Petersburg Academy of Arts: history, founders, academicians

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The decoration of one of the St. Petersburg embankments is a building, the peace of which is guarded by two sphinxes, once brought from distant Egypt. It houses the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, now called the Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. It is rightfully considered the cradle of Russian fine art, which has earned well-deserved fame throughout the world.

Birth of the Academy

The Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg was founded by the favorite of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, a prominent Russian statesman and philanthropist of the 18th century, Ivan Ivanovich Shuvalov (1727-1797). A photo depicting his bust is presented in the article. He belonged to that category of people, rare at all times, who sought to use their high position and we alth for the benefit of Russia. Becoming in 1755 the founder of Moscow University, which today bears the name of Lomonosov, two years later he took the initiative to create an educational institution designed to train masters in the main types of fine arts.

The Petersburg Academy of Arts, originally located in his own mansion on Sadovaya Street, began work in 1758. Most of the funding came from Shuvalov's personal funds, since the treasury allocated an insufficient amount for its maintenance. The generous philanthropist not only ordered the best teachers from abroad for his own money, but also donated his collection of paintings to the academy he created, thus initiating the creation of a museum and a library.

The First Rector of the Academy

The name of another person who left a noticeable mark in the history of national culture is connected with the early period of the Academy of Arts, as well as the construction of its current building. This is an outstanding Russian architect Alexander Filippovich Kokorinov (1726-1772). Having developed, together with Professor J. B. M. Vallin-Delamote, the design of the building into which the academy moved from the Shuvalov mansion, he took the position of director, then professor and rector. The circumstances of his death gave rise to one of the numerous St. Petersburg legends, known as the "Ghost of the Academy of Arts." The fact is that according to the surviving data, the rector of the academy died not as a result of watersickness, as was indicated in the official obituary, but hanged himself in her attic.

There are two possible reasons for suicide. According to one version, the reason was an unfounded accusation of misappropriation of state funds, that is, of corruption. Since in those days it was still considered dishonor and shame, and to justifyAlexander Filippovich failed, he preferred to die. According to another version, the impetus for such a step was the reprimand he received from Empress Catherine II, who visited the academy building and soiled her dress on a freshly painted wall. Since then, they say that the soul of a suicide, not having received rest in the Upper world, is doomed to wander forever in the walls he once created. His portrait is presented in the article.

Women who made history at the academy

In the Catherine era, the first female academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts appeared. She became a student of the French sculptor Etienne Falcone - Marie-Anne Collot, who together with her teacher created the famous "Bronze Horseman". It was she who completed the head of the king, which became one of his best sculptural portraits.

The empress, admired by her work, ordered to appoint Collo a life pension and to assign such a high rank. Meanwhile, among a number of modern researchers, there is an opinion that, contrary to the established version, Marie-Anne Collot, a female academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, is the author of not only the head of the Bronze Horseman, but also the entire figure of the king, while her teacher sculpted only a horse. However, this does not detract from his merits.

In passing, it should be noted that another artist who came from France and was one of the best portrait painters of her time, Vigée Lebrun, earned a high and honorary title in Russia at the end of the 18th century. Academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts - a title awarded only to graduates. Lebrunshe also received the no less high-profile title of an honorary free associate, which was awarded at that time to outstanding artists who were educated abroad.

18th century order of learning

The Petersburg Academy of Arts has played a key role in the development of Russian culture since its inception. How seriously the work was put in it can be evidenced by the fact that in the 18th century education continued for fifteen years, and the best graduates were sent at public expense for an internship abroad. Among the arts studied at the academy were painting, graphics, sculpture and architecture.

The entire course of study that the Academy of Arts provided to its students was divided into five classes, or sections, of which the fourth and fifth were the lowest and were called the Educational School. They accepted boys who had reached the age of five or six, where they learned to read and write, and also acquired basic skills by drawing ornaments and copying ready-made images. In each of these two primary classes, the training lasted for three years. Thus, the course of the Educational School lasted six years.

Sections from the third to the first were the highest, they were considered, in fact, the Academy of Arts. In them, students who previously studied as a single group were divided into classes in accordance with their future specialization - painting, engraving, sculpture or architecture. In each of these three higher sections studied for three years,as a result of which, directly at the Academy itself, the training lasted nine years, and together with the six years spent at the Educational School, it amounted to fifteen years. Only much later, in the 19th century, after the Educational School was closed in 1843, the period of study was significantly reduced.

Other disciplines

The Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg, following the model of similar European educational institutions, produced from its walls not only professionally trained specialists in various fields of art, but also widely educated people. In addition to the main disciplines, the curriculum also included foreign languages, history, geography, mythology and even astronomy.

Into the new century

The Petersburg Academy of Arts in the 19th century received its further development. The we althy Russian philanthropist Count Alexander Sergeevich Stroganov, who headed it, carried out a series of reforms, as a result of which restoration and medal classes were created, and serfs were admitted to training under certain conditions. An important stage in the life of the academy of that period was its transfer first to the Ministry of Public Education, and then to the Ministry of the Imperial Court. This greatly contributed to the receipt of additional funding and allowed more graduates to go abroad.

In the power of classicism

For almost the entire 19th century, the only artistic style recognized at the academy was classicism. On theThe priorities of teaching in that period were greatly influenced by the so-called hierarchy of genres - the system adopted by the Paris Academy of Fine Arts for dividing fine art genres according to their importance, the main of which was considered historical painting. This principle lasted until the end of the 19th century.

M. Shcherbatov, as well as Synopsis, a collection of works by ancient chroniclers. As a result, classicism, which was preached by the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Arts, inevitably limited the creativity of students, driving it into the narrow framework of obsolete dogmas.

Rebel artists who glorified Russian art

Gradual liberation from established canons began with the fact that in November 1863, 14 of the most gifted students included in the competition for the gold medal refused to paint pictures on a plot from Scandinavian mythology that they had given, demanding the right to choose the topic themselves. Having been refused, they defiantly left the academy, organizing a community that became the basis for the creation of the later famous Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions. This event went down in the history of Russian art as the Riot of the Fourteen.

Graduates and academicians of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts became such renowned painters as M. A Vrubel, V. A. Serov, V. I. Surikov, V. D. Polenov, V. M. Vasnetsov and many others. Along with them, we should also mention a galaxy of brilliant teachers, including V. E. Makovsky, I. I. Shishkin, A. I. Kuindzhi and I. E. Repin.

Academy in the 20th century

The St. Petersburg Academy of Arts continued its activities until the October Revolution of 1917. Already six months after the Bolsheviks came to power, it was abolished by a decision of the Council of People's Commissars, and on its basis various art educational institutions began to be created and periodically change their names, designed to train masters of the new socialist art. In 1944, the Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, which was located within its walls, was named after I. E. Repin, which he bears to this day. The very same founders of the Academy of Arts - the chamberlain of the imperial court I. I. Shuvalov and the outstanding Russian architect A. F. Kokorinov, entered the history of Russian art forever.