All tickets until mid-December are already sold out.
Visitors at the exhibition
Moscow. November 25. site - An exhibition of paintings from the Vatican Pinakothek Roma Aeterna, which first arrived in Russia, opens on Friday at the State Tretyakov Gallery in Lavrushinsky Lane.
“Never before have the Vatican Museums taken out of their borders at the same time such a significant number of outstanding works from the permanent exhibition, so the exhibition will become an event not only for Russia and Europe, but for the whole world,” Zelfira Tregulova, general director of the Tretyakov Gallery, said earlier.
Especially for this project, the Vatican Museums will present in Russia the best part of their collection - 42 paintings of the XII-XVIII centuries. Among them are works by Giovanni Bellini, Melozzo da Forli, Perugino, Raphael, Caravaggio, Guido Reni, Guercino, Nicolas Poussin. According to Deputy Director of the Vatican Museums Barbara Yatta, the exposition reflects all stages of the artistic development of painting.
Entrance to the exhibition is carried out by sessions, tickets can be purchased at the box office and on the official website of the museum. At the moment, all tickets for December are sold out, the press service of the gallery noted, a new batch of tickets will go on sale in mid-December. In addition, as previously reported, from January, in order to combat speculators, tickets to the exhibition will be registered.
The museum noted that visitors will enter the halls, while the time during which they can be at the exhibition is not limited, just as it was at the Aivazovsky exhibition. "So far, there will be no restrictions on the time spent at the exhibition. As practice shows, usually an hour is enough for the audience to watch the exposition. At 10:00 the first session will begin on the "long" days of the gallery's work, on the "short" days the State Tretyakov Gallery is open until 18:00 , the beginning of the last session is at 16:30," the press service explained.
The exhibition opens with the image of "Christ Blessing" of the 12th century, which had never before been exhibited at temporary exhibitions and never left the Vatican. It is an example of the unity of Christianity, since it was created even before the schism, and demonstrates the common roots of Italian and Russian art. Next in chronology is the work of Margaritone d'Arezzo "St. Francis of Assisi" of the 13th century. It is known for being one of the earliest images of the saint. In the same room, works by Gothic masters, very rare in Russian collections, are shown. Pilate" by Pietro Lorenzetti, two predellas telling stories from the life of Nicholas the Wonderworker, Archbishop of the World of Lycia.
Frescoes depicting angels by Melozzo da Forli are exhibited separately. The paintings by this artist were removed from the dome of the apse during the rebuilding of the church of Santi Apostoli in Rome.
The High Renaissance, 16th century, is represented in the exhibition by works by Perugino, Raphael, Correggio and Paolo Veronese.
Also, the audience will see "The Entombment" by Caravaggio and the largest work of Nicolas Poussin, the altarpiece "The Martyrdom of St. Erasmus", written specifically for St. Peter's Cathedral. The exposition continues with the works of caravaggists and artists of the Bolognese school Lodovico Carracci, Guido Reni, Guercino.
Roma Aeterna is part of a large project: at the beginning of 2018, a return exhibition will be held in the Vatican, a significant part of its exhibits will be Russian paintings on gospel scenes from the collection of the Tretyakov Gallery.
Friends, good afternoon. On Saturday we were lucky enough to visit the unique exhibition of Vatican masterpieces, you still have the opportunity to see it for two months, do not miss it.
The exhibition is held in the Engineering Building of the State Tretyakov Gallery (Lavrushinsky lane, 12) from November 25, 2016 to February 19, 2017. Unfortunately, it will no longer be possible to buy tickets through the website, but you can safely come to the museum and buy a ticket right on the spot, at the box office, despite the large number of visitors, we did not see queues.
Working mode:
Tuesday, Wednesday, Sunday from 10.00 to 18.00 (entrance until 17.00)
Thursday, Friday, Saturday from 10.00 to 21.00 (entry until 20.00)
Monday is a day off.
Plan to visit the exhibition for a couple of hours, one hour is clearly not enough.
To be honest, I'm still very impressed, I don't even know where to start. Works from the 12th to the 18th centuries are presented. This is the tenth part of the collection, which includes 460 works. It is interesting that a number of paintings left their native walls for the first time, given that not everyone, in the light of the tightening of economic policy, can afford to go abroad, I think that we are very lucky and I recommend using this chance, you will definitely not remain indifferent. Unfortunately, photography at the exhibition is strictly prohibited, so I took all the photos from the Internet, and the description from the brochure from the exhibition and from memory what I managed to remember from the audio guide.
The exhibition begins with the rarest ancient icon “Christ Blessing”, created in the second half of the 12th century by a master working in Rome under the influence of Byzantine painting. Before entering the Pinacoteca, she was in the church of Santa Maria in Campo Marzio, one of the oldest in Rome. The Roman master presented Jesus Christ in the image of Pantokrator, that is, the ruler of the Universe, and the icon, being an analogy of the ancient Russian images of the Almighty Savior, keeps the memory of the unity of the Christian Church before the schism, that is, before it was divided into Catholic and Orthodox, and shows a direct relationship between Italian and Russian art from the same root.
Continues the exposition of Margaritone di Magnano, nicknamed Margaritone d'Arezzo c. 1216-1290).
Saint Francis of Assisi. 1250-1270. Altar image. Wood, tempera, gold. 127.2×53.9 cm.
“Margaritone d'Arezzo, who was born before Giotto and Duccio, is one of the greatest painters of medieval Italy. The painting has entered all art history textbooks as an outstanding example of the late Romanesque style, but it is also interesting because it is one of the earliest images of St. Francis of Assisi, made shortly after his canonization in 1228. Saint Francis has played a pivotal role in the history of the Western Church, and it is not for nothing that the current pope chose his name, becoming the first Francis in the history of the Vatican. This work may have been exactly what Vasari, in his "Biography of Margaritone", described as painted from nature, so that it can be considered almost one of the first portraits in Italian painting.
I was shocked by both the icons themselves and their safety, think about it, because this is the 12th-13th centuries!
I will not dwell on all the exhibits, I will note only those that have sunk into my soul the most and shocked me with their skill. Continuing the inspection of the first room, I would like to draw attention to the 3 frescoes of Melozzo degli Ambrosi, nicknamed Melozzo da Forli (1438-1494).
Angels playing the lute. 1480. Fragments of a fresco taken from the wall. Right size: 117×93.5 cm.
The artist “…was invited to Rome by Pope Sixtus IV. He created many frescoes in Roman churches, so that Melozzo can be considered the founder of the Roman school, which flourished in the 16th-17th centuries. Three musical angels are fragments of his painting on the dome of the Church of Santi Apostoli, a huge multi-figured composition "The Ascension of Christ".
The fresco was perceived by contemporaries as a triumph of papal power that revived Rome. The divine orchestra of angels symbolized the unearthly beauty of paradise, and the abstract concept of “music of heaven” is associated with the philosophical constructions of the model of the world, which the Pythagoreans and Platonists spoke about. Melozzo, as a Renaissance artist, combines ancient and Christian traditions in his work. His angels, glorifying the Lord according to the words of the Bible: “Let them praise His name with faces, on a tympanum and harp, let them sing to Him, for the Lord favors His people, glorifies the humble with salvation,” are ideal, like ancient statues, and at the same time vital - they look like young pages at the courts of Renaissance rulers.”
The fresco “Angel Playing the Viol”, not so many works by Melozzo have come down to us, most of his frescoes died during the restructuring, but from what remains, one can judge the scale of his talent. Melozzo, turning to medieval samples, breathed new life into them, anticipating Michelangelo, and Raphael, and Correggio, and the paintings on the domes of baroque churches.
Also noteworthy is the work of Gentile da Fabriano (c. 1370-1427).
Scenes from the life of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker: St. Nicholas pacifies the storm and saves the ship. OK. 1425. Predella. Wood, tempera. But it is interesting not so much for its plot, but for the fact that the author depicts the earth here as round, which for those times is an unconditional innovation. Look at the horizon line. 
Well, I can’t help but pay attention to one of the central exhibits of the first room by Giovanni Bellini (c. 1432-1516). Lamentation of Christ with Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus and Mary Magdalene. OK. 1471-1474. Altar top. Wood, oil. 107×84 cm.
“Bellini is the most important artist of the Venetian school of the 15th century. This painting is one of his masterpieces. She was the top of a large altar, and in her composition Bellini takes a decisive step towards the calm grandeur of the High Renaissance, overtaking many contemporary Florentine artists. The work is avant-garde by the mere fact that it is painted in oil, in a technique completely new to Italy, just brought to Venice from the Netherlands. The iconography is also original. Usually the main person in the Lamentation scene is the Virgin Mary. It also depicts only Joseph of Arimathea supporting Jesus from behind, Saint Nicodemus and Mary Magdalene. The thoughtful silence in which the characters are immersed, underlined by the tension of the intertwined hands, gives this scene a rare psychological sharpness.
Looking at a painting by Carlo Crivelli (1435-1494). Mourning. 1488. Lunette. Wood, tempera, gold. In general, for a long time I could not understand the technique in which it was executed, the work here is so delicate that it seems that the picture is woven from brocade, it's amazing, I have never seen anything like it before.
“Carlo Crivelli, a Venetian by birth, left his native city early and became famous in the Marche region. During his lifetime, he was popular, but later he was forgotten and rediscovered only at the end of the 19th century. This lunette, crowning the great altar, is one of his most striking works. For the sake of expressiveness, the artist goes to obvious violations of proportions, and in order to weave the hands of Jesus, the Virgin Mary and Magdalene together, Crivelli makes the right hand of Christ much longer than the left. Bent over a knot of palms, the face of the Magdalene, distorted by weeping, becomes the emotional center of the picture. The strongest influence of northern Gothic is felt in the work, and it is characterized by that incredible tension of psychological experience that is characteristic of the mystical religious movements of the 15th century.
most of the works with their plots take us to where the birth of Christ and other events took place
Moving on to the second hall of the exhibition, I want to start with a description of the painting that struck me the most, namely the painting by Guido Reni "Saint Matthew and the Angel", 1635-1640. The size of the painting is 85 × 68 cm, oil on canvas. Saint Matthew, originally named Levi, one of the twelve apostles and author of the first gospel. Reni painted this picture for about five years already in adulthood. "Saint Matthew and the Angel" is considered one of the most significant works of the artist in the last period of his work. The magic of the gaze of Matthew and the angel is striking, as one listens to the other, with what amazing accuracy and grace the artist was able to convey the complex range of feelings of both precisely in their views.
The second picture in terms of the power of influence on me was the painting attributed to Pensionante del Saraceni "The Renunciation of St. Peter." The painting until 1943 was considered the work of Caravaggio, but then was attributed to a student of Carlo Saraceni, one of the main representatives of early Caravaggism. The name of the student has not yet been established, and he is conventionally called "Pensionante del Saraceni", which in Italian means "guest of Saraceni". His canvases stand out among the works of other caravagists: the artist does not plunge the background into darkness, but illuminates the whole picture with an even iridescent light. The plot of the picture is the Gospel story about the denial of the Apostle Peter. On the night before being taken into custody, Jesus predicted to him that he would deny three times before the first roosters. A servant girl approached Peter, who was waiting for news at the gate of the high priest’s house, where the arrested Jesus was taken, and, recognizing him, said: “And she is with Jesus Galilean,” but the apostle denied. In the picture, Peter’s face is in shadow, as if hiding his shame .
One of the central works of the second room is the work of Michelangelo Merisi, nicknamed Caravaggio, "The Entombment", which the artist painted for the Roman temple of Santa Maria della Valicella. She is considered one of the best in his work. The composition of "The Entombment" is built in such a way that the viewer looking at it involuntarily becomes part of the picture. The stone tomb in which they want to put Christ is turned towards the viewer by one of the corners - this corner, as it were, breaks through a thin barrier between the world of the picture and ordinary reality. The impression is strengthened by the sharp elbow of Nicodemus holding Jesus by the legs. It seems that they want to transfer the immovable body of Christ to the one who looks at the picture.
Young Maria froze in a silent scream, raising her hands to the sky, her hair sticking out in different directions - apparently, she tore them in moaning. The head of Mary Magdalene is mournfully lowered, he hides his tears, worrying about the loss. The mother of Jesus does not cry or scream, she silently looks at the face of her son, knowing that she will never see him again. The faces of the men are concentrated and mournful.
John, frowning, peers into the inanimate face of his Master, and the strong and thick-set Nicodemus looks down at the bottom of the tomb, straining under the weight of Jesus' body. The body of Christ is devoid of any cadaverous shades, it is pale, as if it had lost all the colors of life. 
Of course, one of the most significant exhibits of the exhibition are two small grisailles by Rafael Santi, which constituted the predella of the altarpiece for the church of San Francesco al Prato in Perugia, known as the Baglioni altarpiece, in the center of which was the Entombment, now kept in the Borghese Gallery. “Faith”, the side part of the predella, appears as a female figure with a chalice in her hand, the putti in the side niches hold tablets with mograms of the name of Jesus.
In the Third Hall we are presented with a series of "Astronomical Observations", the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Satup, Comet. An unusual series of paintings, inserted in one frame, depicting night observations of all the planets of the solar system known at that time, was created by the Bolognese artist Donato Creti, commissioned by Count Luigi Ferdinando Marsili, an amateur astronomer. The count decided to send the paintings to Pope Clement 11, hoping in this way to convince him to allocate money for the construction of an observatory in Bologna and achieved his goal, the funds were allocated.
Many more worthy and unique works are presented at the exhibition and you, friends, have two more months to visit it and see all these creations with your own eyes, I wish you good luck.
Arkady Ippolitov
Curator, art critic. Curator of the Engraving Department of the Hermitage. Author of the books “Especially Lombardy. Images of Italy XXI” and “Only Venice. Images of Italy XXI". Curator of exhibition projects - including Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Robert Mapplethorpe, Giovanni Piranesi.
© Igor Starkov
- About last year's exhibition "Palladio in Russia", which you curated, you said that three centuries of Russian architecture are concentrated in it. What is concentrated in the project "Masterpieces of the Vatican Pinakothek", which will be exhibited in the Tretyakov Gallery in November?
- Seven centuries of the history of the Papal States are concentrated in the Vatican Pinakothek. One can not even talk about what Rome means for Russia. The exhibition is a kind of explanation of the idea “Moscow is the third Rome”, with which we have been living for the fifth century. Our project has a subtitle "Roma Aeterna" - "Eternal Rome". The institution of the papacy, founded by the apostle Peter in the 1st century, links European civilization with the ancient world. This is one of the few connections that has survived to this day.
The Vatican Museums are similar to the old royal collections of the Louvre and the Hermitage, but at the same time very different from them. Each great collection showcases the history of mankind with many schools and countries. And the Vatican Museums is a museum of the history of Rome and Roman art. This collection could be called a museum of the city, but what a city! The Vatican Picture Gallery is relatively small - it contains about 500 works - and was opened only in 1932. At the same time, almost all the paintings come from churches and collections in Rome and the Papal States - it turned out to be downright a regional gallery. However, if we remember that this region is the state of the head of the Catholic world, then this immediately changes things.
The exhibition begins with "Christ Blessing" - this is the earliest Roman icon of the 12th century, painted under the strong influence of Byzantium. It keeps memories of the unity of Orthodoxy and Catholicism, shows the common root from which both Italian and Russian art grows, explains why all this takes place in the Tretyakov Gallery.
"St. Francis", Margaritone dʼArezzo, 1270-1280
© Vatican Pinakothek
- And what picture will be the last in the historical perspective? Caravaggio?
The latter is much more interesting; it belongs to the 18th century. This is a series of works by Donato Creti "Astronomical Observations" - eight paintings in one frame, images of the planets of the solar system known at that time. The paintings were painted for Pope Clement XI in order to convince him to give money for an astronomical laboratory in Bologna. This is how we see the whole history of the European spirit: from Christ Pantocrator, the ruler of the universe, to the universe observed through a telescope.
The most important work - a masterpiece that influenced the history of the entire world of painting - is just Caravaggio, his "The Entombment". There will be many other significant things. For example, "Saint Francis" by Margaritone dʼArezzo of the XIII century, without which not a single history textbook can do. The work is interesting not only for its artistic merits, but also for its historical significance: this is one of the first images of a saint who changed all European thinking. Perhaps this is his portrait.
There is an unusually esoteric and elegant thing - Ercole de Roberti's "Miracles of St. Vincenzo Ferreri" predella, recognized as one of the most sophisticated works of the Renaissance. There are angels that can be called the most famous angels in the world - three frescoes by Melozzo da Forli. These are things that almost never leave Rome, and Zelfira Tregulova and I, when we managed to get them, were absolutely happy. Of course, not everything was given according to the preliminary list, but I counted on that: the Tretyakov Gallery, and Moscow and Russia along with it, received the most important things.
- It is interesting to build inter-museum relationships - a bit like a poker strategy.
- To some extent, always so. We proceed from how it will be better, but it turns out as always. In this case, the most coveted things were received, including two grand "Lamentations" - Crivelli and Bellini. Any Bellini is beautiful, but our work is simply extraordinary.
- In January, at a press conference, Mrs. Tregulova said that this project was made possible thanks to two people: Putin and Pope Francis. Should it be understood as a political gesture?
- You can talk about any exhibition as a political gesture. Yes, it's no secret that this is the result of negotiations between specific individuals, but for me the main thing here is the artistic value. Moscow will receive for several months what it could not even dream of.
"The Miracles of St. Vincenzo Ferreri", 1473 (detail), Ercole de Roberti. Remarkable, among other things, for its accurate depiction of architecture - majestic, but not overwhelming
- Why is all this shown in the Tretyakov Gallery, which is still known as a museum of Russian art?
- Moscow - the third Rome. The Tretyakov Gallery provides national art in the same way as the Pinakothek provides Roman art. So, with all the differences, both museums have a certain similarity. At the exhibition, we will be able to see a lot of parallels: Rome and the Pinakothek meant a lot to Russian artists, the Vatican paintings by Poussin were more than known in Russia, many were copied.
- How do you plan to exhibit masterpieces in a complex building in Lavrushinsky Lane?
- Our architect was Sergei Tchoban, and he built the space, endowing it with some semantics. The first room with early paintings is made octagonal, which allows you to show everything, focusing on individual things or entire groups. The main hall, which will house the most important works - "The Martyrdom of St. Erasmus" by Poussin, "The Entombment" by Caravaggio and two little Raphaels - is planned like St. Peter's Cathedral.
- You are an employee of the Hermitage, but the Moscow Museum exhibits the Vatican project. Mikhail Piotrovsky said that St. Petersburg is a puritanical city, while Moscow is more suitable for, I quote, "tough works of modern art and eroticism." What do you think about it?
- Everything that my director says is true a priori. But I think you are misinterpreting his words a little. He meant that St. Petersburg is an incredibly stylish city, while in Moscow you can feel freer. The first official exhibition of Kabakov in Russia was held in Russia in 2004 in the Hermitage - for some reason everyone forgot about it. Mapplethorpe was exhibited here first, there were many other radical projects. But style has its effect, and so other cities can act a little more radically.
Fresco "Angel with a Viola", Melozzo da Forli, 1480. It was painted for the Basilica of Santi Apostoli in Rome. After a major restructuring of the church, many frescoes by da Forli were lost, but the angels were saved - and at the beginning of the 18th century they went to the Vatican
© Vatican Pinakothek
In my opinion, an exhibition from the Vatican is as much a fact of the life of modern Moscow as exhibitions of contemporary artists. There are always attempts to impose some kind of historical stamps on art, but, in general, it denies linear development. Because each work of art breaks out of its context, which, of course, is conditioned, and, breaking out, begins to acquire many other contexts. I have done many exhibitions that prove that they are equally modern. We must know and take into account the context - know what the Renaissance is, what it means. But in any case, our dialogue with a work of art is precisely a dialogue.
You have been working at the Hermitage since 1978. In the Soviet Union, the museum had an edifying function; in the 1990s, the concept of a supermuseum was born, which serves as an attraction, like the Guggenheim in Bilbao; now, in the 21st century, with iPhones and virtual reality, the technological breakthrough continues. What is it like to witness such changes?
Each time it becomes more and more interesting. Sokurov came up with the metaphor of the ark, and this is fair enough: in the very walls of the Winter Palace there is a certain inviolability that gives the very feeling of the ark. And the time in the ark is the same, and it does not happen that one era seems better, and the other worse.
Museums are needed, and in the same 20th century, in parallel with modernism, the idea of conservation developed, which turned out to be much more radical than in the most classical eras, which dealt with the past ruthlessly. Despite all the declarations that have remained mostly in theory, modernism develops museums. Today, there are more and more classical museums, and the further they go, the stronger they are. Museums will definitely keep their structure and protect it. While all museums strive to be as open as possible - to ideas, to the public, to opportunities - there is also a certain fear. The museum wants to be popular. What is popularity? The most popular things are Disneyland and McDonald's, to which contemporary art has long made a step. The next question is for museums.
"Astronomical Observations", Donato Creti, 1711. The painting was indeed painted to encourage Pope Clement XI to build an observatory
© Vatican Pinakothek
- Is it a certain temptation?
Certainly. It is not something that needs to be fought against, but it is necessary to be aware of it. However, I think that the classical museum will remain in its positions. Even the most desperate contemporary art always dreams of getting into a museum, and a classic museum at that.
- Well, how do you feel about multimedia exhibitions?
I don't like it when technologies are mixed with originals in the same space - when a picture hangs and photographs of its fragment are unfolded here in a huge increase. The audience loses its sense of reality and is distracted just by a fragment. At the Vatican exhibition, we abandoned detailed explications, trying to reduce the interference of third-party objects and giving the works themselves the opportunity to speak.
- Why do you think there is such an abundance of texts at all exhibitions today?
I have long noticed that at exhibitions everyone loves to read, and in books - on the contrary, to look at pictures. The most refined public reacts this way, and I often use it. There are exhibitions that involve reading - in our exhibition, texts will play a purely auxiliary role. Zelfira Ismailovna and I agreed on this right away, and Tchoban absolutely agreed with us. We will print the texts separately, we will supply audio guides.
“Lamentation of Christ”, Giovanni Bellini, 1478. In 1483, the artist received the post of official painter of the Venetian Republic
© Peter Horree/Alamy/Diomedia
For tourists, going to the museum is an easy entertainment, on a par with shopping or the same Disneyland. How about the Hermitage? Doesn't it suffer from tourists?
He is quite good at dealing with them. The museum cannot exist without the public, and it is interested in having as many public as possible. On the other hand, sometimes there is an inflection, if the museum cannot accommodate its entire audience, then you need to think about it. The Hermitage is expanding its borders, although the public has not yet fully understood that the General Staff is part of the Hermitage. But over time it will happen.
- What do you think about the phenomenon of museum queues in Russia now? Some kind of Soviet tradition revived?
There is nothing incomprehensible about this: I remember the huge queues for grandiose exhibitions in the Pushkin Museum and the Hermitage in the Soviet years.
Yes, but those were imported exhibitions, and the same “Girl with Peaches” by Serov is constantly present in the exposition of the State Tretyakov Gallery.
It was grandiose: so many of his works have not been collected anywhere else - and probably will not be for another hundred years.
- And what is the reason for the popularity of the exhibition?
Aivazovsky is, of course, a specific taste and phenomenon of the art market. But Serov is "our intellectual everything." No matter how they scold him, he is a wonderful artist, and talk about the fact that he is an average European modernist is empty and superficial. He died very early, moreover, he had great talent and unmistakable instinct. This is one of the few artists who created a certain parallel to Russian logos and literature: Serov's painting has all the advantages of Chekhov's prose. Maybe Fedotov and Gogol still have such a parallel. This phenomenon is absolutely Russian, understandable only to those who know Russia. In addition, Serov never committed a single mistake in his life - his behavior during the revolution of 1905, his attitude towards modern painting, an absolute foreboding of expressionism and avant-garde ... His drawings with Peter the Great are great and grandiose works, which from a formal point of view visions are more modern and consonant with our time than futurism.
- And what is consonant with our time? On the one hand, now all museums exhibit classics, on the other hand, official Soviet art is being rehabilitated with such ambiguous precedents as in the Manege or the great Leninist artist Alexander Gerasimov in the Historical Museum. Is this an attempt to correct an already corrected story? What do you think about it?
- It is possible to cancel history and correct what has been done, and more than once, and not only in our country. How do I feel about what's going on? What do you want me to answer? How to a diverse and fascinating picture of contemporary artistic life.
Entombment, Caravaggio, 1600-1604. Many of his paintings were rejected by customers due to the artist's intentional rejection of the sublimity of the image. He portrays the saints among the common people
© Vatican Pinakothek
Perhaps some starting point is needed for history - it could be a museum of modern art with a permanent collection, but it still does not exist. About, which was promised on Khodynka by 2018, has not been heard for some time ...
Museums of modern art abound - varying degrees of scall and grandeur. Contemporary art is also exhibited here, in the Hermitage 20/21 project. In Moscow, it is shown by both Krymsky Val and MMSI on Petrovka and in Ermolaevsky Lane. There will be no ideal and beautiful museum: the ideal simply cannot be connected with modernity. And if we talk about it in a more concrete way, then it's worth just sitting down, getting to work and designing a good museum of modern art.
Then back to the classics: if you could buy or, say, receive as a gift one of the paintings from the exhibition “Roma Aeterna. Masterpieces of the Pinakothek, what would you choose?
Thank God, I will not have such a question, otherwise I could well commit suicide from greed. Of course, you need to take Caravaggio. But you can't take him out of the Vatican! This is an absolutely impossible dilemma, and it would do me no good.
Vasily Perov. "Troika" ("Apprentice artisans carry water"). 1866. Photo: State Tretyakov Gallery
Exhibition “Russian way. From Dionysius to Malevich is the second part of a joint project between the Vatican Museums and the State Tretyakov Gallery. The first part was an exhibition held in Moscow two years ago. Russian art will be shown from November 20 to February 16 in the Charlemagne Wing of the Bernini Colonnade of St. Peter's Basilica, where exhibitions of the Vatican Museums are held regularly. A special architectural solution has been created for the Russian exposition, which will allow the public to calmly (and, by the way, free of charge) view everything that will be brought from Moscow.
Natalia Goncharova. "Trinity". 1910. Photo: State Tretyakov Gallery
The Tretyakov Gallery presents The Russian Way as an exhibition that is unprecedented and bold in concept. For the first time for a foreign show, works of exceptional importance for our art have been collected in such a quantity. Most of them - 47 paintings and icons - from the collection of the Tretyakov Gallery, another 7 exhibits were provided by other domestic museums. The curators (the author of the concept and exposition - Arkady Ippolitov, the section of ancient Russian art was formed by Tatyana Samoilova, painting of the 19th-20th centuries - by Tatyana Yudenkova) abandoned the traditional chronological principle. At the exhibition, icons and paintings will be shown in such a way that the continuity, deep internal, rather than formal connection between ancient Russian and realistic and modernist art is clear, which is really unusual, since according to tradition it is rather customary to oppose them as religious and humanistic art, pre-Petrine and post-Petrine . That is, the exhibition should, in essence, outline the spiritual quest of Russian artists over the centuries. Or, as Arkady Ippolitov says, to show "the originality of the Russian artistic mentality."
Mikhail Vrubel. "Seated Demon" 1890. Photo: State Tretyakov Gallery
The juxtapositions built in the exposition may seem unexpected: “Christ in the Desert” by Ivan Kramskoy and the Permian wooden sculpture “Christ in the Dungeon”; "Black Square" by Kazimir Malevich and the Novgorod icon "The Last Judgment" of the 16th century; the textbook "Troika" by Vasily Perov and the iconic "Trinity". Other parallels are perceived as long known. Thus, the origins of "Bathing the Red Horse" and "Petrograd Madonna" by Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin are obvious.
Savior Not Made by Hands. 16th century Novgorod. Photo: State Tretyakov Gallery
“Our exposition is called The Russian Way. Probably the first thing that the viewer will immediately notice is the unusually sharp breaks in this path. This path passes through points of self-negation," poet and philologist Olga Sedakova begins her article in the exhibition catalogue. The anti-clerical Procession in the Kursk Province by Ilya Repin, as well as his Confession, and Mikhail Vrubel's beautiful Demon in his peace will also be brought to the Vatican. Naturally, the topic, as they say, could not be disclosed without the "Appearance of Christ to the People" by Alexander Ivanov. The painting that hangs in the Tretyakov Gallery is not subject to export - it is too large, its smaller version from the State Russian Museum will go on its way.
Ilya Repin. Religious procession in the Kursk province. 1881-1883. Photo: State Tretyakov Gallery
It is impossible to predict whether the originality of the idea of the Russian Way will be clear to a foreign viewer, whether he will be interested in Russian fine art in close proximity to Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel and Raphael's School of Athens. When Zelfira Tregulova was asked by TANR about what would be an indicator of success, the director of the Tretyakov Gallery replied that attendance, of course, is always the main criterion, but it is also very important for her how much European art historians and the press will be interested in the Russian Way, as they will understand and will appreciate it.
As for the Russian public, which will certainly be able to understand and appreciate the non-banality of the exhibition concept, a Russian-language version of the catalog has been published for it, it will be sold at the Tretyakov Gallery. This was not the case before. And this seems to be a very important and correct decision, since the articles in the catalog do not repeat what has long been known, but describe the history of the spiritual search for Russian art as it is seen today.
To the Tretyakov Gallery for 8 thousand rubles. Dealers told Business FM about the peculiarities of their business: “We give cashiers 5,000 rubles. They give us tickets. We sell them for 7,500, 8,000"
For 8 thousand rubles dealers sell tickets for an exhibition from the collection of the Vatican in the Tretyakov Gallery. Moreover, tickets cost 500 rubles. How profitable is it to be a reseller, and how does this business work?
You can’t get to the exhibition of masterpieces of the Vatican in the Tretyakov Gallery now: there are no tickets. On the day of sales, the Tretyakov Gallery site went down, and grandmothers were falling in a crowded queue. The gallery carried out a whole campaign to fight dealers: the director Zelfira Tregulova personally caught the dealer and handed him over to the police, personalized tickets were introduced and museum employees caught in speculation were fired. But in the end, resellers still have tickets. Moreover, at a price of up to 8 thousand rubles - for this money, if desired, you can get to the Vatican itself. Vladimir selling tickets on the VIP-Teatres website. Com, explains in detail why it is so expensive and where these tickets come from.
Vladimir ticket seller on the VIP-Teatres website. Com"Where do I get my ticket from? Ha, well, let me tell you. I go to the ticket office, pay the cashier about 5,000, and she gives me a ticket. We used to give them only 1,000, they gave us tickets. Then all the cashiers were kicked out. New ones have arrived. They say, "For 1,000 we won't take any more risks." Now we give 5,000 to them. They give us tickets. We sell them for 7,500, 8,000. I'll tell you more, in January there were personalized tickets. Ours will stir up, sell, probably at 12-15, remove the name and surname. They will still sell, only the price will increase by 1.5 times. A bunch of people who just don't want to stand for 8 hours don't want anything at all. They want a ticket. They call and say: "Bring a ticket!" It doesn't matter how much it costs. That's all. There are a lot of rich people in Moscow, and we live off of this.”
Two companies - Bilet2u.ru and bileta.net - offered to buy not ordinary tickets, but some kind of invitations. For any time and without a name. And to the question - why is it so expensive - Bilet2u manager Eduard answered this way:
“We are withdrawing these tickets from closed reservations, respectively, also not at face value. Our markup is 10% of the cost at which we remove from the reservation. We are removing reservations from the administrators of the Tretyakov Gallery.”
In the Tretyakov Gallery, they say that the invitations that the gallery gives to its partners could leak to dealers. But speculators are slandering cashiers and administrators, Tatyana Mrdulyash, deputy director for the development of the Tretyakov Gallery, is sure.
Tatyana Mrdulyash Deputy Director for Development of the Tretyakov Gallery“It was very disappointing to hear the accusations of these unscrupulous people against our employees, because it is clear that the administrator, cashiers, security service and police are the first people who are at the forefront of the fight against resellers. And dealers do not miss the chance to tarnish their reputation and say that they are connected with them.
Business FM managed to talk to a girl who herself worked as a dealer for many years: she stood in front of the entrance to concerts of famous musicians. Polina says that there are two schemes of work: firstly, to buy tickets at the lowest price as soon as they appear, and secondly, to try to get invitations from someone who is close to the organizer. Bracelets to the dance floor, to the VIP box: if you negotiate locally with a security guard, or even with a cloakroom attendant, you can manage to get four people one bracelet each. Of course, there is always a risk that it will not be possible to throw off all the tickets purchased, or that the law enforcement officers will have to give more than they expected. But on average, Polina has a good income.
Polina reseller “The minimum revenue that you can put in your pocket from one concert is somewhere in the region of 5-7 thousand rubles. There is no maximum. Roughly speaking, you can put in your pocket up to 40,000 for one concert. The competition is naturally high, and if, for example, some new face is noticed, then there are people who come up and talk. People have their own roof."
But Evgeny Finkelstein, president of the PMI media holding and the Planet Plus company, which brought Madonna, Lady Gaga and Justin Timberlake to Russia, believes that the problem is not concert, but theater dealers.
Evgeny FinkelsteinPresident of PMI media holding and Planet Plus company“Ticket resellers exist only in Moscow and a small part in St. Petersburg. They mainly work in theaters, because they know that there are some theaters, there are programs that buy out part of the quota of the best tickets and create an artificial hype with theaters for these tickets, which sell two or three times the price. Yes, there is such vicious practice of our country. The top theaters that exist, of course, work with speculators.
On the other hand, the theaters themselves are constantly introducing new measures to combat dealers. Can't beat it at all. Speculators sold tickets for the New Year's Nutcracker at Bolshoy for 80 thousand. And they buy them at regular prices in the usual queue, continues the theater reviewer Marina Raikina.
Marina Raikina theater columnist“Students are well organized at the Bolshoi Theatre. They stand in line, buy two tickets, they get their 500, and sometimes 300, and sometimes 200 rubles for this.
Resellers buy tickets that you could buy. At the same time, of course, they do not pay taxes, at least those who stand at the entrance to the theater or concert hall. Those who have a larger scale, who have their own websites and issue a check to the buyer, pay taxes, although, perhaps, not all. In any case, it is almost impossible to punish them, says Dmitry Lesnyak, lawyer of the Consumer Rights Protection Society.
Dmitry Lesnyak Lawyer of the Society for the Protection of Consumer Rights“As for the liability of the reseller, it tends to zero. If he gave you a ticket, and not just put the amount in his pocket, then he does not violate any laws, and the price is the one you agreed on. From the point of view of responsibility for illegal business, well, it is almost impossible, because the investigating authority must reveal unpaid tax in the amount of 500 thousand, at least within a year. It is clear that law enforcement agencies do not have such materials.”
While still a student, the current number two on the Russian Forbes list, Mikhail Fridman, traded scarce theater tickets while still a student. The system was as follows: students queued at the box office from the night, their comrades joined them in the morning and as a result bought a huge number of tickets, then they were exchanged for another shortage. With the speculation of theater tickets, as the media wrote, Vladimir Gusinsky also began. Of the resellers of our time, Business FM managed to contact one of the big players who owns several ticket reselling sites, he declined an interview, saying only that things were not going well.
