“Secret Departure of Ivan the Terrible Before the Oprichina

In the Russian nesting doll of narratives that is art history, “Secret Departure of Ivan the Terrible” is not merely a Nazi-looted work. It is also part of a genre – the man on horseback – that sweeps us from the ancient world to our own time, in which it has become a symbol of the controversy over Confederate monuments as well as a metaphor for dystopia.