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After finishing his studies at the Academy
of Saint Petersburg, F. Ya. Alekseyev, 1753-1824, went to Italy to complete his
education. There he was much impressed by the Venetian landscape painters, and
tried hard to imitate the works of Canaletto. Upon his return he painted scenes
of Saint Petersburg with greater success than he had those of Moscow. He filled
them with details and people, often on horseback, and gave them almost perfect,
photographic perspective. People liked his highly decorative and embellished
landscapes, though he was of much less ability than the Venetians. Here we have
his view of the Peter and Paul fortress.
If Russian non-religious painting of the 17th century was the continuation of
ancient iconography, in the 18th it underwent a profound transformation under
the influence of the western art and foreign teachers that dominated artistic
life in the new Russian capital, which quickly became the new cultural center
of the country. Foreign influence was no longer sporadic but became permanent;
the Academy of Art played an important role in establishing it. The new
governing class and intellectuals lacked the piety of their fathers and grand
fathers, and became indifferent towards religious subjects and icons. They
wanted art to extol the niceties of life and show the luxury in which they
lived. Then some painters influenced by the new literature, increasingly
polemic and moralistic, became concerned with the realities of the simple man
and decided to paint humble scenes of everyday life and render their art more
beneficent to the people rather than simply serving as a decorative element
inside sumptuous palaces.
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