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| Oil painting by Sergei Zaryanko, 1837. |
Also called the Peter the Great Memorial Hall, the Small Throne Room was created in 1833 by architect Auguste de Montferrand; after most of the Winter Palace was destroyed by fire just four years later, the room was recreated by Vasily Stasov.
_Room_1863.jpg) |
| Watercolor by Edward Hau, 1863. |
Sergei Zaryanko, see here.
Eduard Hau, see here.
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Interesting things often happen when G passes through the room and takes a peek at a post I'm working on. Showing her these two images, I noticed that the reconstruction of this room wasn't as exact as I'd supposed. The first painting must have been done before the fire; it's dated the same year. The second painting, made twenty-six years later, shows - among other changes, certainly, that are not so obvious - a much grander chandelier; larger, more elaborate wall sconces; and most noticeably, twinned pilasters rather than singular ones.
it's odd that in the 2 perspectives -the 1/2 domed niche also appears to have different proportions as well. Good catch on the twin pilasters and different chandeliers!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I wondered about the niche as well. I think it's a distortion on the part of the painter, though; if you use the later painting to gauge the proportions of the altar-like structure - retablo? - on the platform within the niche - and it's the same painting of Peter the Great, so it couldn't be that different - then there's no way that that structure could really be centered in the niche in the first painting. Also, the decoration within the half-dome doesn't line up with the understood apex of said half-dome. Hau is absolutely trustworthy as a draftsman, so it looks like Zaryanko just fussed - very cleverly - with the proportions so as to make a better composition. And he totally pulled it off; he's such a good painter, that you don't notice his fudging unless you - really - look for it. : )
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