I. E. Bondarenko. “Architect Matvey Fedorovich Kazakov”, Publishing House of the All-Union Academy of Architecture, Moscow, 1938.
PREFACE
In November 1938, our country celebrates the 200th anniversary of the birth of the great Russian architect Matvey Fedorovich Kazakov. In the history of Russian architecture, the work of Matvey Fedorovich Kazakov occupies one of the most brilliant pages. Together with his great peer, V.I. Bazhenov, Kazakov was the founder and outstanding figure of that great movement that marked the development of Russian architecture in the second half of the 18th century.
In the person of Kazakov, the Russian people put forward a versatile and exceptionally gifted master, thanks to whom this new direction of architectural thought quickly gained confidence in its abilities and in its creative path, quickly reaching the maturity of style. It was Kazakov, this tireless practical builder by vocation, who gave architectural classicism in Russia, the vitality and power of a specific creative method, practically applying it to the most diverse construction tasks, to the most diverse architectural themes of his time.
IN creative biography Matvey Kazakov's work attracts attention, first of all, to the extraordinary diversity of the master's practical activities. He works in Moscow and in the provinces, where his main customers were rich landowners or retired nobles. He has almost no contact with the architectural life of St. Petersburg, remaining aloof from the enormous construction activity that was concentrated in the rapidly growing and developing capital. And yet, on this limited material, Kazakov develops such a variety of architectural motifs, techniques, and solutions that his work becomes, as it were, an encyclopedia of Russian architecture of the 18th century.
He creates a magnificent example of a monumental government building - the Moscow Senate, now the government building, integrated with the greatest tact and skill into the ensemble of the Kremlin; he develops the theme of the ceremonial hall and gives two completely different, but truly classical solutions to this theme - in the domed (now Sverdlovsk) hall of the “Senate” and in the Column Hall of the “Dolgorukov House” - now the House of Unions; he builds several palaces in Moscow, representing complete ensembles of “city estates”, including a true masterpiece of this type - the former Razumovsky house on Gorokhovoy Pole (now the Institute physical culture named after Stalin).
Outside the city, on estates near Moscow, Kazakov creates an equally remarkable example of a country estate ensemble - Petrovskoye-Alabino; Departing from the estate theme, he, with the same brilliance and enormous architectural tact and taste, designs and implements numerous city buildings - the Golitsyn hospital and a number of private houses in various quarters of Moscow.
Work on urban planning also finds a place in Kazakov’s creative legacy: the central ensemble of Tver (now the city of Kalinin) - the square - bears the stamp of Kazakov’s skill, Kazakov’s understanding of the problem of the ensemble. In a cursory list it is impossible to name even only Kazakov’s outstanding works. The complete list of works of this architect, who never tired in his construction work, takes up many dozens of pages.
Kazakov, throughout his life and work, gave a most instructive example of architectural creativity, inseparably connected with construction, with the practice of scaffolding, with construction production. A great artist, he was a first-class technician, armed with the advanced technical achievements of his time: he brilliantly demonstrated this, for example, during the construction of the dome in the hall of the Moscow Senate.
Having studied in Russia and never been abroad, Kazakov was a master of European scale, in his knowledge and skill in no way inferior to his contemporaries - French and Italian architects, and in the breadth of his creative range - surpassing many of even the most famous representatives of Western European architecture of the 18th century. century. IN best works Kazakov, Russian classicism appears to us as a deeply independent architectural style, as a phenomenon of Russian national artistic culture, entering in a deep and powerful stream into the general mainstream of world architecture. Finally, Kazakov plays a prominent role as a teacher and educator of a whole generation of Russian architects, as one of the first figures and adherents of the Russian architectural school, as an architect-teacher, one of the pioneers of architectural education in Russia.
In the light of the great creative tasks, which the era of socialism, the Stalin era, poses to Soviet architecture, the achievements of the remarkable Russian architects of the past are assessed in a new way.
Soviet architecture strives to draw from them and creatively rework the lessons of mastery, wise understanding of the laws of classical architecture, and the ability to apply these laws in accordance with the requirements of life. In the gigantic creative work on the construction of a socialist city, Soviet architecture creatively perceives all the best that was created by the great architects of the past, all the best that our peoples created in the field of architecture great country. In this creative heritage, a prominent place is occupied by the works of Matvey Kazakov, a remarkable Russian architect of the 18th century, who managed to create architectural values of lasting significance in the conditions of the serfdom era.
Through the creative efforts of the great Russian people, highly artistic works of Russian architecture were erected, developed by their most talented sons in the fight against the lack of culture and despotism of the ruling class of merchants and landowners, in the conditions of the economic and technical backwardness of Russia at that time. These works are the greatest monuments of history, which we should be proud of and study, just as we are proud of the great Russian writers, artists, musicians, philosophers and study their works.
Matvey Fedorovich Kazakov, one of the greatest masters of Russian architecture of the 18th century, embodied the genius of his ideas in architectural monuments that are highly valued and loved by our Soviet people.
Architects of our country celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Matvey Fedorovich Kazakov as patriots fighting for the creation of a socialist style of Soviet architecture.
Anniversary Commission
THE THIRTY years of the eighteenth century... The earthen slope of the bank of the Moscow River, along the bank there are log buildings of wooden warehouses of the “Old Commissariat”. A huge courtyard overlooking the Gardeners on the other side, two low stone barns and in the corner of the courtyard three small houses for lower servants and watchmen. In one of these houses, in the family of a poor minister, “sub-clerk” (clerk) Fyodor Kazakov, on October 28 (?) 1738, a son, Matvey (1), was born.
Poor childhood. The closed world of a musty army uniform establishment; carts with clothes, some bales, leather, bags. The yard for games is huge, there is even more space in the quiet back streets of Sadovniki and the entire adjacent Zamoskvorechye region. A meager initial letter from the sexton of the neighboring Kosmodemyansk church.
The boy discovered a passion for drawing early, and from the very beginning youth he was drawn to where the roar of construction was going. Before his eyes, large stone warehouses and a house for an office were being built in the courtyard; masons, carpenters, joiners were walking around, then roofers and painters... Officials in green uniforms came from the “city”. The boy watched how one of these officials gave orders to the workers, how he unfolded a sheet of paper with drawings, how the foreman measured out the soil with a sapling, set up stakes, pulled the mooring rope, how they dug pits and poured foundations, how brick walls grew from under the hands of masons. The whole process construction work passed before the boy's inquisitive eye. He also loved to wander around Moscow, observing the colorful picture of the big city.
Through the low wooden floating Moskvoretsky Bridge the path went past the Kremlin to Red Square. There were still many traces of the recent fire that burned half the city. They cleared out burnt areas, broke down forges and wells sticking out in the middle of the streets, widened street passages, and smoothed out potholes in the pavements. Even in the Kremlin, there were still piles of garbage, rubble, burnt brands, manure dumped downhill, and mud flowed in streams onto the muddy banks of the Moscow River. Scaffolding protruded here and there near the Kremlin churches and palace chambers; on Red Square around Lobnoye Mesto there are awnings of small shops; Along the Kremlin wall there are half-dismantled wooden chapels and houses; on Ilyinka and Varvarka there are warehouses and houses of merchants and artisans. Nikolskaya looked cleaner, more spacious: the beautiful building of the Printing Yard, the building of the Zaikonospassky Monastery, stone houses of two and three floors. A wide stone bridge at the Resurrection Gate across Neglinka led to Tverskaya and Dmitrovka - the main streets.
The head of the Commissariat was then M. M. Izmailov, who often visited Sadovniki. He drew attention to a boy walking through the scaffolding of construction sites and constantly drawing something. Izmailov took care of the gifted young man, who was left an orphan, and assigned him to his favorite business. Young Kazakov managed to be placed in the recently opened architectural school of Dm. Ukhtomsky. This school was under the jurisdiction of the Senate, constituting its special “expedition”. In 1751, a decree came from the Senate office to Ukhtomsky: “ according to your report, by which they asked to be appointed to your team for written correction and to teach architecture to the Main Commissariat of the deceased sub-office clerk Fyodor Kazakov, son Matvey, who has not yet been assigned to work anywhere, to determine with the awarding of a salary against junior architecture students at a ruble per month ...»
Architect Dm. Ukhtomsky (1719-1761) played a major role in the development of Russian architecture in the 18th century; he was the founder of the first architectural school in Russia, long before the establishment of the Academy of Arts.
The entire study of the architect in the “teams” of Ukhtomsky’s predecessors boiled down to the practical study of construction and the beginnings of elementary architectural literacy. Michurin, Rastrelli, and Evlashev had such “teams.” But only Ukhtomsky introduced systematic teaching of architecture, and when his school was officially authorized in 1749, it was located in Okhotny Ryad, initially in two chambers: on the site of the schismatic office and the Senate printing house. Education at the school together with Ukhtomsky was conducted by his comrade arch. V. Obukhov and a number of “Gesels”, i.e. assistants, among whom his brother V. Ukhtomsky, K. Blank, A. Kokorinov and P. Nikitin should be noted.
Ukhtomsky based his teaching on the study of classical architecture, and already two years after the opening of the school, he demanded from the Senate a whole series of textbooks: the works of Vitruvius, Palladio, Serlio, Pozzo, Blondel, Decker, Devillers and Sturm.
With little knowledge, young Kazakov entered the walls of the school, which by this time already occupied two floors. Almost all 28 students of the school lived here. They studied under conditions of penniless pay and strict discipline, also doing all the menial work of repairing the building and supervising it, right down to washing the floors and chopping wood.
School discipline was sometimes overly harsh: incompetent children were beaten with sticks and, in the end, due to their inability to study, they were “sent to the sailors.” The composition and age of the students varied greatly, since boys at least 9 years old who knew “literacy and numeracy” were admitted to the school, but during the selection they took into account their aptitude for architecture and general development. On rare occasions, well-prepared young men also appeared at the school, such as Bazhenov, who entered at the same time as Kazakov, and had already graduated from the Slavic-Greek-Latin school.
The low level of literacy among students was common at that time, and it is not difficult to imagine the level of development of the poor clerk’s son, who still had to be taught “written correction”; foreign languages were out of the question, and Bazhenov himself had to enter Moscow University for a special study of the French language.
Ukhtomsky, having familiarized himself with the drawings of young Kazakov, guessed a major talent in him and began to study with him especially carefully.
The method of teaching at school was purely practical. The entire course was divided into 8 groups (8 years), and the last two groups studied the theoretical works of the classics of architecture, without interrupting at the same time practical work in construction.
Russian literacy, mathematics, rudiments of history, geography, drawing, and drawing were taught, but at the same time practical classes were conducted on measuring buildings, familiarizing themselves with building materials on buildings, drawing up basic estimates, and daily business trips to construction sites were carried out. At the construction sites, students observed the progress of work, helping masons (as carriers), carpenters and joiners (as measurements) and performed all sorts of minor auxiliary work. And for all this, only 1 ruble per month was relied on for the maintenance of each student (the Elizabethan ruble was related to the pre-war ruble as 1:7).
However, harsh living conditions did not prevent young Kazakov from diligently going through school. Soon he became a junior assistant to Ukhtomsky, who during these years was building the Kuznetsky Bridge across the river. Neglinnaya, completed the construction of the Arsenal in the Kremlin, the reserve palace at the Red Gate, rebuilt the building of the Main Pharmacy and adapted the buildings of the former government offices for the newly opened Moscow University. In all these works, young Kazakov actively helped his teacher.
But at the same time, Kazakov persistently strove to acquire more theoretical knowledge. From the very first years of his studies, he diligently copied engravings from Vignola’s work “On the Five Rites of Architecture.” This book, in the 16th part of the sheet, with 107 engravings, roughly conveying the lines of architectural orders, trained the eye and hand of more than one of our architects from the galaxy of glorious masters of the 18th century. There were also handwritten copies of the work of Palladio, as well as Sturm. Translations for them were made either by Ukhtomsky himself or by a government translator who was attached to the Senate.
The rules “On the Five Rates of Architecture”, set out in heavy language, with the terms of distorted foreign names, still taught inquisitive students proportions and the basic principles of architectural literacy.
By 1760, Ukhtomsky resigned, and the leadership of the school passed to his senior assistant P. Nikitin. Kazakov, who stood out for his hard work and talented drafting of projects, became Nikitin’s assistant.
In the same year, 1760, Kazakov was graduated from Ukhtomsky’s school with the rank of “architectural ensign.” At the same time, he was appointed to the “team” of Nikitin, who was then serving as the chief architect of the city (“city architect”).
In the year Kazakov entered independent work, Tver, which played a large role in the economy of the Volga region and was a major intermediate point along the St. Petersburg-Moscow highway, burned down. Nikitin was sent to work on the restoration of Tver. He organized a special team, putting Kazakov at its head. Together with Kazakov, the architects Karin, Selekhov, Egotov, Nazarov and others were sent to Tver. The opportunity opened up for Kazakov to demonstrate his talents to the fullest.
A city plan was drawn up with a center and a series of radial streets converging to the Volga. The city center - a round square with public buildings surrounding it - has still been preserved. On the scale of that era, these were large buildings, with strict facades, the planes of which were broken up by pilasters and clear rustications. The good proportions of the massive buildings and their pleasant silhouette give us an idea of the early works of Kazakov, who also drew up a number of projects for the construction of the main streets and embankment of Tver. Kazakov made especially many alterations to the old bishop's house, rebuilding it into a palace “in case of visits of the highest persons.”
The construction of Tver in a short period of time (2 1/2 years) immediately promoted Kazakov to the ranks of the first architects, and attention was paid to him as a talented master who knew how to build in a “new taste.” Therefore, when Betsky had the idea of building an “Orphanage” in Moscow, then, simultaneously with the appointment of Karl Blank as the builder of the building, Kazakov was also invited to carry out the projects of the “facade part”.
Kazakov drew up a design for the facade and also gave an excellent design for the layout of the entire huge site with a picturesque design of squares, green spaces, embankments and beautiful ramps to the Moscow River. Unfortunately, due to the tyranny of Demidov, who financed the construction, this planning project was not completed.
Kazakov successfully found the general tone of the façade compositions. Such a huge array could only be solved in laconically simple forms, with a calm division of planes, with perfectly found proportions of window bays; the main entrance and the crowning tower (now new) are modestly highlighted. The building is skillfully staged and its entire restrained ensemble is excellent.
Along the way, Kazakov was entrusted with the design of the façade of the building for the new “public places.” Kazakov managed to give the modest small façade expressive features, accenting it with a strict Dorian portico. Classicism is already becoming the young master’s favorite style.
In 1768, the “Expedition to build the Kremlin Palace” was formed according to the ingenious project of Kazakov’s school friend Bazhenov, who planned to create a palace “worthy of glorifying the Russian state.”
Bazhenov immediately appreciated the full magnitude of the talent of his comrade, whose great experience and hard work he considered a sure guarantee of the success of an unprecedented architectural enterprise. At Bazhenov’s insistence, Kazakov was invited to serve as his chief assistant and was appointed “architect.” Of great interest is Bazhenov’s certification of Kazakov in the official report during his report to the Empress: “He (Kazakov) has acquired so much knowledge of architecture and is capable of great things in the future, and moreover, in the event of my illness, the very position (of chief architect) can be sent.”
But even in this united work, Kazakov did not lose his self. Bazhenov only helped Kazakov polish his talent, helped strengthen his techniques for planning spatial volumes, skillfully subordinating them to the main idea of the entire array. But, having used a magnificent order system in the design of the Kremlin Palace, Kazakov nowhere, in any of his other works, repeated Bazhenov, remaining true to the requirements of his own style.
The designs for the Kremlin Palace, completed over the course of a year and four months, were approved in St. Petersburg. At the same time, the site was cleared of landfill and crowded old buildings, old churches, huge buildings of “orders” and part of the Kremlin wall were dismantled. Only in 1772 was the foundation pit ready and the first foundation was laid. The work began, but after the end of the Russian-Turkish war they were, by order of Catherine, stopped. For Catherine’s arrival in Moscow on the occasion of the celebrations of the conclusion of the Kuchuk-Kainardzhi Peace, the hasty construction of the Prechistensky Palace was planned, for which two large houses (Dolgoruky and Golitsyn) were purchased at the Prechistensky Gate. The construction of this palace was entrusted to Kazakov.
The surviving drawings of this structure are an example of a talented solution in difficult conditions of combining two buildings of different sizes with a confusing layout of premises into one harmonious whole. The attached wooden galleries and the “throne” room reveal Kazakov as a great interior artist.
The organization of the Khodynka celebrations on the occasion of peace was entrusted to Bazhenov. With this, Catherine made a gesture that was supposed to soften for the great master the collapse of the brilliant plan to build the Kremlin Palace.
Officially, the matter was entrusted to the “Kremlin Expedition,” and Kazakov was the main executor of all projects for “entertainment” structures developed jointly with Bazhenov.
During the design of the Khodynsky entertainment building, Kazakov was given an order for the construction of the “Petrovsky Entrance Palace”. The project presented by Kazakov received approval, and the foundation stone of the Petrovsky Palace took place on a vacant lot that belonged to the Petrovsky Monastery.
The construction of the palace dragged on for 7 years, as funds were allocated very sparingly. Money was needed to build the capital, and the treasury was depleted by a number of wars.
In the project of the Petrovsky Palace, the cour d'honneur with picturesque fence towers was perfectly solved. A huge stable yard building was planned behind the palace, but due to lack of funds this part of the project remained unfulfilled. The buildings of the palace and the adjacent service premises, decorated with a line of walls with towers, represent Kazakov’s most valuable contribution to architecture based on the creative development of ancient Russian architecture.
These elements, inspired by Kazakov from past Russian architecture, under the hand of the great master of Russian classics, resulted in perfect, complete forms. The layout of the palace was centered on a round building with an overhead light, and its decoration, like the rest of the premises, in the style of Louis XVI did not introduce dissonance into the integrity of the entire composition. The fire of 1812 and subsequent repeated alterations introduced some distortions. However, these alterations did not spoil the building as a whole, which remains an unsurpassed masterpiece of architecture.
The next year after the construction of the Petrovsky Palace began, Kazakov began his greatest creation- the Senate building in the Kremlin.
Even during the years of designing the Kremlin Palace, Kazakov came up with the idea of developing the entire Kremlin and its reconstruction, based on the real possibility of redevelopment of the entire Kremlin ensemble. In the Kremlin, next to the remarkable cathedrals and the Terem Palace, there are still random wooden buildings of various boyar households that could not be removed during the years of preparation for the construction of the Kremlin Palace. Behind the cathedrals, towards the Borovitsky and Trinity Gates, between the Nikolsky and Spassky Gates, half-rotten buildings of various sizes still stuck out. They managed to buy a large plot opposite the Arsenal from the Trubetskoys and Boryatinskys, who still owned their “yards” here by patrimonial right. This area triangular shape and was provided for the construction of the Moscow Senate building.
The Senate building was supposed to include the main government offices, and its central part was supposed to serve for elections and meetings of the nobility. Initially, the construction of the Senate was supposed to be entrusted to the arch. K. Blanka, but Kazakov’s talent won, whose project was approved. Kazakov was appointed architect and builder of the Senate (1776), and Blank was left as a consultant, sealing all estimates.
The difficult task of developing a triangular area was solved by Kazakov simply and brilliantly. The building, triangular in plan, did not disturb the ensemble of the entire Kremlin mass, providing a backdrop to the old Kremlin walls, and the Arsenal standing opposite, and the cathedrals closing the square, and the majestic vertical - Ivan the Great. The planning solution was subordinated to the center; a large arch opened up a picturesquely constructed internal courtyard with an entrance to the main round central hall, crowned with a dome - the pearl of Cossack creativity. The external doricism of the facade planes contrasts with the rich Corinthian order of the round hall, the decoration of which, especially the cornice and the crowning coffered dome (dia. 24 m), is impeccably executed and can be considered one of the best examples of interior architecture.
Contemporaries highly appreciated Kazakov’s work, calling the building “a masterful work of taste and grace,” the “Russian Pantheon.” It took eleven years for the Senate building to be built (1776-1787) under the tireless supervision of Kazakov, who used a number of interesting design solutions in the construction of the building, which proved that stone can serve as a reliable and obedient building material in skillful hands.
The best carvers and sculptors were invited to decorate the central hall, where Kazakov first gave such rich sculptural richness.
Simultaneously with the construction of the Senate, Kazakov built the house of Metropolitan Platon in the Kremlin. But this house did little to satisfy the latter’s ambition, since it was rebuilt from an old small two-story building. Plato imagined creating a palace similar to the palaces of Catholic archbishops. And so a large plot of land is acquired on 2nd Meshchanskaya, and Kazakov draws up a development plan. Construction begins with the house church, which is attached to the old church of the 17th century that already existed here. But this construction was not completed, and the idea of creating an archdiocese came down to the construction on another site (on Troitskaya Street) of a modest-sized metropolitan house of simple architecture. It should be noted that Kazakov, when building the rotunda of the house church, least of all followed the established canonical rules of church construction; he embodied his idea of creating a round volume, covered with a dome and completed with a tower on graceful columns.
The heyday of Kazakov’s activity begins. Full of strength, the 46-year-old master is far from complacently complacent about his successes - he continues to work hard. The range of his works is expanding, already covering the provinces.
Thus, he is invited to work on the renovation of Kaluga and its province, where traces of his work remain in the form of the Gostiny Dvor building, some religious buildings and private residential buildings. In Kolomna, Kazakov works not only as an architect, but also as an archaeologist.
The walls of the ancient Kolomna Kremlin required significant corrections and restoration. But the city magistrate, local landowners, and especially representatives of the spiritual authorities, reacted with complete indifference to the restoration of this beautiful monument of ancient Russian architecture. Kazakov took up this matter. An unusually punctual man, he made careful measurements of the walls and towers and sketched them in a subtle graphic manner (on a half-sheet of Whatman paper), conveying all the details of the buildings being restored. The building of the bishop's house in Kolomna bears traces of Kazakov's work, and several private houses were built according to his designs.
The neighboring Golutvinsky Monastery was surrounded by a new wall with intricately designed towers that seemed to echo the forms of the Peter the Great's Palace.
Kazakov traveled to the provinces willingly: he sought to revive the dead architecture of remote cities, interspersing his austere classical buildings into the monotonous range of impersonal buildings. Of great interest is Kazakov’s trip to the south, Novorossiysk region, where he was sent to the “team” of Prince. Potemkin (1783). The center of this region was supposed to be a new city - Ekaterinoslav, to the construction of which Kazakov was invited.
Kazakov enthusiastically took up the new topic of creating an entire city and drew up an interesting construction program called “Delineation of the Mountains. Ekaterinoslav." In this city, according to the program, “first, there appears a magnificent temple, then a judgment seat - like ancient basilicas, shops in a semicircle - like the Propylaea or the vestibule of Athens, with the stock exchange and theater in the middle. The state chambers, where the governor also lives, are in the style of Greek and Roman buildings, having a magnificent and spacious canopy in the middle. Archdiocese with dicastery (seminary) and spiritual schola. Home for the disabled with due splendor. Governor's house, noble house, and pharmacy. Cloth and silk factory. The university together with the music academy.” The scope was enormous, but the funds allocated were limited, and the three million that were allocated for the renovation of the new region was too little to implement such a program.
Together with Kazakov in Yekaterinoslav there was also his student and assistant Egotov; the projects they drew up on the spot were not implemented; only the ceremonial laying of the cathedral took place, the design of which was also subsequently changed. The program had to be narrowed down. Kazakov, who did not agree with the work methods of the eccentric Potemkin, which were not conducive to calm, systematic creativity, was forced, after 10 months in the south, to return to Moscow along with his assistant Egotov (in the report, he wrote that he left Potemkin’s team “due to illness”).
Unfortunately, not even projects have survived from this interesting period of Kazakov’s work. According to Kazakov’s designs, a square was built in Nikolaev.
Returning to Moscow, Kazakov accepted a number of orders for the construction of public and private buildings. At the corner of Bolshaya Dmitrovka and Okhotny Ryad, on behalf of Prince. Dolgoruky, he built a house, which was soon acquired by the Moscow nobility for organizing meetings.
The courtyard of this house was adapted for the construction of a large state hall that could accommodate up to 3,000 people; the hall was designed with a pompous colonnade with choirs and covered with a flat mirror vault with strippings providing lighting. Kazakov used painting to decorate the walls and ceiling of the hall. The artist Klaude covered the walls with frescoes (the theme was military fittings), and on the ceiling he depicted the figure of a black eagle. Strict rhythm and So, he is invited to work on the renovation of Kaluga and its province, where traces of his work remain in the form of the Gostiny Dvor building, some religious buildings and private residential buildings. In Kolomna, Kazakov works not only as an architect, but also as an archaeologist. The beautifully designed columns decorating the hall are truly musical; It should be noted the unusually high acoustic qualities of the hall. In a fire in 1812, the building burned down and was restored in 1814 by Kazakov’s assistant Al. Bakarev, who preserved the main architecture of the hall. This house (now the House of Unions) is Kazakov’s best work after the Senate, although only the hall has survived from it, but the entire architecture of the facades was changed during the last reconstruction of the house (in 1906).
For 8-10 years, Kazakov has been intensely busy with the construction of government and public buildings. Among them are Moscow University, the house of the commander-in-chief, the reconstruction of the old building of the Lefortovo Palace, the prison castle, the Golitsyn and Pavlovsk hospitals, the Preobrazhensky Dolgauz, the building of the New Commissariat and a number of churches. In all these works there are no formulaic techniques; on the contrary, with all the apparent uniformity of appearance, each object has its own features, its own architecture, tightly welded to the planned resolution of the main task. The most valuable monument of this period of Kazakov’s activity is the building of Moscow University (the so-called “old building”). Its centrism is achieved by an Ionian colonnade, and the side wings facing the street, with modest pilasters, repeat the ionics of the center. The planes of the walls are designed using massive smooth blades; their constructive significance is obvious, but the unexpected decorative motif of round windows in the attic is a completely new phenomenon, since Kazakov’s principle of strict expediency and economy always prevailed over decorative / address aspects.
(The facade was redone by D. Gilardi after the fire of Moscow in 1812) The building burned down in 1812 and in 1816-1818. was restored by D. Gilardi in refined Empire forms. Only part of the rear courtyard facade remained untouched. The assembly hall was restored in the same form as it was built by Kazakov, only with the addition of ornamental painting. This hall impressed its contemporaries strong impression
: “You cannot enter the hall,” wrote one of them, “without feeling a secret awe: how majestic everything is, and what taste there is in everything.”
The house of the commander-in-chief (now the Mossovet building), for which there was already a design and the ground floor had been laid out, was beautifully furnished by Kazakov with buildings. In an explanation of the plan, Kazakov writes: “This structure of the main building was built by me, but it is unknown who designed it.” This is the only case when he built according to someone else’s design, which was reflected in the heaviness of the entire façade, which was unusual for Kazakov. But the interiors and the main staircase are the work of Kazakov, as is the entrance from the street, previously decorated with four large figures of Roman soldiers (sculptor Zamaraev).
Kazakov widely expanded ensemble construction in the buildings of the Golitsyn hospital. Unlike the “University House”, which was constrained by the size of the city site and partially neighboring buildings, the construction of the Golitsyn Hospital on the spacious site of Bol. The Kaluga road and the Moscow River opened up great planning opportunities for Kazakov.
The construction of the Golitsyn hospital went beyond the boundaries of an ordinary hospital building. The huge court d'honneur is closed by the main hospital building with side wings. The building is located taking into account street development and ground level access to the Moscow River. This descent was treated with artistically arranged landscaping in the form of tree and flower plantings, garden greenhouses and gazebos, of which two round ones completed the treatment of the Moscow River embankment, closing the Green Carpet of the garden. The architecture of the building is exquisitely simple: planes of smooth walls, their horizontal division is emphasized by rods, the growth goes from two-story side parts to a three-story central building, with a richly shaped portico and a crowning dome, balanced by two stands that play a purely decorative role.
Golitsyn Hospital in Moscow. Founded 1802 General form. Modern photo
The master paid special attention to the central part, where a large round hall for the church was built. The shape of the hall is decided by a colonnade of the Ionian order, supporting a richly coffered spherical dome, illuminated by lucarnes. The repeated range of the colonnade in the form of a second row of smaller columns of the Corinthian order is very impressive. The arched design of the surrounding planes perfectly completes the architecture of the rotunda.
Unusual for Moscow was the building of the “Public Hall”, built in the hospital park. Prince Golitsyn, on whose instructions the hospital was built, had a significant collection of paintings and sculptures, for which a two-story gallery was built in the hospital park. This first private museum in Moscow existed only during Golitsyn’s lifetime, but after his death the hospital authorities sold the entire collection and rebuilt the gallery into hospital premises. The project for this gallery was drawn up by Kazakov in two versions: one in the style of the strict Dorian order, and the second, unrealized, which the author himself called “Gothic”.
Another hospital building, the Pavlovsk Hospital, is much simpler in both the layout of the entire site and its architecture. This construction was started before Kazakov, but the main building was built according to his design.
In the quadrangle of the buildings of the “New Commissariat” (Sadovniki, 63), the facades retained the features of Cossack architecture: corner towers with small forms, modest decor of beautifully outlined planes, good proportions of window bays.
As for the palace buildings, Lefortovo and Ekaterininsky, although Kazakov’s participation in their alterations is now documented, many later alterations made the features of Kazakov’s architecture difficult to discern.
After the construction of Peter’s Palace, Kazakov more than once returned to the idea of creating “picturesque architecture” that interested him, which he called “Gothic,” thereby underestimating its enormous significance as a manifestation of the deeply Russian direction of his creative path. In two of his works, Kazakov fully demonstrated his skill in searching for new forms: this is the church in Bykov and the Tsaritsyn Palace.
Here the entire wide range of Kazakov’s creative thought is revealed. Finishing the decoration of the round Senate hall in the spirit of perfect classics, Kazakov at the same time creates bold, fantastic volumes of brilliant decoration for the church in Bykov, which is essentially not a church type. A picturesque staircase with a bizarre baroque design leads to a platform with a number of boldly decorated volumes, and suddenly - a complete surprise: the interior of this “Gothic” building is designed in the strict techniques of classical architecture, expressed by the free artistic design inherent in Kazakov.
In his other “Gothic” work - the Tsaritsyn Palace - Kazakov gave a different architecture, calm in its grandeur.
The sad fate of the palace in Tsaritsyn, almost completed by Bazhenov, is known. At the whim of Catherine, this building was destroyed. Bazhenov, the great Russian architect, fell into disgrace. Catherine had no time for the palace: war with Sweden was brewing. But Potemkin seeks to continue Tsaritsyn construction. And so Kazakov is entrusted with re-building the palace - a difficult task, creating awkwardness in relation to the offended friend and threatening the prospect of falling under a new royal whim.
Kazakov understood the vileness of vandalism, expressed in the order to tear down to the base a building built with passion and love by a great artist. The walls were dismantled to the ground, but Bazhenov’s main idea was not broken. The picturesque buildings surrounding the palace remained intact, among which it was necessary to create a building that would not disturb the harmony of the surroundings, a building that should be emphasized by the surviving figured gates and the transition to the kitchen (“bread”) house.
After dismantling the main building of the palace, Cossacks in 1786 took his project to St. Petersburg “for an explanation of it,” and he was entrusted with the construction. The project of the “English” garden, new gazebos and “cavalry corps” was presented by Kazakov only in 1788. The main reason for such sluggish construction was that Tsaritsyn’s whole idea was too far-fetched. Catherine did not like Moscow and never lived in it for a long time. Tsarskoe Selo answered all the whims of her life, and the need to be in the circle of the ruling clique of favorites kept Catherine in St. Petersburg. But Potemkin decided to create a residence near Moscow, and, obeying his instructions, Kazakov launched a large program of work in Tsaritsyn. Neighboring estates near the villages of Bulatnikov and Konkov were bought up to build palaces for the grand dukes.
Designing a palace on the remains of the ground floor, of course, constrained the creative thought of Kazakov, who in this case had to take into account Bazhenov’s very simplified plan.
The carefully crafted design was riddled with fine detail of individual parts, especially in the corner towers. In reality they were changed by him. In Western European architecture it is difficult to find a resemblance to the Tsaritsyn Palace, enriched with fresh forms of Cossack “Gothicism”. Despite all the apparent exoticism of the palace, its architecture is strict, and the execution of all the details of the structure is excellent. Living fragments of the powerful architecture of the palace are awaiting their restoration, which will result in the erection of a monument that clearly characterizes one of the remarkable features of the diverse creativity of the great Russian architect.
The very laying of the walls, the skillful binding of bricks with white stone details, the careful execution of these details - all this is a clear example of how attentively Kazakov paid attention to every detail.
In the complex of Tsaritsyn buildings, a large “stable yard” was also planned - a necessary transport base of that time. It was a whole ensemble of buildings of a large farm. Stables for 600 and 450 horses, barns, feed warehouses, services. In the project of this “courtyard” there are interesting methods of plans, the composition of which was based on the pictorial and decorative principle.
For the village of Bulatnikova, where Potemkin’s residence was supposed to be in case of Catherine’s visits to Tsaritsyno, the master plan was thought out in terms of large estate construction in the classical style. The building plan is simple and logically clear.
The facades of the palace are designed as a two-story building with a portico, the Dorian columns of which are light and graceful in their proportions and lines. The emphasis in the palace plan is a round hall with semi-circular niches located along its axes. Construction of the palace began, but soon, due to financial difficulties caused by the war, it was decided to build a wooden one instead of a stone building. Kazakov changed the plan, introducing structural additions, but maintaining the same general layout and main dimensions.
The palace in the village of Konkovo, intended for the Grand Duke and Grand Duchesses, was designed by Kazakov in the classical style, with a version of the project in the style of Kazakov’s “Gothic”. A semi-basement floor with vaults was built, a wooden floor was begun, but soon construction was interrupted and then completely stalled.
Examples of classics in Tsaritsyn are the beautiful Milovida gazebo, built by Kazakov’s assistant Egotov, and the so-called Nerastankino gallery. These gazebos, together with Bazhenov’s graceful temple “The Golden Sheaf,” show how the art of classicism was introduced into the construction of estates near Moscow, where Kazakov left vivid traces of his work (the Izmailov estate in Bykovo, the Demidov estate in Petrovsky-Alabino).
In Kazakov’s diverse series of public buildings, religious construction occupies a significant place. In Kazakov’s work, these buildings represent an extremely interesting page of compositional ideas, solved in clear forms of classicism. "Chin" church traditions was rejected by him, the canon was replaced by a new idea of creating a pictorial volume - a rotunda with its treatment of classical forms.
Kazakov takes the outline of the plane and decor of the dome in a new way, giving interesting, non-repetitive samples, new and fresh in design. The surface of the spherical vault is richly coffered, the interiors of church buildings acquire greater expressiveness. Kazakov painted the iconostases in these interiors with great skill, emphasizing the material (usually marble combined with bronze) in elegant forms.
An etching has survived, one of the few made by Kazakov, depicting the iconostasis in the Church of Rai-Semyonovsky and made from local marble found by Kazakov while exploring the outskirts of Moscow. Iconostases by Kazakov were also in the church of Lazarev and Danilov cemeteries.
Kazakov’s “Albums” preserve subtle elegant drawings of the iconostases of the Cathedral of New Jerusalem (on Istra), completed and preserved, and a drawing of the iconostasis of the palace church of the Prechistensky Palace, very interesting in its fine details. All these drawings are valuable in terms of identifying the general compositional techniques used by Kazakov when solving the architecture of small forms.
Local provincial builders did not always treat the Cossack projects with care, and often excellent solutions were distorted for reasons of economy, and more often by the inept hand of the builders.
The plans in Kazakov's works are themselves works of high art.
The period of Kazakov’s activity, dating back to the 80-90s of the 18th century, is associated with the emergence of a new type of urban mansion house in these years.
Owning large city plots, the nobility sought to seize the front of the street, separate their yard, and build a mansion house in its depths.
City planning as the basis of urban construction in the 18th century. just planned. Catherine’s “Commission for the Construction of the Capital Cities of St. Petersburg and Moscow,” touching, essentially, on general regulatory outlines, least of all affected the general layout of the city. Kazakov had little interest in the work of this commission; he knew its bureaucratic essence and the helplessness of its representatives. But, observing the planned construction in St. Petersburg, the great architect dreamed of creating good streets in Moscow with beautiful buildings decorating the surrounding unsightly background. General landscape of Moscow in the second half of the 18th century. was extremely diverse and original in its contradictions.
The notes of foreign travelers and the memoirs of domestic writers, which give pictures of the external appearance of the “first throne,” noted the picturesqueness of the city, but at the same time, excessive lack of culture and dirt.
“Moscow,” writes V. Volkonsky in his notes, “is more a collection of cities than one city; it represents a huge variety of buildings of the most varied styles, magnificent palaces, wooden houses surrounded by very extensive gardens, many shops, sheds, storehouses... Sometimes large elegant houses rise, and next to them are huts of poverty with their poverty and dirt.”
Against the backdrop of the picturesque chaos of the city, with its medieval network of undeveloped streets, Kazakov over the course of fifteen years created a number of beautiful mansion houses, thereby giving a different character to urban development, which received complete architectural ensembles. Before Kazakov, the Moscow street was an almost rural landscape, where stone buildings were rare, and architecturally processed houses were unique. The German settlement and the entire area adjacent to the Yauzsky palace estate (Annenghof, Golovinsky, Lefortovo palaces) had a relatively large number of stone buildings.
M. F. Kazakov. Petrovsky Travel Palace. 1775–82 Moscow
Starting from the Red Gate, the construction of Basmanny with its endless alleys stretched. The settlement of the nobility began in this area of Moscow. Here Kazakov built his first “particular” (i.e. private) houses, starting with palace-scale houses and ending with relatively small mansions. In public buildings, the functional principle predetermined the plan layout and determined their external architecture, giving them appropriate severity and a calm, representative façade.
Kazakov brought special comfort, a bold plan, and a subtle ability to combine everyday elements of housing with beautiful forms into the architecture of a residential building.
Kazakov approached perfect examples of a residential building by gradually developing this problem. For the first time after the palace buildings, with their conditioned ceremonial distribution of the interior, Kazakov encountered residential architecture when rebuilding the former Bestuzhev house for Count Bezborodko. Bestuzhev's house was built back in the 40s of the 18th century, next to the Lefortovo Palace, by architects Ukhtomsky and Blank.
Kazakov redesigned the interior of the main house and added two very large wings to its sides. Each of the attached parts consisted of a whole complex of living quarters with a central large hall; one of them had a house church. The splendor of the palace, the impressiveness of the building, the beautiful garden going down to the river. Yauze, so captivated Paul I, who came to Moscow, that he purchased it from Bezborodko to build a palace, called “Slobodsky” (this area was then called the German Settlement).
The layout of this house was essentially palatial, and the modest order of its facade contained the features of a palace overlooking a free area.
Otherwise, Kazakov decided to build a palace house for the prince. A. Kurakina. Decorated with its architecture, placed in line with the street, this house enlivened the then relatively empty Staro-Basmannaya Street.
Here is a new solution for the courtyard: there is no courtyard, but there is a courtyard for purely service purposes, surrounded by a semicircle of service buildings.
All representativeness is concentrated on the facade and interior. The facade, rich in masses, is unusually plastic, its central part is decorated with columns of the Corinthian order, the side projections repeat the system of columns in the Ionian order - a technique favored by Kazakov and subsequently adopted by his students. In terms of its architecture and decoration, this house was considered one of the best in Moscow and amazed even visiting noble foreigners. The famous French artist Vigée-Debrun, who is not very generous with praise in general, writes that Kurakin’s house “is one of the most magnificent houses in Moscow. This is a huge palace, decorated outside and inside with royal luxury. Several halls that we had to pass through were decorated one more richly than the other ... "
Subsequently, the house was converted for the Commercial School. Nearby, in Gorokhovsky Lane, there was a large plot of I.I. Demidov. When developing this site, Kazakov also moved the main building along the street line, rather than moving it deep into the courtyard, which was quite possible given the size of the large site. Here, the master’s desire to build up the street is obvious, decorating it with a beautiful building that breaks the monotonous line of wooden fences of neighboring properties. Service wings were also placed along the street line, thereby organizing a large built-up front. This technique was also new. Having placed the wings at a certain distance from the main house to achieve symmetry in the composition, it was necessary to build a fence with a gate. This motif became established in Kazakov’s architecture and was repeated many times. Kazakov designed small forms (for example, fences) very carefully: he looked for classical proportions, division of parts, and produced a harmonious and clear drawing of all the details.
The great master did not disdain the so-called architectural details.
The Demidov House, in addition to the new arrangement of the building, is also interesting for the treatment of its facade. In contrast to the lush plasticity of the facade of Kurakin’s house, with rich chiaroscuro in columnar group combinations, here we see a calm, balanced plane; and only a small portico, a rusticated first floor and modest window frames on the second floor make up the main decoration of the facade.
A similar motif of building along the red line with a facade of even greater expressiveness and plasticity is repeated in Durasova’s former house on Yauzsky Boulevard (now the building of the Military Engineering Academy). The facade of this house above the second floor windows was decorated with modest bas-reliefs, and the pediment was filled with ornamental sculpture. In addition to the sculptural fillings, balconies are also being introduced on the second floor.
The main method of planning permission for such houses was entirely subordinated to the everyday life of their owners - the nobles. The main entrance was located on the side of the lower floor of the house, with an entrance from the yard. Service rooms for butlers, valets, footmen, and storage rooms were allocated on the lower floor near the secondary staircases. The main staircase was usually built in three flights and was decorated with great luxury. The series of ceremonial rooms was enfilade and included a number of rooms: offices, living rooms, bedrooms, bosquets, dining rooms. The upper floor was reserved for children's rooms, as well as guest rooms. The kitchens were located in separate wings, and only the pantry next to the dining room had a small stove for heating food. The outbuildings housed a large staff of servants in cramped rooms, outside of any sanitary standards; especially the so-called “girls” and “humans” were filled with people living to capacity.
In the depths of the courtyard, often a second one, there was a separate stable farm with carriage sheds, haylofts and barns for food supplies.
But it is in vain to look in the plans of these houses for even the semblance of a sanitary facility. At best, in rich houses, next to the bedroom or a separate “dressing room,” there was a small, dark room for a restroom with an external basin. There is no hint of bathrooms.
With his mansion house, the nobleman fenced himself off from city life, from the crowd, just as he fenced himself off from the people with his letter “on freedom for the nobility.”
Having repeated the typical building along the street line many times, Kazakov moved on to another type of mansion house, returning in part to the court d'honneur. Thus, in the architecture of the Baryshnikov house (now the house of the Myasnitskaya Hospital), the center is emphasized by a mezzanine raised part, a new motif was introduced into the portico by replacing the corner columns of the Corinthian order with square ones, which gave the facade a picturesque and emphasized static quality. The side wings of the building protruding onto the street are decorated with flat pilasters of the Ionian order. We see a repetition of this completion of the portico in Gubin’s house (Petrovka, Institute of Physiotherapy).
The main motif of the facade design - the portico - was varied by Kazakov in various shapes and sizes. So, instead of the usual six-column portico, we see a ten-column one in the former house of Eropkin (Ostozhenka, now Metrostrooevskaya) and a twelve-column one in the former house of the prince. S. Gagarin (Petrovsky Gate, Moscow State University Clinic).
Gagarin's house was built with an original layout solution for the entire site. The house was built for a wealthy aristocrat who loved gardening. The task was to preserve the site for a regular garden with greenhouses despite the majestic façade. The house was placed on the corner of the plot and the main facade faced Petrovka; the courtyard is adjacent to the left side of the building and is surrounded by a circumferential service building, which is a continuation of the main two-story building, from which the middle part (three floors) is separated. The unusually sized portico makes up all the richness of the façade, which is otherwise extremely simple. After the fire of 1812, the house was rebuilt, and it was then that the pediment frieze was decorated with stucco ornaments typical of the Empire style.
The portico of Menshikov's former house is also decorated with sculptural ornamental Empire details, although Kazakov added so much beauty to the slender lines of this portico that no additional decorations were required at all. House on the corner of the street. Herzen and st. Ogareva had a small courtyard from the street and entry from the alley through the entrance gate of the house (only the middle part of the house has been preserved).
But the cour d'honneur motif in Kazakov's projects plays less and less often as a planning accent of the development. The former house of Kozitskaya (later Beloselsko-Belozerskaya) on the street. Gorky was very cramped by the bell tower of the church standing opposite him, but this cramping is not felt when looking at the documenting watercolor by F. Alekseev, from his wonderful series of views of Moscow.
Among private houses, noteworthy is the former Pashkov house on Mokhovaya, now rebuilt and called the “new building” of the university. Situated on a rise, this house was connected by a one-story gallery with a long two-story house(stretching along Nikitskaya and ending in a semicircle, processed by columns). The extremely picturesque composition of the front halls, semicircular living rooms, beautifully located main staircase - all this is combined into one whole and imbued with extraordinary comfort. The facade of the house survived until the 90s of the last century, when zealous university architects mutilated it with additions and “corrections” of details.
Let us also mention those houses built by Kazakov that have survived at least partially. After “Basmanny”, the settlement of the Moscow nobility began in the areas of “Starokonyushennaya” (the so-called Ostozhenka, Prechistenka, Arbat streets with adjacent alleys), as well as along the then main street - the former Tverskaya. Little by little, the desire for a certain area is replaced by the profitability of plots acquired after fires or by the purchase of their houses from impoverished nobles, rebuilt “in excellent taste.” The broken remains of the walls of the White City were used for the construction of government buildings (this is how the house of the commander-in-chief, Yauzsky Bridge, orphanage, etc. were built).
The cleared areas “along the rampart” (in place of the walls) formed large areas suitable for buildings along the line of the boulevards of the “A” ring. It was then that houses built by Kazakov appeared: Durasova - along Yauzsky Boulevard, Gagarin - at Petrovsky Gate, Tatishchev - along Petrovsky Boulevard, Tsurikova - along Gogolevsky Boulevard, etc.
In addition to permanent buildings, Kazakov built a number of small one-story stone houses (for example, the former Lobanov-Rostovsky house, 61 Kirova St.), as well as wooden ones.
Of the private buildings, Razumovsky’s house on Gorokhovskaya Street is the best preserved. (Institute of Physical Education). Here, Kazakov’s creativity was especially evident in the original planning of the entire huge site.
Kazakov decided to build on a purely estate scale: a huge house - behind it there is a park going down to the Yauza, in front of the house across the street - a church, to the side - numerous service buildings.
The house was built of wood. For reasons of fire safety and to resolve the architectural composition, the long wooden mass was broken up by a stone part, processed by a large arched span, with a loggia and two emphasized projections. The richness of the architecture of the central part contrasts with the simple shapes of the wings, running in a semicircle. The rear façade, facing the garden, is completely simple in design, with beautifully designed (now remodeled) access to the park. This city estate is a complete ensemble, consistent in its architecture, and the church with its beautiful rotunda complements the overall harmony of the whole.
In Kazakov’s “Albums” we find about 60 designs for houses of Moscow nobles; These houses have mostly disappeared. The Moscow merchants also followed the nobles, competing with them in construction. Starting from the middle of the 18th century, the wealthy merchants built capital trading premises. On Ilyinka, Kazakov built an entire block adjacent to Gostiny Dvor for Kalinin’s shopping arcades. It was a three-story building with an open arcade on the first floor. The third floor contained rooms for the club. From this house, only Kazakov’s design and F. Alekseev’s watercolor have survived.
Among the merchant houses built by Kazakov, the former Gubina house on Petrovka (Institute of Physiotherapy) has been preserved. Gubin, having acquired the old property of the Streshnevs, set aside a large courtyard for his warehouses and office premises. In this regard, Kazakov built the house along the line of the street, despite its small width, and the corner facing the boulevard was not built up, but ended in a garden; symmetrically and on the other side up to the alley the area was not built up. This gave the beautiful façade of the house a spectacular backdrop.
Although Kazakov developed great activity in estate construction, time and people destroyed many of these structures. Only one estate has survived (Petrovskoye-Alabino), which gives a more complete idea of the picturesque architecture in which Kazakov invested these buildings near Moscow.
Built in the late 70s (XVIII century) by Demidov, this estate was one of the first suburban buildings of Kazakov, who here achieved a remarkable ensemble, charming in its bold composition and brilliant execution. The “musicality” of the architecture is especially pronounced in the small central house, effectively oriented in relation to a square courtyard with modest outbuildings. The treatment of the façade wall and its corners, the dome lighting of the central hall, the picturesque staircases, all the details constitute an absolutely brilliant page of classical Russian architecture. Kazakov, unfortunately, did not compile an album of his buildings near Moscow, like those albums where he included projects of his public and private buildings. One can only guess about many of Kazakov’s suburban buildings.
In addition to the Petrovsky Demidovs, Kazakov built the Izmailov estate in Bykovo, where the remains of gazebos, descents to the pond and a church are still visible in the park. Kazakov built the Nashchokinsky estate of Rai-Semenovskoye, where in the crippled house only a hall with columns and a church of the original composition (a combination of cubic masses with brilliant classical interior decoration) survived.
There is reason to consider Kazakov as the author of the buildings of the estate of Count Rumyantsev Troitskoye-Kainardzhi, where traces of Kazakov architecture can still be found in the ruins of the palace, and the church, built in 1775, is documented by the surviving design of the master himself. There is also a document indicating that even at the beginning of their activities (1765), Kazakov, together with K. Blank, built a palace in Bratovshchina (along the Northern Railway), one of the so-called “travel palaces” of small buildings for “pagans” Catherine's excursions.
But in general, all that remained from Kazakov’s great labors in the vicinity of Moscow were ruins, mangled fragments of buildings and some surviving projects...
There is no more left in the provinces where Kazakov worked at the beginning of his life, where he often visited during the heyday of his creativity, and where he went to end his working days.
At the end of Kazakov’s days, during the years of Pavlov’s reign, the idea of rebuilding the Kremlin Palace, which had fallen into ruin, again surfaces; a project is drawn up again, a palace building for the “Grand Dukes and Duchesses” is again designed, the entire Kremlin project is completed with a new building of the “Exertzirhaus”. The project is made in the tones of restrained classics; calm forms and unpretentious scales indicate the easily feasible possibilities of implementing the long-standing idea of reconstructing the Kremlin, with the construction of a large stable yard outside the Kremlin, behind the wall, at the Borovitsky and Trinity gates.
The entire project, together with the plan of the Kremlin, drawn up according to Kazakov’s careful measurements, is presented for the “highest discretion.” But Pavel was indifferent to this big idea, and the project remained just a project.
After an unprecedentedly intense fifty years of activity, Kazakov in 1801 submitted a request to be relieved of his official duties. In this petition, he writes: “Having learned the art of construction here in Moscow to the best of my ability, during my life, which is approaching the end, I made the following number of government buildings alone”; further, having listed these buildings and mentioning that their drawings are collected in the presented books (“Albums”), he ends: “due to the depressing old age in my life, finding myself unable to continue my sacred service, I dare to ask for dismissal from service and a merciful view on this and on my poor fortune, surrounded by a large family, and especially by three daughters, girls.”
The head of the “Kremlin expedition” P. Valuev submitted his report, where he characterizes Kazakov in florid expressions: “Only the famous and most skillful architect, State Councilor Kazakov, became famous throughout Russia for his excellent knowledge of this art and practical production, so that, having divided his talent, he filled only Moscow, but also many regions of Russia with good architects... now depressed by old age, while maintaining a sober and exemplary life, subject to the greatest weaknesses in health, resulting from the tireless pursuit of the most learned knowledge throughout his life, with which he is filled, bent by natural decrepitude... having left behind very many and great of his arts... he still wants to devote the rest of his days to studying the school of architecture..."
Having retired with a pension (2,400 rubles), Kazakov devotes himself exclusively to teaching activities.
Even during the formation of the “Expedition for the construction of the Kremlin Palace” (1768), where Kazakov was invited as “architect” by Bazhenov’s chief assistant, the idea arose of the need to organize systematic architectural education, which was accomplished by training architects and students working in Expeditions.
After 1786, having taken over the affairs of the Expedition from Bazhenov, Kazakov organized the first architectural school, became its director and transferred it to his own house, where it was located until 1805, after which it was again transferred to the Kremlin and housed in the premises of the Senate building .
Kazakov considered it his duty to pass on as much knowledge as possible to his students and shared his vast practical experience with them. At the same time, his concerns related not only to his students, future architects, but he also sought to improve the skills of masters of masonry, carpentry and carpentry.
Such training had already been carried out previously in a special school at the “Stone Order” (in the period 1775-1786). Kazakov in 1792 submitted a project to establish a special “in the capital city of Moscow, a school for masonry, carpentry and joiner craftsmen, so that, under my best supervision... in winter, teach them (masters) drawing, architecture and theory, to draw, in order to have perfect Russian masters ... that other provinces will be able to borrow ... and therefore there will be no need for foreign ones who are not versed either in the goodness of local materials or in what the local climate can produce ... "
The volume of training at the architectural school at the “Kremlin Building Expedition”, when Kazakov was in charge of it, is curious. The “order” of training lists the following classes: “drawing, pure mathematics, mechanics and rules of conic sections (very necessary for making all kinds of vaults in the most accurate manner), perspective and landscape and ornamental painting, civil architecture in theory, pure Russian writing, painting from living figures."
A “Kremlin drawing room” was also established at the school (its director was I. Egotov, and after him A. Bakarev), and there was a resolution “to fill the drawing room with drawings and drawings not only of the best buildings and views in Russia, but also of other famous buildings and species from all four parts of the world. Try to collect as many drawings and views of ancient buildings as possible, especially those located in the Kremlin that have already been destroyed; have drawings of those private buildings that, with the permission of the authorities, will be produced by the architects and assistants of the expedition, store the best drawings of the students, create parts of the models.”
Such was the broad outlook of Kazakov, who tirelessly led the architectural education of young people even in those years when he was “nailed by old age.” But even in his declining years, according to his son Matvey Matveevich, “he was curious to learn something new for him and tried to get acquainted with people in whom he noticed some knowledge. I observed order and moderation in home life; he lived on a pension and income from his house. Although he was retired, he guided him in composing the facade plan of Moscow or from a bird’s eye” (2). In 1806, Kazakov fell ill; a light blow put him to bed, which he did not leave until his death. In 1812, having learned about the fire that had started in Moscow, he fell into despair. “This news (wrote his son, M.M.) dealt him a mortal defeat. Having devoted his entire life to architecture, decorating the throne city with magnificent buildings, he could not imagine without a shudder that his many years of work turned into ashes and disappeared along with the fire smoke ... "
Kazakov was taken to Ryazan, where he died in 1813.
The language of Kazakov's architecture was simple and clear. At all stages of the work process, he remained primarily an architect who thinks in images, but at the same time he did not lose sight of constructive aspects.
Having mastered the principles of classical architecture from school, Kazakov applied the order carefully and logically, maintaining a sense of proportion in everything, especially in the decorative decoration of facades.
Kazakov worked carefully on the portico, which accentuated the design of the facade, and on every detail, without falling into stereotyped techniques, but each time finding new elegant forms. Kazakov combined the skillful use of sculpture with the calm coloring of the facades and monochromatic paintings in the interiors. The structures were developed with no less detail, and he was an exceptionally resourceful master designer in the application of methods for laying walls and vaults.
In addition to architectural products, Kazakov also has a number of works of a purely engineering nature, such as strengthening the banks and constructing the embankment of the Moscow River under the walls of the Kremlin, constructing a temporary bridge across the Moscow River, lining the Execution Place with stone, constructing drains near it, etc.
He also introduced a number of improvements in the production and use of new building materials. Brick, the main material for masonry walls, received more standard sizes, and new factories with improved furnaces were built (Kalitnikovsky and in the village of Voronovo). Kazakov examined stone deposits in the vicinity of Moscow and began to use it abundantly in his works, as the material was durable and easy to work with, especially in details.
Kazakov always instructed the masters of “stone crafts” and raised their skills, and for the figured cutting of stone, models were made according to his drawings - molded or carved from wood. Sometimes decorative details were made of terracotta, as, for example, in the Petrovsky Palace.
Carpentry for all kinds of fillets and trims was produced with great care; The models were made by specialist carvers. For each architectural detail, after careful drawing, a life-size template was made. Kazakov constantly monitored the work on the scaffolding, and in the evenings he talked with assistants about the progress of the work, showing them drawings.
Kazakov's graphics were sophisticated. His designs were drawn with a thin pencil, but with a clear, light stroke, approaching the style of an etching drawing. Fine ink strokes and light, precise strokes with sepia and ink shadows make his designs delicate and transparent. In his drawings with diluted ink, Kazakov adopted the style of a clear stroke, undoubtedly under the influence of Piranesi's sheets, then just brought to Russia; but Kazakov avoided excessive contrast. His large drawings are known, depicting the foundation of the Kremlin Palace, the Khodynka festivals, the Petrovsky Palace under construction and the Kolomna Kremlin.
Piranesi's etchings inspired Kazakov, and he engraved 5 sheets (the courtyard in the Kremlin, the iconostasis for the Church of Rai-Semyonovsky, the iconostasis of the Prechistensky Palace, the fireworks of the Khodynka holiday and a view of the New Jerusalem).
A vignette on the Polezhaev plan of Moscow (an image of a dilapidated colonnade) is also attributed to Kazakov. One must be amazed how a man, burdened with construction affairs, absorbed in a mass of projects, could still find time for the painstaking work of etching.
Kazakov's students were his assistants, and of them the closest were the Polivanov brothers, Selekhov, Rodion Rodionovich Kazakov (namesake), Iv. Egotov, sons of Kazakov - Vasily, Matvey and Pavel, Al. Bakarev, Tamansky, Mironovsky, Karin.
Nothing is known about the Polivanovs’ independent work. Rodion Kazakov was a major architect; he began work back in the “Kremlin Palace Expedition” and became a master of classicism, judging by the Church of St. Martin (in Taganka) and the building of the Yauza hospital.
Iv. Egotov, a faithful follower of his teacher, was a classic and a major artist, contrary to A. Bakarev’s assertion that Egotov “does not know how to pick up a pencil.” Such works as the façade of the Military Hospital he completed (in Lefortovo) or the building of the Armory, later remodeled, speak of great skill. Both buildings are of original architecture, they were beautifully drawn, all the details were worked out and show a mature master.
Selekhov was Kazakov’s closest assistant in the construction of the Senate building, being in charge of the constructive side; subsequently he was the builder of Starogostiny Dvor (on Ilyinka) according to Quarenghi’s design.
The architect Karin, who later became the chief architect of the city police (“State Houses”), also worked with Selekhov.
Kazakov's son Vasily Matveevich died early, and his architectural works are unknown; from the son of Matvey Matveevich, the design of the Khamovniki barracks, built after his death by Tamansky, has been preserved. Alexey Nikitich Bakarev was Kazakov’s favorite student and left a number of interesting projects created in the spirit of Kazakov’s “Gothic”. Bakarev and Mironovsky were the only students of Kazakov who enthusiastically worked mainly in the “Gothic”. In the spirit of “Gothicism,” projects were drawn up for the construction of the Ivanovo Bell Tower, the Trinity and Nikolskaya Towers, and the Resurrection Gate. Only one project of Bakarev was carried out - the construction of the church of the Ascension Monastery, where an overly abundant accumulation of Gothic details is noticeable.
Tamansky did not show himself as the author of any significant buildings. The Khamovniki barracks, built by him according to the design of M. M. Kazakov, are significantly inferior to Kazakov’s classics, and in them one can already see how the beautiful direction of our architecture, given to it by the great Architect, is declining, how the overweight masses are becoming heavier, how the order is becoming a colorless, sluggish appendage, how beauty is disappearing in a buiding…
Elements of Gothic were also shown by one of Kazakov’s last students, architect I. I. Bove, when he restored the upper tower of the Nikolsky Gate of the Kremlin. But this student was a talented follower of Kazakov’s classics and perfectly mastered his techniques in processing the facade of mansion houses, which he built extensively, especially after 1812.
Kazakov’s life path is an eloquent chronicle of inspired art, tireless work and love for his work.
In the era of the powerful upsurge in the construction of our country, in the era of the creation of Soviet architecture, we were faced with a rewarding task: to carefully and comprehensively study the work of the brilliant Russian architect.
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1. Biographical information about Kazakov is extremely limited, dates are confusing and contradictory. In our work “Architect M. F. Kazakov”, published in 1913, we conditionally accepted the date of birth (1733), based on data from the Russian Biographical Dictionary. Our latest searches made it possible to establish dates (1738-1813)
2. This plan has not yet been found
One of the largest representatives of Russian pseudo-Gothic. Developer of standard development projects.
Biography
Matvey Kazakov was born in 1738 in Moscow, in the family of the sub-office clerk of the Main Commissariat Fyodor Kazakov, who came from serfdom. The Kazakov family lived near the Kremlin, in the area of Borovitsky Bridge.
In 1749 or early 1750, Kazakov’s father died. Mother, Fedosya Semyonovna, decided to send her son to the architectural school of the famous architect D.V. Ukhtomsky. In March 1751, Kazakov became a student at Ukhtomsky’s school and stayed there until 1760.
From 1768 he worked under the leadership of V.I. Bazhenov in the Kremlin Construction Expedition; in particular, in 1768-1773. he participated in the creation of the Grand Kremlin Palace, and in 1775 - in the design of festive entertainment pavilions on Khodynka Field. In 1775, Kazakov was confirmed as an architect.
Kazakov's legacy includes many graphic works- architectural drawings, engravings and drawings, including “Pleasure buildings on the Khodynka Field in Moscow” (ink and pen, 1774-1775; GNIMA), “Construction of the Peter’s Palace” (ink and pen, 1778; GNIMA).
Kazakov also proved himself as a teacher, organizing an architectural school during the Kremlin Building Expedition; his students were such architects as I. V. Egotov, A. N. Bakarev, O. I. Bove and I. G. Tamansky. In 1805 the school was transformed into the School of Architecture.
During the Patriotic War of 1812, relatives took Matvey Fedorovich from Moscow to Ryazan. There the architect learned about the fire in Moscow - this news accelerated the death of the master. Kazakov died on October 26 (November 7), 1812 in Ryazan and was buried in the cemetery (now no longer preserved) of the Ryazan Trinity Monastery.
The former Gorokhovskaya Street in Moscow was named after him in 1939. The former Dvoryanskaya Street in Kolomna is also named after him.
And the architect Matvey Kazakov is one of the founders of Russian classicism. Thanks to him, Moscow turned from a “big village,” as the residents of St. Petersburg called it, into a city with beautiful architecture. The architect erected about 100 buildings here, despite the fact that he did not have a higher architectural education.
"Ensign of Architecture" Matvey Kazakov
Matvey Kazakov was born in 1738 into a poor family in Moscow. Elementary education the boy received it at the local Kosmodemyansk church. From early childhood he was interested in architecture: he spent hours sitting on scaffolding and sketching buildings. After the death of his father, his mother submitted a petition to the Senate to admit her son to the Moscow architectural school. In response there was a decree: “To teach the architecture of the Main Commissariat to the deceased sub-chancellor Kazakov’s son Matvey, determine with the award of a salary against junior students of a ruble per month”.
So in 1751, 13-year-old Matvey Kazakov entered the architectural school of Prince Dmitry Ukhtomsky. Students learned the basics of architecture from the treatises of famous Italian architects Marcus Vitruvius, Andrea Palladio, Jacom da Vignola and the writings of the 18th century French theorist Francois Blondel. At the same time, the students were also instilled with a love of ancient Russian architecture. This is how the characteristic feature was formed creative style Kazakova - a combination of classical and ancient Russian architecture.
Tver Imperial Travel Palace. Architect Matvey Kazakov. 1764-1766. Photo: Andres_rus / wikipedia
House of Unions (Noble Assembly). Architects: Matvey Kazakov, Alexey Bakarev, Alexander Meisner. First half of the 18th century. Photo: A.Savin / wikipedia
IN school years Kazakov began to put his knowledge into practice: he measured ancient buildings, restored dilapidated Kremlin buildings, drew up drawings and estimates, and worked on construction sites supervised by his teachers. Soon Kazakov was noticed by Ukhtomsky himself and appointed him as his junior assistant. At that time, the prince built a lot for Moscow: he built the Kuznetsky Bridge, completed the Arsenal in the Kremlin and the “spare palace” at the Red Gate, reconstructed the Main Pharmacy and adapted the buildings of former government offices for Moscow University. Kazakov helped his teacher in everything.
In 1760, Dmitry Ukhtomsky resigned, and the school was headed by his assistant, Pyotr Nikitin. On your own former place Kazakov was appointed the new leader - the young architect had just graduated from school and received the rank of “ensign of architecture.” One of the first major tasks of Nikitin’s team was the restoration of Tver after the fire of 1763. Together with other architects, Kazakov designed provision stores, facades of government buildings on the main square, “business” and residential buildings, and the trading office of Nikita Demidov in the almost completely burned city. Also, on the instructions of Catherine II, they erected the Empress's Travel Palace on the ruins of the bishop's house - the main building in the city.
Temple of the Ascension on the Pea Field. Architect Matvey Kazakov. 1788-1793. Photo: Solundir / wikipedia
Moscow City Hall building. Architect Matvey Kazakov. 1782. Photo: arch-house.ru
Kazakov's work on the restoration of Tver immediately promoted him to the ranks of the first architects of the empire - he began to receive private orders. His first major independent work was the church in Pavel Nashchokin's estate near Moscow, Rai-Semenovskoye. This project was followed by the next one: at the request of Ivan Betsky, the architect drew up a plan of the facade and the entire site for the Moscow Orphanage.
Independent projects of the architect
The fire in Tver led to major urban planning reforms in the country. Old wooden buildings, dense buildings, winding streets and alleys have been the main causes of large fires in many cities. Therefore, large-scale reconstruction began in the empire, primarily in Moscow.
In 1768, Matvey Kazakov got a job in the “Expedition to build the Kremlin Palace,” which carried out government orders in Moscow. Together with the chief architect of the expedition, Vasily Bazhenov, Kazakov built the Grand Kremlin Palace. Later they developed a project for the festive decoration of Khodynka Field in honor of the victory in the Russian-Turkish war. Working with a venerable architect became a high school for Kazakov: a graduate of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts and a student of European architects taught his assistant a lot. In 1775, Kazakov received the title of independent architect, but continued to collaborate with Bazhenov.
Senate Palace. Architect Matvey Kazakov. 1776-1787. Photo: rdh.ru
Petrovsky Travel Palace. Architect Matvey Kazakov. 1776-1780. Photo: arch-house.ru
In 1776, by decree of Catherine II, Matvey Kazakov developed a project for the Petrovsky Travel Palace. This building was supposed to become a residence for the rest of noble people after long journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow, hence the name - “travel”. The shape of the palace resembled buildings in the classicist style: there were main house with outbuildings, a front yard and two outbuildings. But the external decoration combined elements of different eras and architectural styles: a high boyar tower porch was adjacent to Baroque windows, and white stone ancient Russian belts were adjacent to lancet Gothic windows.
Having built this ensemble, Matvey Kazakov began to receive many orders for the construction of public and private buildings in Moscow. One of Kazakov’s most significant creations was the Senate building in the Russian classicism style. This building fits harmoniously into the complex of existing Kremlin buildings. The architect made a round hall the compositional accent of the Senate. He created the roof for it in the form of a huge dome, which was supported by Corinthian columns. The hall was decorated with bas-relief portraits of Russian princes and tsars, as well as scenes dedicated to the most important deeds of Catherine II. For its magnificent decoration, contemporaries called it the Russian pantheon. Kazakov’s work was highly appreciated by his contemporaries and Catherine the Great herself.
University of Moscow. Architect Matvey Kazakov. 1786-1793. Photo: artpoisk.info
Church of St. Philip, Metropolitan of Moscow. Architect Matvey Kazakov. 1777-1788. Photo: NVO/wikipedia
Kazakov's next major creation was Moscow University. Construction of the institution began in 1782 and took more than 10 years. The architect strove for simplicity and grandeur, so he abandoned complex decorative elements and a large amount of sculpture. The university building resembled a large urban estate in the classicist style, organically fitting into the ensemble of the center of Moscow. Simultaneously with the construction of the university, the architect was engaged in the reconstruction of the former house of Prince Mikhail Dolgoruky for the Moscow Noble Assembly.
Chief Architect of Moscow
In 1786, Kazakov led the “Kremlin Expedition” and actually became the chief architect of Moscow. According to his designs, central squares and streets, houses and courtyards were developed. Among them are Tverskaya Square, Gorokhovsky Lane, Ilyinka, Mokhovaya and Lubyanka streets. Unlike the architects of St. Petersburg, who built the city from scratch, Kazakov fit entire ensembles into the already built ancient quarters of Moscow. With his classicist buildings with columns and pediments, Kazakov brought order to the chaos of Moscow streets and ennobled the appearance of the former capital.
Baryshnikov's estate. Architect Matvey Kazakov. 1793-1802. Photo: svadebka.ws
At the beginning of the 19th century, Matvey Kazakov organized an architectural school on his estate. Future famous architects and restorers Osip Bove, Alexey Bakarev, Ivan Egotov, Ivan Mironovsky, Ivan Tamansky studied here. Together with his students, the architect compiled the “General Atlas of Moscow” for many years. The drawings and drawings captured the general plan, facade and section of the most significant buildings of the ancient capital. These albums have become an invaluable source of information about appearance cities at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries for restorers.
During the Patriotic War of 1812, Kazakov’s relatives took the sick architect to Ryazan. Here he learned about the fire in the old capital and that almost everything he had created throughout his life had burned down.
Matvey Kazakov died on November 7, 1812. The architect was buried in the Trinity Monastery on the outskirts of Ryazan.
Matvey Kazakov was born in the fall of 1738. His father Fyodor Kazakov, a serf, was once given by the landowner to become a sailor. By chance, Fyodor remained to serve at the Admiralty office as a copyist (copyist of papers), which gave him and his family freedom, but his hard work provided his son with a wonderful future.
At the age of 13, as a reward for his father’s impeccable service, Matvey was enrolled in the architectural school of architect Dmitry Vasilyevich Ukhtomsky. His students not only studied theory, but also gained practical skills: they controlled the construction process, drawing up reports on all noticed errors. At the age of 23, having received the rank of ensign in architecture, Matvey Kazakov entered the workshop of the chief city architect of Moscow P.R. Nikitina. And two years later, in 1763, Tver burned to the ground, and the team of architect Nikitin was entrusted with restoring it. Kazakov participates in the development of the master plan for the new city, in addition, he draws up a project for the bishop's house or, in other words, the Tver Palace. The palace became the best building in the city and brought its author well-deserved recognition.
After Tver there was work with Bazhenov on the project of a palace in the Kremlin, the construction of the entrance Petrovsky Travel Palace. The palace was not yet finished, and Kazakov was already receiving a new order - the Senate building in the Kremlin. The inconvenient location of the planned structure plus a brilliant solution to the above problem and the architect is among the best of his time. There are countless orders from individuals. M.F. Kazakov introduces a lot of new things into the architecture of a city house. He is reworking the old estate system of house planning and now it is placed not in the depths of the plot, but opposite it - along the red line. Thus, the houses are included with all their, often downright palatial, architecture into the general appearance of the city. Several dozen houses and palaces he created, not counting many large public buildings, decorated the streets of Moscow. Particularly famous are the houses of Demidov on Gorokhovsky Lane, Gagarin on Petrovsky Boulevard, Menshikov on Bolshaya Nikitskaya, and Baryshnikov on Myasnitskaya.
Having replaced Bazhenov as head of the Kremlin expedition, M.F. Kazakov organized an architectural school with it. Among the students are his three sons: Vasily, Matvey and Pavel. Vasily studied architecture from the age of ten, but already at the age of 22 he submitted his resignation due to illness - consumption. At the age of 13, Pavel applied for enlistment on the same day as his older brother, Matvey, who at that time turned 16. A year later, both brothers were already receiving a salary of one hundred rubles a year. In 1800, together with his father, they worked on drawing up a “facade” plan for Moscow. In 1810, at the age of 25, Pavel Kazakov died, and a little earlier Vasily also died of consumption. Matvey lived until he was 39 years old and was well known in Moscow for his works.
In 1800-1804, M. F. Kazakov worked on the creation of general and “facade” (“bird's eye view”) plans of Moscow and a series of architectural albums (13) of the most significant Moscow buildings. Several “Architectural Albums of M. F. Kazakov” have survived, including plans, facades and sections of 103 “particular buildings” by the architect himself and his contemporaries. The head of the Kremlin expedition, Valuev, wrote: “Only the famous and most skillful architect, State Councilor Kazakov, renowned throughout Russia for his excellent knowledge of this art and practical production... filled not only Moscow, but also many regions of Russia with good architects.”
In 1812, the family took M.F. Kazakov from Moscow to Ryazan. Here he learned about the fire. “This news,” wrote his son, “inflicted a mortal defeat on him. Having devoted his entire life to architecture, decorating the throne city with magnificent buildings, he could not imagine without a shudder that his many years of work had turned to ashes and disappeared with fire smoke.”
Portrait of R.R. Kazakov (?)
My article about him, published under the title “Known only to specialists” (for which special thanks to the editors!) in the newspaper “History” (publishing house “First of September”). 2007. No. 24. http://his.1september.ru/2007/24/20.htm
It was written, naturally, not for them, but for the academic journal of the history of literary art. I haven’t published the newspaper itself yet, so I’m giving the text in the version in which it was sent to it, except for the links, they will be in the newspaper version, but they were killed in the life version. The same goes for the pictures: probably not all of them were included in the newspaper version. In the "Bulletin" the old black and white pictures will be in the article itself, and the color ones will be in the inserts.
"Name outstanding architect Rodion Kazakov is known mainly only to specialists in the history of architecture. The glory of his great teacher and senior comrade Matvey Kazakov is incomparably greater, although Rodion Kazakov turned out to be worthy of his teacher. Having started your creative path An architectural student of the Kremlin Building Expedition, he, studying with Vasily Bazhenov and Matvey Kazakov, successfully continued their activities, and then headed the Moscow architectural school, which trained many masters of classicism. Because of his surname (in the Soviet architectural “pantheon” there could not be two Kazakovs at once), R.R. Kazakov turned out to be less known and his work has not been studied in such detail, although, of course, he was an architect of the first plan, a very bright and talented master, who had his own creative individuality, created buildings that for a long time defined the image of Moscow.
The bibliography about R.R. Kazakov is very scarce. Although P.V. Panukhin’s dissertation “The Work of Rodion Kazakov and His Place in the Architecture of Moscow Classicism” was defended on his work, but, unfortunately, it was never published in the form of a monograph. Even a reliable portrait of R.R. Kazakov has not survived to us. The copy image, located in the Museum of Russian Estate Culture in Kuzminki, and passed off as a portrait of R.R. Kazakov is unlikely to be such...
Rodion Rodionovich Kazakov (1758–1803), born twenty years later than Matvey Kazakov and died nine years earlier, was a hereditary Muscovite. He came from the family of a small nobleman, an ensign of architecture in the “architectural team” of Prince D.V. Ukhtomsky. From his father R.R. Kazakov received initial knowledge about architecture. R.R. Kazakov spent his childhood and youth in his parents’ house not far from the Kremlin in Starovagankovsky Lane (later his own house was located in the German settlement on Gorokhovoye Pole).
In 1770, at the age of sixteen, R.R. Kazakov passed the exams and entered the Architecture school The expedition of the Kremlin building of the Moscow branch of the Senate, which at that time was led by V.I. Bazhenov, participated in the creation of a model of the Grand Kremlin Palace, designed by V.I. Bazhenov. As a student (Gesel), in 1774 he was sent to M.F. Kazakov; under his leadership, as part of an architectural team, he was engaged in dismantling the dilapidated buildings of the Kremlin, drawing up their measurement drawings in 1770-1773. As a sculptor, R.R. Kazakov worked on the construction of the Prechistensky Palace of Catherine II in Moscow, designed by M.F. Kazakov, and for this work he received the rank of sergeant.
In 1776, he created his first independent architectural project for the classic Novovorobyovsky Palace - the palace of the Empress on the Sparrow Hills, built using logs from the Prechistensky Palace. For this project, which brought him fame, R.R. Kazakov received the title of architect, and became one of the recognized Moscow architects.
From that time on, he began to receive many orders: in 1781-1782. took part in the construction of the Catherine Palace in Lefortovo (at first it was built by the architect Prince P.V. Makulov, but due to miscalculations during the construction it had to be started anew; in addition to R.R. Kazakov, V.S. Yakovlev took part in the construction of the Lefortovo Palace, A. Rinaldi, and from the 1780s D. Quarenghi, who created the portico on the garden side and the famous multi-columned loggia on the facade).
Lefortovo Palace. Photo con. 19-beg. 20 in Private collection (Moscow)
In Moscow and the Moscow region, intensive construction of private mansions was carried out according to the designs of R.R. Kazakov. In 1782-1792 together with other architects of the Kremlin Expedition, R.R. Kazakov worked on orders from the governor of the Novorossiysk region and favorite of Catherine II, Prince G.A. Potemkin (it is assumed that R.R. Kazakov was invited to design and build the gates of the fortress in Kherson). Religious architecture also occupies a special place in the work of R.R. Kazakov. All religious buildings designed by him are decorative and have pronounced secular features. Typical elements are the rotunda-belvedere and the use of the Doric order. In almost all of his works, R.R. Kazakov appears as a talented representative of mature (“strict”) Moscow classicism. A major stage in the life of R.R. Kazakov was his long work in 1778-1803. in the estate of Princess A.A. Golitsyna Kuzminka near Moscow, which has now long been located within the city limits. Having replaced I.P. Zherebtsov as the architect of Kuzminok, without basically changing the already established layout of Kuzminok, R.R. Kazakov gave it new life rebuilding its individual elements. During his work in Kuzminki, R.R. Kazakova reconstructed the manor house and outbuildings, the church, Slobodka - a complex for courtyard people, another economic complex was built - Gardening with greenhouses and houses for gardeners and the Chinese (Pike) pond, a canal was dug, connecting the Chinese pond with the Nizhny or Melnichny pond (currently Nizhny Kuzminsky) located on the Churilikha (Goledyanka) river.
The master's house in the Kuzminki estate (above is the northern façade, below is the southern one). Photo beginning 20th century (from the ed.: Poretsky N.A. The village of Vlakhernskoye, the estate of Prince S. M. Golitsyn. M., 1913).
The abundance of work required the involvement of other architects; in 1783, R.R. Kazakov, who was also busy with other architectural orders, attracted his sister’s husband, architect Ivan Vasilyevich Egotov (1756-1814), to work in Kuzminki, who at first carried out the functions supervision of construction (he was immediately entrusted with supervision of the reconstruction of the manor house), i.e. involved in the implementation of Cossack projects. Subsequently, I.V. Egotov had to finish many things that had been started or designed in Kuzminki by R.R. Kazakov, but only after his death I.V. Egotov began independent activity, in Kuzminki. Despite the significant scale of R.R. Kazakov’s activities in Kuzminki, this part of his architectural heritage was not lucky. During the restoration of the estate after the Patriotic War of 1812, many of the buildings he constructed were replaced with new ones designed by D.I. and A.O. Gilardi. In 1916, a fire destroyed the Kuzminki manor house, reconstructed in 1783-1789. according to the project of R.R. Kazakov (architectural supervision was led by I.V. Egotov). Then it was built on mezzanine floors, the main rooms: bedroom, office, hall were decorated with paintings, and other rooms were remodeled. At the same time, the outbuildings were also reconstructed, of which there were not two as now, but four - small one-story wooden buildings designed in classic forms.
It is quite difficult to judge the work of R.R. Kazakov even from old images of this ensemble, which has not survived to this day; the earliest of them date back to 1828 and 1841, and after the death of R.R. Kazakov the house was rebuilt in 1804-1808. I.V. Egotov, simultaneously reconstructing the outbuildings and planning the territory of the Main Courtyard. The ensemble was rebuilt later. After the Patriotic War of 1812, the Kuzminki manor house was restored and newly furnished, but the outbuildings, which had become very dilapidated by that time, were replaced by new ones, built in 1814-1815. according to the project of D.I. Gilardi. In 1830-1835 the manor house, outbuildings and galleries were reconstructed, but the changes mainly affected the internal layout of these buildings. These works were started by D.I. Gilardi, and after her departure abroad they were continued by his cousin A.O. Gilardi. This is how the appearance, according to Yu.I. Shamurin’s definition, of this most rustic of all the landowner’s houses near Moscow was finally formed. In its place, according to the design of S.A. Toropov, a new main building of the Institute of Experimental Veterinary Medicine was built in 1927, significantly larger than it in size, but simpler in silhouette.
Currently, the only architectural monument in Kuzminki associated with the name of R.R. Kazakov is the Church of the Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God, which relatively recently returned to its former dominant role in the ensemble of the estate. It was built in two stages. In 1759-1762 The following were built: a church building, which originally had a Baroque decor (finally decorated and consecrated only in 1774), as well as a separate wooden bell tower. Based on indirect data, it can be assumed that the authorship of the church project belonged to the St. Petersburg architect S.I. Chevakinsky, according to whose design at that time the construction of the “Prechistensky House” by M.M. Golitsyn (now Volkhonka, 14) was underway. The author of the bell tower project, completed in the spring of 1760, was I.P. Zherebtsov. Although the name of R.R. Kazakov is not directly indicated in the documents, the authorship of the church project undoubtedly belongs to him: at that time he was the only major design architect on the estate, and I.V. Egotov’s functions were of a technical nature. The church was reconstructed in 1784-1785. in the forms of mature classicism. A new bell tower was also built to replace the old one. During the reconstruction, the church received a new finish - a round drum with lucarnes, topped with a dome. Porticoes and porches were added on four sides. In front of the church, a round stone two-tier bell tower with an orderly division of the facades was erected. It is curious that V.I. Bazhenov took some part in these works: his name appears in the estimate drawn up for the purchase of the necessary building material.
Church of the Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God in the Kuzminki estate. At the top of the photo is the beginning. 20th century (from the ed.: Poretsky N.A. The village of Vlakhernskoe, the estate of Prince S. M. Golitsyn. M., 1913), below is a photo of M.Yu. KOrobko 2005
Unfortunately this most interesting monument suffered greatly during Soviet times. The church was closed in 1929 and beheaded, and in 1936-1938. as a result of reconstruction into the Holiday House of the Central Committee of the Automobile Industry Trade Union (apparently, according to the design of S.A. Toropov), it lost its former stylistic features, turning into a three-story residential building. Only in 1994-1995. according to the design of the architect E.A. Vorontsova, a complex of works was carried out to restore the church: during the restoration, the late third floor was dismantled, the previous system of arches and vaults was recreated, a bell tower was erected on a monolithic reinforced concrete foundation on the site of old remains identified as a result of archaeological excavations; carried out a large amount of work on repairing the brickwork and recreating the white stone and stucco decoration of the facades; We made roof structures coated with copper, domes and crosses with gilding.
In parallel with his activities in Kuzminki, R.R. Kazakov carried out a number of equally important and responsible orders, among which a special place is occupied by the development of the Andronievskaya Square area in Moscow. According to his designs, the Church of Martin the Confessor was built in Alekseevskaya Novaya Sloboda - the former estate of the Andronikov Monastery (Bolshaya Kommunisticheskaya Street, 15/2) dominating the panorama of Zayauzye, the nearby private public school and the grandiose four-tier gate bell tower of the Andronikov Monastery, which became the second tallest in Moscow after the Kremlin Ivan the Great (height 79 m). Built in 1795-1803. the bell tower, having created a new image of the main entrance to the monastery, became its dominant feature (this most interesting monument of classicism was destroyed in 1929-1932). The estate of the mayor P. Khryashchev was built next to the bell tower. Thus, the classic image of Andronievskaya Square was formed, fragmentarily preserved to this day.
Bell tower of the Andronikov Monastery. Photo of 1882 from the album of N.A. Naidenov. GNIMA im. A.V.Shchuseva
The Church of Martin the Confessor is a large, powerful five-domed temple built in 1791-1806. at the expense of one of the richest Moscow merchants, V.Ya. Zhigarev, who later became the mayor (the building of a private public school was built in 1798, also at the expense of V.Ya. Zhigarev). The church consists of a two-story, four-pillar quadrangle with a large semicircular apse, a vestibule adjacent to it from the west (repeats the shape of the apse) and a high three-tier bell tower connected to it by a short passage. The emphasized monumentality of the building, unusual for the Moscow architectural tradition, gave rise to the legend that R.R. Kazakov repeated the Cathedral of St. Peter's in Rome (one of the reasons for the construction of the temple was the visit of Moscow by the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II). After the Patriotic War of 1812, the church, damaged by fire, was restored in 1813-1821: then the iron coverings and cladding of the building were put in order. During one of the repairs, the previously open passage between the temple and the bell tower was laid, restored during the restoration of the building (the church was closed in 1931 and became operational again only in 1991).
Church of Martin the Confessor. Photo of 1882 from the album of N.A. Naidenov. GNIMA im. A.V.Shchuseva
Another famous religious building, built according to the design of R.R. Kazakov and which is a good example of mature classicism, is the single-domed Church of Varvara on Varvarka - the first from the Kremlin in the famous chain of temples and chambers of Zaryadye (Varvarka, 2). Small, but placed at the very beginning of the street, it still defines its image (initially it marked the corner of the block at the intersection of Varvarka Street and the unpreserved Zaryadinsky Lane). The church is single-domed, completed with a domed rotunda with a drum and a dome, cruciform in plan; due to the low relief of the area, it is placed on a high basement; its eastern façade faces the street, so the altar is not separated into an independent apsidal volume, but is decorated with a powerful Corinthian portico, just like the other facades of the building. The two-tier bell tower, built according to the design of A.G. Grigoriev in the 1820s, was demolished during Soviet times, but restored during the restoration in 1967 (the church is now operational). The building was built in 1796-1804. at the expense of Major I.I. Baryshnikov and Moscow merchant N.A. Smagin. In 2006, under the Church of Varvara, a perfectly preserved white-stone basement of an older temple was discovered, built on this site in 1514 by the architect Aleviz Novy, the author of the Archangel Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin. The building of R.R. Kazakov, large in area, turned into a kind of case for the remains of the Aleviz building, and, thanks to this, it was perfectly preserved.
Church of Barbara on Varvarka. Photo of 1882 from the album of N.A. Naidenov. GNIMA im. A.V.Shchuseva
The name of R.R. Kazakov is associated with the building built in 1798-1802. the huge city estate of the owner of ironworks I.R. Batashev, (since 1878 Yauzskaya Hospital, now City Clinical Hospital No. 23, Yauzskaya Street 9-11). Unfortunately, the authorship of R.R. Kazakov does not have precise documentary confirmation, however, the artistic merits of the monument and the nature of the depiction of many of its details of the house give reason to assume that R.R. Kazakov took part in its creation. The project was implemented by the serf architect of the Batashevs, M. Kiselnikov, apparently the one who built the Batashev family nest in the Vyksa estate.
The estate of I.R. Batashev with the manor house and outbuildings forming the ensemble of the front courtyard is an outstanding monument of the era of classicism; its order and stucco decoration is one of the best in Moscow buildings of the early 19th century. (at one time this complex was even attributed to V.I. Bazhenov). Initially, the manor house had a decorative loggia and gallery, which overlooked the park towards the Yauza. The estate was seriously renovated after the fire of 1812, and after the Yauz hospital was organized here, it was partially rebuilt: open galleries the front yard and staircase-loggia are laid; in 1899 a church was built. Some of the interiors, however, were lost, but the main façade was preserved.
The master's house of the estate of I.R. Batashev in Moscow. Photo beginning 20th century Private collection (Moscow)
In parallel with the estate of I.R. Batashov according to the project of R.R. Kazakov in 1799-1801. The city estate of Vice-Chancellor Prince A.B. Kurakin, who at that time headed the College of Foreign Affairs of Russia (Staraya Basmannaya St., 21), was reconstructed. The main house became two-story, receiving a portico of the Corinthian order. An extension was made to the separate “semi-circular” service building - a corridor 1 m 60 cm wide, i.e. one of the outer walls of the building turned into a partition inside the building. The enfilade layout was replaced by a series of isolated rooms and a hall with a combined corridor along the outer wall of the building (in 1836-1838, the architect E.D. Tyurin added a second floor to the building and connected it to the main house).
In 1790-1800 R.R. Kazakov together with his teacher M.F. Kazakov worked on the creation of the “Album of particular buildings of the city of Moscow” - a kind of catalog of buildings of Moscow classicism, the so-called “Kazak albums” (there are six in total). The Albums included descriptions of 103 Moscow mansions, more than 360 drawings and plans. R.R. Kazakov was the creator of most of the visual material for them. The drawings were kept in the “Drawing Room” at the Armory Chamber of the Moscow Kremlin, the director of which R.R. Kazakov became in 1801. In the same year he worked “to correct” the Kremlin Palace, and in 1802 he inspected the “dilapidations” in the Kremlin.
Any name great master, as a rule, is also associated with false attributions: numerous and often unreasoned attempts to see his hand in unattributed monuments. In this case, R.R. Kazakov is no exception. His surname contributes to false attributions; there is a great temptation to attribute many of his works to the more famous M.F. Kazakov. Unfortunately, some attributions of monuments to R.R. Kazakov are frankly fantastic. The significant scope of R.R. Kazakov’s activities in Kuzminki led to the fact that some of the work carried out in this estate, but having nothing to do with him, began to be mistakenly associated with his name. According to the reference book “Moscow Architects of the Baroque and Classical Times (1700-1820s)” from the activities of R.R. Kazakov in Kuzminki, “...only the slightly modified main house of Slobodka on Poplar Alley has survived.” However, Slobodka in Kuzminki does not have, and never had, any “main house”. Apparently, the author of the article in the reference book had in mind a hospital or hospital outbuilding, built in 1808-1809, according to the design of I.D. Gilardi - a wooden one-story building with a mezzanine and two projections protruding at the edges. Indeed, in the specialized literature, its builders are usually called R.R. Kazakov and I.V. Egotova, forgetting or not knowing that none of them are mentioned in any of the documents on the construction of the hospital in Kuzminki (R.R. Kazakov generally died for five years before the start of its construction).
The Gardener's House (Seraya Dacha) at Gardening in Kuzminki, built in 1829-1831, apparently according to the design of D.I. Gilardi, is also not a building of R.R. Kazakov (in 1972 it was badly damaged by a fire, due to Due to the emergency condition, part of the walls that survived the fire was dismantled; in 1975, the wooden part of the building collapsed, which prevented additional research on it; in 1976-1979, the house was recreated according to the design of the architect I.V. Gusev, i.e. that is, a new building was erected on its foundation).
R.R. Kazakov actually designed the Gardener’s House for Kuzminki, built in 1797, but it was a completely different building, occupying a different site. It is known that in 1829, having concluded a contract with the new gardener Andrei Ivanovich Gokh, the owner of Kuzminki, Prince S.M. Golitsyn, ordered to build him a new outbuilding "... choosing for this a decent place behind the greenhouses, so that it could not be seen from the house and from the garden ... The old outbuilding, where the former gardener lived, should be left for housing garden students,” i.e. The Cossack Gardener's House existed for some time even after the construction of the new one, but was subsequently dismantled (in the passport for the Gray Dacha, the year of its construction was mistakenly indicated as 1797, a security board with the same date hangs on the Gray Dacha itself).
Usually R.R. Kazakov is credited with the construction of the “Star” - the French, that is, the regular part of the Kuzminki park, consisting of 12 alleys diverging from one center (also known as the “Twelve-rayed clearing”, “Grove of 12 prespektiv” or “Clock” "). However, we were able to establish that “Zvezda” was created even before R.R. Kazakov was involved in work in Kuzminki. Its author was the gardener I.D. Schreider (Schneider), under whose leadership in the spring and summer of 1765 “prespekts” were cut in the forest adjacent to the estate, one of which opened up a view of the church from the Vykhinsky field. At the same time, apparently at the request of the husband of the owner of the estate, M.M. Golitsyn, the question arose about moving one of the pavilions - the “gallery”, which I. Schrader proposed to put “directly opposite the new site at the end of the pond” (“The Star” in Kuzminki was one one of the first domestic parks to have such a layout, and as it turned out, it was created earlier than a similar park in the famous Pavlovsk near St. Petersburg, which was previously considered a model for it).
At the same time, with a high degree of confidence, the name of R.R. Kazakov can be associated with the construction of a manor house in the estate of foreman N.A. Durasov Lyublino near Moscow, located in the neighborhood of Kuzminki (now within the boundaries of Moscow). It is believed that already in 1801 the current manor house was built there, which has the shape of a cross in plan, the ends of which are connected by colonnades (although, most likely, this is only the date of the start of construction). Such an unusual composition gave rise to a legend that the house was supposedly built in the form of the Order of St. Anne, of which its owner was very proud. Is it true real evidence This is not the case, nor is there a document confirming the awarding of this order to N.A. Durasov. However, this legend is interesting in itself, as an example of a folk, semi-naive explanation of how a building could have appeared that differed from the standard for country manor houses accepted at that time.
Lyublino. Fragment of an engraving based on a drawing unknown artist. Ser. 19th century State Historical Museum.
The master's house in the Lyublino estate. Photo beginning 20th century Private collection (Moscow)
In fact, the forms of the manor house in Lublin go back to the projects of the “famous Nefforge” - the theorist of French classicism Jean-François Nefforge, which had well-deserved popularity in the 2nd half of the 18th century. Among them there is one that can rightfully be recognized as the prototype of the house in Lublin: the so-called “Project of a centric structure”, dated 1757-1778. Of course, during its implementation it was significantly redesigned, but the main idea of J. Nefforge, expressed in the creation of a centric mansion, was preserved. It is possible that this particular composition of the building is based on Masonic symbolism. There is a strong tradition that, based on literary data, attributes the authorship of the manor house of the Lyublino estate to the architect I.V. Yegotov, but the grounds for this are very doubtful. In addition, I.V. Egotov himself did not create or even design anything that could be placed next to Lublin. The anonymous author of one of the first articles about Lublin, published in the magazine “Picturesque Review” in 1838, judging by the text, close to the then owners of Lublin Pisarev, who were relatives of N.A. Durasov, without mentioning I.V. Egotov, reported that N.A. Durasov “...entrusted the construction of the manor house to the excellent architect Kazakov, and apparently, he demanded not so much convenience for himself as spaciousness and luxurious accommodation for his guests.” Of course, this refers to R.R. Kazakov, under whose leadership I.V. Egotov worked in Kuzminki. This publication paints a new picture of the role of R.R. Kazakov: obviously, R.R. Kazakov owned the design of the Lublin house, and I.V. Egotov directly supervised the construction. This is exactly how this tandem worked in Kuzminki, and there is no reason to believe that this order could be violated in Lublin.
The Lord's House in Lublin (fragments). Photo by M.Yu. Korobko. 2007
Simultaneously with the manor house in Lublin, other estate buildings were erected or reconstructed, mostly built of brick, unlike most of the Moscow estates of that time (among them there was a large complex of theater buildings) and it cannot be excluded that R.R. Kazakov participated in these works.
Documentary study of architectural monuments can expand the range of works of R.R. Kazakov, making our understanding of him and his work much more complete. Searching for works by R.R. Kazakov is possible both in Moscow and in the provinces. In particular, the circle of his works by R.R. Kazakov usually includes the two-bell Church of the Holy Spirit, built in the village of Shkin near Moscow (now Kolomensky district of the Moscow region) - an outstanding monument of classicism. The church in Shkini was built between 1794 and 1798. by order of Major General G.I. Bibikov, who was also the owner of the famous Grebnevo estate near Moscow, although recently the authorship of this monument has been associated with the work of N. Legrand, which is not indisputable (the construction was apparently supervised by the architect I.A. Selekhov) . In our opinion, it is possible that R.R. Kazakov was involved in the design of the huge white-stone church in Gus-Zhelezny of the Batashevs. It is quite possible that the Cossack authorship of the designs of churches in the Batashev villages around Vyksa: Doschatoe and Vilya belonged. Perhaps the monument built according to the design of R.R. Kazakov is the Church of Simeon the Stylite behind the Yauza.
Not all attempts to discover new Kazakov works are indisputable: there is an opinion that R.R. Kazakov was involved in developing the plan for the Moscow estate of Prince A.V. Urusov Ostashevo (Volokolamsk district) - it is known that he took part in the construction on the territory of the Moscow city estate of the Urusovs. However, in our opinion, this is unlikely: the outbuildings with towers in Ostashov, allegedly made according to Kazakov’s design, give the impression of outbuildings, due to a misunderstanding, placed by an inexperienced architect in the front yard of the estate instead of the outbuildings (note that very similar buildings are part of the equestrian yard in the estate of the Menshikov princes Cheryomushka or Cheryomushki-Znamenskoye, now located within the boundaries of Moscow). Traditionally, R.R. Kazakov is credited with the construction of a suburban dacha on the banks of the Yauza River (now Volochaevskaya St., 38). Theoretically, through the Golitsyns, the owners of Kuzminki, R.R. Kazakov could receive such an order (the Stroganovs were their relatives). However, there is no documentary basis for such an attribution. Nevertheless, the search for Kazakov’s works must be continued, since R.R. Kazakov is a major, but undeservedly forgotten architect, who, in terms of his contribution to Moscow architecture, stands on a par with his teachers V.I. Bazhenov and M.F. Kazakov.”
Author Mikhail Korobko
APD: A “serious” version of the article with all references was published in the publication:
Korobko M.Yu. Rodion Rodionovich Kazakov // Bulletin of history, literature, art. T. 6. M., 2009.
