Информационно-экскурсионная деятельность

Федеральное агентство  по образованию

Санкт-Петербургский  Государственный Университет  Сервиса  и Экономики

(ИТиМЭО)

Специальность 080502.65

«Экономика и управление на предприятии в сфере туризма»

 

 

 

 

 

Курсовая работа по дисциплине: «Информационно-экскурсионная деятельность на иностранном языке»

Тема: «The Palace of Gatchina»

 

 

 

 

Выполнила:

 

 

Проверила

Преподаватель:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2011

Context

 

1. Introduction…………………………………………………………………..3
2. The Palace of Gatchina……………………………………………………….4

               2.1) History………………………………………………………………4

               2.2) Applied And Decorative Arts at the Gatchina Palace……………….6

               2.3) Appearance of the Gatchina Palace………………………………...11

               2.4) The interior of the Gatchina Palace………………………………...12

      3) Conclusion………………………………………………………………….22

      4) Bibliography………………………………………………………………..23

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Introduction

      Gatchina is the famous suburb of St. Petersburg, where the Romanov dynasty founded their royal residence. The history of Gatchina started in the beginning of the 18th century when the czar Peter I ordered to build a mansion there and then gave it to his beloved sister, Natalia. After the death of the Princess the mansion repeatedly passed from one owner to another until in 1765 it was acquired by the Empress Catherine II with the purpose of giving it to her favorite Grigory Orlov. The Count started extensive construction works in Gatchina: he invited the prominent Italian architect Antonio Rinaldi. After the death of the Count Orlov Gatchina became the residence of Paul I. Paul settled in Gatchina for 18 years. In 1796 Paul became Russian Emperor and granted Gatchina the status of the city and its own emblem.    

      The Gatchina Palace and park is one of Russia’s outstanding ensembles. With its own unique identity, it is just another gem in the ring of imperial suburban palaces around St Petersburg.  
The palace has a great atmosphere and is imbued with Russian history. The late 18th century interiors, collections of paintings, furniture, European and Russian porcelain, antique weapons, tapestries and sculpture – all of these were housed in one of the tsar’s finest residences and are now preserved through state efforts and the dedication of the museum staff.  
The Museum staff carefully maintains traditions and cultural heritage to preserve its legacy for future generations. As is known, there is no future without a past. You too can make your contribution to the Museum’s future, in the preservation and revival of Russia’s grand palace and its unique landscape park.  

 

 

 

The Palace of Gatchina

History.

      The Gatchina Palace is the focal point of the palace and park ensemble of the town of Gatchina. Its bright and eventful history falls roughly into three periods. The first commenced in 1766 when Antonio Rinaldi went into construction of a palatial building on the gently sloping bank of a crystal-clear lake. The estate was meant for Count Grigory Orlov, a favourite of Catherine II. The three-storeyed central section was put up in 1781. Semicircular double-tier galleries joined it to single-storeycd service wings and rectangular inner courtyards called the Kitchen Block and the Stable Block (known later as the Arsenal Block). Traits of the early classicism were clearly perceptible in the entire project. Having enriched the customary pattern of a manor house with expressive plastic elements, the architect introduced unusual appendages - ten polyhedral towers and an underground passage running towards the Silver Lake bank - thus lending the palace a semblance of a medieval English castle. Elongated narrow vestibules with semicircular vaults enhanced the feeling of a mystery. 
For facing the outer walls and ground floor passages. A. Rinaldi made use of a variety of local limestones noted for rich and subtle tints. 
      The year of 1783 brought about the second period. Gatchina became a residence of future Emperor Paul I. The new owner commissioned Vincenzo Brenna to remodel the palace (1790s). Without altering the general layout, V. Brenna made the side blocks level with the galleries making the latter closed to house new rooms inside. Brenna encompassed the palace parade ground with a moat spanned by four bridges, installed grilles and planted cannons thus making the palace look even more like a feudal castle. Vincenzo Brenna turned Rinaldfs chamber-like interiors into ceremonial rooms integrating the new palatial halls into the existing ensemble. Brenna's clear-cut concept lay in employing the inexhaustible stock of antique traditions and merging of architecture and pieces of pictorial and applied decorative art of various countries. 
 
The third period in the history of the Gatchina Palace is associated with its use as a residence of Nicholas I. The architect Roman Kuzmin worked again on the side blocks between 1854-1856. Without changing their configuration, Kuz-min faced them outside with Paritsy and Rotkovo stone slabs. A new chapel replaced the one built formerly by Andrean Zakharov into the corner tower of the Kitchen Block. Living rooms for the Gatchina owners were arranged in the Arsenal Block. The Palace remodeling undertaken by Kuzmin led eventually to careful restoration of the late 18th century rooms, building of a new main staircase in the central section and reshaping of the Bastion Wall in front of the palace. The grilles were replaced with a Rotkovo stone slab parapet with bastions and ports for cannons. A bronze statue of Paul I modelled by Ivan Vitali was put up by the wall. 
      After the Great October Socialist Revolution of 1917 the Gatchina Palace was turned into a museum opened to public on May 19, 1918 with all rooms of historical and artistic value displayed. The late 18th-century state and private rooms were accessible to visitors in the main building and the galleries. The Arsenal Block housed a museum of palatial furnishings and household utilities of the second half of the 19th century. The rooms which did not retain their original integrity were used for displays of pieces borrowed from the abundant palace stocks. The palace was badly damaged during the 1941-1945 war; the decor suffered most of all. Restoration work in the Gatchina Palace is still in progress. Of special importance for restoration of the palatial suites of rooms is the collection of water-colours rescued during the war-time. The artists Luigi Premazzi and Edward Hau painted these water-colours in the 1870s rendering the furnishings and decorations of the state and private room interiors with true virtuosity and utmost accuracy. The water-colours reproduced here reveal the beauty and artistic perfection of the palace rooms undergoing careful rehabilitation as most valuable works of the art and architecture of the past.

 

Applied And Decorative Arts at the Gatchina Palace

      The Gatchina Palace, a remarkable monument of Russian culture of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, never failed to impress the visitor with the striking contrast between its severely simple outer appearance and the exquisitely furnished interiors. Throughout the nineteenth and early in the twentieth centuries most of the state rooms and private suites of Paul I in the main building were preserved as they were in the eighteenth century. Retaining until 1941 their original decor and furnishings of considerable historical interest were interiors of the Arsenal Block, a side section with state apartments on the first floor, private rooms of Nicholas I and Alexander II on the ground floor, and suites of Alexander III in the mezzanine. Conspicuous among the diverse works of art at the palace was a collection of porcelain initiated with the "Hunting service", a gift of the Empress Catherine II to Count Grigory Orlov. Information available on the creation of the service is quite scarce. It is known that the service was manufactured at the Imperial Porcelain Factory from the model of a Meissen set and was subsequently supplemented by other owners. According to archive records for 1871 the service consisted of over 2000 pieces decorated with different painted hunting scenes. Of particular interest among the numerous surviving items of the set is the centrepiece comprising bay arbours, pedestals, little columns and vases, candelabra, etc. The collection of the Imperial Porcelain Factory pieces at the Gatchina Palace was quite ample. One of the first research workers of the museum T. Terpilovskaya writes that it provided abundant material for studying all the stages in the history of Russian porcelain, from the time of the Empress Elizabeth, when the secret of porcelain paste was discovered by Dmitry Vinogradov, till the beginning of the twentieth century. 
      On festal days (Christmas, Easter, birthdays) the Imperial Porcelain Factory would present the imperial family with the best of their works: vases, services, etc. The gifts included a set with painted views of the palace and park of Gatchina: a romantic panorama of the palace as seen from the Landing Terrace is depicted on the sugar-basin, and a cup is embellished with a picture of the Priorate Palace designed by the architect Nicolas Lvov late in the eighteenth century and built of the unconventional material, viz. compressed earth. The Gatchina Palace had a most renowned collection of Oriental art objects. Starting in the eighteenth century, the monarchs and court aristocracy of Europe, Russia included, were collecting works of art from China and Japan. The collection of Chinese articles acquired by Count Grigory Orlov from the heirs of Wilim Briis, an associate of Peter I, contained some fine specimens of porcelain. 
      The oriental collection at the Gatchina Palace was considerably enlarged in the nineteenth century when three galleries were completed in the Arsenal Block. Harmonizing perfectly with the bunches of thin Gothic columns, fanciful capitals, open-work arches and coloured glass producing an illusion of medieval stained-glass panels, the creations of Oriental craftsmen with their endless diversity of shapes, sizes and shades of colour added a festive touch to the architecture of the galleries. "Entering the gallery, — wrote the prominent Russian sinologist Vasily Vasiliev, — not only an ignorant person will be startled by the unusual sight, novel forms and new tints. The effect in that case is a certainty. But even one familiar with such collections cannot but marvel at the great number of objects. It is safe to say that the collection has no analogies either in Europe or even in the East". 
The collection of Oriental objects of art was replenished mainly with specimens from private possessions. Thus, Alexander II had the Chinese curios presented to him by Vasily Naryshkin brought to the Gatchina Palace. The gift included various lacquered objects: chests, screens, small tables, what-nots, cabinets, tiny commodes and coffers, boxes and caskets of different shapes and sizes, as well as ivories executed in relief and aperture (open-work) techniques. The technique of aperture carving originated in the East, Chinese carvers attaining in that art unsurpassed craftsmanship. As regards the excellence of work and the elegance of pattern their creations can be compared to the finest lace. Chinese and Japanese porcelain of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries accounted for the greater part of the Oriental collection. Eighteenth century eastern china is characterized by a profusion of patterns and ingenuity in selecting forms and subjects of painting, these features permitting it to be easily and organically incorporated in any environment. Particularly valued by the connoisseurs was Chinese porcelain painted in gold over a blue ground. The hue of the ground is adequately defined by the French terms "bleu poudre" ("blue powder"), "bleu souffle" ("blue souffle") and "bleu lapis-lazuli" ("blue lapis lazuli"). 
      The personal tastes of the palace's second owner, Paul I and his wife Maria Fiodorovna, influenced the appearance of newly created interiors. Commissioned by Paul I the architect Vincenzo Brenna remodelled Antonio Rinaldi's exquisitely cosy interiors into a sumptuously resplendent imperial residence. Added to the decor of the Gatchina Palace at that time were a great many marbles (sculptures, decorative vases) and bronzes (clocks and candlesticks, including works of such prominent French masters as Pierre Gouthiere whose creations were remarkable for exquisite design and faultless workmanship). Conspicuous in the setting of French bronzework was a small ormolu table of Russian make with the top of Urals jasper. The mineral received the name "landscape stone" because fragments of it ingeniously combined by pattern and tint produce fantastic landscapes. 
Many works of art were brought to the Gatchina Palace as a result of the trip of Grand Duke Paul and his wife to Europe. Among them were Gobelins tapestries of "The Cardinal Points" series and the "Don Quixote" tapestry presented to Grand Duke Paul by Louis XVI. Created in Paris in the second half of the eighteenth century, these magnificent works of hand-weaving art have retained to this day their original brilliance of colour. While in France the Grand Duke and his wife visited the Sevres porcelain factory where they were given presents and made purchases of china. The factory was famous for its figurines in biscuit, i. e. unglazed porcelain. The articles made at Sevres from models by the eminent sculptors Etienne-Maurice Falconet, Jean-Baptiste Pegalle and others were renowned for the noble elegance, consummate form, delicate shades of colour and satin-like surface. The colour scheme of Sevres porcelain, with its combination of the celebrated royal blue (bleu de Roi) of a heavy but transparent tone, turquoise green (bleu du del) and gold, creates a distinctive decorative effect. 
      The Gatchina collection comprised specimens from all leading European porcelain-making centres, including the Royal Factory at Meissen, the first to be founded in Europe (first decade of the 18th century). The numerous pieces from Meissen represent the important stages in the history of the factory: the painting period, initiated by the subtle colourist Johann-Georg Herold ("strewn flowers", the characteristic pattern of the period, were imitated at other factories), and the sculptural period, associated with the prodigiously gifted sculptor Johann-Joahim Kendler who revealed the plastic qualities of porcelain (the Gatchina collection includes a number of sculptural groups executed from models by Johann-Joahim Kendler). In addition, there are typical Meissen household wares shaped as birds and fruits. An important part of the art collections of the Gatchina Palace was furniture. "The furniture was noted for the elegance of form and the delicacy of inlaid work", — wrote Vladimir Makarov. The state rooms and private apartments were embellished with numerous card-tables, bureaux and other pieces of furniture from the workshops of such distinguished cabinet-makers as David Roentgen and Heinrich Gambs. Noteworthy among the furniture of Russian make is the bureau produced by the serf cabinet-maker Matvey Veretennikov, a perfect example of superb marquetry technique and refined taste in selecting valuable kinds of wood. 
      On display in the Tower Chamber of Alexander III were unique French embroideries (late 17th — early 18th centuries) that added a gay touch of colour to the decorative scheme of the room. To our day they have retained the strikingly rich intensity of tone. The intricate embroidery patterns cleverly integrate versatile scenes in the spirit of Louis XIV into the vegetable ornament. 
The destiny of the Gatchina collections is intimately linked with that of the country's art treasures. In the 1920s many of the best works were transferred to the State Fund (thus, the "Hunting service" alone was diminished by over 1000 pieces). During the War of 1941—1945 thousands of exhibits of supreme artistic value were lost, including 3000 specimens of Oriental provenance. Thanks to the selfless endeavour of the museum's staff over 15000 works of art were saved in those grim years. For an undeservedly long time the Gatchina Palace could not accommodate anew the rescued masterpieces. It was only in 1985 that the museum was reopened to the public. Among the major tasks of the museum staff at present is reconstitution of the unique collections, their replenishment and restoration to the original places.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Appearance of the Gatchina Palace

       Gatchina Palace history began in the 17th century with a small hunting house, which was intended for nobility on their hunting trips. The area is very good foe hunting: thick pine forests and crystal clear lakes. And amidst all this beauty on the high bank of Silver Lake the architect Antonio Rinaldi invited by the Count Orlov in 1766 started the Palace, which became the heart of the architecture and park ensemble of Gatchina. The construction was finished only fifteen years later, in 1781. Rinaldi’s Palace was built as a hunting castle with towers and an underground passage. Very special are Gatchina Palace facades finished with natural stone. The next owner of Gatchina , Paul I, turned the mansion into a kind of military camp. The palace, rebuilt by the architect Brenna, changed both inside and outside, and resembled a fortress. New rooms and hall replaced the old ones; they were redesigned for different purposes. The interior changed beyond recognition. The meadow in front of the palace turned into a parade ground surrounded by a fortification with embrasures for cannons and the water-filled moat. Its final appearance Gatchina Palace complex received in 1845. In 1851 in front of the palace right on the parade ground the bronze monument to the Emperor was installed.    Gatchina Palace’s amazing feature is that it can change the color of the facades. They seem to be golden in the bright sunlight and on cloudy days they become cold grey.

      And, of course, the beautiful parks around the palace: the Palace, Sylvia, Prior’s and Menagerie. The palace and park ensembles of Gatchina are among the most sophisticated creations in the world of landscape design.

 

 

 

The interior of the Gatchina Palace

The Antechamber

      Is the first ceremonial hall opening the main floor suite of rooms. This was the place where court guards were relieved and courtiers waited to be received by the sovereign. Vincenzo Brenna commissioned to remodel the room retained the best features of the original design by Antonio Kinaldi: a striking parquet pattern inlaid as two huge palmettoes radiating from the centre and taking up nearly the entire floor space and the doors with door-cases made from fancy design plates of pinkish shaped imitation marble. With due account for the purpose and arrangement of the Antechamber, Brenna decorated the pale pistachio-coloured walls with austere moulded frames of interlacing i ings, trimmed the vault with oak-leaf garlands and Roman Helmets and introduced expressive moulded details with war glory symbols into the ceiling ornament. The decor of the room reopened to public in 1985 was minutely restored upon careful investigation of the archives, remains and analogies found in other buildings constructed by A. Rinaldi and V. Brenna. Restoration was authored by Mikhail Plotnikov, an architect of the Restavrutor Research and Production Association.

The Marble Dining Room

     Is adjacent to the Antechamber and the Throne Hall. This majestic hall was created by Vincenzo Brenna in the classical style. The columns of the Corinthian order, the bas-reliefs on mythological subjects and decorative patterns were done а Г antique. The plafond insets, the inlaid door panels and the fine parquetry enhance the splendour of the interior. Behind the marble balustrade stands a statue of Cupid with a bow made in Italy in the late 18th century after an antique original. The hall was recreated and reopened to the public in 1985.

 

The Throne Hall

      Is an ornate drawing room, almost square in plan, with a glazed door leading to a small balcony which commands a wide panorama of the park. The two-colour scheme of the walls, vault and the ceiling, the moulded decor with gilt patches and the gilt carved ornamentation of the door leaves are in perfect harmony with the parquetry inlaid after A. Rinaldi's sketch. V. Brenna adorned the walls with Gobelin tapestries Asia and Africa of The Cardinal Points series woven in the 1780s from the cartoons by Deporte at Jacob Neilson's workshop. Above the mantelpiece is a pink Gobelin tapestry Ceres of The Gods suite. These remarkable works of French hand-weaving art lend the interior an air of festive solemnity. In 1797 a chair of state was placed between the window and the glazed door. All the items of decor rescued during the Great Patriotic War have been reinstalled where they belong in the restored interior.

Rinaldi's Communicating Room

      Is a small space between the Antechamber and the White Hall. The room vault is decorated with subtle moulds. The walls are ornamented with doorways having frames made of yellow imitation marble. Immured in a wall is an oval marble bas-relief showing a portrait of the palace first architect Antonio Rinaldi by Fedot Shubin.

The White Hall

      The inspired creation of Antonio Rinaldi and Vincenzo Brenna, THE WHITE HALL was notable among the late 18th-century state apartments of the palace for its central location, imposing size and the immaculate finish of the decor. The rhythmic pattern of arches and glazed doors opening on the wide balcony, the graceful arched lines articulating the paired Corinthian pilasters of the opposite wall and echoed in the sopraporta outlines, the refined colour scheme of the huge painted plafond, the inlaid parquetry and the door leaves, and the elegant casings of white-streaked reddish imitation marble combined to produce a strikingly decorative effect. The remarkable moulded decor with its lovely compositions and daintily fashioned wreaths, garlands and fruit invariably evoked admiration. The walls were adorned with antique and contemporary Italian reliefs on mythological subjects. In perfect accord with the architecture of the hall was the arrangement along its perimeter of statues and busts by ancient as well as contemporary Italian and French sculptors.

The Picture Hall

      Located between the White Hall and the Green Corner Room took shape in the 1770s as designed by Antonio Rinaldi. The hall was initially called the Chinese Room since a Chinese art motif and genuine Oriental pieces dating to the 18th century were used for decoration. In 1790s V. Brenna turned the Chinese Room into the Picture Hall and a collection of the 17th and 18th-century West-European paintings was put on the walls upholstered with crimson cloth. The collection contained mainly landscapes, domestic life scenes and pictures on mythological and biblical subjects. A throne seat for the Empress was installed in the Picture Hall on Paul I's orders in 1797. The room served as a Throne Hall but for a short time, though the decor remained unchanged till 1941.

The Crimson Drawing Room

      The most ornate interior of the Gatchina Palace, owes its name to the three large superb Gobelin tapestries of the Don Quixote series woven at the renowned French factory in 1776 and 1780. In harmony with the ground colour of tapestries was the exquisite gilt carved furniture upholstered in cherry-red velvet. The interior was remarkable for the splendour of its colour scheme. V. Brenna generously used gilt on the stucco frieze, cornice, acanthus scrolls of the straight cove and in the decorative pattern on the plafond. The drawing room stands out for its refined moulded and carved ornaments. Gilded bronze candelabra of Russian make of the late 18th century fashioned as vases with bouquets of lilies completed the decor.

The State Bedroom

      Terminates the main block suite of the rooms decorated by Brenna. The room is noted for a dainty harmony of architecture and colour concept. The glitter of gilt finishing the interior seemed to dissolve under tranquillity of all shades of blue. Even the mantelpiece inserts were made of lapis lazuli. The bedroom walls sectioned into panels were upholstered with light-blue Lyons silk woven with silver threads. The marble pilasters painted in imitation of the arabesques of Raphael's loggias in Vatican matched the wall ornamentation in style. 
Two mirrors in gilded frames were set into the walls, one over the mantelpiece and the other - opposite, the multiple reflections in both producing an impression of receding sparkling gilt arcades. The floor space by the wall opposite the window was fenced in a low gilt carved balustrade to hold a gilded canopied bed made by A. Jacob, a famous French cabinet-maker of the late 18th century. The balustrade base pillars carried two large-size dark-blue porcelain vases made at the Sevres Factory in 1782. The artist George Doyen painted the round plafond Psyche's Wedding in smoky blue hues to match the room colouring.

The Dressing Room

      A state apartment in the side section of the main block overlooking the Private Garden, with its coffered ceiling, soft colour scheme, exquisitely delicate stuccowork, shapely casings of white- and black-streaked pale blue imitation marble, and the intricate pattern of the inlaid parquetry, reveals Antonio Rinaldi's distinctive idiom. The marble portrait bas-reliefs looking as if suspended from the vertically disposed moulded garlands are associated with Vincenzo Brenna. During the Great Patriotic War of 1941 - 1945 the more valuable items of decor (the large porcelain set, mantelpiece vases and the bas-reliefs) were saved. The room interior remarkably integral in its architectural and decorative features is at present under comprehensive restoration.

The Green Corner Room

      Is a small apartment linking the Greek Gallery with the central block. The room has retained A. Rinaldi's decoration. The plafond vault and the window recesses were ornamented with war-trophy mouldings and portrait medallions. Expressive moulded compositions of Roman armour were arranged over the imitation marble door casings.

The Weapon Gallery

      Replaced an open promenade joining the main and Kitchen blocks. The promenade was constructed by A. Rinaldi in the 1780s. Later V. Brenna walled up the upper floor, cut out semicircular windows, put up paired marble columns along the facades and upholstered the gallery interior in crimson damask. The threadbare cloth was replaced by wood paneling in the 1820s on which a collection of arms was displayed in decorative patterns. The unique collection of the Gatchina Palace includes over a thousand pieces of arms which came from renowned armories of various countries. Each piece is notable for a high technical and artistic level of make, the handicraft displayed in the locks, butt-ends and handles being always of special concern. 
Blue steel, mother-of-pearl, ivory, semiprecious and precious stones were widely used for weapon ornamentation. The entire collection was taken to a safe place when the war broke out. It will be displayed again as it used to be upon completion of the restoration work in the gallery.

The Chesme Gallery

      Ranks among V. Brenna's finest creations, its interior glorifying the victory of the Russian Navy off Chesme in 1770. The reserved rhythm of the pilasters adorned with moulded medallions of Roman warriors and fasces, the decorative trophies of arms, the oak leaf garlands, the huge canvases by P. Hackert representing scenes of the naval battle, the standards in stucco-work, and the figure of a victorious eagle above the overmantel mirror - all joined to lend the hall an air of solemn dignity. At the side end of the gallery was the blustered choir section for the orchestra. The gallery overlooks the broad span of the White Lake. The mirrors set between the windows reflected the festive decor of the opposite wall and created an impression of great spaciousness. The semicircular layout of the interior served to enhance its decorative effect.

The Greek Gallery

      Looked lit with the radiant sun due to the light-orange hues of the walls and the orange-coloured curtains of the semicircular windows. As a kind of reminder of sunny Hellas, golden air hovered in the apartment which intrinsically combined the furnishings and decor details associated with the art of ancient Greece. The walls were adorned with reliefs of dancing bacchantes and medallions showing profiles of antique heroes, moulded bracket carried marble busts of Roman emperors and philosophers and marble statues of antique gods and goddesses were standing opposite the windows. Four large canvases by Hubert Robert depicted architectural sights of ancient Rome. The Greek Gallery completed by Vincenzo Brenna in the 1790s terminated the ceremonial palatial apartments retaining the 18th-century decorations.

The Late 18th-century Private Apartments

      The end section of the main block houses living rooms arranged on the ground floor with a terrace overlooking the Private Garden. The rooms retained A. Rinaldi's layout and V. Brenna's decor and furnishings. The doors, wainscots, window and door casings, window bars and the parquet floors were made of oak. 
In the early 19th century Andrey Voronikhin coated the walls, coffers and ceilings with tinted stucco and polychrome ornamental painting thus lending all the private apartments a holiday air.

The Tower Chamber of the Private Apartments

      The pentagonal tower dictated the chamber shape. This 25 sq. room was visually enlarged due to a wall-height rectangular mirror set over the marble mantelpiece opposite the entrance to reflect the unusual room shape and build up additional effects. Each wall hemmed with painted ornaments was filled up with gilt-framed canvases of the 17th-18th centuries. The case of drawers carried amber and ivory items. The fireplace was screened with a mahogany stanchion incorporating painted milk glass made by Heinrich Gambs in St Petersburg in 1794. The low cases with door patterns imitating those of the wainscots held a most curious selection of the 18th-century books on various subjects as well as manuscripts and maps of Gatchina and other places of Russia.

The Lower Dressing Room

      In the private apartment suite belongs to most curious specimens of the late 18th-century living room interiors. In decorating the room the architects generously used oak-wood. Its surface treatment , colour and texture, fine shaping and combining with gilt picture frames added to the integrity and elegance of the interior. The white tile stove shaped as a rotunda with Ionic columns and mythological reliefs was the principle feature of the architectural decor. The walls were adorned with pictures representing views of the Gatchina Park and scenes on mythological and biblical subjects. The pictures carefully preserved during the war will again grace the interior after its restoration.