Iphigenia in Tauris

Iphigenia in Tauris (1893), at the Tatarstan State Museum of Fine Arts in Kazan, places Serov within a long tradition of depicting figures from Greek tragedy and mythology. The subject — Iphigenia, daughter of Agamemnon, rescued from sacrifice at Aulis by Artemis and transported to Tauris (Crimea) to serve as a priestess — was most familiar through Euripides' play and Goethe's famous dramatic adaptation of 1787, which had given the story new currency throughout the nineteenth century. Serov's treatment comes during a period when he was experimenting with historical and mythological subjects alongside his contemporaneous portrait and landscape work. Russia's own ancient connections to the Black Sea coastal region around Tauris (the Crimean peninsula) gave the subject particular geographic resonance for Russian painters. The work's holding at the Tatarstan State Museum in Kazan reflects the dispersal of major Russian artworks during the Soviet period when state museums across the USSR received works redistributed from Moscow and St. Petersburg collections. Serov's Iphigenia is a relatively early work, painted when he was twenty-eight, and shows him engaging with the classical tradition before his later more experimental mythological subjects.

Oil on canvas with the naturalistic figure handling of Serov's early mature style. The outdoor classical setting allows for plein-air observation of light combined with archaeological evocation of ancient Greece. The figure's posture and expression communicate the psychological situation — exile, longing, priestess's duty — through physical bearing rather than dramatic gesture.