St. Petersburg is the second largest city in Russia and one of the most beautiful cities in the world. It was founded in 1703 by Peter the Great at the «Window in Europe». St. Petersburg was the capital of Russia from 1712 till 1918. Now St. Petersburg is an industrial, cultural and scientific centre. There are over 80 museums, such as Pushkin Museum Flat, Russian Museum and Winter Palace etc.

One of Rossi’s famous masterpieces is the complex of the Mikhailovsky Palace built for Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich, brother of Emperor Nicholas

In 1888,on the order of Emperor Alexander III, the building of the palace suitable for a display of paintings, began to be converted into a museum of Russian art. Now the State Russian Museum contains the world’s largest collection of works by Russian painters, sculptors, graphic artists, designers and craftsmen from the tenth century to the present day.Two original interiors designed by Rossi have survived-the Main Vestibule and the White-Columned Hall. The vast vestibule occupies the entire central part of the building, the ceiling of which is sculptural and architectural décor.

The main vestibule of the Russian Museum >

The White-Columned Hall, faced with artificial marble from top to bottom, is notable for the ensemble of its painted decoration, parquet floor and furnishings which has been retained intact. This hall is one of the most perfect interiors in thee architecture of Russian Classicism. It helps us imagine the St Petersburg of Pushkin’s era- that formal setting in which members of “high society” and the characters described in Eugene Onegin, the poet’s famous novel in verse, used to spend their time

< The Exhibition Hall. Architect Vasily Svinyin

The White-Columned Hall >

The Russian Museum possesses one of the largest collections of ancient Russian fine arts. Chronologically is exhibition covers a period from the ninth century throughout the seventeenth. The exhibits include examples of wall paintings and mosaics from ancient Russian churches of the Kiev State. The Department of Ancient Russian Art consists largely of icons, a highly original and expressive kind of painting. The gem of the collection is one of the earliest works in the Russian Museum- the icon The Archangel Gabriel( Angel with the Golden Hair) Few works in the world art can rival this masterpiece, permeated with a lyrical quality, in the power of emotional impact.

<- SS Boris and Gleb. 15th century

Another masterpiece owned by the museum is the fifteenth-century icon devoted to the life and deeds of St Geogre. Visitors to the rooms of ancient Russian art can also see works by the great icon-painters Andrei Rublev, Dionysius and Simon Ushakov, artists of the world stature The icon Boris and Gleb featuring the portrair-like images of the two princes, sons of Grand Prince Vladimir, is pervaded with the spirit of austere majesty. Every detail of the representation, from the princes’ hats and garments to their swords, is historically authentic. Princes Boris and Gleb, victims of intestine strife, were canonized, and the crosses in their hands suggest their holiness (on previos slide)

The Miracle of St George. 16th century

Adapted in the 1880s for the needs of the museum, the interiors of Mikhailovsky Palace combine the majestic state décor with a possibility to arrange the displays chronologically. The suite design of the interiors, perfectly suitable for this purpose, affords an impressive perspective view of the exhibition rooms. The Russian Museum owns the most significant part of Karl Briullov. The Briullov Room presents all variety of the painter’s work.The most celebrated work by Briullov, which not only made the artist famous in Russia but won him European renown, is The Last Day of Pompeii (on next slide)

K. Briullov >

Also present in the Russian Museum

Ilya Repin. The Zaporozhye Cossaks Writing a Mocking Letter to the Turkish Sultan.<-

Ivan Aivazovsky The Ninth Wave ->

Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin. The Death of a Commissar