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Russian icons in St. Petersburg

╚Nobody can paint today such beautiful icons as in the old days, neither in Moscow, nor in St. Petersburg or in Palikhovo╩, stated Nikolay Leskov about the ancient Russian icons. The interest to the Russian religious antiques arose and the first depots for storage of the ancient religious works of art were organized only in the second half of the 19th century.

Important collections of ancient icons were in possession only of representatives of the Old Believers▓ trend of the Russian Orthodox Faith, the ones being mainly the Moscow merchants. In St.Petersburg, there was only one important collection that of a Fedoseev separatist religious group member, Silvester Kuzmin. Old Believers valued the ancient age of icons and were great experts in the old icons. It especially concerns the so-called ╚school╩ icons. These people, according to Leskov, were great in distinguishing between the works of different schools, for example, easily telling Ustiug icons from Novgorod ones, or Moscow from Vologda, Siberian or Stroganov School icons. They also could distinguish between manners of different prominent representatives of the same school.

Count Sergey Grigoryevich Stroganov was one of the first major St.Petersburg collectors of icons. He was also the first Chairman of the Russian History and Antiques Society of Moscow University. His collection included mainly icons of the Stroganov School, painted on order from his grandfathers and great grandfathers, by such masters as Ivan Sobol, Semen Borozdin, Istoma and Nikiphor Savin and Prokopiy Tchirin working in the period between the 16th and the 17th centuries, as well as works by the artists of the Patriarch▓s service in the 17th century. Stroganov also collected the hand-written books. The full chronicle of the 17th century, which was published by Stroganov in 1869, was the jewel of this part of Stroganov▓s collection. A famous Russian philologist and researcher in the field of the Russian icon painting, F. I. Buslayev, author of the famous study on the Russian illuminated Apocalypses hand-written books, was a home teacher in the Stroganov family.

Archangel Michael. Greek icon. 15thC√16thC. Tempera, wood, levkas. 81.0 cm х 65.0 cm. Provenance: Rumyantsev's Museum. [zoom (64k)]

Frequent and long talks with Buslaev so impressed the writer Leskov that under this impression Leskov composed his famous story ╚The Imprinted Angel╩ about the fascinating power оf the ancient Russian art. The story became very popular and was even noted by Emperor Alexander II and the Empress.

It is in that period, when the first state and public depositories of ancient Russian icons emerged. A new class was organized in the Academy of Arts for the promotion of the Russian icon painting and preparing new masters in this field in 1850, being initiated by Academy President, Grand Princess Maria Nikolaevna. The class was headed by Prince Grigory Grigorievich Gagarin, who lately initiated the establishment of the first in Russia museum of icons. In 1855, Prince Gagarin was appointed to an assistant to President of the Academy of Arts and in 1859, to Vice-President of the Academy and occupied the position till 1874. The Prince▓s background perfectly suited the requirements to a person occupying such a position. In Rome, the Prince studied the art of painting under the guidance of the famous Russian painter Carl Brullov. He was a talented sketcher. His hobby was the Byzantine Art. Gagarin produced copies of ancient icons, frescoes and documents of the 13th-17th centuries. He compiled a profound collection of Russian icons, which was passed to the Academy of Arts after his death. In the 1850-ies, he lived in Tiflis, Georgia, where he restored frescoes of ancient Georgian churches, participated in the restoration of the ╚Bysantine╩ wall-paintings of the Sion cathedral in Tiflis. New cathedrals were constructed according to Prince▓s projects.

Gagarin▓s dream was ╚to make the Russian church painting to turn to the Byzantine ideals╩. With this aim, he founded the Christian Antique Museum affiliated to the Academy of Arts with the support of Grand Princess Maria Nikolaevna in 1856. The new Museum collection was based on the formidable set of ancient Russian icons selected in Old Believers monasteries and chapels, which was obtained from the Ministry of Inferior in the late 1850-s. Later, the Museum acquired the collection of moulds taken from Old Christianity items kept in the Arundel Society of London. The Museum operated till opening the Russian Museum.

The famous Russian church archeologist, expert and collector of religious ancient art Peter Ivanovich Sevastjanov was another man who contributed a lot to the formation of the Museum collection. His famous Sevastjanov▓s Collections included ancient icons, ancient artifacts of religious character, handwritten documents and their old copies, sketches taken from ancient frescoes and icons and many other things acquired by the man in his trips across Russia, the Western Europe and the East. The most famous was his trip to the Holy Mount Aphon in Greece, where ancient Christian artifacts were preserved. In 1860, Sevastjanov donated to the Society copies, sketches, drawings and photographs of the objects of the Christian Art, including more than 1000 drawings presenting old icons, wall paintings and book miniatures.

Architect Alexey Maximovich Gornostaev, a prominent expert in the field of the ancient Russian religious art, was the first keeper of the Museum. Gornostaev was one of the founders of the ╚Russian╩ style in architecture.

A famous publisher and a museum activist, Vasiliy Alexandrovich Prokhorov, was appointed to a Museum keeper in 1861. The man studied in the Kherson Religious College, then in the St.Petersburg Academy of Art. After it, he taught History at first in the Naval Cadet Corpse, then, starting from 1859, he taught a course of the Christian and Russian antiques in the Academy of Arts. In 1870-s, he published ╚The Christian Antiques and Archeology╩ and ╚The Russian Antiques╩ magazines. Prochorov continued the Gornostaev▓s collector activities. He undertook numerous trips around the country. He was interested not only in icons, but also in the church ornaments and the folk art items. During these voyages, he also picked objects for his private collections of the ancient Russian embroidery and clothes.

The Feet Washing. 15thC. Tempera, wood, levkas. State Russian Museum. Provenance: N.P. Likhachev's Collection [zoom (65k)]

After the wave of interest to the art of icon painting initiated by the publication of ╚The Imprinted Angel╩ by Leskov, Emperor Alexander II and Empress Maria Alexandrovna, petitioned by President of the Academy of Arts, Great Prince Vladimir Alexandrovich, donated to the Museum the Russian antiques acquired from the famous collections of M.P. Pogodin, P.F. Korobanov and P.I. Sevastyanov.

In the second half of the 19th century, scientific societies and church organizations also established their collections of church antiques. The Society of Amateurs of Ancient Handwriting and Art was founded in 1878. The Church Antique Museum was affiliated to the Society. It consisted of four departments: a library, a manuscript collection, an artifact collection, and an icon collection. Publishing ancient Russian manuscripts was the main field of the Society▓s activity. The main efforts were aimed at improving the manuscript collection of the Society. The collection included such rarities as the illuminated Psalter of 1397, written in Kiev, also an appendix to the Sijsky Gospel and a collection of about 5 thousand sheets of drawings and engravings, compiled by Filimonov and presented to the Society by his widow. The collection of icons was improved by adding to it a number of gifts from both private persons and organizations. For example, in 1870-s, Synod passed a big number of ancient icons from closed ancient monasteries and confiscated from Old Believers, to the Society. The Museum was closed for the general public and was meant only for backing up the activities of the Society members. Initially it was located in the house of chairman of the Society, Prince P.P. Vyazemsky in Pochtamtsky str. After his death, the Museum collection was moved to the Count S.D. Sheremetyev▓s palace on the bank of the Fontanka River, were the Society members had their meetings. In 1923, after liquidation of the Museum, all the icons were moved to the Russian Museum, and the books and manuscripts to the National Public Library. In 1932, the Society was liquidated.

The church organizations also took part in the activity of collecting icons and antiques. In 1879, a church museum affiliated to St.Petersburg Religious Academy was opened. A prominent church archeologist, Nikolay Vasilievich Pokrovsky, was one of its founders and, later, a director. Pokrovsky acquired the best items of the Municipal Museum of Novgorod in that period of time, when the later was in a serious crisis and on the verge of closing. Some icons were received from the Synod, the Society of Religious Education Amateurs of Moscow supplied about 300 icons stemming from the Chudov and Voznesensky monasteries of Moscow. Some valuable icons of the Stroganov School of the 17th century, painted probably in Solvychegodsk, were supplied by Count S.G Stroganov.

Many antiques were kept in the Sacricty of the Alexandro-Nevsky Lavra (monastery) in St.Petersburg including the crown of Saint Alexander Nevsky, and, also, two marshal batons of Emperor Peter I. In 1903, a special museum was organized in Lavra, providing to the general public the access to the antiques preserved in the Monastery. The idea of this museum foundation was provided by F.M. Morozov, who was a monk of Lavra and a student of the St.Petersburg Archeological Institute. Morozov worked as an archivist under the guidance of already mentioned Pokrovsky on the project of cataloguing the antiques in the possession of Lavra. The Organizing Committee of the organized in that period All-Russian Congress of Artists supported the idea of organizing the Museum in Lavra and helped a lot in the process of its foundation, especially the Secretary of that Committee, A.A. Kavelin.

This interest to the subject was the reason of establishing in St.Petersburg the main state collection ≈ the Ancient Depository of the Imperial Russian Museum. The collection of icons in the Museum was started at the moment of its foundation. It absorbed a lot of private collections in accordance with last will of decedent persons. The last such donation was the famous collection of icons of the prominent paleologist, an academician, N.P. Likhachev. It is this gift that permitted to open the Ancient Vaults of Emperor Nicholas II in the Imperial Russian Museum. The interior bigger room of the Depository was organized in order to resemble the interior of the ancient Russian church. The most ancient icons, mainly of the Novgorod School, were placed in a specially constructed beautiful iconostasis.

In the 1920-s, a lot of icons from the confiscated collections of the nobility and from the closed monasteries were added to this mostly representative collection of the ancient Russian church art. Thanks to the work of the museum workers, keepers and scientists, the collection survived till nowadays and some of its icons are being returned today to the revived churches and monasteries.