Exhibition «The Ceremonial Enfilade of the Yelagin Palace»

About exhibition

Thanks to the inspired work of K. Rossi, the interiors of the Yelagin Palace, in their stylistic completeness and virtuosity of execution, had no equal in Russian architecture of the first quarter of the 19th century. The palace’s decoration was distinguished by its magnificence and met the demands and tastes of the time. The best sculptors, decorative painters, cabinetmakers and bronze workers, following the designs of the chief architect, created the palace’s ceremonial interiors. Sculptors S. Pimenov and V. Demut-Malinovsky, decorative painters G.-B. Scotty, A. Vigi, B. Medici, marble workers F. Triscorni and S. Moderni, artificial marble specialist Ya. Shchennikov, stuccoists N. Aparin and N. Sayagin, cabinetmakers G. Gambs, I. Bauman, A. Tur, V. Bobkov, bronze artisans A. Schreber, I. Dipner, upholsterers and woodcarvers all worked here. The first floor houses the state rooms. «In every room of this floor reigns harmony: bronzes, furniture, marble vases, wallpapers — everything corresponds to the purpose of the room.» The ensemble approach to solving architectural tasks and to creating furnishings is most consistently expressed in the decoration of the first-floor interiors. The architect revealed the specific function of each room by deliberately decorative means: «Rossi is inexhaustible in the art of decorating rooms; in this respect he deserves to be called a true genius.»