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653
THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA
Anti-Talmudists
Autokolski

though for his hypocrisy he deserved unfrocking or banishment, or, at the worst, excommunication. Furthermore, they said that the matter ought not to be hastened, and that the advice of the various churches and academies should be sought. A fanat. ical majority, however, insisted that the judges should seize the present opportunity to demonstrate their faith, since it was most dangerous to absolve one who had professed Judaism while wearing the garb of a Christian priest. For some days longer the judges waited for Antoine to recant. As his recantation was not forthcoming, they pronounced sentence April 20, 1632; condemning him to be loaded with chains, placed upon a pyre, to be there strangled, and then burned. In vain the clergy petitioned for a respite: Antoine was executed the same day. He went to his death serenely, and died imploring the mercy of the God of Abraham.

Biblography: Sammter. Alleg. Zeit. d. Jud. 1894, Nos. 4 and 5: Rev. Et. Juives, xxxvl. 163, xxxv. 161-180.

ANTOKOLSKI, MARK MATVEYEVICH:

Mark Antukulskl. (From a photograph.)

Russian seniptor; born in Wilma in 1842. As a young child he displayed a talent for art, and after a short term in the heder (Hebrew school) applied himself to the study of carving in wood. Artistic carvings in wood executed by him attracted attention, and the youthful artist was presented to General Nazimov, the governor-general of Wilma. At the age of twenty-one he went to St. Petersburg, where, with the aid of Mme. Nazimov. he was enabled to enter the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts. While there he maintained himself by working in a turner's shop, receiving a very scanty compensation. In 1884 the silver medal of the first order was awarded to him by the academy for his woood-carving, "The Jewish Tailor," which promptly gained for him a reputation. In the following your "The Miser Counting His Money," a work executed in ivory. brought him the large silver medal of the academy and a pension from the operor. In 1866-67 he produced a bas-relief, "The Judas Kiss," and a group modeled in clay entitled "The Descent of the Inquisition on a Jewish Family at the Feast of Pussnyer. For certain reasons the academy would not elect him a member, but offered bin the unusual title of honorary citizen, which he declined. In 1868 Antokolski went to Berlin, and after a short stay returned to St. Petersburg, and produced the famous statue, "Ivan the Terrible," for which he was appointed an academician at the express command of Emperor Alexander II, who purchased the statue and ordered a bronze casting of it to be placed in the Hermitage at St. Petersburg. The statue represents the tyrannical czar in one of the intervals of remorse.

Soon after the completion of this work Antokolski went to Rome, where he produced the colossal Statue of "Peter the Great" (1872), and projected "Dimitri Donskoi." Yaraslay the Wise," and "Ivan III." In his autobiography Antokotski speaks of the extraordinary popularity that "Ivan the Terrible" had among his countrymen, whereas his statue of Peter the Great was not appreciated in Russia till after its successful exhibition at the Paris Salon. According to his opinion the half-mythical Ivan speaks more feelingly to the national heart than the epoch-making and energetic Peter.

In 1874 Antokolski produced "Christ Bound Before the People," which was rereived with great enthusiasm, In 1875 he returned to St. Petersburg, and while there produced in quick succession "The Death of Socrates" (1876). "The Last Sigh" (1877), and The Head of John the Baptist" (1878). In the same year his works were exhibited at the Paris Exposition, when the jury awarded him a first-class medal. He was also created by the French government Knight of the Legion of Honor. In 1880 he received the title of professor of sculpture and settled permanently in Paris. In 1882 he produced "Spinoza," and later Yerimak" (The Cossack conqueror of Siberia) and "Nestor, the Annalist." At the Paris Exposition of 1900 he exhibited "The Sleeping Beauty" and "Pax," the latter a young blind Christian girl in front of the Coliseum.

Of Autokolski's career and works the celebrated Russian art-critic Stussov gives the following description:

"Antokolski's preemience in Europe was universally acknowledged at the Paris Exposition in 1878, where an international jury, composed of artists delegates from all nations-

"Death of Socrates" by Antokolski. (From photograph.)

awarded him the first and highest prize for sculpture: and In hundreds of articles in the Journals the foreign critics never weary of spanking of the great importance of Antokolski. Many favorable opinions of this kind have been when in the foreign press but Antokolsi. But for us it is a matter of secondary importance what Europe thinks him, Much or significant is the question of what he is to Russians. He is the greatest sculptor of our age. He represents in his personality something altogether different from what all the rest of