Ivan Vladimirovich Tsvetaev and his museum. Essay "Father and His Museum": the importance of the father in the formation of the everyday and mental-spiritual way of life of M.I.

In ancient times, more than a century ago, when the Russian State Library did not yet bear this name, and did not even bear the name of Lenin, assigned to it in Soviet time, but was the Rumyantsev Library at the Rumyantsev Museum, one of the largest cultural institutions in Moscow, headed this museum and, accordingly, the library under it, Ivan Vladimirovich Tsvetaev, known to posterity as the founder of the Museum fine arts and father of the poetess Marina Tsvetaeva. Professor of Moscow University and Corresponding Member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences I.V. Tsvetaev served as director of the Rumyantsev Museum and Library in 1900-1910, just at the time when he was enthusiastically engaged in the construction and formation of the collections of his favorite brainchild - the Museum of Fine Arts. And the affairs in the Rumyantsev library were somewhat started ...

Ivan Vladimirovich Tsvetaev

Tsvetaev did not demand due vigilance of the employees in the institution entrusted to him (he was generally a great liberal), and library readers, taking advantage of this, without a twinge of conscience began to drag something from the funds. That expensive edition is slammed, then valuable engravings are cut out of the book ... Velimir Khlebnikov very figuratively told how his acquaintance, the poet Petrovsky, was caught while unearthing books, and he had to flee from the police. Running out of the library, the poet-thief rushed down the Volkhonka to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and "thrice ran around the gilded, with clouds of stone spirits, the temple of the Savior, jumping in huge leaps up the steps, pursued by the policeman for having torn out rare prints of painting from the Rumyantsev Museum".


The building of the Rumyantsev Museum and Library (Pashkov House) at the beginning of the 20th century

Another symbolist poet Ellis (Lev Lvovich Kobylinsky) was caught in the reading room for damaging library books. He was the son of the founder and head of one of the best Moscow gymnasiums, Lev Polivanov, a famous teacher who brought up many outstanding students (Bryusov, Voloshin, Andrei Bely, chess player Alekhin and others). From own son he also tried to make a man of high culture and an outstanding personality, and succeeded in something, but not in everything. The thing is, Ellis was illegitimate son his father, and this greatly complicated his life, spoiled his character, and ultimately turned him away from his father's principles. Ellis's friend Andrey Bely said that he "didn't put a penny on dad."
Lev Ivanovich Polivanov died in 1899, but his name and pedagogical fame at the beginning of the 20th century still thundered throughout Moscow. In a sense, the name of the father cast its reflection on Ellis, although he, as an illegitimate child, was recorded under a different surname.

Lev Ellis

Moscow in those days was not as huge as it is now. According to the 1907 census, 1,338,686 people lived in it (together with the suburbs). This is without troops, but all the troops of the Moscow garrison added only 28,000. It is not surprising that representatives of the Moscow intelligentsia, especially those living in the same segment of the city, knew each other well. Ellis was well acquainted with the daughters of Professor Tsvetaev Marina and Anastasia and even had a certain influence on the two young girls. A fashionable symbolist poet, a cynic, an admirer of Nietzsche, the theory of "aristocratic individualism" and a lover of "subverting the foundations", he was for them the representative of a bohemian, adult and alluring life.

Ellis's poems delighted the sisters and to some extent became the catalyst for Marina's own creativity. Ellis was dedicated to the youthful poem by Marina Tsvetaeva "The Enchanter".
He was our angel, he was our demon
Our tutor is our sorcerer,
Our prince and knight. He was for all of us
Among the people!
The young symbolist came daily to the Tsvetaevs' house, although the father, according to Marina's memoirs, "was horrified by the influence of this" decadent "on his daughters."
And when it turned out that it was Lev Lvovich Kobylisky, that is, that same notorious Ellis, who had irritated Ivan Vladimirovich for so long, made the library books unusable by making clippings out of them, the angry father rushed at his enemy like a tiger.
Ellis was seriously threatened by the court, moreover, Tsvetaev raised a fuss in the press. Ellis was declared a thief, a man devoid of any culture, moral principles, decency and education ... Many turned away from him, the name of Ellis-Kobylinsky was compromised. Ivan Vladimirovich Tsvetaev hoped that his daughters would now begin to despise Ellis and refuse to be friends with him. But the reaction was the opposite. The scandal only pushed the girls away from their father. Marina then wrote about her friend:

TO THE FORMER enchanter

Your heart is torn by longing, doubt about the best sowing.
- “Throw a stone, do not spare! I'm waiting, more painful sting!
No, I hate the arrogance of the Pharisee,
I love sinners, and I only feel sorry for you.

Walls of dark words growing in darkness
No, we can't be separated! Find the keys to the locks
And boldly give mysterious signs
We are to each other when everything slumbers in the night.

Free and alone, far from the narrow framework,
10 You will return to us again with a rich boat,
And a slender castle will arise from the air lines,
And the one who dared to judge the poet will gasp!

“It’s great to forgive mistakes, yes, but this one -
It is impossible: culture, honor, decency ... Oh no.
15 Let everyone say it. I am not a poet's judge
And you can forgive everything for a crying sonnet!

Ellis also had other friends (including friends of his late father) who tried to hush up the scandal, proving that he, as a poet, was just an absent-minded person, and he was going to make clippings from his own copy of the book, brought with him (??) to the library, and simply confused the state-owned publication with the personal one ... And Andrei Bely even began to spread rumors that Mr. Tsvetaev and Ellis turned out to be rivals in love for the same lady, and it was Ellis's success in amorous affairs that became the hidden reason for the scandal. .. However, there was no shortage of gossip and rumors in general. As a result, things turned badly for Tsvetaev himself - he, as a man who got involved in an incomprehensible scandal with a smell, lost his high post in the Rumyantsev Museum. (Either he stole, or someone stole from him ... But there was something like that!). He could not calm down until his death, which followed three years later. He called the Rumyantsev Museum: "the museum from which I was expelled." However, the Museum of Fine Arts, built by his diligence, brought him many problems and troubles that undermined his health.

Museum of Fine Arts. Alexander III ( State Museum fine arts them. A.S. Pushkin)

And Ellis in 1910 tried to propose to Marina. But the young poetess already had other plans for her own future...

IVAN VLADIMIROVICH TSVETAEV, Russian historian, archaeologist, philologist and art critic, creator and first director of the Museum of Fine Arts at Moscow University (now the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts).

Born into a family country priest, received a spiritual education at the Shuya Theological School and at the Vladimir Theological Seminary. After that, he entered the Medical and Surgical Academy, but left it for health reasons and entered the Faculty of History and Philology of St. Petersburg University. After which, in 1870, he was left to prepare for a teaching career. From 1871 he taught Greek language in one of the St. Petersburg gymnasiums, and in 1872 he became assistant professor at the University of Warsaw, a year later he defended his master's thesis - "A Critical Review of Tacitus's Germany". He was awarded a gold medal for his essay. In 1874 he went on a business trip to Italy to study the ancient Italian languages ​​and writing. Upon his return in 1876, Tsvetaev became an assistant professor at Kyiv University, but a year later he was invited to Moscow University to teach Latin at the Department of Roman Literature at the Faculty of History and Philology. In 1877 in St. Petersburg he defended his doctoral thesis: "Collection of Osian inscriptions with an outline of phonetics, morphology and a glossary." This study is still the only one in domestic science. Since 1879, Tsvetaev has been an extraordinary professor at the Department of Roman Literature, since 1885 - an ordinary professor at the Department of Classical Philology, since 1888 an ordinary professor at the Department of History and Theory of Arts. He lectured on Roman literature and art history. In addition to university lectures, in addition to working on his epigraphic works, I.V. Tsvetaev published articles on archeology, on the history of Roman life, took part in the work of archaeological congresses. In 1888 he became an honorary member of the University of Bologna. In 1898, Tsvetaev was awarded the title of Honored Ordinary Professor of Moscow University.

Along with teaching, his life's work was to work in the museums of the old capital. From 1881 Tsvetaev worked at the Rumyantsev Museum. From 1882 - head of the Engraving Department, from March 1883 - head of the Department of Fine Arts and Classical Antiquities, in 1901-1910. served as director. He was the initiator of the collection of private donations for the acquisition of collections, with him were construction and restoration work. The fund continued to grow, including through rich donations.

In 1894, at the first congress of Russian artists and art lovers, convened on the occasion of the donation to Moscow of the art gallery of the brothers P.M. and S.M. Tretyakov, Tsvetaev delivered a speech in which he called for the creation of a new museum of fine arts in Moscow. At the initiative of the professor, a competition was announced for the best museum project. The project of R.I. won the competition. Klein. In 1897 he met the millionaire Yu.S. Nechaev-Maltsev, who became the main financial patron of the museum. On August 17, 1898, a solemn laying of the museum took place at the Kolymazhny Yard. The construction was carried out mainly with private funds. The names of donors were assigned to those halls, the creation of which they financed. May 31, 1912 The Museum of Fine Arts was opened. The museum was under the jurisdiction of Moscow University. His collection consisted of casts from the sculptural works of classical eras, fragments of architectural structures. Actually, at first it was a museum of ancient art: the second collection of originals and casts of Greek sculpture in Russia after the Hermitage, which could serve as models for the development of artistic taste. In addition, by the time of the discovery, there was a collection of ancient Egyptian monuments acquired from the famous Egyptologist B.C. Golenishchev, and a small collection of Italian paintings. In the mid 1960s. on the building of the State Museum of Fine Arts. A.S. Pushkin opened a memorial plaque with his name.

Compositions:

Italian inscriptions. Peligin inscriptions (1883)

Italian dialectic inscriptions (1886)

Feast of Christian Archeology in Rome in the Spring of 1892 (1893)

Roman catacombs. From the history of studying them (1896)

Note on the site for the monument in Moscow imp. Alexander III (1897)

From the life of the higher schools of the Roman Empire (1902)

The works and sacrifices of Yuri Stepanovich Nechaev-Maltsev at the Museum of Fine Arts. Emperor Alexander III (1902)

“The Father and His Museum” - the very name of this prose work indicates the object of the writer's research - the life and work of Ivan Vladimirovich Tsvetaev.

If the essay “Mother and Music”, dedicated to Maria Alexandrovna, was of an essayistic nature, had the main task - through the study, comprehension of the spiritual principles of the mother, to know herself; then “The Father and His Museum” is prose of a different tone, and consequently, the artistic task is qualitatively different.

“Father and His Museum” is more of a journalism, so it is quite clear that this work is characterized by a desire for objectivity (in contrast to the essay “Mother and Music”, where the features of Tsvetaev's subjectivism are clearly traced).

Thus, making a conclusion about the genre of the work “The Father and His Museum”, it can be argued that this creation of Marina Tsvetaeva is designed in the spirit of an essay, a sketch in a more pronounced journalistic sense of this designation.

The cycle “Father and His Museum” consists of six short stories (the sixth is “The Queen's Visit”). Created in 1936 on French; Tsvetaeva failed to print it.

“Charlottenburg”, “Mundir”, “Laurel wreath” were first published in the magazine “Star” (1970, No. 10) in the translation of the poet’s daughter A.S. Efron.

Marina Tsvetaeva's father, Ivan Vladimirovich Tsvetaev (1874-1913), son of a village priest, professor at Moscow University, founder of the current Museum of Fine Arts, which was opened in 1912 and was called the Museum of Alexander III.

The first sketch is “Charlottenburg”, that was the name of the district of Berlin, where the plaster foundry was located, where Ivan Vladimirovich ordered casts for the future museum.

“I'm about to be sixteen, Asya is fourteen. Our mother died three years ago…” Tsvetaeva M.I. Prose / Comp., author. foreword and comment. A.A. Saakyants. - M.: Sovremennik, 1989. - p. 181. - it is with these words that Marina Tsvetaeva opens the story.

The daughters go with their father to the small town of Charlottenburg; where a whole world of ancient Greek myths and legends will open up for them, with which Marina's poetic life will later be inextricably linked.

It is worth noting the technique characteristic of Tsvetaeva’s prose (which Marina Ivanovna also resorted to in the essay “Mother and Music”), when there is no image in the work “ appearance"hero, we will never meet a description of the appearance of Ivan Vladimirovich; but his image is created by displaying his behavior, habits, in a word, the portrait is created by displaying internal impulses and motives, external movements.

“My father is passionate, or rather, desperate, or rather, a natural walker, because he walks - as he breathes, not realizing the action itself. To stop walking for him is the same as for another - to stop breathing” Tsvetaeva M.I. Prose / Comp., author. foreword and comment. A.A. Saakyants. - M.: Sovremennik, 1989. - p. 181..

In these lines, one can feel a clear allegory, “to walk” for Ivan Vladimirovich Tsvetaev means to work, work, do what he loves, he was fanatically devoted to science and art; without it, he would “stop breathing.”

With each chapter of the work, the image of the protagonist develops like a mosaic of characteristic qualities that the author reveals only to him, giving a subtle psychological picture of the inner world of Ivan Vladimirovich. Exactly inner world father is interesting for Tsvetaeva as a researcher.

The second short story, “The Lawn Mower”, depicts a comical situation that reveals another facet of Ivan Tsvetaev’s personality: “the father looked exactly what he was: the purest of people - that’s why there could be no doubts ... Only thanks to such tricks and enter the Kingdom of Heaven” ibid. - With. 186..

“Mundir” is a bright, psychologically accurate short story. Here Marina Ivanovna, with her characteristic consistency and attention to every detail, speaks of the stinginess of her father, but this quality is recoded here, accompanied by a different, unexpected assessment. The stinginess of Ivan Vladimirovich is as close as possible to the positive pole, this is spiritual stinginess, which takes care of values: “... the stinginess of everyone who lives a spiritual life and who simply does not need anything ...” Tsvetaeva M.I. Prose / Comp., author. foreword and comment. A.A. Saakyants. - M.: Sovremennik, 1989. - p. 187..

And the main blow to avarice was inflicted by the uniform; Ivan Vladimirovich agreed to the expenses associated with its tailoring “except for the sake of the museum”.

"Laurel Wreath" depicts the new Professor Tsvetaev. This is the opening time of the museum; passions of admiration and an embarrassed feeling of gratitude to everyone who was directly or indirectly involved in the realization of his cherished dream rage in Ivan Vladimirovich. Tsvetaev undoubtedly deserved to be crowned with the "Roman laurel" for the feat of his life.

The essay ends with a kind of requiem. “My father died on August 30, 1913 and three months after the opening of the museum. We put a laurel wreath in his coffin” in the same place. - With. 192..

Thanks to the “Father and His Museum” cycle, a full-fledged, artistically completed image of Ivan Vladimirovich Tsvetaev is created as a personality, a great and disinterested ascetic of science and culture. But it is worth mentioning Professor Ivan Tsvetaev not only as a valuable historical figure, but also as a poet's father. If in the essay “Mother and Music” Marina says that she absorbed her mother from her inner content, her impulses and aspirations; then the father became a clear example of asceticism, devotion to work, the standard of embodiment in a person of service to science and culture.

The invaluable difference of the essay "Father and His Museum" is the maximum possible objectivity and truth of the reflected facts.

Ivan Vladimirovich Tsvetaev set an illustrative example of a man of art for his daughter, in her way of life he became a true Spartan in her understanding, the purpose of whose entire existence was the creation of a museum.

An ardent desire to save from oblivion, not to let the image of her father go into oblivion, and hence the whole world in which she grew up and which “sculpted” her, prompted Tsvetaeva to create this autobiographical essay.

Tsvetaeva poetry Pushkin family

Ivan Vladimirovich Tsvetaev

Anastasia Ivanovna Tsvetaeva:

He was born into a family distinguished by diligence, high ethical rules and extraordinary friendliness to people. His father, our grandfather, was a village priest in the village of Talitsy, Vladimir province; a strict and kind, zealous owner, he deserved deep reverence for the neighborhood. His eldest son, Peter, followed in his footsteps; the second, Fyodor, was the inspector of the gymnasium, the third was our father; the fourth, Dmitry, is a professor of Russian history. Dad and his brothers grew up without a mother, in poverty. The boys went barefoot and took care of a pair of boots, putting them on only in the city. At twenty-nine, my father was already a professor. He began his academic career with a dissertation in Latin about the ancient Italic Oscan people, for which he went to Italy and on his knees climbed the earth around ancient monuments and graves, writing off, collating, deciphering and interpreting ancient writings. This gave him European fame. Russian Academy awarded him the prize "For scientific work for the benefit and glory of the Fatherland." The University of Bologna, on its 800th anniversary, honored my father with a doctorate. Immersion in classical philology with ancient monuments and museums in Europe aroused in my father an interest in art history, and in 1888 he headed the department of fine arts at Moscow University. So he moved from pure philology to the practical activity of the founder of the Museum of casts of works the best craftsmen Europe for the needs of students who did not have the means to travel abroad to study ancient sculpture and architecture in the originals. Here, as in philological study, his industriousness had no end. His unparalleled energy in this selfless work amazed all who knew him.<…>Compliant and undemanding in life, my father showed unprecedented perseverance in overcoming obstacles on the way to creating his plan - there was nothing like it in Europe - the Museum of Casts, and there were many obstacles. Busyness and fatigue never in the least made him irritable.

Vasily Vasilievich Rozanov (1856–1919), philosopher, writer

Little eloquent, with a viscous slow word, moreover, not always intelligible, strongly stooped, clumsy, Ivan Vladimirovich Tsvetaev or - as his students called him - Johannes Zwetajeff, seemed to personify Russian passivity, Russian slowness, Russian immobility. He was always "dragging" and never "walking". “This bag can be carried away or transported, but it will not go anywhere and will not go anywhere.” So I thought, looking at his puffy face with a small blond beard, at his whole figure with a "pouch" - and all this unprecedented dullness, grayness and obscurity.

“But,” Plato says at the end of the “Feast” about the special Greek hiding places-cabinets in the form of a Faun, “go up to this ugly and even ugly faun and open it: you will see that it is filled with precious stones, with golden graceful objects and all brilliance and beauty. Such was also the formless, unwieldy professor of Moscow University, who, quite contrary to his outward appearance, revealed within himself tireless activity, invincible energy and perseverance, boundless knowledge of the most difficult and refined nature. Tsvetaev is a great name in ancient Italian epitaphs (stone inscriptions) and the founder of the Moscow Museum of Fine Arts. He was a great decoration of the university and the city.

Alexandra Zhernakova-Nikolaev,Master of Philosophy:

Ivan Vladimirovich was a man wholly devoted to his work. He was a gentle, gentle soul, sometimes completely naive. I remember how he once talked about the advice he gave to Emperor Nicholas II. It was at one of the audiences that the sovereign willingly gave him, who treated Professor Tsvetaev very well. They talked about student unrest. Ivan Vladimirovich told the sovereign how sweet and friendly students are when they visit museums and art galleries. Ivan Vladimirovich ended his speech with the words: “Your Majesty! We need to establish more museums and galleries, then there will be no student unrest ... "

Sofia Ivanovna Liperovskaya:

The construction of the Museum of Fine Arts was completed in 1912. Ivan Vladimirovich was often away - collecting materials for the exhibition. Genuine mummies and sarcophagi were taken out of Egypt. Professor Tsvetaev planned to build a museum as a palace of culture, a kind of laboratory to help scientists, historians and art critics. In the museum a big library, beautiful engraving room, reading room. Enormous sums were spent on the construction of the building and on the organization of the museum, which Ivan Vladimirovich knew how to extract from large manufacturers and the nobility. Although the museum had a whole staff of employees, he took on the most difficult cases. The opening day of the museum was approaching. Ivan Vladimirovich offered to show the exposition to employees, scientists and his friends. Marina and Asya invited me to this excursion. Before that, I had seen Ivan Vladimirovich at home in Trekhprudny Lane, when he had to respond to the mocking statements of his daughters and their accusations of conservatism. Here, in the museum, he seemed to me a man of great will, seething energy. He spoke with enthusiasm about overcoming difficulties in finding material and sending precious cargo to Moscow.

As we walked up the stairs, decorated with pink marble columns, he drew our attention to two columns: they were hardly noticeable different in color from the others. It turns out that two columns crashed along the way. How to replace when it is impossible to find exactly the same! Only after a long search, negotiations, it was possible to buy two more columns, similar to those that had already been delivered. Ivan Vladimirovich informed us about this as a great victory.

How much care and attention, not to mention large capital, he invested in his life's work. And he did not have to take advantage of the fruits of these efforts - he died shortly after he was instructed to be the director of the museum. Last words his were: "I did my best".

Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva:

On the opening day of the museum - May, blue and hot - early in the morning - a call. Call - and a wreath - laurel! This is our old family friend, a Russified Neapolitan, who came to congratulate my father on the great day. I'll never forget. Father in an old dressing gown, in front of him is a gray-haired fiery beauty, between them is a wreath, which she tries hard, but he does not allow to wear. Softly and firmly fighting back: - “Have mercy, my dear! An old professor in a dressing gown - and suddenly a wreath! This is what you need to wear, crown the beauty! No, my dear, please! I am heartily grateful to you, just allow me this wreath ... What a quick one you are, however! An Italian woman, sparkling with her eyes and tears, and holding a wreath for fidelity over her father’s head: “On behalf of my homeland ... They don’t know how to honor great people here ... Ivan Vladimirovich, you did a great job!” - “Complete, complete, dove, that you embarrass me! Just made my dream come true. God gave - and people helped.

Anastasia Ivanovna Tsvetaeva:

Simple, good-natured and cheerful, he was playful and affectionate with us at home. I remember him graying, slightly stooped, wearing narrow gold glasses. A simple Russian face with large features; a small sparse beard bushed around the chin. Eyes - large, kind, brown, short-sighted, seemed smaller through the glasses. His absent-mindedness, touching in everyday life, created legends about him. We were not surprised, dad always thinks about his Museum. Somehow, without explanations from adults, we understood this.

Papa was in his forty-sixth year when Marina was born, forty-eight when I was born.

Valeria Ivanovna Tsvetaeva:

The father encouraged in children, supported, sparing no means, everything that could raise their cultural level: general education, knowledge of languages, the help of tutors and governesses, music lessons, travel, but how could he take on personal daily management? Yes, pedagogy was not his vocation.

Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva. In the entry of L. Libedinskaya:

I remember when I was very young, we were walking down the street with my father. Suddenly, from around the corner, a trotter flew straight at us. I was very scared and wanted to run. But my father squeezed my hand tightly and stopped in the middle of the pavement. The coachman swore roughly, pulled on the reins, and the cab, which was flying straight at us, turned sideways and rushed past. When the clatter of hooves stopped, the dust subsided and I came to my senses a little, my father said: “If something is coming at you that you cannot cope with, stop. The worst thing in such cases is to start rushing about ... "

Valeria Ivanovna Tsvetaeva:

An irreparable evil in our house was the lack of obligatory and habitual care for the father, who did not hear the grateful “thank you” he deserved from his children and wife, who did not see any kindness or attention from them.

Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva. From a letter to V. V. Rozanov. Feodosia, April 8, 1914:

His death is absolutely amazing for me: quiet heroism - so modest!

God, I want to cry!

We all: Valeria, Andrey, Asya and I were with him in last days by some miracle:<алерия> by chance I came from abroad by chance from Koktebel (to rent a house), Asya by chance from the Voronezh province, Andrey by chance from hunting.

Dad had in his coffin beautiful bright face.

In several days before his illness crashed: 1) a glass cabinet 2) his lantern, always - for 30 years! - hanging in his office 3) two lamps 4) a glass. It was some kind of continuous ringing and rattling of glass.