PETER THE GREAT. His Era and His Inner Circle

This exhibition is the second in a series entitled “The Romanov Saga” at the Russian Museum. It is dedicated to the period in the Russian Museum that is one of the most exciting and the most difficult to evaluate, among other things. The time of Peter the Great was an era of sweeping reforms in societal and cultural development in Russia. It is usually characterized as an era when national life was secularized and Europeanized, spurred by the will of Peter the Great, the tsar and reformer. An impressive transformation occurred in all areas of social — and even family — life. While the task of decidedly changing the appearance of Russia was broader and deeper, it had an overarching significance that still resonates today. This period saw the introduction of Russia as a power in the international arena (it literally “burst into Europe”). It was when Russia gained access to the sea, ensuring convenient and unhindered communication between Russia and the rest of the world. It was the era when Russia began to develop its own industries and cultivate domestic and foreign trade. It saw the development of the country’s defense and its military potential (the army and navy). Of course, as a necessary prerequisite, this was also an era when culture based on Orthodox tradition flourished, but it was oriented toward deepening the humanistic side and personal principles. The locus of cultural reforms was the new capital, St. Petersburg. What happened there reverberated throughout the country.

All of these innovations are vividly reflected in the works of art that comprise the backbone of the exhibition. Three important aspects are reflected in the material: historical, iconographical, and artistic, which manifest themselves in the art. More than two hundred paintings, sculptures, crafts, and objects from everyday life are on display in the exhibition. Most importantly, there are portraits, the leading genre of the time, of the era and individuals, works by great Russian masters (Ivan Nikitin, Andrei Matveyev) and eminent foreign artists such as Johann Gottfried Tannauer and Louis Caravaque (so-called “Rossica,” works by foreign artists who worked in Russia), masterpieces by European painters who considered it an honor to paint the Russian tsar, a sign of respect in regard to his power. The exhibition includes many artistic objects of interest, including masterpieces by unknown artists, such as parsuni (a 17th-century Russian portrait genre, an example of which is the famous Preobrazhensky Series, which has been reconstructed fully for the first time), battle paintings dedicated to the Great Northern War, examples of the Tsar’s collecting activities (the Summer Garden sculptures), and memorial objects, such as a suit, writings, Peter the Great’s manuscripts, his wax bust, and his death mask... And faces, faces, faces — the tsar himself, his family, “the fledglings of the Petrine nest,” his contemporaries and his associates. Giving us a staggering sense of authenticity and greatness, the grim and bright, the deep and unique expressiveness of the portraits of the Petrine era have been amazing viewers for nearly three centuries.

A large part of the works on display, nearly half, are from the Russian Museum’s collection. Participants in the exhibition include the Tretyakov Gallery; the State Hermitage; the Pavlovsk, Peterhof, and Tsarkoye Selo state museums and public parks; the Central Naval Museum; the State History Museum; Kuskovo Museum; and the museums of Nizhny Novgorod, Petrozavodsk, New Jerusalem, and the Central Archive of the Navy. We would like to extend our sincerest gratitude for their kind assistance in this enormous project that we hope will elicit understanding and legitimate pride among our compatriots and lively interest among our foreign guests.