When we cogitate of Catherine the great what comes to mind is power and politics. She was also a strong personality in art and design. Her reign was between 1762 and 1796 during the period of immense development in culture. Catherine was fond of ornaments and furnishings. Her obsession transformed the appearance of the situation in Russia and continues to do so in the realm of design.
The Rococo to Neoclassical Beauty
This significant shift in the European taste in art occurred at the time when Catherine the great furniture was becoming a queen. The fashion of Rococo, of which the reign of her predecessor Empress Elizabeth had been so profuse, was gradually giving way to the stateliness of Neoclassicism. New archaeological discoveries of Pompeii and Herculaneum contributed to this new style that glorified the lines of cleanliness, classical symbols, and the geometrical harmony of Ancient Greece and Rome.
Acceptance of the Enlightenment
The Neoclassicism was whole-heartedly adopted by Catherine who was a German-born princess and admired the works of Voltaire and Diderot. The Rococo style was seen by her as a frivolous and outdated style. Rather, she resorted to Neoclassicism as an effective imagery of a modernized Russia. Classical lines symbolized sophistication, intellect, order and European excellence to her. These ideals were to be reflected in the furniture she commissioned, with the chaos of curves being eliminated by the rationality and balancing of proportions.
Furniture as an Instrument of Statecraft
Her patronizing of the arts never was a passive pastime. Catherine exhibited power and influence using furniture and interior design. She invested a lot of royal wealth in hiring decorative arts through the best craftsmen throughout Europe.
The construction of an Imperial Identity
Catherine had direct correspondence with the main architects and designers in France, Italy and England and paid them huge amounts of money to come to the Russian court. An example of this is Scottish architect Charles Cameron who assisted in the design of classic inspired interiors in Tsarskoye Selo. The consequence was an outburst of refined art in the walls of the Winter Palace, in the Hermitage, and in other palaces of the emperor. She equipped her palaces with the latest European style, a move that alerted the visiting diplomats that Russia was a great power in the entire west.
Art works of Moderate Luxuriousness
The pieces of furniture that were created in the time of Catherine exhibit a masterpiece of restrained extravagance. Although the asymmetry of the earlier times was more extravagant, her commissioned pieces deprived this with straight, tapered legs, proportional figures and finely cut splendor.
Special Woods and ornate Ormolu
Artisans employed the highest quality of materials to make these one. Cabinetmakers used mahogany, satinwood, amaranth, and rosewood, frequently cutting these exotic veneers and fashioning them into a variety of elaborate marquetry patterns. Ormolu, or gilded bronze mounts, were additions that gave the decorative flourishes in an understated manner. These shiny mounts depicted classical themes such as laurel wreaths, acanthus leaves, urns, and mythological figures with great precision. Russian craftsmen created the tabletops of gilded console tables from local hardstones, including green malachite and blue lapis lazuli.
The Mechanical Wonders of David Roentgen.
A great illustration of the particular tastes of Catherine is the work of the German born cabinetmaker, David Roentgen. He was a much admired master over mechanical furniture, and a delicate marquetry, and soon rose to be among the favourite workmen of the Empress. His desks and cabinets were not only beautiful, but ingenious. One simple twist of a key could unlock some concealed drawers, expose some hidden compartments and even start some miniature musical clocks. Catherine acquired the furniture of Roentgen in huge amounts, even whole shipments at a time. She was keen on aesthetic beauty and technical innovation as evidenced by her enormous collection of his work.
Raising a Truly Russian School.
Catherine’s patronage was perhaps most significant because it helped develop a distinctly Russian school of ornamental arts in a very short time. Although she at first imported styles and craftsmen of the West, she also encouraged local talent. She founded the Imperial Academy of Arts and also dispatched good Russian artisans to Paris and Rome.
The Rise of Karelian Birch
These local craftsmen went back to St. Petersburg having perfected the Neoclassical methods. They started to mix European styles and Russian customs and materials. . Using Neoclassical forms to this very local material, these craftsmen produced works of European appearance, and clearly Russian soul. This artistic blending developed a national design identity never known before.
A Classic Tradition in Contemporary Decor
The role of the aesthetic vision of Catherine the Great did not leave with her death at the end of the 18th century. Her rigidity of Neoclassicism prevailed in the Russian design up to the 19th century, but later transformed into the more cumbersome Russian Empire style. Her grand palaces, maintained as museums, served as a living design book for future generations of architects and cabinetmakers.
This fascinating period is still heavily inspirational in the eyes of the designers. The straight lines of a Neoclassical commode, the lightness of architectural elaboration of a brass mount, and the elegant application of contrasting wood grains are all the things that easily find its way to the modern interior. The burden of this historic period still rests in a plain chair with fluted legs, or in a cabinet inlaid with geometric patterns.Catherine demonstrated that the legacy of a monarch extends way beyond legislation and geographical boundaries. She cut the image of the new, enlightened empire into the very furniture, which determines the Russian design history.
