Spartacus became one of the key figures of Soviet dramaturgy in the 1920s. He was presented as the only ancient predecessor of the Bolsheviks and his theatrical image significantly shaped the later icon of the gladiator as a brave leader of the oppressed masses and a hero acting in the name of the proletariat. This article explores the image of Spartacus in early Soviet theater and mass performance and outlines the correlation between the template of Spartacus’ portrayal, Raffaello Giovagnoli’s novel Spartaco (1874), and the first dramatic adaptations by Vladimir Mazurkevich (1920) and Vladimir Volkenstein (1921). The article examines the use of the ancient hero in Bolshevik propaganda and traces the ways in which Spartacus’ image morphs and maps onto wider shifts of Soviet political and cultural policy in the early decades of the USSR.
My article is devoted to the woodcut with the image of Polish King Sigismund II Augustus Jagiellon (1520-1572) and to the possible authorship of this early modern emblem. The composition for the first time is noted in the second Vienna 1560 edition of ‘Confessio fidei’, written by Polish bishop and later – a Cardinal – Stanislaus Hosius (Stanisław Hozjusz). The same emblem is inserted in the 1561 Vienna edition, but is absent from all further reprints. At the same time, the National Museum in Cracow defines the origination of this woodcut from the city of Mainz and dates it back to 1557, however, in the existing exemplars of the 1557 print in The Princes Czartoryski Library and The Bavarian State Library in Munich this woodcut is not present. In my article, I elucidate the artistic peculiarities of the composition of this emblem – the King’s portrait, the role of the framing of his figure with the dynastic and territorial coats of arms, and also analyse and translate the text of the 12-line poem in Latin. The poem interpreted the successes of Sigismund II, firstly, with the origins of his name from the ancient Roman princeps Octavius Augustus, and secondly, by the King’s faithfulness to the Catholic Church. Considering the appointment of Hosius as the nuncio to Vienna in 1559, the direct involvement of the bishop into the creation of this emblem is perceived as quite likely, especially in spite of Hosius’s activity in the Counter-Reformation processes in Europe. This was conducted for two purposes: in order to accomplish a specific didactic-catholic mission for Maximilian II Habsburg, as well as to promote the image of Sigismund Augustus in the international arena. In the article, the attention is focused on the ancient reminiscences, referred by the author, and the possible further research paths of the classical reception are defined in the context of early modern Europe.
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