Illustrations to “Gespräche in dem Reiche derer Todten zwischen dem vortreflichen Moscowitischen Czaar Petro Magno und dem grossen Tyrannen Ivan Basilowiz II” (Peter the Great and Ivan the Terrible) by David Fassmann (1725)

Abstract

The journal created by David Fassmann (1683–1744), Gespräche in dem Reiche derer Todten, edited in Leipzig, was a huge success. Each of the 240 issues presents a dialogue between two historical figures from the afterworld. In the 83rd–86th Entrevuë, the interlocutors are Peter the Great and Ivan the Terrible. The texts of the four conversations were thoroughly examined by Eckhard Matthes (1987). The present paper explores how the illustrations to the 83rd–86th Entrevuë visualize the texts, which is significant as they were an important instrument for disseminating certain notions about Russia. While the illustration to the first dialogue of the suite juxtaposes Peter and Ivan, the illustration to the second one emphasizes the similarities between them. So the image of the “tyrant” and “barbarian” Ivan becomes a reference point with which a reader is urged to compare Peter’s deeds, seeing not only the differences but also the similarities. This greatly contributes to the creation of the multifaceted image of Russia of the early 18th century. The characters of the second illustration—a tiger and an executioner—can be identified as Ivan and Peter only if the reader takes into consideration an epigram to the illustration, the illustration to the previous dialogue, the text of the next Entrevuë, and facts about the execution of the strel’tsy known from other texts and images, about which Fassmann remains silent in the spirit of ars dissimulandi, which was typical for baroque culture. The paper offers an attempt to trace the iconography of the tyrant as a tiger. In the frontispiece to the 85th Entrevuë, a secretary bringing news from the world of the living and a portrait of Catherine I emphasize the connection of the past and the present, i.e., history and policy. Finally, the illustration to the last dialogue of the series returns to the glorification of Peter the Great declared in the first dialogue.