2025-10-02

[public] 20.5K views, 1.94K likes, dislikes audio only

Great Art Explained

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Ilya Repin's Ivan the Terrible and his Son Ivan, is one of the most controversial and shocking images in Russian art.

When it was unveiled in 1885, it caused such a scandal that the Tsar himself banned it from public view.

Since then, it has been physically attacked twice - slashed in 1913 and nearly destroyed again in 2018. To this day, Russian nationalists denounce it, insisting it is Western propaganda, historically inaccurate, and unfair to Ivan the Terrible.

But the painting leaves little room for doubt. Here, Ivan the Terrible - Russia’s first crowned Tsar - has just struck down his own son in a violent rage, moments after attacking his pregnant daughter-in-law and causing her to miscarry.

This isn’t simply a historical scene. It is a universal story of rage, regret, domination, and destruction - an image that still reverberates through time. And is still relevant.

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"What a brilliant series this is" - Stephen Fry on Twitter (X)

CREDITS

Script co-written by Laura Beardsell-Moore

Opening

Animation and Title Sequence by Brian Adsit (instagram https://instagram.com/brian_vfx?utm_m... and Behance www.behance.com/badsit88)

Recording by Robert Lewis

VIDEOS

All the videos, songs, images, and graphics used in the video belong to their respective owners and I or this channel do not claim any right over them.

MUSIC

Prokofiev Toccata D minor, op 11

Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet Dance of the Knights

BOOKS

The Russian Vision: The Art of Ilya Repin by David Jackson

Ilya Repin (Great Painters) by G.IU. Sternin and Yelena Kirillina

Ilya REPIN: The Russian Soul on Canvas (Russian Painting from the Romanovs to Stalin) by Grigori Sternin

Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing.