Touches to the iconography of Prince Dmitry A. Golitsyn: the search for portraits

Abstract

Author consider a number of works that have been identified by various researchers as portraits of D. A. Golitsyn, a prominent statesman of the Russian Empire in the second half of the 18th century. The Prince's interest in art determined his special role in the artistic world of Europe, as well as in the formation of the Hermitage collection and in attracting foreign artists to the country. The subject of research is the connection of existing portrait images with the milestones of the fate of Golitsyn and in the context of interaction with the artistic world of the 18th century. Despite the prince’s close contacts with painters, sculptors, and graphic artists, few portraits of him are currently known. Research method used in the article is the iconographic elucidation of the main features of Prince Golitsyn's appearance, which allow to identify his images. The scientific novelty of the study consists in the systematization of the iconographic series of images of D. A. Golitsyn available today, as a result of which his well-known silhouette portrait turned out to be created by a modern graphic artist I. V. Golitsyn based on an engraving depicting the son of the prince, a priest of the Catholic Church D. D. Golitsyn. The attribution of one of D. A. Golitsyn's portraits from the collection of his daughter's heirs, the German aristocrats Salm-Salm, is recognized as erroneous, since it is a copy of the work of the French painter of the first half of the 18th century from the Coypel family and depicts another person. The circle of absolutely indisputable images of Prince has been determined. Golitsyn, which include sculptural portraits by French artist Marie-Anne Collot, one of which is now in a private collection in Moscow, as well as a profile drawing by her husband Pierre-Etienne Falconet.