Catherine the Great: An Enlightened Empress
Catherine the Great: An Enlightened Empress
National Museums of Scotland
ISBN: 978 1 905267 68 2
Pages: 208
Illustrations: 200 color, b&w
Paperback
* The art collected and commissioned by Catherine the Great, one of history’s incomparable art patrons.
* Most works have never been seen outside the State Hermitage Museum.
* 200 magnificent portraits, costumes, cameos, plus porcelain, glass, metal, and polished stone collected by Empress Catherine, who deservedly earned the title, “the Great” (1729-96). Catherine not only instituted major social reforms and exhibited political prowess, but she sent her agents throughout Europe, collecting art on a scale unimaginable today – scooping up so many treasures that England and France issued laws forbidding the export of large quantities of their art. She commissioned works from artists, and under her art patronage academies, journals and libraries were established. The empress and her contemporaries were prolific writers of letters, journals, diaries and memoirs, and quotes from this rich legacy and the illustrated essays reveal how Russia takes its first steps towards Westernization.