Around Arts Square

The main facade of the palace is spectacular with its eight Corinthian, ornate scroolwork on the tops and bottoms of the columns, columns above the ground floor arcade (Doroshinskaya 94). The pediment was decorated with martial scenes. The only other surviving pieces of the original design were the vestibule, the main staircase, and the Hall of the White Columns on the second floor. These columns were decorated with murals depicting the Trojan War (Doroshinskaya 94). Inside the White Room, as it was shortened to, there were sculptures by Mikhail Kozlovsky, bas-reliefs by Stepan Pimenov, and murals by Vighi (Knopf 225). The Hall of the White Columns impressed the tsar enough that he had a wooden model made of the room by Ivan Tarasov and sent it to King George IV of England (Doroshinskaya 94). King George was impressed with the work so much that he retained Tarasov in England and set him to work in London wood-carving and laying parquet floors. He ultimately was awarded a gold medal.

Rossi also laid out the square in front of the palace as well. This square, Mikhailovsky Square, would eventually become Arts Square. The original square was rectangular in dimensions. Buildings were planned for each of the three other sides of the square: private residences and a French theater (Shvidkovskii 164). All of these buildings were originally faced with an single facade style. The design was modified in the early twentieth century, 1911, with the reconstruction of the eastern wing of the palace by Svinin for the Ethnographic museum, and the construction of an exhibition gallery in the west wing in 1914 (Shvidkovskii 164). The square is separated from the honour court by a wrought iron fence with three separate gates. The gardens along the back of the palace are enclosed as well. The buildings around the square now include Mussorgsky Theater, the Brodsky Museum, the Shostakovich Philharmonia, and the Church of the Resurrection.

Grand Duke Mikhail was a rather nondescript fellow. The personage attached to his palace is rather his wife, Grand Duchess Elena. After she was widowed she used the palace to stage receptions for famous musicians, composers, and singers. The organizer for all these events was Anton Rubenstein. With her aid he was able to initiate the first music classes in 1862, which served as the basis for the first Russian conservatoire. By the late nineteenth century the palace was largely abandoned and the roofs and floors were in bad repair. The plaster was crumbling off the walls, and the wooden beams and girders were rotting (Doroshinskaya 95). To rectify the situation Tsar Nicholas II turned the palace into the Museum of Emperor Alexander III, his father. His father had collected many pieces of art and the pieces were stored haphazardly in other residences of the imperial family. The museum offered a chance to put them on exhibit. So the works of art were pulled in from the Hermitage, the Academy of Arts, and the city and country residences of the imperial family (Doroshinskaya 95). The resulting collection was rather an amalgamation of many worthless works with no organization.

The October Revolution reformed the palace yet again. The museum was changed to the State Museum of Russian Art or the Russian Museum for short. Because of the nationalization of private collections and acquisitions from private owners, the museum amassed a large collection of artwork. There is over one thousand years of Russian art on display in the one hundred and thirty halls of the Mikhail palace, all in chronological order (Doroshinskaya 96). These pieces of art represent the charm of Russian society, history and mores of the people, and numerous applied art pieces (Doroshinskaya 96). The museum starts with icons from the eleventh to the sixteenth century and ends in contemporary pieces of art. The original wings of the palace were used to display Leningrad artists and visiting exhibitions from other Soviet cities or from abroad. In fact little over than 10% of the total artwork on display in the museum is from the original museum (Doroshinskaya 96). The amount of art that is permanently on display in the museum represents only 2-3% of the total art the museum possesses (Doroshinskaya 96). The rest is in storage to be taken out and temporarily exhibited every now and then.

The two wings that were built at the beginning of the twentieth century were not part of the original design of Rossi, but they are part of the Russian Museum and so should be included with the history of Mikhail Palace. V. Svinin, to house the ethnological materials of the musuem, opened to the public in 1923, built the eastern wing in 1911 (Doroshinskaya 97). The entrance to the wing is the Marble Hall. The room gets its name from the pink, Carelian marble that faces the interior. Along one wall is a three hundred foot frieze depicting all the various groups in Russia sculpted by Kharlamov (Knopf 225). This wing is reachable by interior passageways and has become the Museum of Ethnography of the Peoples of the U.S.S.R. in 1934. These are collections of the objects and pieces of art depicting the spiritual and material culture of the diverse groups in the U.S.S.R (Doroshinskaya 97).

This wing is divided into the ranges of the major ethnic groups of the nation: the Russia, Byelorussia, the Republics of Central Asia and the Baltic region, the Far North, Siberia, and the Caucasus. These exhibits included national costumes, works of applied art, and household articles, which tie together life in pre-revolutionary life and contemporary living (Doroshinskaya 97). Expeditions are sent out periodically to find new specimens to supplement the collections. There are over one hundred ethnic groups, each with its own culture, literature, and language. Some of these groups have an ancient script. Some of the groups only have attained script recently through the aid of Soviet scholars. This museum was meant to represent the unification of diverse peoples towards a single goal: the establishment of a society that will enjoy equality, fraternity, and prosperity (Doroshinskaya 98).

The western wing was built in 1914, by Leonty Benois. This building overlooks the Griboyedov canal and is the home for more exhibitions that have spilled out of the rest of the Museum. It has been since renamed the Benois Building/Pavilion. Guided tours are available for all three parts of the museum, however photographs and videotapes are only allowed at the permanent exhibitions.

Picture Gallery

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