Explore the Moment represented about the Analysis of this artwork, Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan.

Although the painting is sometimes called Ivan the Terrible kills his son, Repin did not paint the moment at which the Tsar hits the Tsarevich. The work does not represent violence but its resolution. Ivan the Terrible holds his son. His eyes "bulging with horror, despair and madness", he embraces him by the waist. Tsarevich Ivan, weeping, gently waves his hand.Two modifications to the preliminary sketches show the distance established by the painter with the altercation; the sceptre with which the Tsar strikes his son's temple is in his hand in the first sketches while in the final painting, it is on the floor in front of them. The bloodstain where the Tsarevich's head rests on the floor, which is very visible in the oil sketch Repin made in 1883, and which he kept and resumed later, is erased in the shadows of the final painting. Ivan Ivanovich's dress no longer has a long bloodstain. The represented moment becomes one of remorse, forgiveness and love. The painting also shows, in its centre, the reality and the irreversibility of the tsar's act: the blood flows from his son's temple and the attempt Ivan the Terrible makes to contain it with his left hand is hopeless.
Ivan Ivanovich sceptre Tsarevich Ivan the Terrible