Emperor Nicholas I, collector and philanthropist. Days 9/22 and 10/23 December 1845 in Bologna

Abstract

Bologna with its eldest university in Europe was an important point of Emperor Nicholas I’s grand tour of Italy in 1845. In Rome the tsar talked with the Pope on problems of inter-church relations, then the rest of the time in the eternal city and along the entire route (from Palermo to Naples, from Florence to Bologna and Venice) he showed himself as a prominent collector, patron of the arts, who adopted his parents love for Italian art. The tsar had a special reverence for the Bologna painting school, the Bolognese Baroque style, which, along with the Roman Baroque, was refl ected in his purchases for the New Hermitage. Only in Bologna he acquired the originals of classical painting (Guercino, Agostino Caracci). There he practically completed the formation of his famous collection of Italian neoclassical sculpture (C. Baruzzi) and ordered copies from the local Pinacoteca of such a high level that they, having partially reached our time, were honored to enter the GE painting collection. Russian monarch’s visit is commemorated only in Rome and Bologna by commemorative plaques, the fi rst of which is offi cial, and the second is an “ordinary” Bolognese marquis, who considered it an honor to visit his palace by the Russian tsar.