Details
AFTER YURY FELTEN
View of the Thunder Stone during its move in the presence of Catherine the Great on 20 January 1770
inscribed in plate 'I. V. Schley, Sculpsit.' (lower right) and inscribed with title in plate (along the lower edge)
etching with line engraving
1778 x 28 in. (45.5 x 71.1 cm.)
Engraved by Jacobus van der Schley in early 1770s
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Lot Essay

The etching depicts the movement of the Thunder Stone, the enormous granite boulder that forms the pedestal of the famed Bronze Horseman monument to Peter the Great in St Petersburg. The monument was commissioned by Catherine the Great, created by Étienne Maurice Falconet and took 12 years to finish. The monolith is the largest stone moved by humans and originally weighed 1500 tonnes before it was cut down on Falconet’s orders.
See D. A. Rovinsky, Dictionary of Russian engravers of XVI-XIX centuries, vol. II, St Petersburg, 1895, p. 1198.

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