Sculpture

The history of the work of French authors is extremely rich and has long been a standard and a role model in Western and Eastern Europe. Their bronze sculpture decorated the interiors of the estates and palaces of the Russian aristocracy. The development of the French sculpture school at the beginning of the 19th century followed in the footsteps of the world-famous Italian master Antonio Canova, who worked in France at the invitation of Napoleon I. Antique samples with their cult of "the beautiful" were copied. For this reason, the sculpture most often resembled images of Roman emperors, heroes, and gods of Olympus. This trend can be traced to later Western European works of bronze sculpture.

Thanks to the discovery of Achille Collat, a French engraver, by the middle of the 19th century, the technology of making bronze products was changing. In 1838, together with the prominent industrialist Ferdinand Barbedini, they created a company for the production of reduced copies in bronze of world-famous sculptural samples stored in museums in Europe and the world. Nostalgia for the great royal styles of the past is returning, and the era of Historicism is coming. A striking example of this is the cabinet sculpture "The child Œdipus brought back to life by the shepherd Phorbas, who took him off the tree" based on the model of the famous French plastic Chaudet Antoine Denis from the collection of the gallery. Many authors during this period do not work within the framework of a single style. Exotic subjects are becoming more and more popular, interest in which has been aroused by numerous expeditions to the countries of the East and Africa to colonize them.

The art of the East brought to sculpture the tradition of polychromy, which was created by combining various materials: patina and gilded bronze, marble–onyx, ivory, enamel, or semi-precious stones, as well as the use of precious metals. In the exposition, there is a sample of Indian plastic art from the beginning of the XX century – a silver figure of the Hindu deity "Ganesha", which also traces an appeal to retrospective traditions, to the ideals of old art "idealistic, mystical, symbolic and transcendental".

The beginning of the 20th century in Western European sculpture is characterized by active participation in the general development of artistic culture. Along with historicism, there is an unusual original decorative style "Modern" or "Art Nouveau", as it was called in France, which was based on a common plastic language, close artistic and figurative techniques used by sculptors in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Experimenting with traditional art materials, including bronze, the masters began to widely use stylized floral motifs. Distinctive features of the Art Nouveau technique are the rejection of straight lines and angles in favor of more natural, natural lines. Modernity sought to combine the artistic and utilitarian functions of the created works, to involve all branches of human activity in the sphere of beauty. Magnificent works of artistic bronze from the exposition of the sculpture hall demonstrate the main milestones of this exquisite stylistic direction.

The production of Russian artistic bronze was developed later than in European countries. Since the aristocracy preferred the works of French masters, which were distinguished by the high quality of execution, this was to some extent a limiting factor in the development of Russian bronze sculpture.

The first bronze foundries and factories were formed in Russia in the 19th century, and since the second half of the century, a whole industry has flourished, which began to acquire its own face thanks to participation in international art and industrial exhibitions, Europe got acquainted with bright and original traditions, images of domestic bronze-casting art.

Since the late 1860s, Russian bronzers have been collaborating with a whole galaxy of famous Russian sculptors - Lancere, Ober, Lieberich, Posen, and Grachev. The leading factories for the production of artistic bronze during this period were the enterprises of Werfel, Chopin, Moran, and Stange in St. Petersburg and Postnikov, Sokolov, and Krumbugel in Moscow. The exposition of the hall presents several works based on the model of E.A. Lancere of the Chopin bronze foundry F.Y. One of the main distinguishing features of E.A. Lancere's sculptural compositions is the absolute documentary accuracy of the image. The figures of the Caucasian, Asian, military, and peasant cycles are depicted realistically with ethnographic and historical authenticity.

Since the 1870s, significant stylistic changes in the spirit of national decor and subjects have become noticeable in Russian artistic bronze, and along with utilitarian objects, cabinet sculpture became a special unique, and original section. Russian Russian realism was developing in line with the traditions of small-form plastic and began to depict scenes from Russian history and folklore, the life of peasants, and different peoples of the Russian Empire. Episodes of hunting plots, and animalistic themes become in demand, which further gives Russian artistic bronze recognition and its characteristic style.

But the heyday of Russian cabinet bronze did not last long: from the early 1840s to the late 1880s. In the future, the works of plastic art were subject to constant reproduction, not only as cabinet sculpture directly, but also as a decoration of clocks, vases, and other objects of decorative and applied art.

Already at the turn of the century, there is a tendency to replace bronze with copper, brass, and spiatr more and more often, imitating expensive and time–consuming bronze casting.