperor Alexander, he was knight
ed by Great Britain, and also made a baronet.
The monument to him is in the court of the I'm
perial Academy of Medicine, and is very i'm
posing one.
The next is the monument to Field Marshal
Barclay de folly and Marshal Kutuzof spoke
of this in describing the Cathedral of Kazan.
There is also monument to Krylof, who was
a kind of Russian Esop, and another monument
to Suvoroff This stands almost in front of the
building of the British embassy. There is
magnificent statue of Emperor Nicholas, resting
on pedestal of granite of various colors. But
the most wonderful work is the Alexandrian
column, ''the greatest monolith of modern
times" 1t is single shaft of red
granite, eighty-four feet high. besides
the pedestal and capital. The base of the
pedestal consists of one enormous block of red
granite, the shape of cube, twenty-five feet in
every dimension. The shaft alone weighs 400
tons, and the whole rests on SIX successive rows
of piles. 1t is beautiful, and las this inscrip
ton: ITO Alexander l. Grateful Russia" In
the Nevski Prospect monument of Catharine
II, resting on immense blocks of Finnish gran
tie. Around it there are nine figures in bas-
relief of those who assisted Catharine in reform
ing the country One of them is a woman, the
Princess Woronzoff Dashkof, the first president
of the Academy of Arts Among the others is
the famous Potemkin. There is an equestrian
statue of Peter the Great in front of
the School Sc of the Eng1 E@5eror 1t psn
and has on it in letters of gold this inscription:
1.-The Grandson to the Grandfather, 1900" But
the greatest of all these monuments is the eques
trian statue of Peter the Great between the
Cathedral of st. Isaac and the river Neva This
is a most amazing work of art. Peter the Great
is represented as reigning up his horse upon the
brink of rock On both sides, as well as in
front, there are steep precipices His face is
turned toward the Neva His outstretched hand
points toward the result of his work A serpent,
typical of the obstacles Peter contended with,
lies writhing under the foot of the horse. The
mere figures can do little to give an idea
of this work, yet they must make an impression.
The whole is balanced on the hind legs and tail
of the horse, which is joined to the serpent's
body 1t weighs 10000 pound. The weight
of the whole metal is sixteen tons. A single
block of granite forms the PEDESTAL. and it
weighs l. 800 tons. Peter the Great stood On
this rock, at the place where it was brought
from-a little Finnish village, four miles from
the city-and watched a victory over the
Swedes 1t took 500 men five weeks, with a
great number of horses, hauling it over cannon
balls rolling over an iron tramway. Vastnsss,
expenditure, and will, are seen in every thing
the Russians do.