Petrovsky Baroque. Characteristics of the Baroque style

St. Petersburg, considered one of the youngest of the world's great cities, represents a truly unique synthesis of the aesthetic directions of antiquity with Western European and Russian traditions. Experts say that his artistic style was predetermined by the content of the era of his birth. After all, the city was created in the very beginning of the seventeenth century, which could not but affect its appearance.

Built by the uncontrollable will of one man - Peter the Great, he absorbed all the diversity of European architecture. His appearance was created in the mind of the last Russian tsar under the influence of Franz Lefort and Vinius - Dutch entrepreneurs, who owned huge collections of paintings and engravings. They depicted the European and, in particular, the Dutch cities, which most clearly reflected the western architecture of the 17th century.

Characteristics of the Baroque style

This architecture, which fans of classical architecture for a long time did not perceive as an independent, appeared in Europe at the breaking point of the late Renaissance. It was, as it were, its continuation and development. To some extent this style of architecture can be called a return to philosophy. Its main characteristics were expressiveness and illusory. The ideas of ascension and floating, which the architects of this period realized, made the buildings very picturesque and full of artistic details. By the method of various interesting techniques they created truly illusory constructions.

general information

"Petrovsky Baroque" is a term that art historians apply to the architectural style approved by Peter the Great. It was widely used for the design of buildings in the then capital - St. Petersburg.

In 1697-1698, Peter the Great embassy visited Holland, in particular Amsterdam. This city was especially fond of the emperor with its strict radially planned streets, concentric lines along the canals. Amsterdam facades end in narrow high stepped triangular pediments, towers or round roofs. Traditional Dutch architecture of the 17th century is characterized by the decorative use of such shredded order elements as window frames, cornices, pilasters, portals with volutes. This made it possible to create an elegant and festive, combined with a modest and business image of the city.

Peter was obsessed with the idea that Russia could join the civilized Western countries, following the European way not only political or economic, but also in many ways cultural development. And that is why he invited many famous architects, sculptors and artists to work in his new capital.

The Petrovsky Manor

Already by name it is clear that by its appearance in our country this amazing style owes to the first Russian emperor. Petrovsky Baroque became a mixture of the Italian of the same name with early French classicism and rococo. Each architect, invited to St. Petersburg, represented the traditions of his architectural school. That is why the Petrine Baroque reflects not quite clear trends of this period.

Peter's huge desire to turn his cities into the most beautiful and became the reason for the fact that during his reign Baroque became a fundamental architectural direction. The design and construction of buildings in this style, which was also called the Peter Manir, in St. Petersburg for the next few centuries determined the development of architecture.

Features

The first Russian emperor sought to depart from Byzantine traditions in architecture. The time of the formation of this direction falls on the 17th century. The baroque style of Peter is somewhat different from his European prototype. And first of all it is rationalism, clarity and simplicity.

One of the main distinctive features that characterizes the Petrine Baroque architecture is the two-color painting of buildings: red and white. Another feature is the flat interpretation in the decor.

The first buildings in St. Petersburg were mud huts, as well as wooden structures, similar in construction to the western half-timbered house. Their plaster required painting. Therefore, such designs and even brickwork "with a spill" could provide only low reliefs of molded parts or cornices, as well as pilasters and door frames.

Description of the style

Petrovsky baroque is characterized by the use of elements of the classical Tuscan or Corinthian orders, although in a very naive and more archaic interpretation. More common were Russian simple "scapula", which replaced the pilasters and columns. The windows were framed with profiled platbands - most often white on a red background, with characteristic thickening, ears, with application on the top of the castle stone. The corners of the building in the Baroque style, and in some cases the first floors, decorated with a rust.

This festive and elegant appearance architects were supplemented by many small architectural details, such as edgings, curls and balustrades. Application over all the protruding parts of the bow or semicircular pediments was considered mandatory. Thus, the lines of the roofs became visually more complicated and enriched.

Equally common was the installation of statues or flowerpots. On the slopes, the architects installed lyukarny. So the upper part of many buildings acquired a rich decorative and very complex silhouette.

Baroque architects

Even before the founding of St. Petersburg, Peter and his ambassadors across Europe began to hire foreigners: architects, fortificators, engineers. At the first stage, all the buildings in the city were built precisely on the projects of foreign architects who came to serve in Russia. And the first among them was Domenico Trezzini, who built the most famous buildings of St. Petersburg, which personify the Petrine Baroque style. Photos of the Peter and Paul Cathedral are a vivid proof of this. Its bell-tower is the high-altitude dominant of St. Petersburg. The faceted gilded spire of the cathedral cuts the gloomy sky as opposed to the stretched squat lines of the Neva embankments.

There is practically no analogue of the cathedral in Western European architecture. It echoes only with a twisted spire, located on the building of the exchange in Copenhagen, which is also based on the Baroque style. The photo of the latter, however, is yet another proof that the St. Petersburg spire is somewhat different: both in its size and faceted shape.

Among the first architects who created the Petrine Baroque, belong, besides Trezzini, and Jean-Baptiste Leblon, and Schluter, and JM Fontana, as well as Michetti and Mattarnovi. All of them came to Russia at the invitation of Peter. Each architect brought to the appearance of the buildings he constructed the traditions prevalent in his country, the basics of the school that he represented. Helping to implement their projects, the traditions of European baroque were gradually mastered by local architects, such as Mikhail Zemtsov.

Differences from the Moscow baroque

Petrovsky baroque is typical for St. Petersburg. Outside it there are very few such buildings. In particular, it is the Menshikov Tower, built in Moscow, as well as the Tallinn Palace Kadriorg.

In contrast to the Naryshkin direction in Moscow, Peter's, represented by a sharp rejection of the Byzantine traditions, which dominated Russian architecture for almost ten centuries, is characterized by symmetry and poise. Highlighting the center of the composition, multicolor and restraint in decoration, arched or rectangular window openings, mansard roofs with a fracture - all these features of the Baroque style, named after the first emperor, have become the hallmark of many buildings of St. Petersburg.

Vivid examples

Today, tourists who come to the northern capital have the opportunity to appreciate the creation of the hands of the architects who created in that era. Petrovsky baroque here is represented by many famous buildings. This is the Peter and Paul Cathedral, the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, the House of the Twelve Colleges with the summer palace of Peter the Great, the Chamber of the Schluter, the Menshikov Palace, the Kunstkamera. Several people worked at the same time: Matternovi, Kiaveri and Zemtsov. The creation of the latter is also the Church of Simeon and Anna.

On Vasilievsky Island there is another example of a baroque building - the first grand palace in St. Petersburg. It was the residence of the Governor-General, where receptions were held and assemblies passed. Being a typical example of a rich palace that opens out to the main facade on the embankment, the building also personifies the Petrine Baroque.

Building of the Twelve Colleges

Nearby is another monument built in this architectural style. This is the House of the Twelve Colleges. Architect Trezzini was very original solution to the task set by Peter. This baroque building, which is twelve similar buildings, located in one line close to each other, a common through corridor stretching for three hundred and eighty meters. Each part has a separate roof. At the same time, a literally fascinating cascade of repeating gables and risalitas, pilasters and platbands on the red-white facade that is saturated with red and white give the building a majestic appearance.

Landscape architecture

Features of the Baroque style can be seen not only in buildings built in that era. No less interesting are the palace and park ensembles. This, for example, is the familiar Summer Garden, which was broken according to a special drawing by Peter himself; Peterhof ensemble, which, according to experts, is based on the impressions of the first Russian emperor from his visit to Versailles. They still represent quite significant monuments of landscape architecture.

The Summer Garden was an attempt by the tsar to make "something instructive" from a large park. Fountains were built in it, consonant with the themes of Aesop's fables, and in the special gallery the statue of Venus, an ancient Roman marble copy of the Hellenistic original, found during excavations in Rome and with enormous difficulties, was installed in Russia. Visitors to the garden, all without exception, had to kiss the cold marble of this pagan goddess. Other statues and busts were erected along the alleys, as well as "in Versailles."

Summer Palace

This bright representative of the Petrine Baroque is small and extremely simple in terms of planning. He fully met his task - providing an opportunity for recreation of the royal family.

Some call this monument in the style of Peter's Baroque because of its small size "the first Russian cottage". Being both an architect and a designer, D. Trezzini managed the construction of this palace for four whole years. The bas-reliefs are made on the outside by a mythological theme. Trezini's goal was to perpetuate the victory in the Northern War. Before the contemporaries carved oak and walnut painted ornaments in the interior and picturesque plafonds were perfectly preserved and reached.

Finally

Despite the fact that it is considered not quite appropriate to its name, the Petrine Baroque is unique in its own way. With all the obvious borrowings, this style carries a lot of individual traits. Moreover, the buildings of that era do not have analogues in the world, they are original. The facades of buildings, though relatively simple, but at the same time elegant and very representative. They do not have cumbersome and heavy jewelry, while expressiveness is achieved by minimal details.