To the 350th anniversary of the birth of Peter the Great
26 May 2022 the State Russian museum broadcasted a virtual tour “Peter the Great. Figures and Individuals”. Representatives of more than 20 countries – Europe, Middle East, Central and South-East Asia, South America – took part in this event.
Svetlana Biryukova, the art historian of the Russian Museum, led the audience through the halls of the exhibition “Peter the Great. Figures and Individuals” that had been created by the Department of the Russian School of Painting (Eighteenth to Mid-Nineteenth Centuries). Svetlana Biryukova introduced the visitors to several selected works reflecting the nature of changes in the sphere of arts, culture and state administration in Russia in the beginning of XVIII century. Particular attention has been given to the associates of Peter the Great: diplomats, politicians, the military and statesmen that built a new country with their Tsar.
The year 2022 marks the 350th birth anniversary of Peter the Great – the first Russian emperor. The famous reformer and a prominent statesman is an extraordinary and controversial figure that has been the subject of interest for numerous historians and scholars over three centuries.
Works of fine art created during the reign of Peter the Great allow us to imagine the emperor himself and his contemporaries without the historical and artistic interpretation of subsequent generations. To feel the spirit of Peter the Great’s era and the atmosphere of the Russian Empire in the early 18th century, it is necessary to know the language of fine art. But, apart from it, a keen visitor should understand the features of artistic expression of Russian secular art during its early days and ‘read’ works created by the first Russian artists who had not long ago been icon painters.
The initiative of the meeting with the State Russian Museum belonged to the Russian House Brussels-Europe. It organized the online connection of the participants and provided the translation of the excursion into French. The Russian House in Beirut (Lebanon) joined in with the translation into Arabic. The State Russian Museum broadcasted the meeting in three languages – Russian, French and Arabic – on its Virtual Russian Museum YouTube-channel. The video of the excursion is available on the website and social networks of the Russian House Brussels-Europe, on the Virtual Russian Museum portal and YouTube-channel of the same name.
The participants of the meeting received greeting from the Head of the Russian House Brussels-Europe Vera Bunina, Acting Head of the Russian House in Beirut Ruslan Ramazanov and Deputy Director General and Head Curator of the State Russian Museum Olga Babina. This first international online excursion of the State Russian Museum laid the foundation of the Art Discussions with the State Russian Museum cycle of meetings that will take place online and offline in the Russian House Brussels-Europe.
