Need
help with HotMedia?
| |
next
room  |
|
|
The Main Vestibule, a through passage in the centre
of the building dividing it into two parts, is the main entrance into
the palace from the Neva River embankment. The interior of the vestibule
has retained its original design (1710-12) made under the supervision
of the first architect of the palace Giovanni Mario Fontana. Tuscan
columns divide the space into three parts and support a vaulted ceiling
adorned with stucco ornaments on the panels, key stones and rosettes.
The tempera painting on the walls, recreated by restorers in 1980-81,
imitates marble. The arrangement of the statues reflects the tastes
in the decoration of palaces prevailing in the 18th century, and the
symbolic meaning of the gods and heroes of the Greek mythology in
the European culture of that time. A statue of Apollo occupies the
central place; in the niches stand statues of Hero, Hercules, Paris
and Flora (all four produced in Rome in the 1st or 2nd centuries A.D.).
The vestibule contains examples of European sculpture from the 18th
century as well: Venus in a Sea-Shell and Diana with Cupid and a Dog
from the collection of Peter the Great. |
