History of Russia: The exhibition “Stand in beauty, the City of Peter!” in Veliky Novgorod

May 27, 2016 at the Museum of Fine Arts of the Novgorod Museum Reserve was opened the exhibition "Stand beauty, the City of Peter!».

The exhibition presents nineteen graphic works by Alexander Kornilov "Panorama of St. Petersburg" (1988), which are facsimile copies of the same name from the renowned engraving by Alexey Zubov (1716). The exhibition for the first time introduces the funds of the Novgorod Museum of modern exact reproduction of the most ambitious and famous Veduta of Peter time.

Veduta (Italian veduta, "kind") - a genre of European painting, especially popular in the XVIII century Venice. It is a painting, drawing or engraving with a detailed picture of daily urban landscape.

Author of the presented work, St. Petersburg artist Alexander A. K. Kornilov (1947-2007), his significant part of the work he devoted to the study of creativity and copying of historical engravings. He has created more than a hundred reconstructions and facsimile reproduction of copperplate engravings of the XVIII century to the Hermitage, the Russian Museum and other national museums. He carried out a number of works commissioned for the foreign art collections in Belgium, Germany, Holland, the USA, France and Japan.

The original "View of St. Petersburg" was performed in 1716 on the orders of Catherine I, as a gift to Emperor Peter I by the best Russian master A. F. Zubov (1682-1750). This work is an engraving and etching of cutter colossal dimensions - its length is about two and a half meters long and a width is almost a meter. Panorama is established in a single complex of arranged in three tiers of nineteen sheets of different formats. The main view of the city and the Neva prospect with running water on ships is printed on four large sheets and four half sheets and added eleven smaller images of Petersburg and the suburban palaces and forts. The historical value of engravings depicting real-life landscape is great.

Genuine engraving of A. F. Zubov "View of St. Petersburg" (1716) is preserved in all four instances. The ability to see the outstanding monument, requiring special storage conditions, provides only occasionally, but thanks to the work of A. K. Kornilov visitors will be able to show an accurate picture of this interesting artwork.