Ivan the Terrible - In the Treasury with Jerome Horsey

Jerome Horsey, Queen Elizabeth I's ambassador to the Russian court, was allowed to personally visit the Tsar.  He wrote of an incident which occurred near the end of Ivan the Terrible's life.  It gives us some insight into the ruler's mindset at that time:  

Horsey further tells the story of an extraordinary scene witnessed by him in the treasure-chamber, where they dying Tsar was fond of lingering amidst all the riches he was soon to quit forever.  One day he desired the Englishman to attend him there.  He had a number of precious stones exhibited, and explained their quality and value to the persons about him.  Suddenly he took up some turquoises, and said to Horsey, 'See how they change their colour!  they are turning paler.  That is because I have been poisoned:  they foretell my death!'

Ivan IV did die, soon thereafter.  Horsey's account is included in a number of historical and scholarly works.

This painting, by Alexander Litovchenko, artistically interprets the above account.  The oil on canvas, painted in 1875, is maintained by the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg.

Click on the image for a much larger view.

Credits

Ivan the Terrible - oil on canvas, by Alexander Litovchenko.  Image online, courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Quoted passage, from Ivan the Terrible by Kazimierz Waliszewski (translated by Mary Loyd), J.B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia (1904), page 377.