A Paradise for Venus

Abstract

Though the buying pieces of the Classic and Italian art of the Petrine time seemed to lack strategy, one can perceive some tendencies that show an aim to create what the German call Antikensammlung, a collection of Classic art kept at the royal court and organized under museum principles. One of plausible proves of this activity is an unfulfilled project made by Iuriy Kologrivov, who was busy buying pieces of art for the Imperial compilation in Rome. Having acquired some education as an architect, he proposed to Peter the Great an extant draft of the Venus’ Gallery meant to adorn his residence. For the center of the composition the statue of the Tauride Venus was chosen. Whereas this masterpiece was purchased by chance almost last of all, the average quality of the whole collection seems to be rather high, the display having been planned not as decorative one, but as an exhibition based on both art and historic principles. Some new for Petrine culture context traits include discrete exposition of Classic statues (and their copies) and modern Italian pieces along with presence of several statues of the same character (untypical for garden and interior decorative style of the period). This way of thinking coms back to Kologrivov’s culture experience gathered in Italy and even in a shape of an unrealized proposal is an interesting example of a classic art museum space and reflected the latest trends in perception of the Antiquity in Russia and Europe in the beginning of the 18th century.