Ivan Andreyevich Krylov (russian: Ива́н Андре́евич Крыло́в; 13 February 1769 – 21 November 1844) is Russia's best-known
fabulist
Fable is a literary genre: a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, legendary creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are anthropomorphized, and that illustrates or leads to a particular moral ...
and probably the most
epigrammatic
An epigram is a brief, interesting, memorable, and sometimes surprising or satirical statement. The word is derived from the Greek "inscription" from "to write on, to inscribe", and the literary device has been employed for over two millen ...
of all Russian authors. Formerly a dramatist and journalist, he only discovered his true genre at the age of 40. While many of his earlier fables were loosely based on
Aesop
Aesop ( or ; , ; c. 620–564 BCE) was a Greek fabulist and storyteller credited with a number of fables now collectively known as ''Aesop's Fables''. Although his existence remains unclear and no writings by him survive, numerous tales cre ...
's and
La Fontaine's, later fables were original work, often with a
satirical
Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or e ...
bent.
Life
![Krylov summer garden](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/Krylov_summer_garden.jpg)
Ivan Krylov was born in
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
, but spent his early years in
Orenburg
Orenburg (russian: Оренбу́рг, ), formerly known as Chkalov (1938–1957), is the administrative center of Orenburg Oblast, Russia. It lies on the Ural River, southeast of Moscow. Orenburg is also very close to the Kazakhstan-Russia bor ...
and
Tver
Tver ( rus, Тверь, p=tvʲerʲ) is a city and the administrative centre of Tver Oblast, Russia. It is northwest of Moscow. Population:
Tver was formerly the capital of a powerful medieval state and a model provincial town in the Russian ...
. His father, a distinguished military officer, resigned in 1775 and died in 1779, leaving the family destitute. A few years later Krylov and his mother moved to
St. Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
in the hope of securing a government
pension
A pension (, from Latin ''pensiō'', "payment") is a fund into which a sum of money is added during an employee's employment years and from which payments are drawn to support the person's retirement from work in the form of periodic payments ...
. There, Krylov obtained a position in the
civil service
The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...
, but gave it up after his mother's death in 1788. His literary career began in 1783, when he sold to a publisher the
comedy
Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...
“The coffee-grounds fortune teller” (''Kofeynitsa'') that he had written at 14, although in the end it was never published or produced. Receiving a sixty
ruble
The ruble (American English) or rouble (Commonwealth English) (; rus, рубль, p=rublʲ) is the currency unit of Belarus and Russia. Historically, it was the currency of the Russian Empire and of the Soviet Union.
, currencies named ''rub ...
fee, he exchanged it for the works of
Molière
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (, ; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, , ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language and world ...
,
Racine
Jean-Baptiste Racine ( , ) (; 22 December 163921 April 1699) was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille as well as an important literary figure in the Western traditio ...
, and
Boileau and it was probably under their influence that he wrote his other plays, of which his ''Philomela'' (written in 1786) was not published until 1795.
Beginning in 1789, Krylov also made three attempts to start a
literary magazine
A literary magazine is a periodical devoted to literature in a broad sense. Literary magazines usually publish short stories, poetry, and essays, along with literary criticism, book reviews, biographical profiles of authors, interviews and letter ...
, although none achieved a large circulation or lasted more than a year. Despite this lack of success, their satire and the humour of his comedies helped the author gain recognition in literary circles. For about four years (1797–1801) Krylov lived at the country estate of
Prince
A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. Th ...
Sergey Galitzine, and when the prince was appointed
military governor
A military government is generally any form of government that is administered by military forces, whether or not this government is legal under the laws of the jurisdiction at issue, and whether this government is formed by natives or by an occup ...
of
Livonia
Livonia ( liv, Līvõmō, et, Liivimaa, fi, Liivinmaa, German and Scandinavian languages: ', archaic German: ''Liefland'', nl, Lijfland, Latvian and lt, Livonija, pl, Inflanty, archaic English: ''Livland'', ''Liwlandia''; russian: Ли ...
, he accompanied him as a secretary and tutor to his children, resigning his position in 1803. Little is known of him in the years immediately after, other than the commonly accepted myth that he wandered from town to town playing cards. By 1806 he had arrived in Moscow, where he showed the poet and fabulist
Ivan Dmitriev
Ivan Ivanovich Dmitriev ( rus, Ива́н Ива́нович Дми́триев, p=ɪˈvan ɪˈvanəvʲɪdʑ ˈdmʲitrʲɪjɪf, a=Ivan Ivanovich Dmitriyev.ru.vorb.oga; – ) was a Russian statesman and poet associated with the sentimentalist ...
his translation of two of Jean de
La Fontaine's Fables
Jean de La Fontaine collected fables from a wide variety of sources, both Western and Eastern, and adapted them into French free verse. They were issued under the general title of Fables in several volumes from 1668 to 1694 and are considered cla ...
, “The Oak and the Reed” and “The Choosy Bride”, and was encouraged by him to write more. Soon, however, he moved on to St Petersburg and returned to play writing with more success, particularly with the productions of “The Fashion Shop” (''Modnaya lavka'') and “A Lesson For the Daughters” (''Urok dochkam''). These satirised the nobility's attraction to everything French, a fashion he detested all his life.
Krylov's first collection of fables, 23 in number, appeared in 1809 and met with such an enthusiastic reception that thereafter he abandoned drama for fable-writing. By the end of his career he had completed some 200, constantly revising them with each new edition. From 1812 to 1841 he was employed by the
Imperial Public Library
The National Library of Russia (NLR, russian: Российская национальная библиотека}), located in Saint Petersburg, is the first, and one of three national public libraries in Russia. The NLR is currently ranked amo ...
, first as an assistant, and then as head of the Russian Books Department, a not very demanding position that left him plenty of time to write. Honours were now showered on him in recognition of his growing reputation: the
Russian Academy of Sciences
The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; russian: Росси́йская акаде́мия нау́к (РАН) ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across t ...
admitted him as a member in 1811, and bestowed on him its gold medal in 1823; in 1838 a great festival was held in his honour under imperial sanction, and the
Emperor Nicholas, with whom he was on friendly terms, granted him a generous pension.
After 1830 he wrote little and led an increasingly sedentary life. A multitude of half-legendary stories were told about his laziness, his gluttony and the squalor in which he lived, as well as his witty repartee.
Towards the end of his life Krylov suffered two cerebral hemorrhages and was taken by the Empress to recover at
Pavlovsk Palace
Pavlovsk Palace (russian: Павловский дворец) is an 18th-century Russian Imperial residence built by the order of Catherine the Great for her son Grand Duke Paul, in Pavlovsk, within Saint Petersburg. After his death, ...
. After his death in 1844, he was buried beside his friend and fellow librarian
Nikolay Gnedich
Nikolay Ivanovich Gnedich ( rus, Никола́й Ива́нович Гне́дич, p=nʲɪkɐˈlaj ɪˈvanəvʲɪtɕ ˈɡnʲedʲɪtɕ, a=Nikolay Ivanovich Gnyedich.ru.vorb.oga; – ) was a Ukrainian-born Russian poet and translator best kn ...
in the
Tikhvin Cemetery
Tikhvin Cemetery (russian: Тихвинское кладбище) is a historic cemetery in the centre of Saint Petersburg. It is part of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, and is one of four cemeteries in the complex. Since 1932 it has been part of the ...
.
Artistic heritage
Portraits of Krylov began to be painted almost as soon as the fame of his fables spread, beginning in 1812 with Roman M. Volkov's somewhat conventional depiction of the poet with one hand leaning on books and the other grasping a quill as he stares into space, seeking inspiration. Roughly the same formula was followed in the 1824 painting of him by (1794 —1868) and that of 1834 by . An 1832 study by
Grigory Chernetsov
Grigory Grigoryevich Chernetsov (russian: Григорий Григорьевич Чернецов, 1802, Lukh — 1865, Saint Petersburg) was a Russian painter. He is notable mainly for landscapes of various parts of Russia, produced during h ...
groups his corpulent figure with fellow writers
Alexander Pushkin
Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (; rus, links=no, Александр Сергеевич ПушкинIn pre-Revolutionary script, his name was written ., r=Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈpuʂkʲɪn, ...
,
Vasily Zhukovsky
Vasily Andreyevich Zhukovsky (russian: Василий Андреевич Жуковский, Vasiliy Andreyevich Zhukovskiy; – ) was the foremost Russian poet of the 1810s and a leading figure in Russian literature in the first half of the 19 ...
and
Nikolay Gnedich
Nikolay Ivanovich Gnedich ( rus, Никола́й Ива́нович Гне́дич, p=nʲɪkɐˈlaj ɪˈvanəvʲɪtɕ ˈɡnʲedʲɪtɕ, a=Nikolay Ivanovich Gnyedich.ru.vorb.oga; – ) was a Ukrainian-born Russian poet and translator best kn ...
. This was set in the
Summer Garden
The Summer Garden (russian: Ле́тний сад, ''Letniy sad'') is a historic public garden that occupies an eponymous island between the Neva, Fontanka, Moika, and the Swan Canal in
downtown Saint Petersburg, Russia and shares its name w ...
, but the group, along with many others, was ultimately destined to appear in the right foreground of Chernetsov's immense "Parade at Tsaritsyn Meadow", completed in 1837.
In 1830 the sculptor
Samuil Galberg
Samuil Ivanovich Galberg or, in German, Samuel Friedrich Halberg (Russian: Самуил Иванович Гальберг; 13 December 1787, Haljala Parish - 22 May 1839, Saint Petersburg) was a Baltic-German sculptor and academician.
Biograph ...
carved a portrait bust of Krylov. It may have been this or another that was presented by the Emperor to his son Alexander as a new year's gift in 1831. A bust is also recorded as being placed on the table before Krylov's seat at the anniversary banquet held in his honour in 1838. The most notable statue of him was placed in the Summer Garden (1854–55) ten years after his death. Regarded as a sign of the progress of Romanticism in Russian official culture, it was the first monument to a poet erected in Eastern Europe. The sculptor
Peter Clodt seats his massive figure on a tall pedestal surrounded on all sides by tumultuous reliefs designed by
Alexander Agin that represent scenes from the fables. Shortly afterwards, he was included among other literary figures on the
Millennium of Russia
The Millennium of Russia (russian: Тысячелетие России, Tysyacheletiye Rossii) is a bronze monument in the Novgorod Kremlin. It was erected in 1862 to celebrate the millennium of Rurik's arrival to Novgorod, an event traditio ...
monument in
Veliky Novgorod
Veliky Novgorod ( rus, links=no, Великий Новгород, t=Great Newtown, p=vʲɪˈlʲikʲɪj ˈnovɡərət), also known as just Novgorod (), is the largest city and administrative centre of Novgorod Oblast, Russia. It is one of the ol ...
in 1862.
Later monuments chose to represent individual fables separately from the main statue of the poet. This was so in the square named after him in
Tver
Tver ( rus, Тверь, p=tvʲerʲ) is a city and the administrative centre of Tver Oblast, Russia. It is northwest of Moscow. Population:
Tver was formerly the capital of a powerful medieval state and a model provincial town in the Russian ...
, where much of his childhood was spent. It was erected on the centenary of Krylov's death in 1944 and represents the poet standing and looking down an alley lined with metal reliefs of the fables mounted on plinths. A later monument was installed in the
Patriarch's Ponds
Patriarch's Ponds (russian: Патриаршие пруды, ''Patriarshiye prudy'') is park, pond and an affluent residential area in downtown Presnensky District of Moscow, Russia. For the last 200 years, there has been only ''one'' pond, altho ...
district of Moscow in 1976. This was the work of
Andrei Drevin, Daniel Mitlyansky, and the architect A. Chaltykyan. The seated statue of the fabulist is surrounded by twelve stylised reliefs of the fables in adjoining avenues.
Krylov shares yet another monument with the poet
Alexander Pushkin
Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (; rus, links=no, Александр Сергеевич ПушкинIn pre-Revolutionary script, his name was written ., r=Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈpuʂkʲɪn, ...
in the city of
Pushkino's Soviet Square. The two were friends and Pushkin modified Krylov's description of 'an ass of most honest principles' ("The Ass and the Peasant") to provide the opening of his romantic novel in verse, ''
Eugene Onegin
''Eugene Onegin, A Novel in Verse'' ( pre-reform Russian: ; post-reform rus, Евгений Оне́гин, ромáн в стихáх, p=jɪvˈɡʲenʲɪj ɐˈnʲeɡʲɪn, r=Yevgeniy Onegin, roman v stikhakh) is a novel in verse written by Ale ...
''. So well known were Krylov's fables that readers were immediately alerted by its first line, 'My uncle, of most honest principles'.
Some portraits of Krylov were later used as a basis for the design of commemorative stamps. The two issued in 1944 on the centenary of his death draw on Eggink's, while the 4
kopek stamp issued in 1969 on the bicentenary of his birth is indebted to Briullov's late portrait. The same portrait is accompanied by an illustration of his fable "The wolf in the kennel" on the 40 kopek value in the Famous Writers series of 1959. The 150th anniversary of Krylov's death was marked by the striking of a two ruble silver coin in 1994. He is also commemorated in the numerous streets named after him in Russia as well as in formerly Soviet territories.
File:Roman Maximovich Volkov - Ivan Krylov.jpg, Portrait of Ivan Krylov by Roman Maximovich Volkov (1812)
File:Parade-5-Oct-1831---Gregory.png, by Gregory Chernetsov (detail)
File:Krylov_by_Olenin.jpg, Ivan Krylov by (1824)
File:Ivan Krylov by Eggink.jpg, by (1834)
File:The Soviet Union 1959 CPA 2289 stamp (Ivan Krylov (after Karl Bryullov) and Scene from his Works).jpg, Stamp by (1959)
The Fables
As literature
By the time of Krylov's death, 77,000 copies of his fables had been sold in Russia, and his unique brand of wisdom and
humor
Humour (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) or humor (American English) is the tendency of experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. The term derives from the humorism, humoral medicine of the ancient Gre ...
has remained popular ever since. His fables were often rooted in historic events and are easily recognizable by their style of language and engaging story. Though he began as a translator and imitator of existing fables, Krylov soon showed himself an imaginative, prolific writer, who found abundant original material in his native land and in the burning issues of the day. Occasionally this was to lead into trouble with the
Government censors, who blocked publication of some of his work. In the case of "The Grandee" (1835), it was only allowed to be published after it became known that Krylov had amused the Emperor by reading it to him, while others did not see the light until long after his death, such as "The Speckled Sheep", published in 1867, and "The Feast" in 1869.
Beside the fables of La Fontaine, and one or two others, the germ of some of Krylov's other fables can be found in
Aesop
Aesop ( or ; , ; c. 620–564 BCE) was a Greek fabulist and storyteller credited with a number of fables now collectively known as ''Aesop's Fables''. Although his existence remains unclear and no writings by him survive, numerous tales cre ...
, but always with his own witty touch and reinterpretation. In Russia his language is considered of high quality: his words and phrases are direct, simple and idiomatic, with color and cadence varying with the theme, many of them becoming actual idioms. His animal fables blend naturalistic characterization of the animal with an allegorical portrayal of basic human types; they span individual foibles as well as difficult interpersonal relations.
Many of Krylov's fables, especially those that satirize contemporary political situations, take their start from a well-known fable but then diverge. Krylov's "The Peasant and the Snake" makes La Fontaine's
The Countryman and the Snake (VI.13) the reference point as it relates how the reptile seeks a place in the peasant's family, presenting itself as completely different in behaviour from the normal run of snakes. To Krylov's approbation, with the ending of La Fontaine's fable in mind, the peasant kills it as untrustworthy.
The Council of the Mice uses another fable of La Fontaine (II.2) only for scene-setting. Its real target is
cronyism
Cronyism is the spoils system practice of partiality in awarding jobs and other advantages to friends or trusted colleagues, especially in politics and between politicians and supportive organizations. For example, cronyism occurs when appointin ...
and Krylov dispenses with the deliberations of the mice altogether. The connection between Krylov's "The Two Boys" and La Fontaine's
The Monkey and the Cat
The Monkey and the Cat is best known as a fable adapted by Jean de La Fontaine under the title ''Le Singe et le Chat'' that appeared in the second collection of his ''Fables'' in 1679 (IX.17). Although there is no evidence that the story existed ...
is even thinner. Though both fables concern being made the dupe of another, Krylov tells of how one boy, rather than picking chestnuts from the fire, supports another on his shoulders as he picks the nuts and receives only the rinds in return.
Fables of older date are equally laid under contribution by Krylov.
The Hawk and the Nightingale
The Hawk and the Nightingale is one of the earliest fables recorded in Greek and there have been many variations on the story since Classical times. The original version is numbered 4 in the Perry Index and the later Aesop version, sometimes going ...
is transposed into a satire on censorship in "The Cat and the Nightingale" The nightingale is captured by a cat so that it can hear its famous song, but the bird is too terrified to sing. In one of the mediaeval versions of the original story, the bird sings to save its nestlings but is too anxious to perform well. Again, in his "The Hops and the Oak", Krylov merely embroiders on one of the variants of
The Elm and the Vine
The Elm and the Vine were associated particularly by Latin authors. Because pruned Elm, elm trees acted as vine supports, this was taken as a symbol of marriage and imagery connected with their pairing also became common in Renaissance literature. ...
in which an offer of support by the tree is initially turned down. In the Russian story, a hop vine praises its stake and disparages the oak until the stake is destroyed, whereupon it winds itself about the oak and flatters it.
Establishing the original model of some fables is problematical, however, and there is disagreement over the source for Krylov's “The swine under the oak”. There, a pig eating acorns under an oak also grubs down to the roots, not realising or caring that this will destroy the source of its food. A final verse likens the action to those who fail to honour learning although benefitting from it. In his ''Bibliographical and Historical Notes to the fables of Krilof'' (1868), the Russian commentator V.F.Kenevich sees the fable as referring to Aesop's “
The Travellers and the Plane Tree”. Although that has no animal protagonists, the theme of overlooking the tree's usefulness is the same. On the other hand, the French critic Jean Fleury points out that
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (, ; 22 January 1729 – 15 February 1781) was a philosopher, dramatist, publicist and art critic, and a representative of the Enlightenment era. His plays and theoretical writings substantially influenced the developmen ...
’s fable of "The Oak Tree and the Swine", a satirical reworking of Aesop's "
The Walnut Tree
The Walnut Tree is one of Aesop's fables and numbered 250 in the Perry Index. It later served as a base for a misogynistic proverb, which encourages the violence against walnut trees, asses and women.
A fable of ingratitude
There are tw ...
", is the more likely inspiration, coalescing as it does an uncaring pig and the theme of a useful tree that is maltreated.
In the arts
In that some of the fables were applied as commentaries on actual historical situations, it is not surprising to find them reused in their turn in political
caricatures
A caricature is a rendered image showing the features of its subject in a simplified or exaggerated way through sketching, pencil strokes, or other artistic drawings (compare to: cartoon). Caricatures can be either insulting or complimentary, a ...
. It is generally acknowledged that "The wolf in the kennel" is aimed at the
French invasion of Russia
The French invasion of Russia, also known as the Russian campaign, the Second Polish War, the Army of Twenty nations, and the Patriotic War of 1812 was launched by Napoleon Bonaparte to force the Russian Empire back into the continental block ...
in 1812, since the
Emperor Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
is practically quoted in a speech made by the wolf. This was shortly followed up by the broadsheet caricature of
Ivan Terebenev (1780–1815), titled “The wolf and the shepherd”, celebrating Russia's resistance. The fable of "The swan, the pike and the crawfish", all of them pulling a cart in a different direction, originally commented sceptically on a new phase in the campaign against Napoleon in the coalition of 1814 (although some interpreters tend to see it as an allusion to the endless debates of the
State Council State Council may refer to:
Government
* State Council of the Republic of Korea, the national cabinet of South Korea, headed by the President
* State Council of the People's Republic of China, the national cabinet and chief administrative auth ...
). It was reused for a satirical print in 1854 with reference to the alliance between France, Britain and Turkey at the start of the
Crimean War
The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia.
Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...
. Then in 1906 it was applied to agricultural policy in a new caricature.
![PopovAA DemyanovaUha](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/PopovAA_DemyanovaUha.jpg)
The fables have appeared in a great variety of formats, including as illustrations on
postcard
A postcard or post card is a piece of thick paper or thin cardboard, typically rectangular, intended for writing and mailing without an envelope. Non-rectangular shapes may also be used but are rare. There are novelty exceptions, such as wood ...
s and on matchbox covers.). The four animals from the very popular "The Quartet" also appeared as a set, modeled by Boris Vorobyov for the
Lomonosov Porcelain Factory in 1949. This was the perfect choice of subject, since the humour of Krylov's poem centres on their wish to get the seating arrangement right as an aid to their performance. The format therefore allows them to be placed in the various positions described in the fable.
Not all the fables confined themselves to speaking animals and one humorous human subject fitted the kind of genre paintings of peasant interiors by those from the emerging
Realist school. This scenario was "Demyan's Fish Soup", in which a guest is plied with far more than he can eat. Two of those who took the subject up were Andrei M.Volkov (1829-1873) in 1857, and Andrei Popov (1832–1896) in 1865 (see left). Illustrated books, on the other hand, have been numerous and at the start of the 20th century the style of other new art movements were applied to the fables. In 1911
Heorhiy Narbut provided attractive
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...
silhouettes for ''3 Fables of Krylov'', which included "The beggar and fortune" (see below) and "Death and the peasant". A decade later, when the artistic avant-garde was giving its support to the
Russian Revolution
The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and ad ...
, elements of various schools were incorporated by
Aleksandr Deyneka into a 1922 edition of the fables. In "The cook and the cat" it is
Expressionism
Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...
, while the pronounced diagonal of
Constructivism
Constructivism may refer to:
Art and architecture
* Constructivism (art), an early 20th-century artistic movement that extols art as a practice for social purposes
* Constructivist architecture, an architectural movement in Russia in the 1920s a ...
is introduced into “Death and the peasant”.
When
Socialist realism
Socialist realism is a style of idealized realistic art that was developed in the Soviet Union and was the official style in that country between 1932 and 1988, as well as in other socialist countries after World War II. Socialist realism is ch ...
was decreed shortly afterwards, such experiments were no longer possible. However, "Demyan's Fish Soup" reappears as a suitable peasant subject in the traditional
Palekh miniature
Palekh miniature (russian: Палехская миниатюра) is a Russian folk handicraft of a miniature painting, which is done with tempera paints on varnished articles made of papier-mâché (including the creation of small boxes, cigaret ...
s of Aristarkh A.Dydykin (1874 - 1954). Some of these was executed in bright colours on black lacquered
papier-mâché
upright=1.3, Mardi Gras papier-mâché masks, Haiti
upright=1.3, Papier-mâché Catrinas, traditional figures for day of the dead celebrations in Mexico
Papier-mâché (, ; , literally "chewed paper") is a composite material consisting of p ...
rondels during the 1930s, but prior to that he had decorated a soup plate with the same design in different colours. In this attractive 1928 product the action takes place in three bands across the bowl of the dish, with the guest taking flight in the final one. With him runs the cat which was rubbing itself against his leg in the middle episode. About the rim jolly fish sport tail to tail.
Musical adaptations of the fables have been more limited. In 1851,
Anton Rubinstein
Anton Grigoryevich Rubinstein ( rus, Антон Григорьевич Рубинштейн, r=Anton Grigor'evič Rubinštejn; ) was a Russian pianist, composer and conductor who became a pivotal figure in Russian culture when he founded the Sai ...
set ''5 Krylov Fables'' for voice and piano, pieces republished in
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...
in 1864 to a German translation. These included "The quartet", "The eagle and the cuckoo", "The ant and the dragonfly", "The ass and the nightingale", and "Parnassus". He was followed by
Alexander Gretchaninov
Alexander Tikhonovich GretchaninovAlso commonly transliterated as ''Aleksandr/Alexandre'' ''Grechaninov/Gretchaninoff/Gretschaninow'' ( rus, Алекса́ндр Ти́хонович Гречани́нов, p=ɐlʲɪˈksandr ɡrʲɪtɕɐˈnʲin ...
, who set ''4 Fables after Ivan Krylov'' for medium voice and piano (op.33), which included "The musicians", "The peasant and the sheep", "The eagle and the bee", and "The bear among the bees". This was followed in 1905 by ''2 Fables after Krylov'' for mixed
a cappella
''A cappella'' (, also , ; ) music is a performance by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Ren ...
choir (op.36), including "The frog and the ox" and "The swan, the pike and the crayfish". At about this time too,
Vladimir Rebikov
Vladimir Ivanovich Rebikov (russian: Влади́мир Ива́нович Ре́биков, ; May 31 S May 191866 – August 4, 1920) was a late romantic 20th-century Russian composer and pianist.
Biography
Born in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, ...
wrote a stage work titled ''Krylov's Fables'' and made some settings under the title ''Fables in Faces'' (''Basni v litsach'') that are reported to have been
Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev; alternative transliterations of his name include ''Sergey'' or ''Serge'', and ''Prokofief'', ''Prokofieff'', or ''Prokofyev''., group=n (27 April .S. 15 April1891 – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer, p ...
’s model for ''Peter and the Wolf''.
In 1913,
Cesar Cui Cesar, César or Cèsar may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''César'' (film), a 1936 film directed by Marcel Pagnol
* ''César'' (play), a play by Marcel Pagnolt
* César Award, a French film award
Places
* Cesar, Portugal
* C ...
set ''5 Fables of Ivan Krylov'' (Op.90) and in 1922 the youthful
Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, , group=n (9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his Symphony No. 1 (Shostakovich), First Symphony in 1926 and was regarded throug ...
set two by Krylov for solo voice and piano accompaniment (
op.4), "The dragonfly and the ant” and “The ass and the nightingale”. ''The dragonfly'', a ballet based on the first of these fables, was created by
Leonid Yakobson
Leonid Veniaminovich Yakobson (russian: Леонид Вениаминович Якобсон; January 2 (15), 1904 — October 17, 1975), whose last name is sometimes spelled Jacobson, was a Jewish ballet choreographer from Russia ...
for performance at the
Bolshoi in 1947 but it was withdrawn at the last moment due to political infighting.
The Russian La Fontaine
![Narbut Krylov](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/Narbut_Krylov.jpg)
Krylov is sometimes referred to as 'the Russian La Fontaine' because, though he was not the first of the Russian fabulists, he became the foremost and is the one whose reputation has lasted, but the comparison between the two men can be extended further. Their fables were also the fruit of their mature years; they were long meditated and then distilled in the language and form most appropriate to them. La Fontaine knew Latin and so was able to consult classical versions of Aesop's fables in that language – or, as in the case of “
The Banker and the Cobbler”, to transpose an anecdote in a poem by
Horace
Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 – 27 November 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his ' ...
into his own time. Krylov had learned French while still a child and his early work followed La Fontaine closely. Though he lacked Latin, he taught himself
Koine Greek
Koine Greek (; Koine el, ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος, hē koinè diálektos, the common dialect; ), also known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-reg ...
from a
New Testament
The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...
in about 1819, and so was able to read Aesop in the original rather than remaining reliant on La Fontaine's recreations of Latin versions. The major difference between them, however, was that La Fontaine created very few fables of his own, whereas the bulk of Krylov's work after 1809 was either indebted to other sources only for the germ of the idea or the fables were of his invention
Krylov's first three fables, published in a Moscow magazine in 1806, followed La Fontaine's wording closely; the majority of those in his 1809 collection were likewise adaptations of La Fontaine. Thereafter he was more often indebted to La Fontaine for themes, although his treatment of the story was independent. It has been observed that in general Krylov tends to add more detail in contrast with La Fontaine's leaner versions and that, where La Fontaine is an urbane moralist, Krylov is satirical.
But one might cite the opposite approach in Krylov's pithy summation of La Fontaine's lengthy "
The Man who Runs after Fortune “The man who runs after fortune" is the shortened title of La Fontaine's fable, ''L'homme qui court après la fortune et l’homme qui l’attend dans son lit'' (The fortune-seeker and the layabout, VII.12). It is one of the few that is of La Fon ...
" (VII.12) in his own "Man and his shadow". Much the same can be said of his treatment of "The Fly and the Bee" (La Fontaine's The Fly and the Ant, IV.3) and "The Wolf and the Shepherds" (La Fontaine's X.6), which dispense with the circumstantiality of the original and retain little more than the reasoning.
The following are the fables that are based, with more or less fidelity, on those of La Fontaine:
1806
*
The Oak and the Reed (I.22)
* The Choosy Bride (La Fontaine's The Maid, VII.5)
* The Old Man and the Three Young Men (XI.8)
1808
*
The Dragonfly and the Ants (I.1)
*
The Raven and the Fox (Aesop) (I.2)
*
The Frog and the Ox (I.3)
*
The Lion at the Hunt (I.6)
*
The Wolf and the Lamb
The Wolf and the Lamb is a well-known fable of Aesop and is numbered 155 in the Perry Index. There are several variant stories of tyrannical injustice in which a victim is falsely accused and killed despite a reasonable defence.
The fable and i ...
(I.10)
*
The Peasant and Death (or the woodman in La Fontaine, I.16)
*
The Fox and the Grapes
The Fox and the Grapes is one of Aesop's fables, numbered 15 in the Perry Index. The narration is concise and subsequent retellings have often been equally so. The story concerns a fox that tries to eat grapes from a vine but cannot reach them. ...
(III.11)
*
The Fly and the Travellers (VII.9)
*
The Hermit and the Bear (VIII.10)
1809
*
The Cock and the Pearl (I.20)
* The Lion and the Mosquito (II.9)
*
The Frogs who Begged for a Tsar (III.4)
*
The Man and the Lion (III.10)
* The Animals Sick of the Plague (VII.1)
*
The Two Pigeons
''The Two Pigeons'' (original French title: ''Les deux pigeons'') is a fable by Jean de la Fontaine (Book IX.2) that was adapted as a ballet with music by André Messager in the 19th century and rechoreagraphed to the same music by Frederick Ashto ...
(IX.2)
1811
* The Young Crow (who wanted to imitate the eagle in La Fontaine, II.16)
* Gout and the spider (III.8)
*
The Banker and the Cobbler (VIII.2)
1816
*
The Wolf and the Crane (III.9)
* The Mistress and her Two Maids (V.6)
1819
* The Shepherd and the Sea (IV,2)
*
The Greedy Man and the Hen (who laid golden eggs in La Fontaine, V.13)
1825
*
The Lion Grown Old (III.14)
*
The Kettle and the Pot (V.2)
*
The Crow
The Crow is a supernatural superhero comic book series created by James O'Barr revolving around the titular character of the same name. The series, which was originally created by O'Barr as a means of dealing with the death of his fiancée at t ...
(La Fontaine's Jay in Peacock's Feathers, IV.9)
1834
*
The Lion and the Mouse
The Lion and the Mouse is one of Aesop's Fables, numbered 150 in the Perry Index. There are also Eastern variants of the story, all of which demonstrate mutual dependence regardless of size or status. In the Renaissance the fable was provided w ...
(II.11)
Notes
References
:Translations, memoirs of the author and notes on the fables in English translation can be found in
*W.R.S.Ralston
''Krilof and his Fables'' prose translations and a memoir, originally published London 1869; 4th augmented edition 1883
*Henry Harrison
''Kriloff’s Original Fables'' London 1883,
*C.Fillingham Coxwell
''Kriloff's Fables'' translated into the original metres, London 1920
External links
*A limited preview with the introduction and five fables
''The frogs who begged for a tsar and 61 other Russian fables'' a verse translation by Lydia Rasran Stone, Monpelier VT 2010
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Krylov, Ivan
Dramatists and playwrights from the Russian Empire
Poets from the Russian Empire
Members of the Russian Academy
Full members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences
1769 births
1844 deaths
Burials at Tikhvin Cemetery
Writers from Moscow
18th-century writers from the Russian Empire
19th-century writers from the Russian Empire
Journalists from the Russian Empire
Male writers from the Russian Empire
18th-century male writers