The First Room of Most Recent Sculpture
Luigi Premazzi
1856
Watercolour
Art of Ancient Rome of the 1st century BC - early 4th century AD
Hall 107
Photo 2022
The bulk of the Western European marble sculpture from the late 18th century and the first half of the 19th, which was then "most recent", was assembled by the opening day of the museum in a room with a ceiling embellished with moulded medallions bearing profiles of sculptors (Canova, Michelangelo, Thorwaldsen, Rauch and Martos). In all the room contained some 30 individual statues and sculptural groups by Western European sculptors: Lorenzo Bartolini, Luigi Bienaime, Adamo Tadolini, Giovanni Dupre, Emil Wolff and others. This project undoubtedly reflected Nicholas I's own fascination with the plastic arts. The Russian Emperor had needed almost 15 years to put together this collection in the New Hermitage. Of the works already in the imperial collection, Nicholas "allowed into this room" only Etienne Maurice Falconet's Cupid, Antoine Houdon's Diana and three pieces by Antonio Canova - Cupid and Psyche, Paris and A Dancing Girl.