Image source: Wikimedia Commons (Public domain). View source
Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks
Ilya Repin · Realism & Academic
- Artist
- Ilya Yefimovich Repin (1844–1930)
- Date
- 1880–1891
- Dimensions
- 203 x 358 cm
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Location
- State Russian Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia
This painting shows a band of Cossacks gathered around a table, roaring with laughter as their scribe writes an insulting reply to an ultimatum from the Ottoman Sultan, who had demanded their surrender.
A closer look
The legend tells that in the 17th century the free Cossacks of the Zaporozhian Sich answered the Sultan with a letter full of crude, imaginative insults. Repin depicts the moment of collective creation: each man suggests a new outrageous phrase, laughing, shouting, slapping his belly, smoking his pipe. Dozens of characters, from the old chief Ivan Sirko to bald, tattooed warriors and a young lad, are individually portrayed, many based on real people Repin studied in Ukraine. The painting celebrates freedom, comradeship and defiance.
