A Self-Portrait, the Pitcher, and Rembrandt the Martyr

ABSTRACT

This article discusses three of Osip Mandelstam’s poems that refer to works of art: “A hint of wing in the lifted” (sometimes called “Self-Portrait”), “Delinquent debtor to a long thirst” (or “The Pitcher), and “Like chiaroscuro’s martyr Rembrandt.” Irina Surat outlines the context of each poem, as well as the art works each refers to, and with reference to other scholars and memoirists places them within Mandelstam’s poetic and critical opus.

KEYWORDS:

• Osip Mandelstam; Russian poetry; ekphrastic poetry

Notes

1. Mandel’shtam [Mandelstam], O.E. Poln. sobr. soch. i pisem. V 3-x tt. T. 1. Moscow: Progress-Pleiada, 2009. Vol. 1, p. 290. Hereinafter Mandelstam’s works are quoted from this edition unless otherwise specified.

2. [The Russian portraitist Orest Adamovich Kiprensky (1782–1836) painted a famous portrait of Pushkin in 1827, to which Pushkin refers in his poem.—Translator.]

3. Molok, Iu. “Akhmatova i Mandel’shtam (K biografii rannikh portretov). In the anthology: Poeziia i zhivopis’. Sb. trudov pamiati N.I. Khardzhieva. Moscow, Iazyki russkoi kul’tury, 2000, p. 300.

4. Naumov, A. “Ikonografiia Osipa Mandel’shtama. Zametki k teme.” In “Ia skazhu tebe s poslednei priamotoi.” Al’bom-katalog vystavki k 125-letiiu so dnia rozhdeniia Osipa Mandel’shtama. Moscow: Literaturnyi muzei, 2016, p. 37.

5. See Livshits, B. Polutoraglazyi strelets. Leningrad: Izdatel’stvo pisatelei v Leningrade, 1933, pp. 269, 270.

6. Akhmatova, A.A. “Listki iz dnevnika.” In the anthology: Akhmatova, A.A. Soch. V 2-x tt. T. 2. Moscow: Pravda, 1990, p. 155.

7. Mandel’shtam, N.Ia. Vtoraia kniga. Moscow: Soglasie, 1999, p. 263.

8. Mandel’shtam, O.E. T. 1, p. 699 (commentary by A.G. Mets).

9. “Ia skazhu tebe s poslednei priamotoi,” pp. 124, 363. The portrait was long assumed to be water color, but recent research by A.V. Naumov showed that it was an oil painting: Naumov, A.V. “Ikonografiia Osipa Mandel’shtama,” p. 37.

10. Molok, Iu. “Akhmatova i Mandel’shtam,” p. 292.

11. ibid., p. 293.

12. Naumov, A.V. “Ikonografiia Osipa Mandel’shtama,” p. 35.

13. “Ia skazhu tebe s poslednei priamotoi,” p. 162.

14. For more detail see Surat, I. “Otkuda ‘vorovannyi vozdukh’?”, Novyi mir, 2016, No. 8.

15. Mandel’shtam, O.E. Poln. sobr. soch. i pisem. V 3-x tt. Prilozhenie. Letopis’ zhizni i tvorchestva. Moscow: Progress–Pleiada, 2014, p. 151.

16. For more detail see Surat, I. Mandel’shtam i Pushkin. Moscow: IMLI RAN, 2009, pp. 121–126.

17. Noted in the article: Toddes, E.A. “Stat’ia ‘Pshenitsa chelovecheskaia’ v tvorchestve Mandel’shtama nachala 20-x godov.” In the anthology: Tynianovskii sbornik. Tret’i Tynianovskie chteniia. Riga: Zinatne, 1988, p. 208.

18. Quoted from Mandel’shtam, O.E. Soch. V 2-x tt. Moscow: Khudozhestvennaia literatura, 1990, T. 1, pp. 251–252.

19. Mandel’shtam, N.Ia. Tret’ia kniga. Moscow: Agraf, 2006, p. 441.

20. Shtempel’, N.E. “Mandel’shtam v Voronezhe.” In the anthology: “Iasnaia Natasha.” Osip Mandel’shtam i Natal’ia Shtempel. Moscow–Voronezh: Kvarta, 2008.

21. See Mal’mberg, V.K., and E.R. Fel’sberg. Antichnye vazy i terrakoty. Yuryev, 1910. (Originals from the Museum of Fine Arts at Imperial Yuryev University.)

22. My thanks to Elena Ivanovna Pshenitsyna, chief curator of the Voronezh Oblast I.N. Kramskii Art Museum, for her expert opinion. I also thank Aleksei Vladimirovich Naumov for his comprehensive assistance—this work would not have been possible without him.

23. Dorpat–Yuryev–Tartu and Voronezh: The Fate of the University Collection. Catalogue. I. Tartu, 2006, p. 133.

24. ibid., pp. 124, 123.

25. ibid., p. 127.

26. Quoted from Mandel’shtam, O.E. Soch. V 2-x tt. T. 1, p. 252.

27. For more detail about a thirst for the sea in this cycle see Pavlov, M.S. “Mandel’shtam: tsikl o voronezhskoi zhazhde.” In Zapiski mandel’shtamovskogo obshchestva. T. 7. Mandel’shtam i antichnost’. Moscow: Radiks, 1995, pp. 179, 181–182.

28. [The reference is to Pushkin’s 1828 poem “Memory”: “Memory silently unfolds/Its long scroll before me.”—Translator.]

29. ibid., p. 181.

30. Shtempel’, N.E. “Mandel’shtam v Voronezhe,” p. 44.

31. Mandel’shtam, N.Ia. Vospominaniia. Moscow: Soglasie, 1999, p. 218.

32. ibid., p. 217.

33. Mandel’shtam, N.Ia. Tret’ia kniga, p. 441.

34. See the commentary by A.A. Morozov in the book: Mandel’shtam, N.Ia. Vospominaniia, pp. 498–499; clarification in the commentary by S.V. Vasilenko and P.M. Nerler in the book: Mandel’shtam, N.Ia. Sobr. soch. V 2-x tt. T. 1. Yekaterinburg: Gonzo, 2014, p. 542.

35. Nemirovskii, A.I. “Obrashchenie k antichnosti.” In the anthology: Zhizn’ i tvorchestvo O.E. Mandel’shtama. Voronezh: Izdatel’stvo VGU, 1990, p. 458.

36. Mandel’shtam, N.Ia. Vospominaniia, pp. 255, 246.

37. From a letter to E.E. Mandelstam, January 1937.

38. [The original Russian contains what appears to be a typo; the translated version assumes the Russian word (svoi) is a typo and should be svoim. If the original word is actually correct, it would slightly change the meaning of the sentence to: “People write to him only when intimates consider it a duty to do so.”—Translator.]

39. Pavlov, M.S. “O. Mandel’shtam: tsikl o voronezhskoi zhazhde.” In Mandel’shtam i antichnost’, p. 174.

40. Mandel’shtam, N.Ia. Vtoraia kniga, pp. 556–557.

41. Pavlov, M. “Brodskii v Londone, iiul’ 1991.” In the anthology: “Sokhrani moiu rech’…” Vyp. 3. Chast’ 2. Moscow: RGGU, 2000, p. 30.

42. Mandel’shtam, N.Ia. Vospominaniia, pp. 244–245.

43. Mandel’shtam, N.Ia. Tret’ia kniga, p. 403..

44. [Kashchey is an archetypal male villain in Russian folklore.—Translator.]

45. Mandel’shtam, N.Ia. Vospominaniia, pp. 262.

46. For another interpretation of “mute time” see Pavlov, M.S. “O. Mandel’shtam. ‘Kak svetoteni muchenik Rembrandt.’ (Analiz odnogo stikhotvoreniia),” Filologicheskie nauki, 1991, No. 5, pp. 21–22.

47. Gasparov, M.L. O. Mandel’shtam. Grazhdanskaia lirika 1937 goda. Moscow: RGGU, 1996, p. 98.

48. Zolyan, Suren, and Mikhail Lotman. Issledovaniia v oblasti semanticheskoi poetiki akmeizma. Tallinn: Izdatel’stvo Tallinnskogo universiteta, 2012, p. 45.

49. Musatov, V.V. Lirika Osipa Mandel’shtama. Kiev: Nika-Tsentr; El’ga-N, 2000, pp. 508–509.

50. [MVD is the Russian acronym for the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which was in charge of the GULAG system—although the MVD was called the NKVD (People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs) in Mandelstam’s time.—Translator.]

51. Poliakova, S.V. “Oleinikov i ob Oleinikove” i drugie raboty po russkoi literature. St. Petersburg: Inapress, 1997, pp. 8788.

52. Mandel’shtam, N.Ia. Vospominaniia, p. 244.

53. “Neumolimye slova…,” 1910. For a comparison, see Gasparov, M.L. O. Mandel’shtam. Grazhdanskaia lirika 1937 goda, p. 98.

54. [The internal quotations are from Mk 15:33 and Luke 23:45, respectively, as noted in Nadezhda Mandelstam’s memoir.—Translator.]

55. Mandel’shtam, N.Ia. Vtoraia kniga, p. 119.

56. Noted in the article: Langerak, Thomas. “Analiz odnogo stikhotvoreniia Mandel’shtama (‘Kak svetoteni muchenik Rembrandt…’),” Russian Literature, 1993, No. XXXIII, p. 291.

57. Langerak, Thomas. “Analiz odnogo stikhotvoreniia…,” pp. 293–294.

58. Ronen, Omry. Chuzheliubie. Tret’ia kniga iz goroda Enn. St. Petersburg: Izdatel’stvo zhurnala “Zvezda,” 2010, p. 75.

59. [A reference to a member of a 16th-century monastic movement within the Russian Orthodox Church dedicated to an ascetic life.—Trans.]

60. Poliakova, S.V. “Oleinikov i ob Oleinikove” …, pp. 89–90.

61. Gasparov, M.L. O. Mandel’shtam. Grazhdanskaia lirika 1937 goda. Moscow: RGGU, 1996, p. 98.

62. [The word for bellows in Russian, mekhi (plural), has the additional meanings in its singular form (mekh) of “fur” and “sacks made from animal skins,” such as wineskins. As Surat notes, Poliakova in her interpretation misquotes the word as singular, denoting “fur.” Mandelstam’s poem uses the word in the plural form, meaning “bellows.”—Trans.]

63. Ronen, Omry. Chuzheliubie. Tret’ia kniga iz goroda, p. 74.

64. Sedakova, Ol’ga. Puteshestvie s zakrytymi glazami. Pis’ma o Rembrandte. St. Petersburg: Izdatel’stvo Ivana Limbakha, 2016, p. 53.

65. The text of “Journey to Armenia” has several versions. We are quoting here from the edition prepared by S. Vasilenko on the basis of the author’s manuscript: Mandel’shtam, Osip. Shum vremeni. Moscow: Vagrius, 2002, p. 205.