The image of Pyotr Rumyantsev-Zadunaisky was engraved by Russian master Alexander Osipov, and printed on paper in 1803. That of Ivan Paskevich was made similarly at the E. Schafer Publishing House, in 1855, in Leipzig. The replication of their portraits is evidence that these commanders were popular in the Russian Empire, notes the Head of the Palace Museum, Oksana Toporova.
The museum received its rarest exhibit last year: a medal for ‘Fifty Years of Distinguished Military Service’, featuring a bas-relief portrait of Ivan Paskevich, stricken in 1850 by the Warsaw Mint, and designed by Yan Minheymer. The master additionally created a medal commemorating the marriage of Ivan’s son, Fyodor Paskevich, to Irina Vorontsova-Dashkova; also on show in the museum.
Typical palace furniture and ornaments are displayed at the museum, recreating the atmosphere of an historical interior. Two luxury chairs with gilded carving and red velvet upholstery recently joined the collection, as did a chair by Bergere, presented by antiques collector Sergey Putilin, alongside a console-table with stone top.
The museum’s unique collection of clocks has now been supplemented by an old table clock in the form of a portico, with wooden twisted columns, and two gilded bronze mantle clocks featuring mythological winged boys and Cupid with his lyre.
By Valery Sidorov
