In the context of this artwork, analyze the Symbolic scope of the Analysis.
For Repin and his contemporaries, the painting's first symbolic function is to express the existence of violence and moral rejection, which must be the object. According to Ivan Kramskoi; "it seems that a human being, after having carefully looked at this painting, even if only once, will be forever protected from the wild beast he has, as they say, in him".The representation of the aftermath of the father's altercation with his son is a historical episode and illustrates a person's "eternal" capacity to physically harm their neighbour. The painting can be understood as a pictorial parable of the phrase "you shall not kill".The picture also seemed to approach a more-particularly religious inspiration, showing "Christian love and forgiveness" can repair crime, even infanticide. The tsarevich's gesture and face are "almost like that of an icon", the tear that runs down the wing of his nose seem to depict forgiveness. The similarity of the gesture of Ivan the Terrible's right arm with those of the figures in the two Rembrandt paintings also aligns with this position.In the interpretation of the work, the personality of the writer Vsevolod Garshin provides additional details. In this period, Repin used Garshin as a model in several other paintings, including Portrait (1884) and the large painting They Did Not Expect Him, in which Garshin poses for the main character. Work on They Did Not Expect Him began in 1884 and ended the year of Garshin's suicide in 1888.Repin appreciated Vsevolod Garshin, whom he considered an "incarnation of the divine" during their friendship and after his death. He wrote "his pensive eyes, often mixed with tears provoked by some injustice, his humble and delicate attitude, his angelic personality, with the purity of a dove, were those of a God". Repin's painting refers to Garshin's physical features, his personality and his deeply peaceful thought.
Vsevolod Garshin ru Rembrandt They Did Not Expect Him Ivan the Terrible Ivan Kramskoi