Korgon red porphyry vases: Kolyvan imperial stonecutting workshop, end of the 18th century.
Chased and gilded bronze mounts: Saint-Pétersbourg, end of the 18th century.
H. 75 cm. (29 ½ in.); W. 57.5 cm. (22 ½ in.).
PROVENANCE: Almost certainly ordered as part of a set of six vases by Count Alexander Stroganov in the 1780s and delivered to St. Petersburg in 1789; almost certainly delivered along with two other vases from the six to Prince Grigory Potemkin for the Tauride Palace, St. Petersburg in 1790; these four vases were then moved to Mikhailovsky Castle, St. Petersburg, circa 1802-1804, at which time the mounts were added; probably sold or gifted along with the contents of the Mikhailovsky Castle following the death of Tsar Paul I in 1801; collection of Madame Innocenti, Milan; collection of Maurice Segoura, Paris.
This extraordinary pair of vases is originally part of a set of six Korgon porphyry vases, ordered by Count Alexander Sergeyevich Stroganoff (1733-1811) in the late 1780s, designed in Saint-Petersburg, probably under the aegis of the famous Giacomo Quarenghi (1741-1817), one of the main neoclassical architects in the service of Catherine II of Russia, and executed at the Imperial Lapidary Manufactory of Kolyvan. At first, they were all delivered without mounts. The first pair arrived in Saint-Petersburg on June 5, 1789 – each vase costed 338 rubles – and the second was delivered soon after for a total cost of 676 rubles et 59 kopecs.
The close confident and art advisor to Catherine the Great, Stroganoff was a passionate collector. Appointed president of the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts from 1800-1811 on, he was closely involved in imperial orders, and in particular those concerning the three Imperial Stonecutting Workshops administered under the Academy. On several occasions, Stroganoff personally paid shortfalls in the annual budget of the Academy to safeguard the artistic integrity of the production.
Four of the six vases adorned the Tauride Palace in 1790, a vast palace built by the architect Ivan Starov and a gift from the Tsarina to Prince Grigory Potemkin (1739-1791). Potemkin was one of the most influential figures at the Court: a marshal and governor of Tauride – a province in the South of the Russian Empire -, he was appointed Minister of War in 1784 and was Catherine’s longtime lover, who was rumored to have married her in secret. By the time his palace, one of the most important in Saint-Petersburg, was built, Potemkin was at the height of his glory.
The palace was furnished on a grandiloquent scale with one of the largest domed halls in Russia connected to a 256 feet colonnaded hall, and a winter garden over 600,000 square feet. Following his death on October 16, 1791, the Empress purchased the Tauride Palace and asked the architect Fiodor Volkov to transform it into a summer residence. Volkov built a theater in the East wing and a church in the West wing. He deeply modified the garden by building the Admiralty Pavilion, a garden house, an orangery, a veranda, bridges and metal gates. The famous sculpture Venus Tauride, now housed in the Hermitage Museum, decorated the Palace from the late 18th century to the mid-19th century.
The decoration of the main rooms was destroyed after 1799 when Tsar Paul I, moved by a tenacious grudge against his mother, donated the palace to his favorite cavalry regiment, which turned it into barracks.
The four vases from the Tauride Palace, certainly including the pair presented here, were transferred to the Mikhailovsky Castle – the new imperial residence of Paul I, built between 1797 and 1801 by the architects Vincenzo Brenna and Vassili Bajenov. The palace reflected the military tastes of the Tsar, a great admirer of Prussian power, which he saw as efficient and modern : quadrilateral in shape, it featured an octagonal inner courtyard and was flanked by a moat, punctuated by round corners and drawbridges. Its uniqueness lay in its facades, which combined French classicism, neo-Gothic and Italian neo-Renaissance architectural styles. The name of St. Michael’s Castle was inspired by the palace’s chapel dedicated to the archangel Saint Michael.
He wanted to give a military aspect to his moated castle. It was called Château des Ingénieurs in 1823 after the École supérieure du Génie was settled there.
It is at this time that our vases were adorned by gilt-bronze mounts with superb goat heads, ordered to the Swiss-born bronzier Pierre Agis (1752-1828). Agis created these mounts in such a way that they were not attached to the stone but simply set into it. Sadly, the Tsar Paul I had very little time to enjoy these vases and his new palace as he was assassinated in 1801.
After his death, the contents of the Mikhailovsky Palace were eventually removed and sold to members of the Court and at public auction. A pair of vases similar to ours was then acquired by Stroganoff. It remained in the family until being confiscated by the Soviet government and offered for sale with an important part of the Stroganoff collection at the famous auction house Rudolph Lepke, 122 a-b Potsdamer Strasse, Berlin, on May 12 and 13 1931. Forming lots N° 143 and 144 of the auction, the vases were described as being French, dated circa 1790, with bronze attributed to Pierre-Philippe Thomire. They were not sold and were returned to Russia to the Hermitage Museum, Saint-Petersburg, then finally transferred to Pavlovsk Palace where they remain today.
