Opening of the Updated Permanent Display at the Academy Museum in St. Petersburg
On December 22, 2011 the Research Museum of the Russian Academy of Arts, 17 University Embankment, presented to the public its updated permanent display entitled “The Academy Museum”.
For the first time on show are rare paintings from the Museum collection such as three canvases by born in Naples Luca Giordano (1634-1705); two paintings by Angelika Kauffman (1741-1807) commissioned by Catherine II - “Recognized Achilles” and “Sleeping Baby Servius Tullius”; canvases by the Venetian Andrea Celesti (1637-1712), Anton Raphael Mengs (1728-1779), Guercino (1591-1666). Of big interest are two paintings by the Italian master Pier Francesco Mola (1612-1666) devoted to the history of Ancient Rome – “Horatius Cocles Defending the Pons Sublicius” and “Marcus Curtius Plunging into the Abyss”. They were obtained during Catherine the Great’s time from the collection of Lord Robert Walpole. One more highlight of the display is “Lot with His Daughters” canvas by the Dutch painter Reyer van Blommendael (1628-1675), the third in the world signed by this master from Harlem.
The permanent display also includes works of the 16th – 19th Western-European Painting donated or bequeathed to the Academy by private collectors, in particular the famous Russian composer Dmitry Bortnyansky and Count N.A. Kushelev-Bezborodko.
The best works of the Russian academic school in the Museum holdings – canvases by K.P. Bryullov, V.D. Polenov, I.E. Repin, I.I. Shishkin, I.Y. Myasoedov, A.E. Arkhipov, N.I. Feshin now are more favorably presented to the viewers due to the successful work of designers and lighting engineers.
In the Blue Hall of the Museum there is an exhibition “Taras and Vasily Are Karl Bryullov’s Models” curated by Veronika T. Bogdan.
print version