| The memory of Paul I was honored in St. Petersburg The exhibition entitled “Emperor Paul I”, opened in the dilapidated Central Exhibition Hall - Manege - St. Petersburg and dedicated to the 250th anniversary of the birth of the monarch, cannot be considered a major event in cultural life. Despite the fact that the Manege is the most unbiased place, free from the ideological cliches of a traditional museum. Coming here, to a neutral territory for all museums, the viewer has the right to expect unexpected moves and revelations. Alas, they are not here this time. Despite the abundance of unique items collected from many St. Petersburg museums (Pavlovsk, Gatchina, Russian Museum, A.V. Suvorov Museum) and archives (GARF, RGADA, RGIA), the exhibition turned out to be mediocre. Even in Soviet literary museums, it was customary to “chatter” any topic, instead of original ideas, offering the usual set of memorial symbols: portraits, uniforms, weapons, books, tea sets, ladies’ dresses, archival documents, palace plans, maps, models. The same set is also present in the new exhibition, in this case responsible for the “spirit of the times” at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, what is commonly considered the Pavlovian era.
The further you go through the exhibition, the more you find yourself in the grip of mortal boredom. There is no thought that could strike even with fewer things. There are no those wonderful people who created this monarch - the architect Bazhenov, the educator and publisher Novikov. There is no story about the Mikhailovsky Castle - the main dream. There is also no Kazan Cathedral so important for the monarch, although it was this temple - “a wayward Roman dream,” in the apt expression of Benedict Livshits - that illustrated Paul’s thoughts on the unification of the Orthodox and Catholic churches under his rule.
It seems to me that I am ready to agree to any interpretation of Paul’s personality - an unfortunate builder of an ugly castle, a confused knight, an untimely and unlucky politician, a militarist doomed to murder. But even if the exhibits give you the opportunity to compose yourself, it is not clear what exactly: the ideological outline is not given, a clear story is not told. The exhibition organizers fell into a trap. The art of the 18th century, unlike the art of the next century, is not literary. If it tells about anything, it is extremely intricate, using the language of allegories and metaphors. Showing things from the 18th century in large quantities is not enough for the success of the exhibition. There are already plenty of people who are ready to free themselves from prejudices in their perception of the personality of Emperor Paul I, but the exhibition in the St. Petersburg Manege does not give them the opportunity to do this. Sergey KUZNETSOV, St. Petersburg |
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