The sculptor depicted Alexander I as a triumphant Roman general — dressed in ancient armour with a laurel wreath on his head. For the creation of this bust from his own model the young marble-carver Orlovsky, a serf belonging to Colonel Nikolai Shatilov, was granted his freedom, enrolled in the Imperial Academy of Arts and sent to Italy, where he studied under Bertel Thorvaldsen. Later he made his name with the monuments to Kutuzov and Barclay de Tolly in front of the Kazan Cathedral in St Petersburg.