The Catherine palace

CENTRAL STAIRCASE. It was the last object in the Palace to be constructed (at the time of Alexander II) The Central Staircase takes all the width of the- palace and looks over two sides. Three tiers of windows provide an abundance of light. The staircase was decorated to a design by Ipolito Monighetti (1861, eclectic/second rococo style) in two colours - red and white. The steps are made of white marble. The walls and the ceiling are decorated with stucco mouldings and sculptural figures imitating the Baroque style of the mid-18th century. The ceiling is decorated with 3 Italian paintings of the 17th and 18th centuries. "Aeneas and Venus " – a private gift, "The Judgement of Paris " (in the centre) and "Jupiter and Calisto " taken from the Hermitage collections to replace the original ones which perished in the fire of 1944 The decorative dishes and vases of Chinese and Japanese porcelain (18th century) are original.

The clock has some original pieces and the barometer had to be made anew to imitate the original which was gone during the war. During the World War II the museum was destroyed. Many works of art were lost irrevocably. Any small pieces found in the ruins were used for restoration if it was possible.

The two sculptures displayed are “Sleeping Cupid” and “Cupid Waking Up ” made in 1860 by sculptor V.P. Brodskiy (Sunrise, Sunset)

A nice view of the Catherine Park opens through the window. The park consists of two parts, each designed in its own style. For many centuries parks have been classified according to their various styles. Thus the French park, which is basically architectural, is noted for the geometrical precision of its layout with broad, straight paths down which its pavilions and statues can be seen from the distance, with trees clipped in various geometrical shapes. The English park, which is basically landscaped, is an attempt at imitating nature. It has little or no architecture or geometrically planned paths, and trees and shrubs are allowed to grow in a natural state. Finally, the Italian park is laid out in imitation of the undulating Italian gardens. All these types of park can be seen in the Catherine Park.

GREAT HALL. The room occupies the whole width of the palace and is the largest (about 100,000 sq. ft.). It used to be called the Light Gallery for its elongated form and numerous windows and glass doors. Between the windows there are mirrors in gilded frames, which make the room look "transparent".

The room was decorated to a design by Rastrelli in the Russian Baroque style. It is part of a suite of rooms decorated by Rastrelli in Baroque. The doors of each room were covered with gilded woodcarving and, when opened, formed a "golden" corridor. Hence the name of the suite - the Golden Suite of Rooms. (woodcarving with gold leaf is a typical feature of the Russian Baroque style) With Baroque the architects would usually enlarge space with various techniques for example using large windows and mirrors. Two rows of windows is also a typical feature of Baroque.

The furniture and parquet floor have been restored (originally executed by 130 Russian craftsmen according to Rastrelli's sketches), as well as 20 woodcarving (Dunker) for which 8kg of gold was used and 2 of the 3 ceiling painting by the 18^th century Italian artist G. Valeriani, "Triumph of Russia" is original. The painting glorifies Russia's military victories and the flourishing of Russia's science and art. The centre of the composition consisting of three parts is a female figure which personifies Russia. The original painting was moved because the roof leaked and replaced by another which perished during the war. After the war two parts of the "Triumph of Russia" painting were found in Michael’s Palace

In this hall solemn dinners, big masquerades as well as receptions always took place. During the receptions 696 candles were burned in the carved sconces in front of the mirrors. No crowned head ever visited the palace without being invited to a solemn dinner in this hall. There is no furniture, which is the way it was supposed to be. People were meant to move around during receptions and to encourage them the French windows would be opened to make the room chilly.

CAVALIERS' DINING ROOM. This room suffered badly during the Nazi occupation and had to be completely restored after the war. It is one of the rooms of the Golden, or Main Suite decorated by Rastrelli. In the mid-18^th century these rooms were mainly intended for official ceremonies.

The dining room was used to receive holders of the highest state orders.

The carved table shaped as the letter "E" for the Empress Elizabeth is laid out In the fashion of the time. The tableware are different pieces from the four Dinner Services commissioned by Catherine II from the Gardner (English man) Porcelain Factory in the 1770s. Each of these four dinner services was decorated with the colours of a high Russian order:

St Andrew – order established by Peter I in 1680’s as the highest military order of Russia

St George - military order established by Catherine II

St Alexander Nevskiy – civil order established by Catherine I in 1725

St Vladimir - civil order established by Catherine II

These Dinner sets were used for receptions of the holders of these orders. The Ceremony took place in the Great Hall and then they moved to the dining room where dinner was served for them. So the Cavaliers’ Dining Room was used only for such occasions. After the party they could take any piece of the dinner set they liked as a souvenir – one per person. So the set had to be renewed.

The room is typically Baroque style:

- The walls are coloured in white and ornamented with gilt carving

- The ceiling is decorated with stucco moulding and a plaphone painting by an unknown Russian artist (18^th Century) – “Helios on his Chariot” with the goddess of Dawn - Eos and figures personifying the seasons of the year. The painting was taken from the Hermitage collection (not original).

- The walls are decorated with mirrors in gilded frames.

- In the corner there is a stove elegantly ornamented wllh recesses and columns, which is characteristic of Rastrelli's interiors. The stove used to be faced with Delft tiles (introduced to Russia by Peter I) executed at the Imperial porcelain factory in St.Petersburg. It was damaged during the war and had to be made anew and painted imitating Delft tiles.

STATE DINING ROOM.. On the other side of the Central Staircase there is the State Dining Room.

The rooms between the staircase and the Picture Hall included two suites: the state apartments (overlooking the square) and the private chambers of the Empress Maria Fyodorovna, parallel to the state apartments and overlooking the park.

It appears, though, that the private rooms of Maria Fyodorovna were never used by her as she always lived in Paviovsk or (once or twice) occupied the private rooms of Elizaveta Alexeyevna, wife of Alexander I.

Back on the staircase we will see a monogram “M.A.” which stands for Maria Alexandrovna – the wife of Alexander II. We can also see the Golden Gate (Rastrelli) through the window which was the entrance for the coaches..

In the State Dining Room the royal family dinners used to take place. The dinner service on the table was made by the Meissen porcelain factory (second half of the 18^th century). The pattern of oriental flowers decorating its dishes makes the table look like an exotic flower bed.

The walls are covered with white brocade with gilt: Baroque carving and modeling. In the corner there is a big tiled stove.

The paintings on the walls are part of the collection of Johannes Groot's works who decorated the Imperial Hunting Lodge (his main subject was hunting). Hunting was a favourite past time for the royalty. They used to keep wild animals (boars, arracks etc) which were let out of the cages onto the hunting grounds for the hunt. These sorts of paintings were meant for better appetite.

The painted ceiling. "The Triumph of Apollo", is a 19^th century copy of a painting by the well-known 18^th century artist Guido Reni.

The "snowball vases" of Meissen porcelain (German) were meant for aromatic herbs (Incense burners) and the technique is called “Bul da nezh” where small pieces of porcelain are glued to the surface.

(Most of the clocks are French – 18^th century)

CRIMSON ROOM WITH PILLARS. The room is decorated with narrow panels of crimson foil under glass, the so-called "pillars". The foil was originally silver, now aluminium. It was a very unusual material for that time. Everyone who entered this room for the first time asked about this material. Many asked if it was ruby. Colloured foil was an innovation and was supposed to be very highly appreciated. At the end of the 18^th century high society lovers of card games and chess used to play here,

In the corner there is a stove – plaster copy of Delft tiles; the restored paintings on the stove represent people of different strata of the Dutch society in the 18^th century.

The ceiling painting by an unknown Italian artist of the late 17th century “Generousity of Alexander the Great” depicts Alexander the Great and the family of the Persian King Darius III.

The unique writing desk inlaid with 40 kinds of wood was made in Germany by the well-known craftsman Abraham Roentgen, father of the famous David Roentgen. There are also Meissen porcelain figurines.

The floor has the zigzag pattern – one of Rastrelli’s favourite patterns.

The chess board with ivory figures came from China.

GREEN ROOM WITH PILLARS. The walls are decorated with "pillars" in a similar fashion as the previous room, except that the foil is green. (Room used for similar functions – ladies in waiting)

The ceiling painting has been recreated after the original by the 18^th century Italian artist Stefano Torelli, "General at Rest Hears the Call of the Muses".

Nothing of the original furnature has survived. During the war the furnishings of the Portrait Room which had been preserved for two centuries disappeared. (However, the two sofas with carved backs and the gilt chairs in the style of Louis XV, which had once stood here, made from sketches by Rastrelli, were restored from drawings.???)

The walnut writing desk was made in Germany in the 18^th century.

PORTRAIT ROOM. The room got its name because of the portraits of the two empresses who owned the palace, Catherine I and Elizabeth I, which hang here. It was traditional in the 18^th Century to have a room with portraits of the owners of the house.

The portraits on the walls include (left-to-right) those of Elizabeth (by Heinrich Bucholtz), Natalia (Peter I's sister), Catherine II, and Catherine I (by Ivan Adolsky).

Catherine I – talk about her.

Elizabeth I – it was at the time of Elizabeth most of the rooms were redecorated in Baroque style.

Natalia (Peter I's sister) – never has been to the palace.

The ceiling painting is a multi-figure composition which is an allegory of parts of the world, the gods of Olympus and nymphs. It is believed to be a work of the great Venetian artist and decorator of the 18^th century Giovanni Tiepoio.

AMBER ROOM. (частично осветить в автобусе, NO PHOTOGRAPHY) This used to be the richest and the most famous room of the palace. As the story goes, early in the 18^th century the Prussian King Friedrich I ordered an amber study for his Potsdam Palace. The architect Schluter and the jeweller Tusseau were called in to create it. The Amber Study was finished in 1709. Its walls were lined with panels, covering 550 sq. ft. in all. It looked magnificent. The King and the court were full of admiration and the masters expected a big reward. But the amber panels fell off the walls a few days later. The King was enraged. Tusseau was thrown into prison for high treason and Schluter was exiled. The Amber Study was taken apart and stored in boxes.

In 1716 Peter I visited Prussia and was presented with the Amber Study by Friedrich Wilghelm I, the son of Friedrich I. Peter greatly appreciated the gift, and gave in exchange for the 22 amber panels 248 sturdy soldiers for the Prussian King's guard as well as a lathe and a wine cup which he had made himself. He intended to use the amber panels for the decoration of one of the rooms of the Winter Palace, but the idea never materialized.

After Peter's death, the panels were brought to Tsarskoye Selo by the orders of Elizabeth. 76 strongest men of the royal guard transported the heavy boxes with great care from St.Petersburg to Tsarskoe Selo, and it took them 6 days.

In 1755 Rastrelli began working on the decoration of the Amber Room. Since there were not enough amber panels to cover the whole wall-space, he inserted a number of mirrors, gilt woodcarvings, and mosaic panels of Ural jasper. The result was a fantastic Baroque interior. Numerous descriptions of the Amber Room in memoirs and historical literature refer to it as "the eighth wonder of the world", "the amber poem", and "the marvel of the reign of Elizabeth". (upper part of the wall is plaster painted to imitate amber).

Amber is a fragile material and it was too difficult and time consuming to remove the amber from the room so during the Nazi occupation the panels stayed in the palace. Soon after the invasion, the Nazi removed the room as a whole. What is known for a fact is that the amber panels were packed in boxes, put on a train and sent off to Konigsberg by the German commandment. What happened next is a mystery. All attempts to find traces of the Amber Room ended in failure. A special committee was formed In 1949 which included architects, engineers, some art critics and journalists, but nil In vain. The search is still going on, though it is getting more complicated with every year.

That was why in 1979 the Russian Government adopted a decision to revive this unique room. The amber, of which more than б tons is needed, was delivered to Pushkin from the quarry in the Kaliningrad region. (Amber is petrified resin of.indent trees.) The restoration work is still under way. Just as in the 18^th century, there is the frieze painted to look like amber, the restored gilded carved ornamentation on the walls and the newly-laid parquet floor of valuable kinds of wood. On display there are some objects d'art made of amber.

The painted ceiling "The Wedding of Chronos" has been recreated from a •.ketch by an unknown artist of the 18^th century Italian school which is preserved In the Hermitage.

PICTURE HALL. The room occupies the whole width of the palace. It is 1800 sq. ft. in size. In the 18^th century it was used for official receptions, banquets and concerts more than any of the other rooms.

The hall was designed by Rastrelli and decorated with 130 paintings by West European artists. 114 of the paintings are original. The collection was acquired abroad in 1745. Most of the paintings were acquired (by the artist Groot) from a private collection in Prague. The paintings were meant for decoration rather than for display. Almost any 18^th century palace had a picture hall like this, where paintings were put up on the walls regardless of their national belonging, school of art, or time to produce a tapestry-like Impression. They say that when a canvas was too big they cut it to fit into the frame (upper part of the wall is painted to imitate amber)

All West-European schools are represented in the Picture Hall except for the Spanish and English. There are paintings by Ostade, Nattier, Luca Giordano etc. Though the room was badly damaged during the war, 114 paintings out of 130 have survived (in evacuation); the rest were replaced with paintings of the same •.l/e and school of art from the Hermitage collection. Besides, there are two Interesting battle paintings depicting episodes from the Northern War, commissioned by Peter I from the French artist Pierre Martin. They represent the Battle at the Village of Lesnaya (1708) and the Battle of Poltava (1709).

Two ancient stoves of German tiles were destroyed during the war; now one has been assembled out of old fragments of the original Hamburg tiles, while he other one is a plaster copy of it.

The inlaid parquet floor is composed of nine sorts of wood from Latin America, India, Vietnam, and Egypt.

The ceiling painting is a copy of the 18^th century original by the Italian master Gasparo Diziani, depicting the gods on Olympus. The original canvas today decorates the main Staircase of the Winter Palace.

Adjacent to the Picture Hall are several rooms of the small suite which was furnished for Alexander I, Catherine II's grandson.

SMALL DINING ROOM. According to the fashion of the period, the tables were brought in just for the meals and taken away afterwards. The landscape paintings on the walls are 18^th century views of Tsarskoe

Selo (Catherine Park).

The ceiling painting which represents "Bathing Venus" is a copy of the 18^th century original by Van Loo.

The roll-in-desk is made in the technique of inlaid wood. It shows a panoramic view of Moscow in the 18^th century (the Moscow Kremlin) which is almost documentary. The two sideboards of the desk represent "Mon Bijou" and "Hermitage" pavilions of the Catherine Park. The inlay work was done by the Russian serf Nikifor Vasiliev so exquisitely that it resembles a jeweller's creation.

RECEPTION ROOM. Alexander used this room for official receptions.

The ceiling painting represents "Venus' Chariot" (Bouche).

The walls are hung with portraits of the Russian tsars. There are two ceremonial portraits of Alexander I (by G. Dawe) and Catherine II (copy of Lampi's work). The small portraits represent Peter I. Catherine I. Anna I, Elizabeth I, Peter II, and Peter I's daughter Anna.

There are some 18^th-century Chinese and Japanese vases and two 18^th century English clocks.

Originally the walls were covered with painted Chinese Silk which was restored only last year.

PANTRY. (НЕ ОСТАНАВЛИВАЕМСЯ) It was originally used for keeping table linen and tableware. It was from here that meals were served in the Small Dining Room.

The still life paintings on the walls are by Johannes Groot.

The ceiling p ainting by De Cortona 17^th-century Italian master represents "Coral Hunters".

The garden chairs displayed in this room belonged to the Hanging Garden which this palace used to have in the mid-18^th century.

STANDARDS ROOM. This small room was used for keeping military banners of the royal regiments quartered in Tsarskoye Selo.

The next suite of rooms was designed by Cameron to replace Rastreiii's hanging garden. The rooms were badly damaged during the war but have been restored to their original designs. The apartments belonged to Paul I's wife Maria.

ROOMS DESIGNED BY CAMERON. One of the best exponents of Classicism was Charles Cameron. He was a political refugee from Scotland; he had spent 20 years in Italy and France, and came to Russia in 1779. He stayed in Russia for 27 years and created many architectural ensembles. Ills first commission in Russia was to re-decorate three suites in the Catherine Palace. By the turn of the 18^th century, there had been some 20 rooms redesigned by Cameron in the Neo-Classical style.

GREEN DINING ROOM. This part of the palace was not badly damaged and was reopened in 1959. The room is typically Neo-Classic in design. Symmetrically placed reliefs include vases, pale pink medallions with dancing cupids, floral ornaments, male and female figures representing characters from Greek mythology (Themis, the goddess of law and justice; Poseidon, the god of the sea and horses; Phaeton, son of Helios - the god of the sun; Hermes - the god who served as herald and messenger of other gods). The moulded decoration in the room was created by the outstanding Russian sculptor Ivan Martos.

The marble fireplace was assembled out of fragments of the original marble which was found after the war scattered all over the grounds.

The mantelpiece screen was made of gilded bronze after Cameron's design.

The murals on the doors were restored after one door panel which had survived in the war and was used as a model.

The dinner service on the table is known as the "Moscow Private Service". Its dishes are decorated with monograms of Paul I and his wife Maria who owned the service. They received it from Catherine II. The name of the service is due to the Gardner Porcelain Factory in Moscow which made it. Originally the table was not kept in the room but brought in for the dinner service.

The inlaid floor was restored after an original drawing by Cameron (oak- wood, light maplewood, mahogany).

The ceiling painting perished in the fire during the war and has not been restored yet.

WAITERS' ROOM. Originally it was exclusively for servants' use and Cameron had it divided by a screen, so that there were no windows in the other section of the room which looked over the stairs. The style of the ornamentation dates from the late 18^th century, though the room owes its present appearance to Stasov who re-decorated it after the fire of 1820. He removed the screen but і.irefully preserved the initial proportions and the chief motif of Cameron's design: the pink walls decorated with dark brown wooden pilasters made to imitate marble (gnly the two in the corners are original).

The walls are hung with romantic landscapes typical of the Neo-Classical period, which depict the ruins of antique structures, by the late 18^th century artists ЛІехеі Belsky, Andrea Locateili, and Hubert Robert.

The furniture is Dutch mahogany, (created by Cameron) in the style of the early 18^th century, upholstered with white brocade. It also includes a few card-tables of inlaid wood of late 18^th century work.

The parquet floor in this and the following rooms is original (rosewood, oak, ebony, and mahogany).

Выходим. Дальше комнаты закрыты во время сезона.

Дата добавления: 2015-10-29