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RUSSIAN ART AND ARCHITECTURE
THROUGH THE CENTURIES

 
 

Mikhail F. Kazakov

 
 

Mikhail F. Kazakov, 1733-1812, was Bazhenov's close collaborator, particularly in the planning of the grandiose Kremlin palace which Catherine decided not to build. Kazakov graduated from the Moscow School of Architecture and remained faithful to the ancient Russian capital. He was less imaginative than Bazhenov, but showed a stronger inclination for the picturesque and realism in architecture as well as for the less complex (and less gentle) forms of the Russian variation of classicism, which he together with Bazshenov founded and spread through Russia.
One of Kazakov's first works was Peter's palace (Petrovskii Dvorets) built in 1775-1782 on the northern outskirts of Moscow, from which Russian monarchs after Peter the Great, coming from Saint Petersburg, used to start their coronation procession that would end in the Cathedral of the Assumption in the Kremlin. The palace received its name not after Peter the Great but after the nearby Monastery of Saint Peter, on whose land it was built. Its style is a combination of neo-Gothic and traditional Russian features, borrowed from 17 Th century church architecture, to which Kazakov added a dome with windows and several dormers in front, a porch in front of the main entrance which has pillars in the form of ancient Russian jugs, and a covered balcony on the top of it. The palace is embellished with white-stone decorative elements applied on the dark red brick walls. When the Kremlin was set afire, Napoleon moved to this palace to live in, but had to leave soon when Moscow burned in 1812. Presently the palace housed an Engineers' Academy.
Kazakov's most important work is the Senate Building, formerly the Palace of Justice in the Kremlin, which at present houses the Council of Ministers and the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. It was built in 1776-1787, on the site of Prince Trubetskoy's palace. Its triangular form was dictated by the available space, which Kazakov exploited with a remarkable success. In his mature style he turned to more classical forms, as seen from his successful construction of the Senate Building, which he crowned with a dome thereby giving it some majesty. All three facades are simple, and to a certain degree monotonous, with their long rows of windows and large pilasters, but they are all fully completed. On the side that faces the Arsenal Building, this uniformity is broken by the main entrance, which leads to the interior court and the circular senate hall. Four Ionic columns, two on each side, carry the pediment above the entrance. Russian architects often treated all sides of a building with the same care and gave them a finished look. The interior of the Senate Building is richly decorated, particularly the circular hall, 88 feet high and 80 feet in diameter. Eighteen Corinthian columns carry the cupola and divide its interior into the same number of bays, decorated with base-reliefs depicting major events from the reign of Catherine II ( she is often shown as Minerva, the patroness of all the arts), and the Russian tsars and grand-dukes. At the inauguration Catherine was delighted with the new building, and as a first gesture gave Kazakov her gloves for his wife. Later she received from her a diamond ring and a considerable pension, in addition to promotion to a higher rank. This beautiful hall, named after the empress, served for ceremonies and meetings of the nobility of the Moscow province, but it also accommodated after the revolution, several (Bolshevik) communist party congresses, and continues to serve for ceremonies such as awarding high honors and medals to communist leaders. There where Catherine's throne was once now stands Lenin's bust. Sic transit gloria mundi!, before moving to Gorki Lenin had his apartment on the third floor in the Senate building.
In 1774, army general Vasilii M. Dolgorukii commissioned Kazakov to build a mansion for his receptions and festivities in Moscow. The two-story building looks very modest from the outside, in sharp contrast with the huge and magnificent hall inside, lined with Corinthian columns, which can accommodate almost three thousand people, not to mention other, smaller halls and rooms which surprise the visitor with their size. In 1785 the mansion was purchased by the dvoriane of the Moscow province and became known as the Building of the Noble Assembly, (Dom Blagorodnago Sobrania) and served as their private club for their meetings, where they discussed their problems and privileges. Not only Pushkin, Griboyedov, Lermontov, Turgeniev and Tolstoy frequented the club, but also liberals such as Herzen. After the revolution most of the first conferences and congresses took place in this building, attended by the new communist nobility. It is here that top Soviet leaders receive their last homage before being buried, and both the bodies of Lenin and Stalin lay in state in the main hall. Before and after 1917 the hall has served often for concert and ballet performances. As a matter of fact, the first symphony concert in Moscow took place over a hundred years ago in this building. It now belongs to the Trade Union, though only in name, and it is officially known as Dom Soyuzov (The building of the trade unions), though it is popularly called the hall of columns.
To protect the people who lived in the White Town (Belii Gorod), the name given to the section of Moscow outside of the Kremlin, and the Kitai Gorod (middle town taken from the Tatar language), from foreign invaders, during the reigns of Fedor Ivanovich and Godunov, another fortified stone wall was built around the entire area. (see Gudonov map) Moscow continued to grow, and the wall became obsolete. A good part of it was demolished during the reign of Elizabeth I. Catherine II ordered its complete elimination, and turned the space where the wall had stood into new avenues. Not knowing what to do with the bricks and stones of the remains of the old wall, the governor of Moscow, Zakhar Grigorevich Chernishev, decided to build himself a mansion. It was erected in 1782 and though it is not certain, the design for it was ascribed to Kazakov. A few years later Chernishev sold the mansion to the government, and it has since become the official residence of Moscow governors. The residence has since been remodeled and enlarged several times. After the revolution the residence became the city hall, and with the increase in bureaucracy an annex was built behind it in the thirties; finally, in 1945, it received another floor. So very little, if anything, is left from Kazakov's time.
The Golitsin Hospital in Moscow is one of most successful of Kazakov's achievements. He built this very large building in 1796-1801 for the Golitsin family, which wanted to commemorate Prince Dimitri M. Golitsin by offering Muscovites a modern hospital. Its classical features include an Ionic colonnade and a dome under which there originally was a chapel with four smaller cupolas on its sides. The hospital could be easily taken fro a contemporary Russian countryside palace.
Starov, Bazhenov, and Kazakov not to speak of foreigners who continued to journey to Saint Petersburg, and contribute even more to the change of styles, dominated architectural trends in Russia during the last third of the 18th century. As teachers or by means of the buildings they designed they kept influencing younger generations of architects for at least three more decades. From the moment Peter the Great introduced his reforms, which became mandatory for everybody, it was clear that Russia would have to give up drawing inspiration from her traditional sources, and turn toward Western Europe. It was indeed surprising how quickly young Russian architects turned their backs on their own creation, the Russian style, that it took centuries to form. There are moments in life when foreign taste, or what is considered fashionable or just simply practical, easily imposes itself over the traditional and sometimes over the beautiful. Traditionalism and originality were sacrificed for the sake of modernization and Europeanization. An imitation is seldom as valuable as the original, and since Peter's time, Russian architecture has continued to copy the West and, with only a few exception, to lag behind it. On the other hand, Russians had the opportunity to see for themselves in their own country a series of various European styles that followed one after the other, from baroque to neo-Gothic and classic, often mixed with Russian ingredients.
Some Russian students who studied abroad must have heard about Palladio's buildings, but many Russians learned about his style when N. A. Lvov, 1751-1803, translated Palladio's Architectura" into Russian. His influence on several generations of Russian architects was tremendous, and Russians could see for the first time beautiful Greek orders, curved colonnades that join the main building to outbuildings, pavilions, rotundas, domes and porticos, ponds and gardens - an ideal composition for the Russian countryside..With their enormous space, the undisturbed tranquility of their landscape and a gift for the picturesque, Russian architects produced many successful architectural ensembles worthy of Palladian traditions. Kazakov particularly did much to give Moscow her new classical appearance. There are many churches and buildings that are ascribed to him, in Moscow and in the country, though sometimes not with adequate proof. The important thing is that the style he launched was carried on by many in and around Moscow.
After ceasing to be the capital, Moscow was forgotten for many years. It regained considerable importance after the Charter of the Nobility of 1785 gave the dvoriane many privileges without personal obligations towards the state. Freed from their previous compulsory services, many dvoriane left Saint Petersburg and built their new residences in Moscow or around it. Construction activity redoubled after Napoleon's army was chased out of Moscow and lasted almost until the abolition of serfdom. Rich merchants and landowners were quick to copy the nobility and new palaces and mansions mushroomed everywhere. Their size, beauty, inside luxury, etc. usually varied in accordance with the wealth of the proprietor, but their style and set-up were basically the same. The best spot was first chosen for the mansion, separating the inner complex from the rest, was obligatory, forming the "Cour d'honeur," between the gate and the mansion. The rich put colonnades around the "Cour" and had outbuildings next to the gate, housing the servants and sometimes having guest rooms, kitchen etc. Mansions very seldom had more than two stories. The first floor was reserved for living room, library, dinning room, reception hall etc., and usually was the best furnished and decorated. Bedrooms were on the second floor, and the guest-rooms if there was no comfortable space for them in the outbuildings. The size of the garden, which could include pavilions, ponds, fountains etc., depended again on the means of the landlord. The desire for imitation was not without aesthetic abuses. Some local architects were not qualified enough and to compensate for their professional shortcomings and satisfy the cheap taste of some of their clients they indiscriminately used columns, pilasters, domes, etc. Among some very impressive mansions there were also many of the type that Gogol described in his "Dead Souls."

 
 

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