Anastasia Bezgubova
Russian Institute of Art History, Russia
The noble Stroganov family was the most passionate admirer of the Renaissance art in the history of Russian collecting.
The first owner of the vast Western European collection is A. S. Stroganoff who founded it in the 1750s, and published the first catalogue of the collection in 1793. The catalogue was organized according to school attribution and contained 87 canvases. In 1800 it included the descriptions of 116 paintings, and 16 of them were the creations of the Renaissance masters with Andrea del Sarto, Bronzino, Correggio, Carracci among them.
S. G. Stroganoff succeeded not only in making the excellent collection of the Early Renaissance works but also in passing down his interest to his children.
The collection of P. S. Stroganoff included “Adoration of the Christ Child” by Lippi, “Descent from the Cross” by Cima da Conegliano, also the works of Palma the Younger, Sebastiano del Piombo, D. Maineri. Today about 100 canvases are in Tambov Picture Gallery.
In a prominent Roman private gallery of G. S. Stroganoff (who lived in Rome since 1878) there were such masterpieces as “The Virgin and Child” by Pintoricchio, “The Virgin” by Duccio, reliquary with painting of Beato Angelico, “Virgin” by Simone Martini, “St. Andrew” by Domenichino and many others, and only 5 from them were given to the Hermitage in 1911, according to the last will of the owner.
The sale of Stroganoff’s collection, initiated by the Soviet government, was held in Berlin in 1931.
Careful study of the databases of the Getty Institute, the Kress Foundation, the Fondazione Zeri and the catalogues of the leading auction houses helped us to find the “lost” masterpieces of the former Stroganoff’s collection.
Stroganoffs’ collecting of the Renaissance works provoked the wave of interest in this period of art in the circles of the Russian nobility in the 19th–20th centuries. Today the masterpieces of this collection remain an inherent part of many Russian museums.