Pietro Gonzaga. Right Wing of the "Tavern" Stage Set, 1818

This wing is part of the original "Tavern" stage set painted by Pietro di Gottardo Gonzaga for the estate theatre at Arkhangelskoye. The Gonzaga Theatre is a rare example of an old theatre whose stage, structures and machinery were not altered either under the Yusupovs or in the Soviet period. Together with the curtain, four sets of the master's original scenery survive there.

The theatre was ceremonially opened on 8 June 1818 in the presence of Emperor Alexander I and King Frederick William III of Prussia. Of the twelve sets created for its stage, four survive, and the "Tavern" is the only one preserved complete: backdrop, six wings and border. Gonzaga, invited to Russia by Yusupov in the early 1790s, painted the scenery in his workshop at the Hermitage Theatre in St Petersburg and never visited Arkhangelskoye himself.

The wing is painted in glue-based paint on canvas.