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Issues of 2008
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The jubilee of the Russian academy of arts
The majority of people believe that the idea to establish the Academy of Arts belonged to Empress Elizabeth, while actually it was her father — Emperor Peter the Great who dreamt about the origination of an art institution comparable with major European art schools. The tsar-reformer clearly understood the importance of popularizing art and culture in the newly formed Russian Empire. When creating his new capital on the banks of the Neva River Peter also intended to open the academy of «the Three Noblest Arts» (painting, sculpture and architecture) and even passed a project concerning «Establishment of Academy of Science and Art» in the Senate. In 1724, the Emperor founded a drawing school at the St. Petersburg Printing House and became its patron. Most likely, the idea to originate the National Academy of Arts came into Emperor’s mind when he was elected the «lifetime» member of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture (l' Academie royale de peinture et de sculpture) during his visit to Paris. The French Academy of Arts founded by the Louis XIV in 1648 was the most significant and influential art institution in Europe by the time. The Imperial Academy of Arts, informally known as St Petersburg Academy of Arts, was opened by Count Ivan Shuvalov under the name of the Academy of Three Noblest Arts in 1757 (however, initially the Academy was founded under the Senate’s Edict from 6/17 November, 1757 at the State Moscow University). The Academy of arts was separated from university by the Senate’s decree of March 3, 1763. Ivan Ivanovich Shuvalov (1727–1797) was called the Maecenas of the Russian Enlightenment and the first Russian Minister of Education. Russia’s first theatre, university, and academy of arts were instituted with his active participation. Unlike self-seeking favourites of Catherine the Great, Shuvalov determined to put his good fortune to constructive use for the advancement of education and the promotion of fine arts in his country. A model of the enlightened courtier, he maintained a correspondence with the leading French thinkers — Helvetius, d’Alembert, Diderot, and Voltaire. Shuvalov’s activity brought him in touch with Mikhail Lomonosov, a Russian scholar who aspired to establish a university in Russia. Lomonosov found a loyal patron in Shuvalov and paid tribute to his accomplishments in his dedication of a couple of odes and «meditations» to him. On January 25, 1755 — the name¬day of Shuvalov’s mother Tatiana Rodionovna — the Empress endorsed their project to set up the Moscow University «for all sorts and conditions of people». The Tatiana Day is still celebrated as the Day of Russian Students.
Shuvalov became the university’s first curator and attracted the finest scholars to teach there. He came up with the idea of establishing «The Moscow News», a newspaper published by the university press, which was also founded at Shuvalov’s instigation. Apart from two colleges affiliated with the Moscow University, he also helped establish the first Russian college outside Moscow — in Kazan. In 1757, Shuvalov submitted to the Senate his project for establishing the Academy of Three Noble Arts at his own palace in Saint Petersburg. This institution — later transformed into the Imperial Academy of Arts — was envisioned by him for the education of the most gifted boys from all strata of society. At first, no formal examination was required to enter the Academy; even peasants’ children — like Fyodor Rokotov and Fedot Shubin — were admitted on Shuvalov’s personal recommendation. Shuvalov served as the Academy’s first president until 1763, when he was succeeded by Ivan Betskoy. In 1758, he donated to the Academy his own collection of Western drawings and paintings, which formed a nucleus of its formidable holdings of fine art. At the time, his palace also hosted performances by Russia’s first theatrical troupe, led by Fyodor Volkov and Ivan Dmitrievsky. The academy had been allocated in Shuvalov’s house at Sadovaya Street until 1764, when Catherine the Great renamed it into the Imperial Academy of Arts and commissioned its first rector, Alexander Kokorinov, to design a new building for the academy. It took 25 years to construct the Neoclassical edifice, which faces the Winter Palace from the other bank of the Neva River. Alexander Filippovich Kokorinov (1726–1772) was one of the founding fathers of the Russian Academy of Arts. He was born in Siberia in the family of an architect attached to one of Demidov factories. Kokorinov studied in Tobolsk before joining the classes of Dmitry Ukhtomsky in Moscow. Patronized by the powerful Razumovsky family, he designed the Razumovsky Palace in St Petersburg (1762–1766) and Petrovskoe-Razumovskoe manor near Moscow (1752–1753). In 1769, Kirill Razumovsky secured his appointment to the deanship in the Imperial Academy of Arts, a position that Kokorinov took on with vigor and enthusiasm. He succeeded in greatly improving curriculum and instruction and oversaw the construction of the majestic building for the Academy across the river from Winter Palace. However, his rival Ivan Betskoy set up a commission to investigate alleged misuse of public funds during construction works, and Kokorinov is said to have died from distress on hearing the news. Being the first President of the Academy of Arts, Ivan Shuvalov managed to organize the academic activities rather quickly. Shuvalov invited many prominent artists to teach at St. Petersburg Academy. Among them were celebrated Berlin court engraver George-Friedrich Schmidt, renowned French sculptor Nicolas-FranÚois Gillet and many others. In 1758, Count Alexander Stroganov and Count Andrei Shuvalov became the first honorable members of the Academy of Arts. By the late 1770s renowned Russian professors and painters A. Losenko, M. Kozlovsky, E. Tchemesov, A. Akimov and others started to teach at the Academy. Ivan Ivanovich Betskoy (February 14, 1704 — November 9, 1795) was a Russian school reformer who served as Catherine II’s advisor on education and President of the Imperial Academy of Arts for thirty years (1764–1794). Perhaps the crowning achievement of his long career was the establishment of Russia’s first unified system of public education. In 1763, Betskoy presented to Catherine the Statute for the Education of the Youth of Both Sexes, studded with citations from Comenius, John Locke, and Rousseau. The treatise contained a proposal to educate young Russians of both sexes in state boarding schools, aimed at creating «a new race of men». Betskoy set forth a number of arguments for general education of children rather than specialized one: «in regenerating our subjects by an education founded on these principles, we will create... new citizens». Boarding schools were to be preferred to other institutions of education in accordance with Rousseau’s notion that «isolating the pupils enabled their tutors to protect them from the vices of society». The system of awarding the best students gold medals and special training trips to Europe was introduced by Shuvalov and later developed by Betskoy.
In March 1760 one of the first graduates of the Academy painter Anton Losenko and architect Vasiliy Bazhenov went abroad to study art. Both artists received four hundred roubles for travel expenses. On November 4, 1764, Empress Catherine II introduced the new regulations for the Academy of Arts. The so-called Academic Assembly was in charge of all administrative, financial, household, pedagogical and artistic problems. The Academy and its art school were financially backed by the government. The Director of the Academy (elected each four months from rectors but no more than three times successively) and the keeper of the Grand Academic Seal was in charge of the general supervision of Academy’s life and activities. Being the President of the Academy, Betskoy paid much attention to musical education of the students. He opened a theatre, an academic orchestra and choir. Many prominent musicians were professors of the Academy: Ivan Khandoshkin (1747–1804) taught violin playing, Vasiliy Pashkevich (1742–1797), a prominent XVIII century composer, violinist taught singing, German composer G.F. Raupach (1728–1778) was the teacher of musical theory. The edifice for the academy was built in 1764–1789 to a design by Jean-Baptiste Vallin de la Mothe and Alexander F. Kokorinov. Konstantin Thon was responsible for the sumptuous decoration of the interiors of the Academy. He also designed a quayside in front of the edifice and adorned it with 3000-year-old sphinxes and griffins, which had to be brought from Egypt. Ivan Betskoy reorganized the academy into a de-facto government department regulating art life in the country, distributing orders and awarding ranks to the artists. The academy vigorously promoted the principles of Neoclassicism by sending the most notable Russian painters abroad, in order to learn the ancient and Renaissance art of Italy and France. It also had its own sizable collection of choice artworks intended for study and copying. To be continued
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