Is the famous portrait of commander Vitus Bering is really a portrait of his uncle?

They write that the most replicated portrait of the captain-commander Vitus Bering is a portrait of his uncle-historian. Check if this is so.

Russian "Wikipedia" claimsFor a long time the only lifetime image of the captain-commander of the Russian fleet Vitus Bering considered a portrait that we published above. However, in fact, this is supposedly not his portrait, but a portrait of his mother’s uncle and a namesake, a Danish named Vitus Pedersen Bering.

Until the 20th century, everyone who studied Bering’s biography knew that his lifetime portraits were not preserved. But in 1945, the great -granddaughter of Bering found the same well -known portrait. The Mesentsev historian published him in the “Izvestia of the All -Union Geographical Society” (vol. 77, No. 5, 1945) with commentary: “Due to the lack of another portrait of Bering, the possibility of comparing to verify the reliability of the image. It is necessary to believe the legend preserved by the descendants of Bering, since there is no reason to discredit it. ”

So it happened. Since then, in most books and encyclopedias, it was this portrait that has illustrated articles about Bering. IN "Wikipedia" in Danish This is still so. The same portrait formed the basis of the image on the memorable Medals In honor of the 225th anniversary of his death.

The grounds appeared when 20 years later, Danish historians found out that the portrait depicts not a navigator, but his mother’s uncle, that is, his cousin (In the Russian Wikipedia and many Russian -speaking sources, he is mistakenly called uncle). Unlike the grandchildren of his nephew, who left his homeland at the age of 14, the Vitus-Sr. large part of his life lived in Denmark, wrote poetry in Latin and was a court historiographer. But since there was no other portrait, the publishers continued to use it.

In 1991, the Russian-Dat expedition found a navigator’s grave on Bering. According to his remains, the forensic expert Viktor Zvyagin restored the appearance of Vitus Bering, close to the real method by plastic reconstruction. With the resulting bust, contemporary artists began to write new portraits.

A few years ago, the chief librarian of the local history department of the Kamchatka Regional Scientific Library Natalia Divnina collected 148 images of captain-commander Bering and published a scientific article, which also tells the history of the portrait of interest to us.

Vitus Bering is considered the founder of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. Monument He was installed in the city back in 1827 and is a two -meter metal column with a capital, crowned with a lotus flower. How else was it possible to get out of the situation if the image of a person was not preserved?

Most of the truth

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. http://old.kamlib.ru/resourses/divnina_33.htm Divnina N.V. 148 portraits of Vitus Bering // “On the road for the unknown ...”: Materials of the XXXIII Krashennikovsky readings / Ministry of Culture of the Kamchatka Territory, Kamchatka Regional Scientific Library named after S.P. Krasheninnikova. -Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, 2016.-S. 103-108.
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSWG7ZCTHA4
3. https://russiapedia.rt.com/prominent-russians/exploring-russia/vitus-bering/