Read the text about one of the most outstanding Russian architects
PERSECUTED BY FATE
Vasily Bazhenov is an outstanding Russian architect of the 18th century. The architect’s surname is thought to be derived from the Russian for “desired child,” but if this nickname was given to one of his ancestors, there was something in the life of Vasily that seemed to prevent him from living up to it and fully achieving success.
Vasily Bazhenov was born on March 12, 1737, to the family of a clergyman at one of Moscow’s Kremlin churches. What a fine place to start an architectural career! At an early age, Vasily loved to draw pictures of buildings in the city. An architect noticed the boy’s talent and invited him to study at his school. However, Moscow, no longer Russia’s capital at the time, experienced a period of stagnation. In 1758, Bazhenov went on from school to the Imperial Academy of the Arts in St. Petersburg. His knowledge in architecture was so extensive that he was appointed architect assistant in the construction of St. Nicholas’ Naval Cathedral. In 1759, as the most promising student, he was sent to Paris to complete his studies. Under Professor Duval he made scale models of architectural elements and buildings. He made a complete model of the Louvre. Travelling to Italy, he constructed a model of St. Peter’s in Rome. His attention was also drawn to the work of the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius, who had such an important impact on Renaissance and subsequent architecture in Europe.
Having gained full theoretical knowledge in the field of architecture, Bazhenov actively began a career as practicing architect. One of his first designs was the facade of the Academy of the Arts building on the Neva River, inaugurated in 1765. He went on to design the Palace in Yekaterinhof Park to obtain the degree of professor of the Academy of the Arts. Although the design was accepted, Bazhenov did not receive the degree. This unfair decision forced him to leave the Academy and enter the service of Prince Grigory Orlov’s artillery department as chief architect with the rank of captain.
A new stage began in Bazhenov’s architectural career. He designed and built one fine edifice after another. In Moscow he was responsible for constructing the Kremlin embankment, which was to replace the huge city dump on the banks of the Moskva River. The dump, however, remained in place.
In St. Petersburg he designed the Arsenal building. In Moscow, in the 1770s, Bazhenov built a mansion for his father-in-law now standing at 18 Prospekt Mira. Unfortunately, the second floor of the mansion was dismantled in the 1840s. Another mansion he designed for a merchant at 21 Bolshaya Ordynka was also rebuilt in the 19th century.
The architect’s most outstanding masterpiece was the palace known as Pashkov House named after the first owner, a descendant of Peter the Great’s batman. This splendid monument stands on a hill towering over Mokhovaya Street across from the Kremlin. It is regarded as Moscow’s most beautiful secular building. In the 19th century it housed the Rumyantsev Museum which had, among other things, Russia’s best library. Like the British Museum, it was known to all the educated people in the country. While Karl Marx studied at the British Museum, Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the Soviet regime in early years, pored over books in the Rumyantsev Museum plotting the overthrow of the Tzar. This seems to be the reason why, under the Soviets, the museum was named the Lenin Library. Today the library no longer bears Lenin’s name, but the ungainly new building of the library dwarfs to Bazhenov’s masterpiece, whose condition leaves much to be desired. In particular, the statue that used to crown the building is no longer there, lending it an unfinished appearance. Moreover, sloping away from the building there used to be a park with ponds, and the whole formed a unique ensemble. Today Pashkov House stands above an endless stream of traffic that makes Moscow one of the most polluted cities in the world.
Alas, experts have failed to find definitive evidence proving that Pashkov House was indeed designed by Bazhenov. Vasily Bazhenov and Matvei Kazakov were the two founders of Russian Classicist architecture, but if Kazakov’s buildings are all firmly attributed to the master, documents pertaining to Bazhenov’s masterpieces have largely been lost.
Moreover, many of his buildings have been torn down or rebuilt beyond recognition in later years. The mansion belonging to Princess Trubetskaya at 1 Bolshaya Polyanka was demolished in Soviet years and even the definitive Moscow’s Monuments of Architecture do not contain any engravings or photographs of the house.
There is reason to believe that Bazhenov took part in designing the famous monument known today as the Sklifosovsky Institute, but once again we have no hard evidence.
Still another monument, Yushkov House (1793) at 21 Myasnitskaya with its famous semi-rotunda (which had a great influence on Russian architecture), has suffered greatly from age, particularly in the times when it was occupied by various Soviet organizations. Today its relationship to the arts has been restored.
The most tragic of all, however, is the story of Bazhenov’s projects that were never realized. The architect was commissioned to build a palace in Tsaritsino. Work was started on the palace, but in 1785 Catherine the Great visited the construction site and found the building too grim for her taste. Bazhenov was removed from the project and construction work was discontinued.
Bazhenov’s most ambitious project was an enormous palace that was to replace parts of the Moscow Kremlin walls. The palace was Catherine the Great’s idea, and she appointed Bazhenov to design and build it in 1768. The architect began to work feverishly. A huge foundation pit was dug, and the cornerstone of the palace was laid in 1773. Work on the palace, however, coincided with the Russo-Turkish war of 1768-1775. It turned out that it was all a giant bluff on Catherine the Great’s part. Towards the end of the war the country’s treasury was empty, and there was simply no money to finance the project. Work was discontinued in 1775.
There were also political reasons for Catherine the Great’s dissatisfaction with Bazhenov. The free-thinker and mason Novikov entrusted Bazhenov with the delicate mission of informing the heir Paul that he had been promoted to one of the Masonic lodges in Moscow. On learning this, Catherine was furious and dismissed Bazhenov from all his posts.
However, the Empress soon regained her cool, and Bazhenov once again entered state service at the Admiralty in 1792. He designed and built naval buildings and a palace and church for the heir. When Paul I ascended the throne, Bazhenov’s career took an abrupt upturn. He was appointed Vice President of the Imperial Academy of the Arts and entrusted with the task of designing St. Michael Castle for Paul I (subsequently known as Engineering Castle) in St. Petersburg.
Bazhenov started to collect sketches of Russian architectural monuments and worked on problems of promoting Russian talents in the Academy of the Arts. It seemed that now Bazhenov’s potential would be fully realized. But unfortunately on August 2, 1799, Bazhenov died unexpectedly. St. Michael Castle was completed after the architect’s death, but Paul I was murdered in his own bedroom only forty days after he moved in.
Thus, we see that some sort of ill omen seemed to hover over Bazhenov’s life. As he himself said: “In all this time I was persecuted by fate.” The Slavophile Ivan Kireyevsky wrote about him: “All of Bazhenov’s buildings are remarkable in some kind of thought, which he was capable of conveying to his stones, and that thought is nearly always sad….”
Assignments
Ex.1. Retell the architect’s biography paying attention to the following items:
1) his childhood;
2) his study;
3) the role of architecture in his life;
4) his career;
5) his most prominent works;
6) his unrealized ideas;
7) disclose the title of the text.
Ex. 2. Find a picture of one of the Bazhenov’s masterpieces, describe the house and compare the architectural style he worked in with any modern one. Use the following word combinations in your answer.
Art Nouveau architecture – архитектура модерна; baroque architecture –архитектура барокко; colonial architecture – колониальный стиль в архитектуре; eternal canons in architecture – вечные архитектурные каноны; Georgian architecture – георгианский стиль в английской архитектуре (стиль 18 – начала 19 века); Greek architecture – архитектура Древней Греции; Renaissance architecture – архитектура Ренессанса.