San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-08-14
The Winter Palace Considered from an
Artistic Point of View.

The initiative of the Russians in art and in
civilization is limited. Hitherto they have
displayed greater aptitude for copying than
for original conception, and even for their
copies they have had recourse to western art
lists, particularly to western architects like
Quarenghi Rossi and Count Rastrelli. The
last is responsible both for the outside and
the inside of the Winter palace.
This enormous structure was begun in 1882,
finished in 1902 partly burned in 1887, but
rebuilt in 1889 from the original drawings.
1t is a broad, rectangular block, four stories
or about 50 feet high, with frontage 40
feet i'll length and breadth of $50 feet, one
facade parallel with the Neva, another look
ing toward the Admiralty, the third facing
the vast Alexander place, and the fourth
blind facade backing up to the adjoining
Hermitage palace, with which it commnni
Gates by means of a covered bridge.
The proportions of this palace are not com
mendable; the style of architecture is very
bombaStic rocco; the decoration is over
charged with statues, caryatides flower pots,
grenades, and trumpery accessories; the cheap
stucco surface of its facadeS-mercilessly
broken up by pilasters, water spouts, and
windows so that the eye nowhere finds re-
Gotta color picked out with lighter tone of
yellow. The iron roof is painted red. The
outside of this palace is absolutely without
charm or merit of any kind its only claim to
notice is its immensely, which, by the way
according to Russian notions, is a very con
siderable claim.
The interior is a saddeuing example of the
bad taste which seems to characterize crowned
heads of all nations, whether the Russian
car, the Turkish sultan, the German emperor
or the British sovereign. The ornamentation
is for the most part in rampageOus rocaille
style, bright FURNISHED gold on whitewash or
white imitation marble. Our pen absolutely
refuses to describe the sham splendor of the
imperial apartments, with their modern
French polished furniture and vile wood
carving, their massive screens glazed with
purple glass, their wall hangings of yellow
and white or rose and green satin.
The malachite room, the Pompeiian room,
the Mauresque bath room, likewise failed to
transport us with admiration. The corner
that pleased us best was Peter the Greats
throne room, whose walls were hung with soft
red velvet embroidered with golden eagles.
The st. Georges Hall, a parallelogram, 40
feet by 90 feet, adorned with Corinthan col,
umns of real white marble with gilt bases
and capitals, is also fine room, perhaps the
finest in the whole palace. The White Hall,
the Golden Hall, and the Nicholas Hall are
chillingly white show rooms, which require
the animation of the court ceremonies and
balls and the glitter of lights and diamonds
in order to give them a picturesque interest.
Finally we may notice the state entrance TO
the palace from the Neva Quay, called the
Ambassadors Stairs, of white Carrara mar
bic, and the vestjbule richly decorated and
gilded with Renaissance ornaments and stat
uary TIL, staircase ami the St Georges
Hall are the only tw" parts Of the Winter
Palace that present an aspect of real gran
deur and majesty Theodore Child in Har
per's Magazine