The Russian School of Painting
painted quite a few of them—which have come down to us are rather characteristic. For the Mikhailovo Castle he executed two gigantic compositions from Russian history: "The Capture of Kazan," and "The Coronation of Mikhail Fedorovich." Both of them are completely devoid of historical truth, nor are they distinguished by any artistic gracefulness. If they are remarkable at all, it is rather as monuments of an interest in the Russian past, inaugurated before the advent of Karamzin.[1] Moreover, these colossal canvases executed with perfect scholastic orderliness, testify to the progress made by the academic school of painting in Russia.
Two of Ugryumov's pupils were the true fathers in Russia of a strict classicism, in the manner of David, Carstens, and Camucini. These were Yegorov (1776–1851), who won the appellation of "the Russian Raphael," and Shebuyev (1777–1855), who was known among his contemporaries as "the Russian Poussin." Yet, even these masters, when compared with their western models, seem little more than poor imitators. What in David and his pupils was conviction and ecstasy, was replaced, in Yegorov and Shebuyev, by scho-
- ↑ Karamzin, Nikolay Mikhaylovich (1765–1826), the author of the monumental "History of the Russian State," was the first to arouse a popular interest in the Russian past. (Translator's note.)
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