Hunting for an Angel (about a “Mysterious” Image in the Poem by Innokenty Annensky)

Based on hitherto unpublished notebooks of I.F. Annensky from the time of his trip to Italy (1890), the article examines the origin of the crucial image (a seraphim with a cello) in Annensky’s poem “Yearning of Return.” The commentary tradition has put forward a number of assumptions about the work of which of the old Italian masters could be discussed in the poetic ekphrasis of the Russian poet. Botticelli, mentioned in “Yearning of Return,” set the chronological vector of the search among his contemporaries, but it was not possible to find a suitable image that inspired Annensky. Meanwhile, his notebook records the impressions of the painting by the Italian artist of the early 17th century Domenichino (Domenico Zampieri) “The Martyrdom of Saint Agnes” in the Pinacoteca di Bologna: “The angel-musicians are beautiful, but not inspired. Harp, flute, cello” (RGALI). Probably, this same painting was recalled by Annensky in the poem in prose “Sentimental Memory” (1908), where the seraph with the “heavenly cello” appears again.