| Name: |
Academy of arts museum |
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| Address: |
17 Universitetskaya naberezhnaya
199034 St. Petersburg (metro Vasileostrovskaya) |
| Phone: |
+7 (812) 323-3578, +7 (812)
323-6496 |
| Open: |
11am - 6pm
Closed: : Mondays and Tuesdays |
| Description: |
This is one of Russia's oldest
art museums, founded in 1757 along with the "Academy
of the Three Noblest Arts" - painting, sculpture and
architecture. It was originally conceived as an academic museum
for the preservation of works by the Academy's students, especially
those who had received awards or other honours. As time went.
by, however, the museum gradually accumulated one of the finest
art collections in the country. The museum is housed in the
halls of the so-called "Circle", the central block
of the Academy building constructed between 1764 and 1788
to plans by the architects Jean-Baptiste Vallin de la Mothe
and Alexander Kokorinov.
Visitors can see works by Russian artists from the mid-18th
century to the present; a collection of plaster casts of classical
and Western European sculpture; architectural drawings and
designs; and a unique collection of wooden models of the Academy,
the Stock Exchange, St. Michael's Castle, the Smolny Convent
(made under Bartolomeo Rastrelli's supervision) and other
famous buildings. A marvellous academic collection of 32 models
of ancient Roman monuments, made from cork by A. Chicchi in
1774, is also to be found here.
On the whole, the displays reflect the history of the Russian
academic and Soviet art schools. Among the names represented
are Anton Losenko, Ivan Prokofiev, Fedor Gordeyev, Theodosius
Shchedrin, Karl Briullov, Gavriil Skorodumov, Alexander Ivanov,
Ilya Repin, Vasily Polenov, Vasily Mathe, Anna Ostroumova-Lebedeva
and many others. A large number of training assignments and
diploma works by Academy students are also on show.
The studio of the great Ukrainian poet and artist Taras Shevchenko,
who lived and worked in a small flat located in a wing of
the Academy building from 1858 to his death in 161, constitutes
an independent department in the museum.
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