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Restoration in the 1940s and 1960s In the dark years of the Siege during the Great Patriotic War, the staircase was heavily damaged, and therefore it became one of the first sites marked for restoration. Pavel Phillipovich Gubchevsky, scientific associate of the Hermitage, recalled, "..the staircase by which you are now enter the museum, was in horrible condition. A shell made a whole in the flooring... Meanwhile the ceiling lamp only turned black, because the constantly changing temperatures for almost three years made it such, the entire column and ceiling paints crumbled and flaked. People, our employees, walked over those flakes. It was, of course, a sorry sight. In 1945, preparatory work began. The restoration was managed by Hermitage employee P.I. Kostrov. The restoration of the painting was conducted by A.V. Treskin and a brigade of painters. It is to them that the dome owes its second birth, its framing, its grisaille. Despite the hostile conditions of the time, the restoration lasted two years and was completed by the spring of 1948. Almost two decades later, in 1965-1967, the first broad set of planned restoration work was conducted. The manager was the famous Leningrad artist/restorer of monumental and easel painting, the irreplaceable supervisor and leader of the team of masters that restored the painted treasures of Leningrad and the nearby cities, Y.A. Kazakov. The ceiling lamp, consisting of eight parts, was taken down and the painting restored. The tempera and grisaille were cleaned and gilding (with gold leaf) was performed on some details. The work also included painting, restoration of the marble, and filling in the dents with a mixture based on epoxy resin. Unfortunately, the technology of the time was imperfect, and over time the resin blackened, leading to additional problems for future restorers. It is interesting to note that one of the best pieces of work done by the brigade of artist/restorers headed by Y.A. Kazakov is held it be a copy of G. Diziani's Olympus ceiling lamp, made for the Portrait Hall of the Catherine Palace in Tsarskoe Selo. The artist was awarded a gold medal from the Academy of Arts. |
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