PALACES OF THE NEVSKIY PROSPECT
PALACE OF BELOSELSKIY-BELOZERSKIY
Construction of the Palace
M.P.Tseladty
Translation by David Savage
Copyright 2003 University of
On the corner of Nevski
Prospect and the Fontanka canal a monumental dark red
building draws one’s attention. This is the
The intersection, as a principal
vantage point of the Fontanka city perspective, has
been one of the key sites in the architectural ensemble of
In the eighteenth
century at this place there was a country estate, which has changed owners several
times. In 1797, Anna Grigorevna, the wife of the
diplomat Prince Alexander Mikhailovich Beloselskiy-Belozerskiy, purchased the estate. In 1800 with
the plans of the architect Thomas de Thomon, the
house was constructed in the style of classicism. As time went by this plan
became unsuitable to the proprietress and it was decided to give the building a
more modern look. The reorganization was entrusted to Andrei Ivanovich Shtakenshneider, one of
the fashionable and best architects of the time. He worked on the
designs in the years 1840-1841; the basic construction was conducted
from 1846 to 1848.
The architectural
ensemble of Nevski prospect basically took shape in
the middle of the nineteenth century. A.I. Shtakenshneider
faced the difficult task of creating a palace that had facades on Nevski Prospect and the Fontanka
canal that corresponded with contemporary requirements in architecture
and the tastes of society, and at the same time reduced to a minimum the
discord, that a new structure could bring to the
existing classical ensemble. A similar task, the construction of a
two-façade palace at the intersection of the Nevski
Prospect and Moika canal, was resolved in the middle
of the eighteenth century by F.B. Rastrelli in
creating the
Being a master who was
broadly educated and had a keen feeling for architecture of different epochs, Shtakenshneider successfully managed this project.
He succeeded in inscribing the palace in the natural landscape of the river and
in the architectural landscape of Nevski Prospect.
V.K. Shoiskiy wrote about this: “The Palace Beloselskiy-Belozerskiy
this is a reconceptualization of the architecture of
Elizabethan baroque that is contemporary … to that time.”
The style in which the
facades of the palace are designed recalls the eighteenth century. Shtakenshneider, as well as other masters of the middle of
the nineteenth century, turned to the past in search of a greater architectural
expressiveness. Historicism as a way of thinking gave its name to a whole stage in the development of
the architecture of this time. Masters strove to understand present
architecture through the art of past epochs. They recognized as
equivalent and equal the art of the antique world and the Middle
Ages, the art of Revival, Renaissance and Baroque, Ancient Rus
and countries of the East, reserving the right to use elements of any
epoch and style that expressed their own creative ideas more precisely.
As A.L. Punin remarked, “The Construction of the palace of
the Princes Beloselskiy Belozerskiy,
with facades in “the Rastrelli style” and with the
magnificently finished interiors of baroque and rococo taste, made a
strong impression on contemporaries and encouraged the appearance of many no frill stylizations.
About the palace it was written, “this is perfection in its own class,”
and Shtakenshneider came to be called“ the successor of the elegant taste and art of Count Rastrelli.”
For Shtakenshneider
his favorite styles became baroque and rococo. The architect was an expert on
the work of F.B. Rastrelli. (Apropos of this,
during the years of construction on the palace in
With Shtakenshneider
quiet uniformity dominates. Fine relief is precisely and rigidly traced.
In order not to not lose graphic definiteness of the form in the construction
process; Shtakenshneider replaced the usual molding detail with terracotta
sculptures by D.I. Jensen. The Neo baroque of this palace was a success
and engendered in
The predominance of
decor entails that the role of the interior in architecture grows stronger in
its emotional expressiveness. In this scheme the interiors of the palace
Beloselskiy-Belozerskiy are of great interest, the more
so as they are found in stylistic unity with the external appearance of the
building which, for the middle of the nineteenth century, is a
phenomenon that is rather rare.
The decoration of Shtakenshneider’s first floor rooms, unfortunately, was not
preserved, nor the finished form of one of the staircases. Now one can see
several of the preserved grand rooms of the second floor and the staircase
located near the Fontanka canal.
The staircase opens the
palace, as it were, and is a distinctive stylistic tuning fork. Its two
gently sloping flights of stairs recall the Ambassador staircase of the 
Sergei Alexandrovich
settled in the palace in 1884 and ordered that the initials Beloselskiy-Belozerskiy
be removed from the lattice and his own inserted. In spite of the fact
that the staircase has no windows, it seems light, thanks to an abundance of
molding fretwork and snow-white sculptured female figures and cherubs with
garlands of flowers. The bronze lamp fixtures on the walls are separated
by panels with ornamentation in the rococo style, and are reminiscent of wild
plants.
Caryatids*
and magnificent moldings frame the large mirror at the center. The sculptor
D.I. Jensen, an apprentice of Torwaldsen who worked
many years with Shtakenshneider, created the figures
and the female statues in the niches. Jensen opened a factory making
terracotta with a special durability out of which the Atlases and caryatids
were made for the facades of the buildings. Caryatids emphasize the
unity of design of the staircase and facades of the palace. Although
their figures are a little large, the staircase as a whole nevertheless leaves
an impression of refinement.
On the second floor, along the Nevskiy prospect and Fontanka
canal, the two suites of grand rooms branch off.
The Crimson drawing room
(names of the drawing rooms are conventional; we do not know how they
were named by Shtakenshneider) extends along the Fontanka canal, two windows of the Crimson drawing room
look out onto the embankment, one onto the Anichkov
Bridge and the second onto the Nevski Prospect.
The room has the design of an irregular polygon; its walls are covered
with silver-crimson damask in a plant design. The bottom and top parts
of the walls are trimmed with wooden panels painted white and with gilded
ornamental design where the straight lines combine with a palm and broken shell
motif. In the spaces between the windows are four narrow and high
mirrors. In them the whole interior is refracted, and they, themselves,
are in turn reflected in a huge mirror on the opposite wall, as well as the
windows and landscape extending behind them. Such an arrangement of mirrors
strengthens the artistic and spatial effect, creating an illusion of something
beyond infinity. The frames of the mirrors, cut out of linden and
gilded, have a complex pattern, in which blossoming roses and S-shaped scrolls
are combined with acanthus leaves. The central mirror, divided by
a gilt frame into several parts of whimsical form, is crowned with a
cartouche. The wooden bases of the marble consoles under the four
mirrors are also made in a similar manner, with massive eaves for the heavy curtains.
Under the central mirror
a fireplace of Carraran marble shines with special
whiteness, its spirals and flat areas decorated with acanthus leaves and
figures of cherubs in flowers. Cherubs were a favorite motif of Shtakenshneider in the interiors of the palace Beloselskiy-Belozerskiy. In the Crimson drawing room
they can be seen in niches above the doors, in gilt shells in the midst of
animal figures, the gilt background of shells against the borders. The
border is decorated with a trellis in which fantastical flourishes and flower
garlands intertwine.
The design of the
ceiling, borders and doors is in style and scale in harmony with the design of
the mirrors and portiere* cornices. The drawing room is
decorated with a massive baroque chandelier of gilt bronze with crystal
suspension brackets. In the central part of the drawing room the
original parquet of decorative wood has been preserved. Its fantastical
ornamental design is executed in sandalwood and rosewood. One can assume the
architectural and ornamental design reached our time without distortions. It is
undoubtedly one of the most effective and refined rooms of the palace.
In the drawing room it
is possible to see armchairs in the rococo style with curved legs and with
variously made backs and armrests fitted with the same damask** as the walls.
Unfortunately, the little divans and little tables are missing, which,
together with the armchairs, made cozy little corners in the drawing room in
the middle of the nineteenth century. The preserved armchairs are
completely gilded, whereas in Shtakenshneider’s
original interior the wooden parts of the armchair and chairs were painted
white, with only some details gilded.
The next room in the
suite is the Green drawing room. It is significantly smaller than the
Crimson room, but also amazes one with its refined luxury and abundance of
gilded ornament. Both drawing rooms are frequently called "gold."
The walls of the Green room are covered in gold-green damask and the two
windows looking out onto the office complex, which was constructed by Quarrengi on the opposite embankment of the Fontanka, are framed with portiere from the same
fabric.
Two mirrors are located
opposite each other - one between the windows, the second, opposite, and in it Quarrengi’s construction is especially clearly reflected.
The design of the frames, consoles, border, mirrors and ceiling is similar to
the registration of the Crimson drawing room. On the border,
however, instead of a trellis there is a flower wreath and patterns of narrow
stylized leaves. The wooden gilt frames above the doors are exceptional
in their splendor. Landscape linens, as well as the pictures in the
other grand rooms, are works of artists of the eighteenth-century French school.
As in the Crimson
drawing room, the bottom part of the walls in the Green room is trimmed with
wooden panels painted white, the rococo design of which is more refined in its
pattern than the ornamental design of the remaining other details of furnishings. It
gives the interior an originality and grace. In the room there is a
little showcase table, a wealth of gilt ornament after the Baroque style.
Here the owners of the palace at one time kept a collection of miniatures.
Also of interest is the wooden cabinet in the same style, which has been
preserved from the middle of the nineteenth century.
The original name of the
next drawing room of the suite is not known. In the 1880s here there was a
reception room for the wife of Grand Prince Sergei Alexandrovich Romanov Elizaveth Fedorovna. This room finishes the suite, looking out
on the Fontanka, and is designed like the first two.
However, the damask on the walls is light gray with pink and light-blue
flowers, depriving it of the loud luxurious color that struck one in the
Crimson and Green drawing rooms. Here there is more painting. In addition,
located over the door there are pictorial insets on the border and above the
mirrors in gilt, processed three-leaved mirror frames, and at the center of the
large mirror, a colorful linen, “ Holiday of Venus.”
Under the mirror is a marble fireplace decorated with figures of cherubs, birds
and clusters of grapes. The fireplace is dated 1847 and was created, like those
in other locations finished by Shtakenshneider and
Italian masters. In this drawing room there is a chandelier of gilt bronze in
rococo style with figures of angels and fantastic animals; the damask in
all three drawing rooms is contemporary, made at a
The suite looking out
onto Nevskiy Prospect opens with the drawing room,
which has preserved only remnants of the rococo decor. Next comes the grand dining room. Its walls, which are
divided by panels, are painted in green color of different tones, and on them
white molding stands out to great effect. Alongside the rococo ornament in the
molding one can notice motifs of hunting trophies, musical
instruments cherubs, happily playing
and running about among fruits and flowers. The absence of gilding and
abundance of painting above the doors, on the walls and on the border, make the
dining room distinctive. Among the pictures with mythological subjects
only one creator is known - an artist from the Van Loo
family. As in the drawing rooms there is a marble fireplace and mirror above it;
the molded frame of the mirror over the door looks excessively magnificent and
heavy next to the refined ornamentation on the walls. A surplus of decor quite
often was displayed in interiors of the second rococo. Nevertheless, it is
necessary to note the originality of the dining room, its dissimilarity
to the grand drawing rooms. Distinguished by the breadth of his imagination and
his gift for improvisation, Shtakenshneider at the
border of one style created the most diversified interiors.
The next in the Nevskiy suite of rooms is the long and comparatively narrow
room, in which in the nineteenth century the picture gallery of the palace was
located; in the twentieth
century the room began to be used as a foyer leading to the music hall.
The picture collections of the Beloselskiy-Belozerskiys
and Grand Prince Sergei Alexandrovich
were so large, that the pictures continued to be placed not only in the foyer
and in the music hall, but also in all the living quarters of the palace.
The walls and doors of the foyer are painted in crimson and pink colors and are
bordered with a severe white molding. More whimsical is the decorative pattern
of the ceiling, border and projecting pylons, which divide the hall into three
parts. The pylons are decorated with figures of Atlas and the door tops are
shaped most luxuriantly.
At the center of the
hall is a unique chandelier of gilt bronze: each of the three-winged
Eros’s is entwined in acanthus leaves, and holds in his hands two lamps;
the same motive is used on the wall-lamp bracket. All bronze fixtures
were executed in the workshop of Chopin. In the foyer are located benches, with
bent legs upholstered with crimson velvet, their wooden parts painted white.
Of the rooms that have come down to us in the style of the “second rococo,”
this hall is the most restrained on the whole in decor.
From the foyer it is
possible to enter the music hall. With the first owners of the palace part of
it also was used as a picture gallery, and there were two halls.
Later on a doorway dividing them was widened and one large hall was formed.
Its walls were painted in the color of a sea wave of varying intensity;
the hall is doubly lit with two windows, one located over the other.
On the outside of it are large windows with an oval casing and on the opposite
a mirror and frame in the same form. Only the chandeliers in the hall
are gilt; of them, four are bronze and three are paper mache. In each of the three grand rooms of the Nevskiy suite Shtakenshneider
effectively blended white molding with the saturated green, crimson, or the color of a sea
wave. As in the foyer, the upper portion of the walls of the hall, the
border and ceiling are filled
with sculptured rococo ornamentation. The piers between windows and mirrors
have even preserved the hooks for pictures. Shtakenshneider’s
beloved caryatids frame the entrance and central part of the hall;
Jensen created the figures on them. The hall leaves a different
impression than the dining room or the drawing room. It is greater in
size, but the decor here is fixed in the same dimensions as the small rooms.
This creates a different spatial effect. Concluding the suite is a hall,
which was a theatrical hall for the Beloselskiy-Belozerskiy’s,
and in it performances were given. After purchase of the palace by Grand
Prince Sergei Alexandrovich,
and, beginning in 1902, the hall was reconstructed into a library. The
architect R.F. Meltser supervised the works6.
The furnishings for the interiors were made at the factory of R.F. Meltser. The work went slowly and in 1904 it was not
finished; in 1905 the Grand Prince was murdered.
The author gives a
description of what has been preserved of the interior of the library and the
furniture. The interior is bordered by a band of built-in oak cases. The
bracing, constituting a single construction with the cases and
vertically grooved Ionic columns, supports the balcony with a finely
made frame with “small strap” ornaments. The top part of the wall is finished
with friezes, with rhythmically repeating masks and ornamentation,
gravitating toward the Renaissance epoch. The ceiling is very impressive:
the broken lines of the figure on it suggest the style “modern” with a shade of
the gothic. The vegetative ornamentation characteristic of the “modern”
decorates the oak panels on the walls between the windows and the high casings
of the windows themselves. Stained glass pictures have been partially
preserved, their wavy flowing lines of flower ornamentation made from glass of
green, brown and golden tones. By the order of Sergei Alexandrovich two large
fireplaces from yellow sandstone in the library were made by the Botta brothers’ sculptural workshop of artistic products
and articles for constructions from marble, granite and various other stones.
The Grand Prince wanted the tile that sheathed the internal wall of
fireplaces to be of greenish color; such tile could not be found in
Of the furniture,
sofas of a form characteristic of the “modern”--the letter "G”--were
preserved. Two huge gilt chandeliers stylized as candelabras to a
certain extent destroy the harmony. The plans of the chandeliers were executed
according to the personal wishes of the grand prince. However, despite the use
by the architect of elements of different styles, the character of the interior
of the library and its design were kept within the framework of the modern.
Finishing the review of
grand rooms of the palace, one can say that all eight interiors,
and especially the best of them, the Crimson and Green drawing rooms,
the staircase, and the library produce the strongest emotional, and artistic
effect owing to the talent and skill of their execution. On the first floor of
the palace three rooms built at the end of the nineteenth century have been
partially preserved: the reception room, the study and the dining room of the
Grand Prince
Russian style prevails.
The reception combines motifs of modern, neoclassical and neo Russian style.
The fireplace in the reception was built in the form of a tent and sheathed
with decorative tile. The dining room reminds one of a wooden box, with walls
trimmed with panels of engraved wood; the ceiling is also made with
carved panels. From photos of the beginning of the twentieth century it
is apparent that in the dining room there was furniture and a multitude of
knick-knacks executed in different styles.
In
the rooms of the first floor along the Nevskiy
Prospect, which have not preserved, their interiors, one can only see two
magnificent marble stone fireplaces in the neoclassical style and three
chandeliers.
But, certainly, the main
value of the palace is in the preserved grand rooms of the second floor, in the
works of A.I. Shtakenshneider.
In addition to the Beloselskiy-Belozerskiy palace, Shtakenshneider
built in St. Petersburg the Mariinski theatre, the
Nikolai and New Mikhailovskiy Palaces, and,
what is more, after having taken part in the creation of several urban
ensembles. For him this was not an end in itself. Distinguished by a delicacy
and tactfulness in relation to the works of previous architects, he aspired to
the preservation of the architectural landscape of the already existing center
of
T.A.
Petrova a researcher on the creative works of Shtakenshneider remarked: “Originality and
singularity of design distinguish the buildings of the architect and they are
constructed so, that they do not break up the surrounding structure but enter
into the ensemble. The structures of Shtakenshneider
in
Unfortunately, the majority of the private
houses constructed by him have not survived.
Shtakenshneider worked a great deal in the surrounding
areas of
Andre Ivanovich was born in 1802 on the Ivanov
farm not far from Gatchina. His grandfather was a
tanner who left from
In
1831 Shtakenshneider was discharged from the
Commission and took up independent work: the reconstruction of the
estate of Count A.X. Benkendorf near Revel
The test turned out to
be successful. The skill and taste of the architect made an impression on the
customer. Shtakenshneider was presented to Nicholas
I, and invited by him to the post of court architect. In 1833 Shtakenshneider was assigned to the court of Grand Prince
Mikhail Pavlovich and at once began to receive orders.
In 1837 the architect
goes abroad and spends almost a year in
After returning to
One can consider the
turning point in his creative life the construction from 1839-1844 of a palace
for Marie, the daughter of Nicholas I. Here Shtakenshneider
shows himself as a master of monumental palace architecture.
The orders after that required all his strength.
The years 1840-1850 represented the
Much of the master’s time
was taken with teaching in the
Shtakenshneider was known in
The Home Of Andrei Shtakenshneider
on
Andrei Ivanovich was distinguished by exceptional kindness and an
attentive attitude to the people. Someone could always be found living and
helped at his house. His daughter Elena was heir to his spiritual
qualities; she was a talented girl who left interesting memoirs.
She was a very sick person, but actively participated in the group of N.V. Sitaeva, who was, struggling for women’s rights to study
and to work.
The son A.I. Shtakenshneider’s son Adrian participated in student
protests; he was twice arrested and imprisoned in Petropavlosk
fortress. Together with him in the same cell there was the
The spiritual life of
The architect worked 16-18 hours per day his
whole life despite the fact that he did not have strong health. His
power waned and in July 1865 he succeeded in obtaining the only vacation in his
life. Together with his daughter he went to treat himself with fermented
mare’s milk on the “Kumys tour,” but on his
return trip, in
Additional Photos of the Palace
