Ivan Lindsay in front of Evgeniy Vuchetich's 'Let us Beat Swords into Ploughshares' bronze outside the Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, February, 2011
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Ivan Lindsay in front of Evgeniy Vuchetich's 'Let us Beat Swords into Ploughshares' bronze outside the Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, February, 2011
Vuchetich was not the most skillful of the Soviet Sculptors, compared to say Mukhina, Shadr or Manizer for example, but this powerful image was his masterpiece.
Only a few large scale versions of this bronze were cast and the best known example is the one outside the United Nations in New York which was given by the Soviet Union and now belongs to the United Nations.
The sculpture shows a man beating a sword into a ploughshare, turning a weapon into a peaceful civilian application. The phrase originates from the Book of Isaiah, "And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." Isaiah 2: 3-4.
Vuchetich's sculpture was so popular that he was allowed to cast some smaller bronze versions that were distributed amongst the Soviet leadership and examples of these sometimes reappear on the art market. There were also later copies made in aluminium.
