XI International Conference of the Study Group on Eighteenth-Century Russia
10th-14th July 2023
Ekaterina Skvortsova (Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет, St Petersburg, Russia), "Vigilius Eriksen’s and Stephano Torelli’s Portraits of Catherine II in Russian Dress: Two Competing Images of Russianness?"
Art historians interpret Vigilius Eriksen’s and Stephano Torelli’s portraits of Catherine II in Russian dress as an attempt of the German-born Empress to demonstrate her commitment to the Russian traditions. Such thesis does not correspond to literature on the history of costume presenting Catherine’s introduction of Russian court dress as her major innovation and Victor Zhivov’s analysis of “Vsiakaia Vsiachina” revealing that Catherine implicitly entered into competition with Peter the Great questioning advantageousness of his forced reclothing the Russians into European dress.
Another point is that some telltale elements of Russian court dress and Catherine’s dresses in portrait in question were characteristic for both pre-Petrine elite dress and some types folk dress. Such dichotomy makes it difficult to conclude what was the model of the dress and, consequently, the idea behind it. Paper offers elaborate comparison of the dresses with other visual materials revealing which element ‒ period folk dress or pre-Petrine elite dress ‒ was prevailing.
On this basis, I argue that Eriksen’s and Torelli’s portraits embody two competing images of Russianness. Eriksen’s one provide an image of the old Russian elite attire which should be examined in context of European practice of dressing monarch of foreign dynasty in local costume, but taking into account specific situation of Russia of the 18th century. Torelli’s portrait provides an image of period folk dress which should be examined in context of European and Russian court entertainments presenting prosperity of the subjects and power over them. The emphasis will also be made on the very specifics of the portraits (their size, format, treatment of the Empress’s image, the ways they were disseminated) pointing to their place in Empress’s discourse and reforms.
