St Petersburg: Architecture of the Tsars
Condition: SECONDHAND
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Lavishly illustrated and elegantly written, this volume takes us on an architectural tour of one of the world's most beautiful and enchanting cities. Before becoming a city, St. Petersburg was a utopian vision in the mind of its founder, Peter the Great. Conceived by him as Russia's "window to the West," it evolved into a remarkably harmonious assemblage of baroque, rococo, neoclassical, and art nouveau buildings that reflect his taste and that of his successors, including Anna I, Elizabeth I, Catherine the Great, and Paul I. Crisscrossed by rivers and canals, this "Venice of the North," as Goethe dubbed it, is of unique beauty. Never before has that beauty been captured as eloquently as on the pages of this sumptuous volume. From the stately mansions lining the fabled Nevsky Prospekt to the magnificent palaces of the tsars on the outskirts of the city, including Peterhof, Tsarskoe Selo, Oranienbaum, Gatchina, and Pavlovsk, photographer Alexander Orloff's portrait of St. Petersburg does full justice to the vision of its founder and namesake. The text, by art historian Dmitri Shvidkovsky, chronicles the history of the city's planning and construction from Peter the Great's time to the reign of the last tsar, Nicholas II. Anyone who has ever visited--or dreamed of visiting--the city of "white nights" will find St. Petersburg irresistible. Alexander Orloff's work has appeared in Vogue, Newsweek, The New York Times, Geo, Natural History, Stern, and many other periodicals. He is the author of several books, including Carnival: Myth and Cult and Russian Ballet on Tour, and his photographic study of North Africa's Maghrebian architectural heritage for UNESCO was awarded the Kodak Photographic Critics Prize. Born in New York, he lives in both Paris and New York. Dmitri Shvidkovsky is a member of the Academy of Fine Arts of the Russian Federation and director of the Department of the History of Architecture at the Architecture Institute in Moscow. His articles have appeared in Russian, French, English, and Chinese journals. His books include Tsarskoe Selo: City and Gardens of the Era of Enlightenment in Russia (1990) and Artistic Problems in Russian Architecture (1991). ILLUSTRATIONS 360 colour *
Author: Dmitri O. Shvidkovsky
Format: Hardback, 360 pages, 305mm x 254mm
Published: 1996, Abbeville Press Inc.,U.S., United States
Genre: Architecture
Description
Lavishly illustrated and elegantly written, this volume takes us on an architectural tour of one of the world's most beautiful and enchanting cities. Before becoming a city, St. Petersburg was a utopian vision in the mind of its founder, Peter the Great. Conceived by him as Russia's "window to the West," it evolved into a remarkably harmonious assemblage of baroque, rococo, neoclassical, and art nouveau buildings that reflect his taste and that of his successors, including Anna I, Elizabeth I, Catherine the Great, and Paul I. Crisscrossed by rivers and canals, this "Venice of the North," as Goethe dubbed it, is of unique beauty. Never before has that beauty been captured as eloquently as on the pages of this sumptuous volume. From the stately mansions lining the fabled Nevsky Prospekt to the magnificent palaces of the tsars on the outskirts of the city, including Peterhof, Tsarskoe Selo, Oranienbaum, Gatchina, and Pavlovsk, photographer Alexander Orloff's portrait of St. Petersburg does full justice to the vision of its founder and namesake. The text, by art historian Dmitri Shvidkovsky, chronicles the history of the city's planning and construction from Peter the Great's time to the reign of the last tsar, Nicholas II. Anyone who has ever visited--or dreamed of visiting--the city of "white nights" will find St. Petersburg irresistible. Alexander Orloff's work has appeared in Vogue, Newsweek, The New York Times, Geo, Natural History, Stern, and many other periodicals. He is the author of several books, including Carnival: Myth and Cult and Russian Ballet on Tour, and his photographic study of North Africa's Maghrebian architectural heritage for UNESCO was awarded the Kodak Photographic Critics Prize. Born in New York, he lives in both Paris and New York. Dmitri Shvidkovsky is a member of the Academy of Fine Arts of the Russian Federation and director of the Department of the History of Architecture at the Architecture Institute in Moscow. His articles have appeared in Russian, French, English, and Chinese journals. His books include Tsarskoe Selo: City and Gardens of the Era of Enlightenment in Russia (1990) and Artistic Problems in Russian Architecture (1991). ILLUSTRATIONS 360 colour *
St Petersburg: Architecture of the Tsars