Woodcut, paper; 34 x 46 cm (clear passe-partout);
The graphic comes from "Album of Jan Matejko" published in 1876 by S. Leventhal, who wrote in the afterword: "The album included the finest paintings of the master, made in recent times, [.... ] the works were drawn on wood by Matejko himself " [...] the making of each of such woodcuts, such as Stefan Batory, Sejm in Lublin , et.al. required six months of time each, not counting the time used to draw them on wood [...].
Matejko's painting depicts the bloody period of the rule of the Russian Tsar, who brutally pacified the opposition of the boyars during the Oprichnina in the Russian Empire. In the depicted scene, which takes place on a dark night, boyar Mikhail Yakovlevich Morozov, governor and governor of Livonia, is led to the place of execution. At the head of the entourage led by a soldier wearing a helmet on his head and a torch in his right hand, next to Ivan the Terrible goes the Metropolitan of Moscow Levta and Tsarovich Fyodor, in front of whom a boy carries an open Gospel. They are followed, among others, by the tsarina with Maluta Skuratov, who stands out for his cruelty among the oprichniki, holding in his left hand a scroll containing a death sentence and pointing with it to the gallows visible on the horizon, which is the target of the procession, looks at Morozov, dressed to the derision of the crowd in a degrading grotesque costume. In the background on the right are the open doors of the illuminated Orthodox church from which the retinue set off.Morozov's fate, ruthlessly marked by Ivan the Terrible, is suggested by the raven standing in front of the boyar, the dog howling beside it and the scaffold with the gallows in the background, which gives the work an ominous atmosphere. Marian Gorzkowski wrote: The whole picture is extremely impressive, painted with a terrifying truth.
The main emphasis has been placed on conveying a mood of horror and madness through the interpretation of the figures of Ivan, Maluta (holding the death sentence) and Morozov (clownish clothing). There is also a subtle motif of the grotesque, consisting of dancing gestures of the people depicted in the painting, which makes the death procession-like procession associated with a carnival procession.
