Peter's Baroque. Characteristics of the Baroque style

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

St. Petersburg, considered one of the youngest of the world's great cities, is a truly unique synthesis of the aesthetic trends of antiquity with Western European and Russian traditions. Experts say that his artistic style was predetermined by the content of the era of his birth. After all, the city was created at the very beginning of the seventeenth century, which could not but affect its appearance.

Constructed by the unstoppable will of one man - Peter the Great, it absorbed all the diversity of European architecture. Its appearance was created in the mind of the last Russian tsar under the influence of Franz Lefort and Vinius, Dutch entrepreneurs who owned huge collections of paintings and engravings. They depicted European and, in particular, Dutch cities, in which the western architecture of the 17th century was most clearly reflected.

Characteristic of the Baroque style

This architecture, which fans of classical architecture did not perceive as independent for a long time, appeared in Europe at the turn of the late Renaissance. It was, as it were, its continuation and development. To some extent, this style of architecture can becall it a return to philosophy. Its main characteristics were expressiveness and illusory nature. The ideas of ascension and soaring, which were implemented by the architects of this period, made the buildings very picturesque and rich in artistic details. They created truly illusory constructions using various interesting techniques.

General information

"Peter's Baroque" is a term that art historians apply to the architectural style endorsed by Peter the Great. It was widely used to design buildings in the then capital, St. Petersburg.

In 1697-1698, Peter visited Holland with the Great Embassy, in particular Amsterdam. This city was especially fond of the emperor with its strict radially planned streets, concentric lines along the canals. Amsterdam façades end in narrow high stepped triangular pediments, towers or round roofs. Traditional Dutch architecture of the 17th century is characterized by the decorative use of such shredded order elements as window frames, cornices, pilasters, portals with volutes. This made it possible to create an elegant and festive image of the city, combined with a modest and businesslike image.

Peter was obsessed with the idea that Russia could join the civilized Western countries, following the European path of not only political or economic, but also in many respects cultural development. And that is why he invited to work in his new capitalmany famous architects, sculptors and painters.

Petrovsky Manir

Already by the name it is clear that this amazing style owes its appearance in our country to the first Russian emperor. Petrovsky baroque became a mixture of the Italian trend of the same name with early French classicism and rococo. Each architect invited to St. Petersburg represented the traditions of his architectural school. That is why the Petrine baroque reflects the not entirely clear trends of this period.

Peter's great desire to turn his cities into the most beautiful and was the reason that during his reign, the baroque became a fundamental architectural trend. The design and construction of buildings in this style, also called the Petrine Manir, determined the development of architecture in St. Petersburg for the next few centuries.

Features

The first Russian emperor sought to move away from Byzantine traditions in architecture. The time of formation of this direction falls on the 17th century. The baroque style of Peter, however, is somewhat different from its European prototype. And first of all, it is rationalism, clarity and simplicity.

One of the main distinguishing features that characterizes the Peter the Great Baroque in architecture is the two-tone coloring of buildings: red and white. Another feature is the planar interpretation in the decor.

The first buildings in St. Petersburg were huts, as well as wooden buildings, similar in design to Western half-timbered houses. Their plasterneeded painting. Therefore, only low reliefs of stucco details or cornices, as well as pilasters and door frames, could be provided with similar structures and even "overlapping" brickwork.

Style Description

Peter's Baroque is characterized by the use of elements of the classical Tuscan or Corinthian orders, although in a very naive and more archaic interpretation. More common were Russian simple "blades", which replaced pilasters and columns. The windows were framed with profiled architraves - most often white on a red background, having characteristic thickenings, ears, with the use of a keystone on top. The corners of the baroque building, and in some cases the first floors, were decorated with rustication.

This festive and elegant look was complemented by many small architectural details, such as frames, curls and balustrades. The use of arched or semicircular pediments over all protruding parts was considered mandatory. Thus, the lines of the roofs were visually complicated and enriched.

The installation of statues or flowerpots was just as common. Architects installed lucarnes on the slopes. Thus, the upper part of many buildings acquired a rich decorative and very complex silhouette.

Baroque architects

Even before the founding of St. Petersburg, Peter and his ambassadors throughout Europe began to hire foreigners: architects, fortifiers, engineers. At the first stage, all the buildings in the city were built exactly according to the projects of foreign architects who came to serve in Russia. And the first among them was Domenico Trezzini, who built the mostfamous buildings of St. Petersburg, which embody the Peter the Great baroque style. A photo of the Peter and Paul Cathedral is a vivid proof of this. Its bell tower is the high-rise dominant of St. Petersburg. The faceted gilded spire of the cathedral cuts through the gloomy sky in contrast to the stretched squat lines of the Neva embankments.

There is practically no analogue of the cathedral in Western European architecture. It echoes only the twisted spire located on the stock exchange building in Copenhagen, which is also based on the Baroque style. The photo of the latter, however, is another proof that the St. Petersburg spire is somewhat different: both in size and faceted shape.

Among the first architects who created the Peter the Great Baroque are, in addition to Trezzini, Jean-Baptiste Leblon, and Schluter, and J. M. Fontana, as well as Michetti and Mattarnovi. All of them came to Russia at the invitation of Peter. Each architect brought into the appearance of the buildings he built the traditions common in his country, the basics of the school he represented. Helping to implement their projects, local architects, such as Mikhail Zemtsov, gradually mastered the traditions of European baroque.

Differences from the Moscow Baroque

Peter's baroque is typical for St. Petersburg. There are very few such buildings outside of it. In particular, these are the Menshikov Tower, built in Moscow, as well as the Kadriorg Palace in Tallinn.

Unlike the Naryshkin direction in Moscow, the Petrovsky direction, represented by a sharprejection of the Byzantine traditions that dominated Russian architecture for almost ten centuries, it is characterized by symmetry and balance. Highlighting the center of the composition, multicolor and restraint in decoration, arched or rectangular window openings, mansard roofs with a fracture - all these features of the baroque style, named after the first emperor, have become the hallmark of many buildings in St. Petersburg.

Bright examples

Today, tourists who come to the northern capital have the opportunity to appreciate the creation of the hands of architects who worked in that era. Peter's Baroque is represented here by many famous buildings. These are the Peter and Paul Cathedral, the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, the House of the Twelve Collegia with the summer palace of Peter I, the Schluter Chambers, the Menshikov Palace, the Kunstkamera, which was created by several people at the same time: Mattarnovi, Chiaveri and Zemtsov. The creation of the latter is also the Church of Simeon and Anna.

On Vasilyevsky Island there is another example of a baroque building - the first grand palace in St. Petersburg. It was the residence of the governor-general, where receptions were held and assemblies were held. Being a typical example of a rich palace with its main façade overlooking the embankment, the building also embodies the Petrine Baroque.

Twelve Collegia Building

There is another monument built in this architectural style nearby. This is the House of the Twelve Colleges. The architect Trezzini solved the problem set by Peter in a very original way. This building has a stylebaroque, representing twelve similar buildings, located in one line close to each other, a common through corridor, stretching for three hundred and eighty meters. Each part has a separate roof. At the same time, a literally bewitching cascade of repeating pediments and risalits, pilasters and architraves on a saturated red-and-white facade give the building a majestic appearance.

Landscape architecture

Features of the Baroque style can be seen not only in buildings built in that era. No less interesting are the palace and park ensembles. This, for example, is the well-known Summer Garden, which was laid out according to a special drawing of Peter himself; The Peterhof Ensemble, which, according to experts, is based on the impressions of the first Russian emperor from his visit to Versailles. Even today they are quite significant monuments of landscape architecture.

The Summer Garden was an attempt by the tsar to make "something instructive" out of a large park. Fountains were arranged in it, consonant with the themes of Aesop's fables, and in a special gallery they installed a statue of Venus found during excavations in Rome and brought to Russia with great difficulty - an ancient Roman marble copy of a Hellenistic original. Visitors to the garden, without exception, had to kiss the cold marble of this pagan goddess. Other statues and busts were erected along the alleys, as well as "in Versailles".

Summer Palace

This bright representative of Peter's Baroque is small and exceptionally simple in terms of layout. He was fully up to his task -providing recreational opportunities for the royal family.

Some people call this Peter the Great Baroque monument due to its small size "the first Russian cottage". Being both an architect and a designer, D. Trezzini managed the construction of this palace for four whole years. The bas-reliefs on the outside are made on a mythological theme. Trezzini's goal was to commemorate the victory in the Great Northern War. Carved oak and walnut painted ornaments in the interior and picturesque plafonds have been perfectly preserved and survived to contemporaries.

In conclusion

Despite the fact that it is considered not quite true to its name, Peter's Baroque is unique in its own way. With all the clearly visible borrowings, this style carries a lot of individual features. Moreover, the buildings of that era have no analogues in the world, they are original. The facades of the buildings, although relatively simple, are at the same time elegant and very representative. They do not have bulky and heavy jewelry, while expressiveness is achieved with minimal details.