Vasily Bazhenov

Vasily Ivanovich Bazhenov (russian: Васи́лий Ива́нович Баже́нов) (March 1 ( N.S. 12), 1737 or 1738 – August 2 (N.S. 13), 1799) was a Russian neoclassical architect, graphic artist, architectural theorist and educator. Bazhenov and his associates Matvey Kazakov and Ivan Starov were the leading local architects of the Russian Enlightenment, a period dominated by foreign architects ( Charles Cameron, Giacomo Quarenghi, Antonio Rinaldi and others). According to Dmitry Shvidkovsky, in the 1770s Bazhenov became the first Russian architect to create a national architectural language since the 17th century tradition interrupted by Peter I of Russia.Shvidkovsky, 2007 p. 260

Bazhenov's early success was followed by a tragic professional and private life. His two main construction projects were abandoned for political or financial reasons. His ''magnum opus'', the neoclassical Grand Kremlin Palace, was cancelled shortly after groundbreaking. The imperial palace in Tsaritsyno Park fell victim to the Battle of the Palaces; Bazhenov's palace core was demolished on the orders of Catherine II. Another project, for the Moscow State University building, ended in a bitter conflict with Bazhenov's former benefactor Prokofi Demidov and led Bazhenov into bankruptcy. Before his death, Bazhenov implored his children to stay aside from the treacherous construction business.

Bazhenov's legacy remains debated. The attributions of Pashkov House and lesser projects to Bazhenov, backed by a sketchy paper trail, deductions and conjectures, are uncertain to the point where his life and work became subject of conspiracy theories. Even his place of birth and the location of Bazhenov's grave are unknown. His life story, as reconstructed by Igor Grabar and popularized by the historians of the Soviet period, is regarded by modern critics as the "Bazhenov myth", and even most recent academic research fails to replace this myth with a reliable biography.

Biography

Early career

The exact year and place of Bazhenov's birth is uncertain; he was born in 1737 or 1738 in a family of a church clerk either in Moscow or in the village of Dolskoye near Maloyaroslavets. According to the second version, the family relocated to Moscow when Vasily was three months old. In 1753 Vasily volunteered (but was not formally hired) into the Kremlin-based architectural company of Dmitry Ukhtomsky, then the only Moscow institution providing basic architectural training. There Bazhenov acquired practical construction skills; poverty forced him to seek paid work instead of classroom training.

In 1755 Bazhenov joined the first class of the newly opened Moscow State University. Bazhenov's first biographer, Eugene Bolkhovitinov (1767–1837, Metropolitan of Kiev since 1822), wrote that Bazhenov also studied at the Slavic Greek Latin Academy but this opinion is firmly refuted by 20th century biographers. Bolkhovitinov, perhaps, knowingly twisted the facts to raise the prestige of clerical colleges.

In the beginning of 1758 the University, requested by Ivan Shuvalov, dispatched a group of sixteen students, including Bazhenov and Ivan Starov, to Saint Petersburg to continue training at the newly established Imperial Academy of Arts.Voronov, p. 100 They, along with twenty boys selected in Saint Petersburg, became the first class of the Academy. In May 1758 the class was reduced to thirty students (8 nobles and 22 raznochintsy); at the first exam, twenty-year-old Bazhenov ranked first, also being the oldest student; fourteen–year–old Starov ranked seventh while the youngest student, Stefan Karnovich, was only twelve.Voronov, p. 112 Bazhenov, according to his own statement, was assigned to the class of Savva Chevakinsky, chief architect of the Russian Admiralty, worked on the construction of the Saint Nicholas church and became a personal mentor and blood brother of younger Starov.Voronov, p. 113

Three years later Bazhenov and painter Anton Losenko became the first students of the Academy of Arts to be awarded a scholarship out of Russia. Bazhenov trained in Paris at the workshop of Charles De WaillyShvidkovsky 2007, p. 240 (Starov joined him there in October 1762). Bazhenov's entries to the competitions of the French Academy of Architecture were a success; he "triumphantly concluded" the scholarship, being elected to the Roman Academy of Saint Luke, Academy of Fine Arts of Florence and Academy of Fine Arts of Bologna. Later, Bazhenov became the principal promoter of French neoclassicism in Russia and set the stylistic canon of neoclassical Moscow along the ideas of De Wailly.

He returned to Russia in May 1765 possessing "unusual and impeccable credentials for a Russian of that day"Schmidt 1989, p. 38 and applied for a degree and tenure at the Academy, but the new management had no intention to hire Bazhenov. He was subjected to a rigorous formal examination and was ordered to submit a new graduation project; he had no success with the Academy but was noticed by Catherine II and her son Paul, who commissioned Bazhenov to design and build a private mansion on Kamenny Island. At the end of 1766 Grigory Orlov, then commander of imperial artillery and military engineers, hired Baznenov into his retinue, in the military rank of captain of artillery, and commissioned him the Arsenal in Saint Petersburg. Next year, Bazhenov followed Orlov into Moscow where he would live for most of his remaining life "giving a Russian reality to French Classical and Italian Palladian modes to which he was exposed."

Kremlin Palace

Catherine suggested the idea of rebuilding the decrepit palaces of the Moscow Kremlin into a new government center of the reformed country (in 1767 Moscow hosted an elected congress framing a new code of laws)Shvidkovsky 2007, pp. 242–243 and Bazhenov eagerly responded; as early as 1767 he produced first drafts of his opus magnum, the utopian Grand Kremlin Palace. Orlov, fascinated by the proposal, rightfully questioned the feasibility of the enormous edifice, but Baznenov went forward and finalized the design by the end of summer of 1768. The largest neoclassical complex in Europe,Shvidkovsky 2007, p. 243 if ever completed, would have replaced ''the Kremlin itself'', leaving only its cathedrals intact.

According to his plan, the new four–storey neoclassical palace would take up the whole southern side of the Kremlin - 2,100 feetSchmidt 1989, p. 40 or 630 meters from Konstantino-Yeleninskaya tower in the east to Borovitskaya Tower in the west, and extending north along the western wall of the Kremlin up to the Arsenal. The palace would have completely enclosed the Kremlin Cathedrals, obstructing their view from across the Moskva River. Instead of building the palace on the top plateau of the Kremlin Hill, Bazhenov placed it right on the steep slope between the plateau and the Kremlin wall slated for demolition, employing enormous stone buttresses to prevent it from sliding into the river. The river itself should have been cleaned up, regulated and flanked by an embankment sided with logs.Schmidt 1989, p. 104

Layout of the new Kremlin "was the most inventive planning effort of Catherine's reign". Bazhenov retained the historical Cathedral Square and proposed creation of a new square in the eastern part of the Kremlin that would become the new center of Moscow and the start of three new radial streets projecting due north, north-west and north-east. The northern radius, passing through a planned opening in the Kremlin wall, would directly connect the palace with Tverskaya Street.Pamyatniki 1983, p. 287 Bazhenov expanded his planning into modernizing the city itself, which eventually led to the ''Projected Plan'' officially accepted in 1775, a joint effort led by Pyotr Kozhin and Nicholas Legrand.Schmidt 1989, p. 44

Nikolay Karamzin wrote in 1817 that "plans of Bazhenov, the famous architect, are similar to Plato's '' Republic'' or More's ''Utopia'': they should be admired in thought and never put into practice." Nevertheless, the project received a go–ahead and the government set up the Kremlin Construction Board (or ''Expedition'' in 18th century parlance), an institution that survived into the 19th century. The Expedition became a new architectural school for local students, starting with Bazhenov's aide Matvey Kazakov. Kazakov, working in Kremlin since 1768, became Bazhenov's equal after 1770 and took over management of the Expedition in 1786. He surpassed Bazhenov as educator, revitalized Ukhtomsky school and trained Joseph Bove, Ivan Yegotov and Aleksey Bakarev.Schmidt 1989, p. 34

At the groundbreaking ceremony (1773) Bazhenov declared that "today we renew old Moscow". Work commenced by shaving of the southern slope of the Kremlin Hill and laying foundation for the supporting buttresses. Central part of the southern wall of Kremlin, Taynitskaya and First Unnamed towers were demolished. Earth pit began right next to the Cathedral of the Archangel and for the next year Bazhenov and his engineers struggled with the threat of landslides.Pamyatniki 1983, p. 293 In 1775 Catherine shut down the project, citing damage to the Cathedral of the Archangel and the unsuitable geology of the Kremlin Hill. Historians reason that she had other, more important concerns: enormous cost of the palace and reluctance to invest in Moscow, an old city that she perceived as a threat to her control and modernization of the Empire, the demise of constitutional assemblyShvidkovsky 2007, p. 244 or the simple fact that by 1775 "Catherine had nothing more to prove."

The original wooden model of the planned palace (1:44 scale, 17 meters long), made by Bazhenov's students is preserved at the Moscow Museum of Architecture. When the museum was based at the Donskoy monastery the model was publicly displayed in its main cathedral. In 2001 City of Moscow proposed building a dedicated museum pavilion to display the model in Alexander Garden but the proposal was rejected.

Tsaritsyno

Bazhenov, at least in the first half of Catherine's reign, perfectly understood her taste and stylistic program, that of Age of Enlightenment rather than of Neoclassicism.Shvidkovsky 2007, p. 259 During the 1775 celebrations of the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca on the Khodynka Field, Bazhenov "turned imitation of English Gothic Revival into an attempt to create a universal stylistic language for Russian architecture combining typical elements of medieval buildings of both East and West, motifs from Antiquity and pure fantasy." This ephemeral work paved way to Catherine's decision to build twoPamyatniki 2007, p. 227 imperial palaces in Moscow suburbs (in 1775 she lived in a temporary wooden building in Kolomenskoye). The lesser Petrovsky Castle on the road to Saint Petersburg was awarded to Kazakov, the larger Tsaritsyno to Bazhenov.Shvidkovsky 2007, p. 261

In summer of 1775 Bazhenov designed the first draft of Tsaritsyno, now lost. It followed Catherine's affection to "peasant style", featuring numerous neo-Gothic, country style lodges scattered on a carefully planned "natural" landscape. The same approach was employed in the second, "completely non-classical" master plan approved by Catherine in spring of 1776. This time Bazhenov added a dominant main palace, designed as two identical buildings connected with a greenhouse. One wing was intended for Catherine, another for her son and heir Paul. Bazhenov planned to decorate Tsaritsyno with traditional Russian coloured tiles, '' izraztsy'', but Catherine objected and insisted on a simpler red (brick walls), white (ornaments) and yellow (glazed roof tiles) colour scheme. Roof tiles did not last long in Russian winters and were soon replaced with sheet iron.

Bazhenov began construction with the "front row" of small buildings, gates and bridges. Their white stone inserts feature finely carved ornaments that disappeared in later buildings either due to shortage in skilled craftsmen or Bazhenov's own stylistic decision.Pamyatniki 2007, p. 228 In 1777 Bazhenov demolished the old wooden manor house of the Cantemirs, former owners of Tsaritsyno, and started construction of the main palace. Shortage of government funds plagued the project from the start; in fact, most of Bazhenov's written legacy consists of business letters pleading the state treasury for money, skilled labor, and counting his private debts incurred in Tsaritsyno. In 1783 he actively sought new jobs, writing that "he was now quite free in Tsaritsyno."

The main palace, with an added central annex for Paul's children, was built in eight years. Governor Jacob Bruce, who inspected Tsaritsyno in 1784, was puzzled by the absence of a formal front courtyard, but nevertheless sent Catherine an enthusiastic report praising, in particular, bridges and landscaping. Catherine suddenly visited Tsaritsyno in June 1785, and left displeased by slow pace of the work; she scorned the palace in letters to Paul and Melchior Grimm as a "dark place with low vaults and narrow stairs, unfit for living."

By 1785 Bazhenov's palace layout became politically incorrect: relations between Catherine and Paul irreversibly worsened, the empress entertained removing Paul from the order of succession

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