Beside the Stream

The Seige of Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) was famously fatal.  In 1941, the city was ringed by German and Finnish troops.  Except for trucks driving on a single road across Lake Ladoga, no food or fuel entered the city for 900 days.  Roughly a million citizens starved (Russians claim less, westerners say more).  During this time Catherine Palace was used as a barracks for German troops, who burned the furniture for fuel and lit the palace on fire when they left. 

By the end of the war, Catherine Palace was stripped and roofless. 

This is a photo of a long series of palatial rooms after the war,

and I think I took this photo from the same spot.  The interior of Catherine Palace has been reconstructed with the help of photos, drawings and paintings. 

This is the ballroom of Catherine Palace (not my photo) and you can see that the walls are completely covered by carved, gilded figures. 

It is unabashedly baroque. 

1. ((often initial capital letter) of or pertaining to a style of architecture and art originating in Italy in the early 17th century and variously prevalent in Europe and the New World for a century and a half, characterized by free and sculptural use of the classical orders and ornament, … and by dramatic effect in which architecture, painting, sculpture, and the decorative arts often worked to combined effect.)

Instead of atlantes, the arches and ceilings are held up by women and toddlers caryatids and putti. 

Here we have four putti holding things together between the window and ceiling,

and this unused door is supported by no less than eight bare-bosomed women and two putti.

Because it is Baroque, none of these figures are identical. 

The gorgeous gals and plump babies aren’t confined to the ballroom.  The small room next door had the only three original gilded figures in the palace.

The two darkened putti and the single bust on the wall are the only gilded figures that survived World War 2.  All the other gilded forms were carved since then. WTF? It’s a repro.