German and Austrian Painting in the Hermitage [antikvár]

GERMAN AND AUSTRIAN PAINTING of the 15th to the 18th Century The collections of Soviet museums contain a great number of works by German and Austrian painters. The Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow, galleries in Riga, Lvov, Tallinn, Vilnius, Gorky, Saratov, Ulyanovsk, Alupka, as well as some private collections, possess scores of these paintings, while the Hermitage Museum in Leningrad houses hundreds of them. The entire collection, which includes works by eminent masters and by lesser famous artists, embraces the course of development of German art from the fifteenth century to the present day. Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century German and Austrian painting is particularly well represented among the treasures of Soviet art galleries. The abundance of works belonging to the German school of painting in the museums of the USSR is not at all accidental. Relations between the two countries date back many centuries. Russian cities, such as Novgorod and Pskov, were engaged in trade with German cities as early as the Middle Ages. Foreign tradesmen and merchants brought to Russia various Gorman craftwork — objects of art, jewellery, arms and armour, clocks and watches, etc. In the sixteenth century German prints appeared in Russia. They were used to docorate the rich interiors of the tsars' palaces and the houses of the nobility. Some of those prints were copied by Russian miniaturists and even used as the basis for mural painting. In the seventeenth century German prints were sold at the market in Moscow.1 There is some documentary evidence of the work of German artists in old Russia. Thus, it is known that in 1642 Johann Detterson decorated the walls of some Moscow palaces, and that later, in 1667, Daniel Wuchters took over from him.2 In 1660 the German architect and engineer Deckenpin designed the decor for the tsar's bedroom, where, accordingly, the traditional Russian decorative patterns were partly substituted for German figure carving.3 Since 1652 all foreigners who came to Moscow lived in the same part of the city — along the bank of the Yauza River. Hence the name of the area—Niemetskaya sloboda (the "German" quarter)—niemets, or 'German', was the word conventionally used by common people to refer to all foreigners.4 Some interesting facts about the way foreigners lived in Russia were recorded by a Saxon called Adam Olearius (Oelschlager). A gifted observer, endowed with a vivid imagination, a well-known scholar, writer, musician, artist and explorer, who spoke Russian and Arabic, Olearius had visited Moscow three times to work at the embassy of Duke Frederick III of Holstein-Hottorp (1633—34,1636—39,1643). His interesting sketches and memoirs, entitled The Travels of Olearius, came out in 1646 and since then have appeared in several editions in various languages. A considerable part of the Travels was devoted to Olearius' journey to Muscovy.5 Peter the Great, who encouraged foreigners to come to Russia, opened a new era of cultural relations with the West in general and with Germany in particular. Among those who came to the newly founded metropolis of Russia—St. Petersburg—were German artists. They painted portraits of the Tsar and the nobility, pictures on historical and religious themes, gave lessons in painting and drawing and also worked as engravers and printers in the "chambers" of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, which had been established in 1724.6 A considerable contribution to Russian culture was made by Gottfried Tannauer from Swabia, as well as by Georg Gsell—a Swiss by origin, but distinctly a German in his artistic inclinations—who taught at the Academy, having been invited by Peter the Great to supervise art collections in Russia. Another German master invited to work as a teacher at the Academy—at its engraving "chamber" (department)—was Johann Elias Grimmel from Memmingen. It was on his initiative that starting in