Museum Architecture. Moscow.

A museum is not only an exhibition, a floor plan, interactive elements, attendants, conservators and guides. A museum is also the building in which it is housed. The home it lives in. We are launching a new author column "Museum Architecture", in which we will tell the stories of the most interesting, spectacular, unusual, historically and architecturally significant museum buildings.

The column is hosted by Dmitry Kotov — an art historian, historian and architectural theorist, and a guide with many years of experience.

And we will start with the museums of Moscow. More than that — from the very heart of the capital.

1. State Historical Museum

Architects Vladimir Sherwood and Anatoly Semenov, 1875–1883

The museum's history, oddly enough, began with the demolition of a historic building. To make way for the new structure, the first Moscow town hall — built in 1700 by order of Peter I and which since 1755 had housed Moscow University — was torn down.

Facade of the town hall. Drawing by Osip Bove, 1816

The very idea of creating the Historical Museum was set out in Emperor Alexander II's decree of February 1872. An important condition in preparing the project was orientation toward traditional Russian architecture and to "rhyme" the new object with the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos on the Moat, also known as Saint Basil's Cathedral on Red Square. The project by Vladimir Sherwood and Anatoly Semenov was chosen for implementation. Sherwood, although formally not holding the title of architect, was primarily responsible for the design of the exterior and interior decoration, while Semenov handled technical matters. On August 20 (September 1) 1875 Alexander II personally laid the first stone at the foundation of the museum during a ceremonial event.

The Historical Museum was opened to the public in the summer of 1883, already under Emperor Alexander III. At that time, the question of searching for a national style and turning to the cultural heritage of the past was relevant for Russian society in general and for domestic architecture in particular. Similar processes were observed in many other countries and gave rise to the national romanticism movement in art. In Russia, the result of these searches became the Russian style, sometimes referred to in literature as neo-Russian. The State Historical Museum is one of its key examples.

Over several years Sherwood made adjustments to the project, so the final building differs somewhat from the initial sketches while preserving the main idea. The museum indeed echoes the Pokrovsky (Intercession) Cathedral both compositionally and in architectural details. It also has a complex composite form with architectural volumes of different sizes converging toward the center and directed upward, finished not with domes but with tented roofs — also of varying sizes and shapes. Instead of crosses the tents are topped with gilded symbols of monarchical power — lions, unicorns and eagles. They act as weathervanes and from a distance do not seem gigantic, yet in reality the wingspan of the eagles is three meters.

The museum's portals are styled in forms typical for 16th–17th century Russian architecture — porches with "hanging" central weights. The façades are rich in pointed kokoshniks, triangular vimpergs, and a variety of belts. All these details further "relate" the State Historical Museum to Saint Basil's Cathedral.

If you approach the building closely and look up from below, you can also notice motifs of fortification architecture — reminiscent outlines of fortress towers, overhanging machicolations — all within the ornate Russian style, with a subtle allusion to the neighboring Kremlin.

Buildings characteristic of that period are often attributed to the so-called "brick style." In reality, this is less a style than an architectural technique that can be used in different styles, including the Russian one. It is characterized by unfaced brick constructions whose expressiveness lies in the pattern and rhythm of the masonry. The SHM building is perhaps the most vivid example of the "brick style" in Russia.

The museum is magnificent not only outside but also inside. In addition to Sherwood and Semenov, the interior decoration during construction was overseen by architects Alexander Popov, Nikolai Nikitin and the Nizhny Novgorod self-taught architect Petr Boytsov. The halls were painted by prominent artists including Viktor Vasnetsov, Valentin Serov, Ivan Aivazovsky, Ilya Repin, and Henryk Siemiradzki. It is easy to imagine the delight visitors felt at the decoration of the Ceremonial Vestibules, whose vaults were adorned with a genealogical tree of the imperial family comprising 68 portraits.

Unfortunately, in 1936–1937, for ideological reasons, the portraits of the august persons were whitewashed and the interior decoration of the museum suffered greatly. To return the interiors to their original appearance required fifteen years of painstaking work by hundreds of specialists — restoration work carried out intermittently from 1986 to 2002.

The stylistic features of the Historical Museum building undoubtedly influenced the formation of the present ensemble of Red Square and Revolution Square — the Moscow City Duma and the Upper and Middle Trading Rows were built in the same Russian style.

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2. M. N. Yermolova House-Museum

Architect Konstantin Chichagov, 1873–1875

The house on Tverskoy Boulevard was originally built in 1773 by an unknown architect and over the following century was repeatedly remodeled and changed owners. The last reconstruction, which gave the building its present appearance, was completed in 1875 by Konstantin Nikolaevich Chichagov — not the most famous representative of the renowned dynasty of architects.

He added a wing to the main house, connecting it by an arch and a passage. The rusticated façade with stucco elements and a row of dentils under the upper cornice is eclectic and fits well with the architectural tendencies of the time. Urns on the roof and a cartouche in a kind of semicircular pediment crowning the composition are overall very "Chichagov-esque."

From 1889 to 1928 the actress of the Maly Theatre Maria Nikolaevna Yermolova lived here, entertaining guests such as Nemirovich-Danchenko, Stanislavsky, Chaliapin and other cultural figures. In her later years Yermolova was seriously ill, and tinted pink glass panes inserted in the windows of her room lifted her spirits — they have been preserved to this day.

The house-museum of M. N. Yermolova currently operates as a branch of the Bakhrushin Museum.

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3. A. V. Shchusev State Museum of Architecture

Presumably architect Matvey Kazakov, 1787

It would be illogical not to include this museum in our selection. The A. V. Shchusev State Museum of Architecture is one of the largest research centers in the world for the study and popularization of architectural heritage. Ideas for organizing such a museum were voiced as early as the 19th century, but it was founded only in 1934. The initiator of its creation and its first director was the outstanding national architect Alexey Shchusev, whose name the museum later bore. The institution acquired its present home after the war, in 1945, but the building itself has a much older history and is a federally significant cultural heritage site of the peoples of Russia.

The history of the plot where the museum complex now stands goes back to the 1620s and it changed owners many times. Today the museum includes several historic buildings of different periods: the refectory chamber of the Tsar's Apothecary Court from the 17th–18th centuries, the "Gardener's House" of the 18th century, the former stables and coach house of the 18th–19th centuries (the "Ruina" wing) and the main building, which we will look at in a little more detail.

The manor house on Vozdvizhenka was built in 1787 for Catherine II's close associate, Privy Councillor and Senator Alexander Fyodorovich Talyzin. Researchers presume the author of the project was the famous Moscow architect Matvey Fyodorovich Kazakov, although there is no documentary evidence to confirm this. In any case, the architect included this project in one of his "Albums of Private Buildings." The drawing of the façade clearly shows that the original ensemble of the Talyzin city manor had a quite different appearance: a three-story central corps was connected to two side wings by stone carriage gates. The symmetrical composition, restrained decoration, rusticated ground floor, a portico of six Corinthian pilasters crowned by a triangular pediment — all characteristic of Kazakov's strict classicism. In the tympanum (the inner field of the pediment) one can make out stucco with allegorical figures and a central cartouche.

Facade of the Talyzin house. From the 4th 'Album of Private Buildings' by M. F. Kazakov

The wealthy owner scarcely lived long enough to enjoy his new estate — he died the same year, 1787. The estate passed to his son Stepan Alexandrovich Talyzin, who was forced to sell it in 1805 due to financial difficulties. It was under subsequent owners, the Ustinov merchants, after the 1812 fire, that the main house underwent its first significant reconstruction. The result of this we see in the watercolor by artist Vasily Sadovnikov, created around the 1820s–1830s.

V. Sadovnikov. The Talyzin–Ustinov Estate. Watercolor, 1820s–1830s

The wings were connected to the main corps by two-story passages, the upper levels of which housed loggias in the spirit of the Italian Renaissance. The windows of the manor house were enlarged, an additional entrance from Vozdvizhenka appeared, and a second-floor balcony was added to the central part. The drawing also shows decorative stucco between the pilasters that has not survived. Overall, the estate's appearance became more Empire-style, characteristic of post-fire Moscow.

The building in 1889. Source: pastvu.com

In 1845 the building was transferred to the Ministry of Finance, and it housed the treasury; the loggias were bricked up, the balcony and stucco disappeared. In the 1890s the side parts of the façade were built up with a third floor, and the building acquired its current appearance. From the courtyard side it is also articulated by a Corinthian pillared portico and a rusticated ground floor. It must be admitted that today the façade on Vozdvizhenka looks heavier, disproportionate and gloomier than it once did. Only the Empire-style stucco vegetal motif in the pediment enlivens it, framing a cartouche with the USSR coat of arms — originally, of course, a family coat of arms or the owner's initials were intended to occupy this place.

However, inside the building the original interiors have been preserved, with luxurious Empire-style paintings and bas-reliefs on antique subjects, marble columns and stucco.

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