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The Winter Palace - a Monument of the Russian Baroque "I erected in masonry," Rastrelli wrote in a description of his works, "a large Winter Palace, rectangular in shape, with four facades... This edifice has three storeys, not counting the cellars; within this great building, in the middle, a large courtyard was created through which the Empress herself drives in, and there the main guard post is situated." The elegant, monumental palace is a striking monument of the Baroque style in mid-18th-century Russian art. The building is calculated to be viewed from all sides, both close up and from a distance. The considerable length of the facades demanded the creation of large, expressive forms. The palace is a brilliant example of the synthesis of architecture and decorative plastic art. All the facades are embellished by a two-tier colonnade. Forming a complex rhythm of verticals, the columns soar upwards, and this motion embraces the numerous statues and vases on the roof. The abundance of moulded decoration - fanciful cornices and window architraves, mascarons, cartouches, rocailles and a variety of pediments - creates an extremely rich play of light and shade that invest the building's appearance with magnificence. Developing upon one and the same architectural motif, Rastrelli gave each of the four facades of the palace a different structural rhythm. The southern facade, overlooking the square, has a formal grandeur. Here the architect pierced the building with three arches to create a grand entrance into the courtyard and accentuated it with the vertical elements of paired columns. The majestic northern facade, giving the impression of an endless colonnade, faces the broad expanse of the Neva. The western facade, across from the Admiralty, is reminiscent of the composition of a countryside palace with a small courtyard. The monumental eastern facade with its massive side blocks forming a large cour d'honneur is turned to Millionnaya Street, where the mansions of the nobility stood. Seen from above the palace took the form of a tremendous quadrilateral, whose four mighty protruding corner blocks contained the Throne Room, the Main Staircase, the church and the theatre - four centres of life in the imperial residence, connected to each other by blocks with suites of living apartments. According to Rastrelli's project, the palace was surrounded by imitation cannon that "protected" the building for 15 years, before they were replaced on the orders of Catherine II by 24 pairs of stone pillars. In Catherine's time the carriage entrances into the palace were closed by pinewood gates, the courtyard paved with large cobblestones, and a pavement of stone flags laid out around the building. Between 1763 and 1767 the Neva embankment was clad in granite. With time bay windows appeared above the entrances to the palace as well as numerous balconies with awnings. Wooden lobbies were placed by the doors and striped sentry boxes and lanterns along the walls. Throughout the Winter Palace's history as an imperial residence its interiors were reworked in keeping with changing fashions. Some changes also affected its architectural appearance. In 1764, for example, the wooden lobby on the Neva side was replaced by a portico. In 1796 the St George (Large Throne) Hall block was built onto the eastern facade, while in 1833 a turret was added to the roof to accommodate the optical telegraph. Still the magnificent Baroque image of the appearance survived and has gone down in history as one of Rastrelli's masterpieces. In the second half of the 18th century, in the reign of Catherine II, who had a passion for architecture, several more buildings were erected alongside the Winter Palace: the Small Hermitage and Hanging Garden (architects Yury Velten and Jean-Baptiste Vallin de La Mothe), the Large Hermitage (Yury Velten), the Raphael Loggias block and the Hermitage Theatre (Giacomo Quarenghi). Thus there arose a unique architectural ensemble that in the 19th century was supplemented by the Imperial Museum - the New Hermitage designed by Leo von Klenze. |
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