First Art Class

We recently had our first art class of the year, and these are no ordinary art classes. Rather than sitting in the classroom watching early 90's videos about famous painters we get the chance to travel through St. Petersburg and observe several of the paintings and famous buildings in person. Our teacher also teaches at Philosophy of Aesthetics at the State University so needless to say she has an exceptional understanding of the city's artwork and architecture. I have a few pictures from our trip that I will post and explain:

The Pushkin statue in front of the Russian Museum:



This is a statue of famous Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. Our instructor pointed out that the statue's curly hair reflected his African ancestry. Pushikin's great grandfather was actually born in Africa, as it was in vogue during the 18th century for noble women to have a few African children present to contrast their whiteness. Pushkin was always proud of his African heritage. Pushkin's wife Natalya Pushkina was also famous for her beauty. This led many men, and even the tsar, to request the couples presence at prestigious balls and ceremonies. The beauty of Pushkin's wife also led to his death in a duel between he and his brother-in-law which was due to the advances his brother-in-law made upon his wife. Oddly this brother-in-law had married Natalya's less beautiful sister in an attempt to get closer to Natalya herself. It's pretty much THE HILLS 18th century Russia edition...

The Mikhailovsky Palace:



This building was designed by italian born architect Carlo Rossi and served as the occasional residence for tsars. Construction of the building was completed in 1825.

Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood:




A beautiful church built upon the site of tsar Alexander the II's assasination (hence the name) that was also used to store vegetables during the Soviet Regime. I bought a funny Matryoshka doll (the doll's with all the little dolls in them) that has a whole bunch of political rulers stacked inside each other.

You can also click on the photos to make them larger, but I'm sure that's pretty obvious to everyone who is not writing this right now. Everyone who's not me in other words.

Well, time to go eat some cheap 2-Rouble noodles. They're the same as always here...