Moscow, October 17, 2019
Photo: museum.ru
Mikhail Nesterov’s world-famous painting “Holy Rus’” returned to the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg today following an extensive restoration, reports Interfax.
The 6-month process was the first large-scale restoration of the painting in the century that has been at the Russian Museum, having been transferred there in 1921. It was impossible to transport the painting to exhibitions for the past several years due to its condition. It was last exhibited in San Marino in 2000 in honor of the jubilee of Christianity.
Photo: restoration.rusmuseum.ru
Restoration began in March of this year. There were small deformities on the corners and yellow preventative stickers on the canvas. There was also a large crack horizontally across the entire surface of the painting, which sometimes turned into holes. This was especially noticeable on the figure of Christ. The painting was fully restored and a new layer of varnish was added.
“Holy Rus’” is considered to be one of the main paintings of the Silver Age of Russian culture. The painting depicts a northern Russian winter landscape, with the Lord Jesus Christ with some of the most revered saints in Rus’—Nicholas, Sergius, and George—and a number of pious worshipers.
As the site of the Russian Museum details, the painting was first displayed to the general public at Nesterov’s solo exhibition in St. Petersburg in 1907. He hoped, through his work, to bring calm to a society that was agitated by revolutionary events and sentiments. The piece was bought by the museum of the Imperial Academy of Arts directly from his exhibition, and was later transferred to the Russian Museum in 1921, where it was part of the main exhibition.
The piece was removed in the 1920s due to the growing prohibitions against displays of religion, only becoming available to the public again in the late 1980s.
Thanks to the restoration, “Holy Rus’” has been restored to its original condition, and the process of deterioration has been halted.
