Images of Catherine the Great in the Sheremetev Collection: On Two Sculptures from the Ostankino Palace

At the end of the 18th — the beginning of the 19th centuries, the statue and the sculptural group by F.I. Shubin and P. Triscornia depicting Catherine the Great added an important semantic and ideological accent to the decor of the Ostankino Theatre-Palace, the residence of Count N.P. Sheremetev near Moscow. Created during the lifetime of the Empress, those statues expressed one of the characteristic features of the era, which was the glorification of the head of state. The history of the existence of the statue and the sculptural group is remarkable and is associated with changes and relocation: between estates and houses at the will of the Sheremetev counts, as well as due to the tragic events of Russian history. Made by outstanding sculptors, Russian and Italian, they were carefully preserved by their owners. In this article, the statue and the sculptural group depicting Catherine the Great are for the first time considered together. The author’s long-term study of the Sheremetev sculpture collection, including inventory materials and archival documents, made it possible to highlight issues related to the artistic features, attribution and provenance of the sculptures under consideration.