Alexander Danilovich Menshikov, 18. Yüzyıl Rus Büstü

Met curator Wolfram Koeppe on lasting monuments in Alexander Danilovich Menshikov, an 18th-century Russian portrait bust created by an anonymous artist, c. 1703–4.

The pictorial program of this intriguing portrait reflects the sitter's meteoric rise as a military commander and his personal search for a pedigree. The oval reliefs show the Justice of Trajan (right) and Alexander the Great and Hephaestion at the tent of Darius (left). Hephaestion's friendship with Alexander (who happened to share a first name with Menshikov) is meant to underscore Menshikov's service to his master and close friend, Peter the Great. After the emperor's death in 1725, his widow, Catherine, assumed power and virtually entrusted Menshikov with ruling Russia. Upon her death in 1727, Menshikov's opponents instigated a political rebellion. Menshikov, who had been knighted in 1703 and received the rank of prince in 1705, was stripped of his possessions and title and exiled to northern Siberia, where he died in poverty.

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