Marking the 350th anniversary of Peter the Great: The exhibition of sculpture from the Emperor’s collections opens in the State Hermitage Museum

The exhibition Sculpture from the collections of Peter the Great opens on September 24, 2022 as part of the Year of Peter the Great at the Hermitage.

The reforms of Peter the Great had an impact on almost all aspects of life in the country. It was Peter who instilled in Russian society an interest in collecting works of art, which extended in full measure to sculpture as well.

Until the end of the XVII century, Russia did not have sculpture in the round as we understand it today because of a prohibition imposed by the Orthodox Church. That situation changed radically in the reign of Peter the Great (1672–1725). The incorporation of statues, busts and reliefs into everyday life, including places of worship, was an important element of the Tsar's cultural transformations. Peter himself assembled a collection of sculpture that was large even by European standards, comprising more than 250 works, of which around two-thirds have survived. The first pieces of sculpture arrived in Saint Petersburg’s Summer Garden as early as 1707 or thereabouts.

Most of the works were ordered and purchased in Venice by Peter’s agent, the Serbian Count Sava Vladislavich, known as Raguzinsky (from Ragusa, the Italian name for Dubrovnik), in 1716–1722. Among the first consignment of sculptures sent to the new capital in 1717 was a large statue of Adonis by Giuseppe Torretto that is exhibited in a niche in the vestibule of the Winter Palace opposite Diana by Giuseppe and Paolo Groppelli, which arrived in 1720. In 1718–1719, Yury Kologrivov also made purchases of sculpture in Rome.

The display in the Moorish Hall of the Winter Palace will present 19 sculptures from the collection of Peter the Great. The State Museum of the History of Saint Petersburg and the Serpukhov Museum of History and Art are also expected to take part in the exhibition. This will be the first time since the XVIII century that a series of six small statues of ancient gods and goddesses, carved by the sculptor Antonio Tarsia in 1717–1718 and intended for Peter’s wife, Tsarina Catherine, will be reunited.