THE ANTOKOLSKI - THE ANTOVILSKI?

In her monograph "M.M.Antokolski" ("Iskusstvo", Moscow, 1998, p. 21), the art critic E.Kuznecova writes that Mark Antokolski was born in one of the parts of Vilnius Town called "Antokolj" (now Antakalnis) on 2 November (21 October) 1843 into a poor Jewish family.
Indeed, at that time Antakalnis was one of the suburbs of Vilnius populated by a Jewish community (sub-Kahal); the latter had its own parish registers where it recorded births, marriages, and deaths. Now the registers are kept in the Lithuanian National Historical Archive (LVIA).
Archival records evidently show that the family of Mark Antokolski in fact was listed in the Antakalnis sub-Kahal at Vilnius Town, but it lived in Vilnius already in the second half of the 19th century. In 1851, 1854, and 1858, the revision registers of Antakalnis Jewish community contain entries on the families of Matysas, Gir?as, and Leiba Antokolski, Jankelis Leizerovièius' sons.
According to the then rules, Jewish families were entered into the revision registers according to their place of entry (registration), whereas their actual place of residence did not matter - the family could have lived elsewhere for a number of years and remain registered in the Jewish community where it came from. Archival records revealed new and, in our point of view, interesting fact about the origins of Antokolski family. In 1834, Antakalnis sub-Kahal revision registers had only one entry on Antokolski family, i.e. that on Matysas Jankelevièius Antokolski, father of the sculptor.
The family lists from 1858 revision registers witness that the father of Matysas Antokolski was Jankelis Leizerovièius.
However, the 1834 revision registers include the list of families bearing the names of Antovilskij and Antovilj. This data shows that the said families should have been blood-related, including the family of Antovilski Jankelis Leizerovièius.
The comparison of information about Matysas Antokolski' family with later entries in revision registers leads to the conclusion that at the beginning the family of the famous sculptor bore the name of Antovilski or Antovilis, originating from the village of Antovilj (now Antaviliai). The village away from Antakalnis on the road to Daugpils was the apparent place of the family's root.
We can only guess the reason of changing the family name. Probably that was done in order to escape the duty of recruits, i.e. 25-year service in the Tsarist Army. Certainly, there were many ways and tricks used by the Jews to escape entries in the revision registers. One of those ways was to supply officials with evidently untrue information about their family and its composition.
All the family members of Mark Antokolski appeared under the name of Antovilis in the list of Antakalnis Jewish sub-Kahal on recovery of the 1841pecuniary tax. We also find Antovils Mark Jankelevièius and his father Antovilis Jankelis Leizerovièius among them - both had inns.
The common thing was that both the brothers are referred to as Antovilski in the same documents of another case in 1841 "upon the request of town dwellers Jankelis and Moiðë Antokolski of Antakalnis Jewish community". The case reveals that the brothers were experienced distillers and had been granted the right to settle freely outside Antakalnis.
The 1846 family list of male dwellers of Vilnius Antakalnis Jewish community have all the Antokolski entered as either Antovilis or Antovilski.
An archival record witnesses that the grandfather of Mark Antokolski, Jankelis Leizerovièius Antovilis, and his sons Ezra and Leizeris lived in Antakalnis in 1846 and "earned their living" by day-labour. We also find entries about Mark Antokolski: Matysas Jankelevièius Antovilis (sculptor's father) was listed together with his sons Mejeris, Peisachas, Nochimas, and Morduchas. The entry shows that Matysas Antovilis lived in Vilnius Town in 1846 and had an inn.
All the members of Antokolski family were listed under the name of Antovilis in the documents of Antakalnis sub-Kahal concerning supply of recruits for 1859. That means that at the same time the members of the family of Mark (Morduchas) Antokolski were in different documents under different names: Antovilski or Antovilis and Antokolski.

HOUSE WHERE THE FAMOUS SCULPTOR WAS BORN

The issue of the place of birth of the sculptor was discussed for a long time. In his article in magazine "Ðvyturys", the famous Lithuanian art critic and expert of Vilnius Vladas Drëma raised a hypothesis that Mark Antokolski was born close to the fish market in the area of Subaèiaus Street.
It is surprising, but V.Drëma seems to have had no knowledge about the existence of a retail fish market in Didþioji Street at the Town Hall in the 19th century, apart from wholesale fish market close to Subaèiaus Street. Namely, house No. 25 in this street near the building of the Town Hall carries the plaque from the Tsarist era with the engraving "Here was born M.Antokolski. 1843-1902."
The plaque was fixed in a dark lane leading to a long yard rather than on the main façade of the building. There is a small two-floor house at the end of the yard. Earlier it was a part of Jatkovos or Mesiniø Street that was renamed to Antokolskio Street in 1940. Namely in this house rather than that with the fixed memorial plaque, the future great sculptor Morduchas Antokolski was born into the family of an inn-keeper - Matysas Antokolski.
This fact is proved not only by archival records but also by the celebrated Russian critic and sculptor's friend Vasilij Stasov. His edited a book in Russian published in 1905 under the title "Mark Matvejevich Antokolskij. His Life, Works, Letters and Articles" (hereinafter "V.Stasov") enclosed the photo of the house of M.Antokolski' father. Vilnius journalist I.?teingoldas ("Sovietskaja Litva," 11 July 1947) wrote about the same house in 1947. He also published the photo of the said memorial plaque in the newspaper. At that time the plaque was fixed to house No.7 (according to the pre-war numbering), on the façade from the side of Antokolskio Street. At present, the house where Antokolski was born is one of the blocks of Did?ioji Street No.25 and has no number in Antokolskio Street which received its name thanks to this house.

WHEN WAS SCULPTOR M.ANTOKOLSKI BORN?

The date of the sculptor's birth has also raised a lot of doubts and discussions. In his article "When was Antokolski born?", David Maggid (1862-1942) makes a lot of assumptions. He challenges the date of birth (21 October 1843), which is indicated in a biographical essay by V.Stasov and presumes that M.Antokolski was born 4 years prior to the date, i.e. in 1839. In his article, he says that "there had never been registration of the birth of Antokolski. It is evident that this date established by somebody's witness and is not based on anything, which means that it is only a guess."
The author of the article has further doubts concerning reliability of any entry in the parish register and has more confidence in the testimony of the sculptor's mother: "in any case, if the registration of the birth of M.Antokolski had been available, they would not have been the source for establishing the exact date of birth of the artist, since the entries in the parish registers of the Jewish community in the thirties and forties of the last (19th century - author's note) were done without any diligence and order, therefore, the dates of the registration often had to be established on the basis of testimonies by old-timers. The more precise witness of Antokolski' mother herself which I entered in my book ("M.M.Antokolski, His Life and Works". Warsaw, 1887, in old Jewish, p. 210) specifies that M.Antokolski was born on 25 Kislevo 5600, i.e. 20 November 1839."
It should be recognised that D.Maggid's doubts related to the reliability of registers are partly grounded, however, those doubts should not be made absolute, particularly when the issue is related to birth, marriage, and death entries in the parish registers of Vilnius Town Jewish community because these registers were generally kept only since 1937. They are now kept in the Lithuanian National Historical Archives. After a long search, we succeeded in finding an entry about the birth of the famous artist in the parish register of Vilnius Jewish community.
The entry in the perish register states that Morduchas, the son of Matysas Jankelevièius Antokolski and Keilë Chiena Benjaminovna, was born in the Town of Vilnius on 2 November 1840 or 18 Cheshvan ("jud chet") 5601 ("taf reish alef") according to the Jewish calendar. Therefore, there are no doubts to consider his date of birth 2 November 1840.
January 1858 list of the "town dwellers who have no immovable property in the town [Vilnius]" includes the family of Matysas Jankelevièius Antokolski who "lives in the house of Kozell, 2nd part of the 1st quarter of Vilnius".
The list also includes the children of M.Antokolski: sons Mejeris, Peisachas, Nochimas, and Morduchas, as well as daughter Estera. According to other archival records, there were two more daughters, Bunka and Roza, in addition to the aforesaid members of Antokolski family. According to the document, Morduchas was 17 years of age in January 1858, i.e. he should have turned 18, which proves that he was born in 1840. The examination of the perish registers of Vilnius Jewish community and other archival records, first and foremost, the revision registers of Antakalnis sub-Kahal, allow to draw a very branchy family tree of Mark Antokolski.

FAMILY TREE

We would not dare to claim that this tree reflects all the forefathers and descendants of the famous sculptor. The researcher did not pursue this goal. In case we wished, it would be possible to continue with the research of archival records and supplement the tree with new names. This article provides only some more important family links of Mark Antokolski family. However, attention should be drawn to some aspects, which are important, from our point of view, and are related to the members of a large family - the Antokolski.
We have succeeded in finding family relations between Mark Antokolski and the known artist Levas Antokolski. Levas Moiðevièius Antokolski was born in Vilnius on 30 May 1872 and was second nephew of Mark Antokolski (Moiðë, father of Levas, was sculptor's cousin from fathers' side). Levas Antokolski (1872-1942) studied in Petersburg Art Academy in 1891-1900 and was taught by the celebrated Ilja Repin. In 1903 he returned to Vilnius and actively engaged in the artistic life of the town. Levas Antokolski jointly with others organised "M.Antokolski' drawing classes for Jewish craftsmen" which were launched in 1904. Before 1915, about 500 pupils had been enrolled in these classes. Famous Chaim Soutine is believed to have finished those classes, too.

WOODCARVER FROM VILNIUS

On numerous occasions, Mark Antokolski told his beloved pupil and friend Ilja Ginzburg about his childhood that was far from joyful.
"Nobody indulged me in my childhood. I was not a beloved child, and everybody who wanted could harm me, even our maid. My mother was the only one who did not despise me. And I love her not only for that. The most important thing why I love her is that she is the mother of all of us. I recall our poor live, and even under those circumstances, secretly from my father, my mother shared what we had with those who were even poorer". (V.Stasov, p. IV-VI).
In contrast to his mother, Mark' father was a rough and cruel person, thus, it was understandable why the son did not love his father who mistreated him and often beat him.
In his childhood, the young Morduchas started working at different craftsmen's as an apprentice. Finally, he settled at an engraver's, as it better matched with the character of the youngster and his love of moulding and woodcarving.
Two wooden sculptures "Christ" and "Madonna" (in the manner of van Eyck) attracted the attention of Anastasija Nazimova, wife to Vilnius Governor General and an educated woman of culture. She proposed that M.Antokolski should go to Petersburg Art Academy. However, the father of the youngster was against it, though the financial situation of the family had improved by that time as the majority of children had grown up and Matysas Antokolski (the father of the future sculptor) himself was rather rich, as witnessed by archival records.
The latter shows that in 1856 Matysas Antokolski was "3rd Guild of Vilnius merchant Shlioma Rozenson's shop assistant" and leased a hotel in the same "Kozell's house at Jatkovos Street". In 1866, he was already among 20 Jews of Antakalnis sub-Kahal who had a right to take part in the election to the Town Duma. In 1865, Matysas Antokolski made an application for a 24-year lease of 2 brick houses offering a considerable amount of 1300 roubles as annual rental, but in the end he did not take part in the tender for some unknown reason.
A. Nazimova gave the young artist a reference letter and money for his trip, and in 1862 Morduchas Antokolski became a part-time student at the St Petersburg Art Academy where he studied for 7 years.

FROM VILNIUS TO PETERSBURG AND BACK

Every year Antokolski would come back to his native town of Vilnius during his summer holidays. Namely here he created his first significant work, high relief "A Jewish Tailor," during his summer holidays of 1864.
Art critic E.Kuznecova evaluated this work as follows (p. 35): "An exhausted old man sticking out of the semi-dark window of his shabby house, threading a needle with his trembling fingers. His face is full of tension and deep concentration. The look of tired, weak, and his old eyes are focused on the thread. Years pass by and the tailor finds it more and more difficult to manage this seemingly non-specific task. The bony body of the old man in rags, tired thin face, broken frame of the window fixed with plaques - all this marks hopeless poverty. Expressive and true view raises sympathy and compassion".
Giving his explanations of why the sculpture was created in Vilnius, art critic A.Alferov ("M.Antokolskij". M., 1903, in Russian, p.12) indicated that such a plot could not have been created in the Academy; he had to live in the native Jewish surrounding, he "had to see constantly both the dirt and poverty of a provincial Jew in order to capture the moment of grey life of a poor Jewish tailor in his carving."
The work of the young sculptor provoked a lot of discussions in the Academy in Petersburg. On 28 October 1864, the Council of the Academy decided to award Antokolski with the Small Silver Medal for the "Tailor" by the majority of votes. That was the first artist's victory!
While in Vilnius the following year, Antokolski created another high relief - "A Stingy Man," which is sometimes referred to as "A Stingy Jew Counting his Coins".
The artist was born into a poor family and saw how his father's financial situation improved. The sculpture might have reflected Antokolski' feelings to his native town of Vilnius, and firstly to his father. This work as well as the first sculpture was positively evaluated by V.Stasov who saw "the features of the simple truth, the things that, previously, nobody dared to think about in sculpture" in the works of the artist. In 1865, the high relief "Stingy Man" was awarded the Grand Silver Medal of the Academy. In later years the sculptor continued working on the Jewish topic, which developed in to complex, yet unfinished compositions: "Talmud Dispute" (1866-1868) and "Inquisition Attacks the Jews" (1868-1869).
Vasilij Stasov who soon became M.Antokolski' close friend highly appreciated the first works by the sculptor. In the article "Jewish Kin in the European Works of Art" ("Jewish Library". Vol.III, St Petersburg, 1872, in Russian, pp.815-819), he wrote:
"In a very short period of time, this artist has brought up his bold talent, won appreciation of everyone, and now takes an exceptional and exclusively honourable place among his fellow artists: in a wonderful manner, he denies those eternal superstitions in Europe [...] that the Jews are not gifted for arts [...]. Nobody will ever deny the gift of Jews for science, medicine, acting, industry, trade, different crafts, but nobody would ever recognise that the Jews have the same gift for art. Sculptor Antokolski has become the first proof, great and undeniable."
V.Stasov singled out "Inquisition" out of M.Antokolski' "Jewish works". He said that Antokolski recreated not only a wonderful scene out of the living Jewish prototypes and characters, but also boldly extended the frames and limits of sculpture by using the play of the light.
According to V.Stasov, the novelty and bold artistic means merged with the power of talent brought new unheard results, and he considered Antokolski' "Inquisition" the "most wonderful, most specific, and important piece of art for the future".
The "Inquisition" was M.Antokolski' last work on the Jewish topic in his student years: "These works contain very small but very characteristic figures, full of folk types and expressions, and all of them were created in Vilnius during his summer holidays from 1863 to 1869, and they were based on a national element relevant to the place where Antokolski was born and grew up", wrote M.Antokolski' student, future famous sculptor Ilja Ginzburg (V.Stasov, p. XVII).
According to the review of the Art Academy, Mark Antokolski was granted personal name of honorary citizen "for wonderful knowledge of art" on 7 April 1870. This fact was also entered into an archival record. Moreover, an inscription remained that Morduchas was excluded from the revision register of Antakalnis Jewish community as a person awarded the name of a honorary citizen.

GRAND SCULPTOR

In 1871 Antokolski started his first "Russian" sculpture "Ivan the Menace" which made an enormous impression on all valuators and connoisseurs of art. When Tsar Alexander II saw the sculpture he asked to make its bronze copy and (what is most important!) allocated the sculptor advance payment of 4 000 roubles. Pavel Tretjakov ordered a marble copy for his gallery. "I went to bed poor and was born rich next morning. I was unknown yesterday, and today I am in fashion," wrote M.Antokolski.
The funds received enabled the artist to resolve his personal problems, too. In 1871 (in Vilnius) Mark Antokolski got acquainted with beautiful Jelena (Gene), daughter of the rich Vilnius merchant Judelis Girðovièius Apatovas (ca 1800-1868) and Michlë Benjaminovna (maiden name Kacenelenbougen).
The sculptor's wedding took place in Vilnius and was recorded in the parish register: on 6 September 1872, the marriage between the bachelor academy graduate Mark Matvejevièius Antokolski, 31 years of age, and Jelena Judelevna Apatova, heir and honorary citizen, 20 years of age, was registered in Vilnius Town.
An interesting thing is that the entry about the birth of Mark Antokolski' wife was made in the 1849 parish register of Vilnius Jewish community only in 1873 following the decision of Vilnius Town Duma. The document witness that Jelena Apatova was born on 3 September 1849. It is likely that the father of Jelena Judelis Apatovas failed to register the birth of his daughter on time, that was often the case with Jewish families upon a girl's birth.
When Jelena married, she decided to leave Vilnius together with her husband. In order to get a passport she had to submit her birth certificate. We believe that the entry on her birth was made upon the decision of the government a number of years later.
M.Antokolski used 4 000 roubles for the "Ivan the Menace" to buy half of a big house in Vilnius the other part of which had previously belonged to his wife. In 1876, upon his regular visits to Vilnius, Antokolski rebuilt the house. At present, this house is U?upio Street No.19. A noteworthy fact is that Antokolski signed all the documents: "Mark Matysovièius Antokolski".
After 1876, Antokolski was a rare visitor to his native town due to illnesses, work, and exhibitions in Paris and Italy, which took almost all of his time. However, the artist did not break his links with Jewish life. Concern over his nation urged M.Antokolski to return back to his work "Inquisition Attacks the Jews," started 30 years before in Vilnius.
Simultaneously, the sculptor created his last piece of work - monument to Katherine II whose construction was planned in Vilnius. However, with the chronic stomach disease getting severer, the artist suddenly passed away on 9 July (27 June according to the old calendar) in Bad-Homburg (Germany). The last work was completed by I.Ginzburg after the sculptor's death. Unfortunately, the monument has not survived.
It was decided to bury M.Antokolski in Petersburg. The train with a special carriage went via Vilnius where he was waited for. That is how Ilja Ginzburg described Antokolski' last meeting with his native town: "M.M.-s [Antokolski'] widow and children impatiently waited for the train to arrive at Vilnius, the homeland of the beloved husband and father. When a considerable distance was still left for the train to cover to the station, I looked through the window of the carriage and I was touched by an unusual scene: a crowd of people flooded the whole station and it seemed that it was impossible for the train to make to the station [...]. The train hardly got into the station by seemly squeezing into the black crowd of people [...]. The deputies with the head of the town at their lead and the delegations from different societies were waiting for us. A multitude of wreaths was laid on the coffin, the Jewish cantors sang [...]. The mourning ceremony lasted for the whole hour, deputies made speeches [...]. Thousands of people bowed their heads to the widow who could not get to herself and was crying [...]. "No, no, I could not have imagined anything of the kind," said the touched widow when the train moved."
Mark Antokolski was buried on 18 (6 according to the old calendar) July 1902 in Preobrazenskaja Cemetery in Petersburg.
Genrichas AGRANOVSKIS, Fellow Worker of the Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum Galina BARANOVA, Fellow Worker of the Lithuanian National History Museum