Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Pavlovsk Palace - Russian Imperial Family Country House

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Pavlovsk Palace - Russian Imperial Family Country House




    Among the great historico-cultural complexes in the environs of Leningrad the latest to be created was Paviovsk. Its fame rests on the splendour of the palace with its classical architecture, its sumptuous interiors and great art collections, and on the beauty of the spacious park, which covers around 1,500 acres and is one of the country's largest and most picturesque. A country residence of the Russian imperial family, it was created by a succession of outstanding architects, painters and sculptors within a relatively short span of time: begun around 1780, it was virtually completed by 1825. Construction was started and the first variant realized by the architect Charles Cameron, after whom his ideas and general design were developed and carried out by Vincenzo Brenna, Giacomo Quarenghi, Andrey Voronikhin, Thomas Jean Thomas de Thomon, Carlo Rossi, Pietro Gonzaga and others. Men of rare talent and superior culture, they built up a complex characterized by exceptional unity of style, however different their artistic individualities and aesthetic ideals.

    The importance of Pavlovsk to the history of Russian culture and art extends lar beyond that of a "historic home". Its art collections enjoy world-wide fame. Before the Revolution of 1917 these treasures were barred to the common people; and only when the Revolution had been achieved were the doors of the Pavlovsk Palace and the gates of its park thrown open to the people, their rightful owner. Both palace and park were declared national property, and thus assured complete protection. During the stormy days of the Revolution and the hard years of the civil war the Soviet Government did a great deal for Pavlovsk. It was among those architectural monuments which, despite the difficult financial position of the newly-constituted Soviet Republic, underwent the most urgently needed restoration as early as 1918. PavIovsk was highly appreciated as an outstanding phenomenon of Russian culture by Anatoly Lunacharsky, People's Commissar for Education, who called it a perfect example of the fully expressed taste of its time. In May 1918 Pavlovsk became an art and culture museum and ever since has been visited by people from all parts of the Soviet Union.

    Now, after many years, the palace - risen out of its ruins - once again lifts its dome above the park's green foliage. It was reconstructed, in accordance with the project elaborated by the Lenproekt Institute (senior project architect Sophia Popova-Gunich), by a numerous force of experienced builders and highly skilled restorers mobilized by the Fasadremstroy Building Trust and the Scientific Restoration Workshops of the Architectural Department of the Leningrad Executive Committee, working under the supervision of the State Control Commission for the Preservation of Artistic and Historical Monuments of Leningrad. Slowly, with the greatest attention to accuracy, the work of restoring the decor and furnishings of the palace went on from room to room. Starting in 1954 with the less elaborately decorated rooms in the southern part of the building, which were restored and opened to the public in 1957, and gathering experience and perfecting their craftsmanship as they went, the restoration crew completed their work in the central part of the palace, where the interiors presented a particularly complicated pattern of decor.




    #2
    Pavlovsk Palace - Russian Imperial Family Country House


    The Grecian Hall


    The Grecian Hall was created in 1789 by Brenna on the site assigned by Cameron to a state drawing-room. A Corinthian colonnade gives the interior a resemblance to a Greek temple.




    Compared with the Italian Hall, the Grecian Hall is treated in a cooler range of colours. Its fluted columns of verde antico form a contrast with the white stucco facing of the walls and the golden yellow panels of Siena marble. The magnificent mouldings on the ceiling, the frieze of acanthus scrolls and gryphons, and the Roman trophies and standards, together with the white statns in fine plaster, modelled from the plaster casts of antique sculptures, which had been brought from Rome, and occupying the recesses of the walls, lend to the Grecian Hall a stately and dignified air. The interior was restored by Voronikhin, after the fire of 1803, practically to its original form. The monumental marble fireplaces faced with lapis-lazuli and jasper were made earlier from the sketches of Brenna for the Maltese Gallery of the St Michael Castle in St Petersburg, and brought here by Voronikhin.



    Comment


      #3
      Pavlovsk Palace - Russian Imperial Family Country House


      The Grecian Hall






      Two large vases of Altai jasper with exquisitely chased ormolu mountings decorate the hall; they . were designed by Andrey Voronikhin and fashioned by Filipp Strizhkov, a talented stone carver of the Kolyvan Factory in the Altai region. The. Grecian Hall is noted for its many fine bronzes, such as a clock stamped "L. J. Laguesse", candelabra with sculptural groups, vases and fire-dogs of perfect design. Exquisite in shape, chasing and gilding are the bronze lanterns. Similar lanterns adorn the adjoining Halls of War and Peace. The marble chandeliers in the form of Roman lamps, fashioned from the sketches of Voronikhin, hang suspended from chains between the columns, forming an integral part of the antique decor of the hall.



      Comment


        #4
        Pavlovsk Palace - Russian Imperial Family Country House


        The Grecian Hall






        The sofa and chairs of the Grecian Hall once belonged to a set, no longer extant, which was designed for this interior by Voronikhin. The upholstery in Beauvais tapestry perfectly harmonizes with the woodwork, painted in imitation of antique bronze and embellished with gilded carving. The rest of the set - consoles, sofas and chairs, lost during the War of 1941-45, will be reproduced (the coverings have all been saved); and the decor of the hall will then assume its original appearance. The Grecian Hall is flanked by the Hall of War and the Hall of Peace, connected with it by archways. The functions, the names and the position of the two halls created by Brenna were inspired by the planning of the royal palace at Versailles.



        Comment


          #5
          Pavlovsk Palace - Russian Imperial Family Country House


          The Italian Hall






          The Italian Hall, the compositional centre of the palace, belongs to the suite of state apartments. It is practically a replica of an antique Roman temple with its noble proportions. The high coffered dome with a round glazed aperture in the roof, modelled on the "eye" of the Pantheon, the arcaded gallery in the second tier, and the alternating flat and semicircular niches underneath, create an impression of tranquility and balance. The strict symmetry, structural clarity, and distinct horizontal articulation achieved by the use of moulded cornices and friezes, are all typical features of classical, architecture.

          The Italian Hall was never completed by Cameron. The design for its interior decoration was drawn up by Brenna; after the fire of 1803, Voronikhin added the caryatids in the Egyptian style, the gallery balustrades, the figures of eagles on the upper cornice, embellishments over the doors, and other details. The wooden doors inlaid with coloured woods and decorated with ormolu are after a sketch executed by Giacomo Quarenghi.



          Comment


            #6
            Pavlovsk Palace - Russian Imperial Family Country House


            The Italian Hall






            The sculptures of the Italian Hall are excellent Roman copies made in the first - third centuries AD from Greek originals dating back to the fourth - third centuries BC: Dancing Satyr and Satyr with a Flute of the school of Praxiteles, and Eros Stringing His Bow by Lysippos. The Eros is particularly remarkable for its rare state of preservation. Antique Roman bas-reliefs in medallions, inset in the stucco facing of the walls, complete the hall's atmosphere of antiquity.



            Comment


              #7
              Pavlovsk Palace - Russian Imperial Family Country House


              The Italian Hall






              After dark the Italian Hall was lighted by sconces in the shape of althorns adorned with ribbons, and by a chandelier of unusual design. The bronze frame of the chandelier is exquisitely chased, its stem is shaped like a vase of ruby glass, and the festoons of crystal drops, the pendants, and the "ostrich feathers" of crystal beads, sparkle and gleam like diamonds. No doubt the chandelier was designed by a master of the first rank: sketches for lighting fittings of all kinds were usually made by eminent architects like Giacomo Quarenghi, Nikolay Lvov, Andrey Voronikhin or Carlo Rossi.

              The Italian Hall is a remarkable example of an interior finished in the style of late eighteenth-century Russian classicism.



              Comment


                #8
                Pavlovsk Palace - Russian Imperial Family Country House


                The Egyptian Vestibule






                Comment


                  #9
                  Pavlovsk Palace - Russian Imperial Family Country House


                  The Egyptian Vestibule






                  Comment


                    #10
                    Pavlovsk Palace - Russian Imperial Family Country House


                    The Egyptian Vestibule






                    Comment


                      #11
                      Pavlovsk Palace - Russian Imperial Family Country House


                      The Music Rooms






                      Comment


                        #12
                        Pavlovsk Palace - Russian Imperial Family Country House


                        The Music Rooms






                        Comment


                          #13
                          Pavlovsk Palace - Russian Imperial Family Country House


                          The Picture Gallery




                          Among the gems of the gallery are the small genre canvases and landscapes by such Dutch masters as Gerard Terborch, Adriaen van Ostade, Jan van Goyen, Philips Wouverman and others, and the still lifes, typical of the Dutch School, by Pieter Claesz, Jan Baptist Weenix, and by Pieter van den Bas whose works are rarely to be seen in the world's art galleries.

                          Special mention should be made of Rubens's brilliant oil sketch for the painting Lamentation for the Dead Christ (now in the Antwerp Museum).

                          Many of the gallery's canvases were painted on the orders of the owners of the palace, among them some by Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Pompeo Girolamo Batoni, Angelica Kauffmann, Anton Raffael Mengs, Jules Vernet and Hubert Robert.




                          Comment


                            #14
                            Pavlovsk Palace - Russian Imperial Family Country House


                            The Picture Gallery






                            Comment


                              #15
                              Pavlovsk Palace - Russian Imperial Family Country House


                              The Picture Gallery






                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X