the Main guardian knows everything about every item in the Museum collection. He can tell where the exhibit, what value does it have and what stories are associated with it. Curator of fine arts Museum-estate “Kuskovo” Xenia Nemov picked seven gems from the Museum collection and tell you why they are interesting.
This is the largest painting in the collection of the Museum-estate “Kuskovo”. It has an area of 110 square meters. Created by French painter Louis Jean Francois Lagrenée in 1761-1762 painting takes up almost the entire surface of the ceiling of the ballroom of the Palace. This method of interior decoration was very fashionable in Russia in the XVIII century. Together with the formal task of the illusory expansion of space ceiling, often running and panegyric function, praised the owners of the house.
At the top of the ceiling of the dance hall, depicts Cybele, the mother of the gods in Greek mythology. She rides through the clouds in a chariot drawn by lions. On the clouds surrounded by putti (angels) seated patron of the arts Apollo and the Muse of history Clio with an open book. In the bottom center of the composition represented by the obelisk as a symbol of permanence, which is based on the coat of arms of the Sheremetev family, supported by the goddess of wisdom Athena. The winged goddess of fame, nick is preparing to lay the Ducal crown on the coat of arms, and next to the young goddess of rumor Famou shown in the picture with the two tubes located Femida — goddess of justice, which tramples on the figures of the deities, envy and strife.
the Meaning of the allegory, which was to understand the guests of the farmstead is as follows: the Sheremetev family, the patron of the arts will forever remain in history, and it is not tired to blow rumor. Wisdom and virtue kind, trampling on the vices remain for centuries.
the Historic character of Kuskova be a wooden Palace, Park pavilions and formal gardens. Along with well-preserved buildings in the XVIII century on the territory of the estate there were various architectural “idea” that we can only judge by the paintings, engravings and drawings of the time. Engraving “a Prospect Especially Round the Gazebo on the canal at the end of the Kuskovsky garden” created by the French master P. F. Laurent in the years 1771-1774, stores the image of the lost Belvedere (from Italian bello vedere — “beautiful view”).
Easy elegant pavilion was intended for viewing kuskowski species. The facades were divided by twin pilasters, the arched pediment above the entrance was decorated with a cartouche with the monogram of count Pyotr Borisovich Sheremetev — PS. Through two rows of Windows, light freely fell into the pavilion. The overlap of the Belvedere was made in the form of a dome resting on an octagonal drum complex with round Windows. The pavilion was decorated with a balustrade with vases and sculpture, have��utanovleny on the edge of the cornice.
the Most curious of the paintings in Kuskovo collection — “Portrait of field-Marshal count Boris Petrovich Sheremetev” — by P. G. Krasovsky in 1748. Krasovsky, known from documents of the XVIII century as a “painter of Platonov and stupid places” (that is, the artist creates a ceiling painting the ceiling and painting-trompe l’oeil for a dead-end alleys of the regular Park), was a kind of artist-decorator. Written portrait of count a bit clumsy — the students clearly had trouble with the image of an anatomically correct body, especially in complicated foreshortening. As often happened at that time, in the process of creating a portrait of the artist just copied the song from before it prints, and put my head in Sheremetev. It is difficult to say who was represented on the engraving, but it reproduced one of the works of the French master of the ceremonial portrait of Hyacinthe Rigaud.
At the National Museum of Stockholm kept a portrait of the Swedish king Karl XII the work of Rigo. On it the king is represented in the same position, in the similar background, with the same attributes and even in the same LVL with a macaroon in the form of a lion, and Sheremetev in the portrait Krasouski. Probably, the customer, the son of field Marshal count Pyotr Borisovich Sheremetev, was not aware of the existence of a portrait of the Swedish king, otherwise hardly would have approved the image of the father in the armor of his main opponent period of the Northern war.
Plaster bust of the Swedish king Charles XII was created in 1747 by a French sculptor and painter Jacques-Philippe is my mother ill, who worked in Sweden. In the estate inventories of the bust was first mentioned in 1774. According to the document, he was placed in the Armory of the Kuskovsky Palace on the table, covered with a red cloth.
the interest of the owner of the estate of count Pyotr Sheremetev Karl XII was due to a desire to preserve the memory of the events of the Northern war and the confrontation of his legendary father and his crowned opponent. The estate also had a trophy saddle a Royal horse, watercolor and oil portraits of Charles XII.
In the sculpture of my mother ill managed to Express the power of the spirit of the king-warrior. Contrapposto outstretched head and body, as well as the continued movement of the head look give the figure the dynamics and fill the internal energy inherent in the character of the young monarch. The qualities that are revealed in the figure using the hints and associations are fully represented in the sculptural elaboration of the person of the king. Sculptural portrait so impressed Swiss writer, theologian and poet of the XVIII century, Johann Lavater that he included its description in his “Essay on physiognomy”
One of the masterpieces of the collection of furniture of the Museum-estate — a table to store notes and engravings done by master Nikifor Vasiliev in 1770-1780-ies. On the table presents a panorama ��of cadeby, borrowed from an engraving by the French artist Pierre Laurent. The image of the so-called old choir (of the first storey of the Kuskovsky Palace) are replaced by the current Palace.
Vasilyev worked in the mosaic technique of marquetry, assembling a picture from pieces of different wood species. He details depicted not only the Palace, but all of the Park pavilions, built in the front yard, with the exception of the bell tower, which was built later, in 1792. The table is the only signed work of Nikifor Vasiliev.
Another rare piece of furniture collection of the Museum of drawers of Small Trianon, a small Palace French Royal residence at Versailles. It was created by master Ferdinand Swerdfeger commissioned by Queen Marie-Antoinette in 1788. Chest handles, made in the form of dog mascarons (decorative elements in the form of a head of an animal or person) with rings-braided — a reflection of the fashion of that time and personal taste of the Queen.
In 1793 the situation Trianon was sold in Paris and then exported to Hamburg. As the dresser was in the Moscow Museum of China, where together with all the collections in 1932 was in Kuskovo is unknown.
“the View of the Cascade at Saint-cloud” is one of six prints in the collection of the Museum with views of Royal residences of France, created by the Augsburg master of the XVIII century, Martin Engelbrecht in the years 1730-1750. Work with high level performance, is an example of Studio tampering.
With the 1730-ies the French graphic landscape painter of the first half of the eighteenth century Jacques Rigaud worked on a series of “Royal palaces, castles and houses of Paris and its environs”, numbering more than 130 sheets. These works were very popular among the enlightened European public. Apparently, in the workshop of Engelbrecht copying sheets in this series was perceived as a commercially successful project, the question of ethics — indicating sheet of the original author — was not.
the French master, who bear the losses from such informal activities of colleagues, could only complain and warn their buyers from the pages of the popular journal Mercure de France:
