A public figure, litterateur, art and music critic extraordinaire, and active in establishing and curating museums, Stasov’s presence at the IMAO from 1866 reflects the importance of the society to the number of pursuits that grouped under the rubric “archeology.” Although he did not excavate, he wrote on everything from “Russian folk instruments” to “The throne of the khans of Khiva” and “Armenian Manuscripts.” More the intellectual gadfly than the serious scholar of archeology, he is impossible to locate. By the same token, it is equally impossible to exclude him.
Institution: Academy_of_Arts
Nikolai Vladimirovich came from a line who had been ennobled in 1674. His father abandoned the family in childhood, and he fell under the influence of his uncle, architect N. P. Miliukov, father to Paul. After graduating from the construction department of the Institute of Civil Engineers, he made a chance acquaintance with Count S. D. Sheremetov, which resulted in his designing the restorations of the estates for some of Russia’s most prominent families. As an archeologist, he was deeply interested in religious architecture, especially Byzantine and the so-called “False Russian.” Both are evident in his best known work, the Cathedral of Peter and Paul that he designed in 1892 at Peterhof. He also taught architectural history and published a textbook on it. His wife Ekaterina Pavlovna published short stories in “thick” journals and the couple, and their one son, entertained the spectrum of Russian literati. Interestingly, his cousin Paul enjoyed the company of Sultanov’s estranged father. Sutanov deprecated his cousin’s politics, but the two were on good terms.
Count I. I. Tolstoi, son of the Minister of Posts and Telegraph, would himself become the Minister of Education during the 1905 Revolution; like much else about liberalism in those years, he did not survive the position, but was later elected to the St. Petersburg City Council. A member of the IAK from 1886, he was among those who broke with the IMAO in 1889 in the contest for archeological authority in the empire. A numismatist, he co-edited with Kondakov the commanding five volumes on Russian antiquities. He was also secretary and vice-president of the Academy of Arts, important given the overlap that continued between art and archeology, especially prevalent in Kondakov’s work on iconography.
By virtue of his being President of the Academy of Arts in the era when Johann Winckelmann’s ideas were giving archeology direction, Olenin can be credited with teaching Russia’s first courses in it. Personal friends with Alexei Uvarov’s father, Sergei, Olenin enjoyed the classical education of the men of his social standing. Moreover, he was one of the first directors of Publichka.
A brilliant and innovative painter, Roerikh drew his inspiration from his early archeological digs in Novgorod and Pskov, where he learned to love Rus. In the constellation of artists that gave turn-of-the-century Russia its modern glow, Roerich was also a mystic and more engaged in Orthodoxy than the others. He was close to Prince Putiatin and spent time with Maria Tenisheva at her Kalashkino. His oevre includes post-revolutionary work at the Chicago Institute of Art, and life in London and his beloved India. But first and foremost, Roerich was anchored in Russia’s ancient past.
A student of Buslaev’s at Moscow University, Kondakov trained in art history which transformed him into an archeologist. A member of the Imperial Archeological Commission from 1876 to 1891, he became a world renowned expert on Byzantium, and his pioneering methodology in iconography still retains value. With I. I. Tolstoi, he published six volumes of “Russian Antiquities in Monuments of Art” (Русские древности в памятниках искусства, 1889-1899). D. V. Ainalov, S. A. Zhebelev, M. I. Rostovtsev, E. I. Redin, and Ia. I. Smirnov counted among his students. Moreover, he was also helpful in establishing the Institute in Constantinople. Exiled to Prague after 1917, he established the Seminarium Kondakovianum, an important intellectual exchange for emigrants, and which for a few years maintained ties with archeologists left behind.
Son of the great linguist Vladimir Dal, who had compiled the authoritative 4-volume dictionary of the Russian language, Lev studied historical architecture. An active member of the IMAO, he died prematurely when on the planning committee for the 5th congress in Tiflis. He studied and taught at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture;
Barshchevskii was a self-taught pioneer in photography, and developed the art of taking photos of archeologically significant architecture. At her invitation, he added photography to Princess Maria Tenisheva’s art studio at her renowned Talashkino estate. Many of his pictures are all that remains today of some of what the Soviets destroyed.
Great grandson of Catherine the Great, from her relationship with Grigorii Oslov, Bobrinskii enjoyed considerable wealth and social prestige, which he deployed at Chairman of the Archeological Commission, 1886-1917. His attempts to be elected to the first two Dumas from rightwing parties failed, but representing Kiev Province, the Third Duma elections proved the charm. He was also a member of the State Council and an ober-hofmeister to Tsar Nicholas II. He also directed the St. Petersburg orphanages for the charitable trust of Tsaritsa Maria Fedorovna.
Born into a family of Old Believers, the son of an unmarried soldier’s daughter, Gornostaev educated himself into one of the foremost architectural restorationists in imperial Russia. When he changed his surname from “Fedorov” remains unknown, as does everything else about his life before he graduated from the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in 1892. Completing his degree as an “artist-architect” from the Academy of Arts tree years later, he then worked under the supervision of architect. V. V. Suslov. Study trips abroad and to northern Russia completed his education, and from 1899 he taught history of Russian art at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture and also at the Stroganov Academy of Applied and Decorative Arts, 1900-1910. He joined the Moscow Archaeological Institute when it opened in 1907, where he taught for three years. As an archeologist, his only significant work came at the 14th Congress in Chernigov, where he oversaw plans to restore the Hetman Palace of Kirill Razumovskii in Baturin.