Museums and society: New painting is given to the Museum-Reserve “Peterhof”

July 21, 2016 at the Museum "Picture House" of palace and park ensemble Oranienbaum took place the solemn donation to the State Museum-Reserve "Peterhof" of a painting "Three Philosophers" by Genoese artist Bernardo Strozzi, who worked on its creation in 1630-1640s. The painting was purchased by JSC "Metrobeton". The web is a great historical and artistic value, and takes its rightful place in the office of Grand Duke Peter Feodorovich (the future Emperor Peter III) in the Picture house of Oranienbaum. 

The plot - a debate of three philosophers, depicted with distinctive attributes: the terrestrial globe, armillary sphere, book bindings, stationery. Topics of Sciences and Arts, debates between scholars (humanists and theologians), they were extremely popular and widely spread in the Western European painting of the XVII century.

In the middle of the XVIII century, the artist's works were highly appreciated at the picture of the market in Europe and Russia, and a great demand among art collectors. Strozzi paintings adorned the imperial picture gallery in the Winter Palace, were presented at the Imperial Academy of Arts, as well as in private collections of Count P. B. Sheremetev Count A. P. Shuvalov, Academician Jacob Staehelin, who was involved in the formation of a picturesque collection of Grand Duke Peter Fedorovich, well-known expert and connoisseur of fine paintings. 

The name of Bernardo Strozzi is related to the Venetian school of painting in the XVII century. Fabrics of Strozzi are stored at the National Gallery and the British Royal Collection in London, the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, the Museum Boymans-van Beuningen in Rotterdam. In the Russian museums, his work is represented much more modest (the State Hermitage Museum, the Pushkin Museum), in connection with which the painting "Three philosophers" is of special interest, not only from an artistic point of view, but also from the point of view of the high value of the museum.