A lustrous album of photographs by Marc Walter.... With wise
and rapturous commentary....
內容簡介:
Situated just south of St Petersburg, the Russian imperial
residence of Tsarskoye Selo is now more than three hundred years
old. Tsarskoye Selo the Tsars Village was once a modest estate
housing a summer residence for Catherine I, second wife of Peter
the Great. The building now known as the Catherine Palace was
extensively rebuilt by Empress Elizabeth and then lavishly
refurbished by Catherine II, known as Catherine the Great. This
empresss love of art and decoration is evident in the sumptuous
interiors and in the extensive park, filled with fanciful
pavilions, bridges and monuments. Catherine also commissioned the
neoclassical Alexander Palace for her favourite grandson, the
future Alexander I; this later became home to the last tsar,
Nicholas II, and his family until their exile to Siberia. Occupied
by the Nazi forces in 1941, Tsarskoye Selo saw its treasures
plundered and many of its interiors left derelict. Fortunately,
some of its magnificent interiors survived the vicissitudes of
history, while others, such as the extravagant Amber Room, have
since been painstakingly restored to their former opulence. The
estate is not only a piece of art history but a living testimony to
the tastes and private passions of the Romanov family. Their
clothes and porcelain, their desks and bookshelves build an
intimate and involving portrait of life in imperial Russia.