The Mikhailovsky Palace

Dmitry Levitsky (1735–1822) was perhaps Russia’s finest portraitist of the period of Enlightened Neoclassicism. In Portrait of Catherine II the Legislatress, the empress is depicted in the temple of the goddess of Justice. Catherine stands beside a sculptural image of the goddess, dressed as the Legislatress. She burns poppy flowers at the altar, implying sacrifice of her personal quiet in the interests of the national welfare. Instead of a crown, she wears a laurel wreath in her hair. The decorations of the Order of St Vladimir and the books lying at her feet imply the truth and her services to her country.

The sculptor Fedot Shubin (1740–1805), having formed in the North of Russia, Archangelsk, had carried his love to the folk art throughout his life. This is particularly evident in his carvings on bone, for which the Archangel masters were famed. His many sculptural portraits in marble also reveal his skill for working with solid materials and achieving maximum likeness to life. Shubin was not afraid to delve into details, though these do not distract from the main thing in his portraits — the characteristics of his subject. The Russian Museum possesses the world’s most comprehensive collection of works by Shubin. Catherine II the Legislatress (1789), an enormous marble figure, reveals Shubin as a master of allegory and ornamentation. The statue was ordered by Prince Grigory Potemkin for the Tauride Palace. The ageing Empress is depicted redoubtable yet feminine, via the use of allegorical attributes and soft, lyrical characteristics.