03 — ARTWORK
Exterior view
- MEDIUM
- Photo
- TYPE
- Other
PALETTE
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- FILE
- 1000 × 666 px · JPEG
COMMENTARY
UNDERLINED TERMS ARE DEFINED IN THE GLOSSARY.
The Marbleloosely applied to any hard limestone that can be sawn into thin slabs and will take a good polish so that it is suitable for decorative work; more strictly, it refers to metamorphosed limestones whose structure has been recrystallized by heat or pressure. Marbles are widely disseminated and occur in a great variety of colours and patterns, but certain types have been particularly prized by sculptors. The most famous of Greek white marbles in the ancient world was the close-grained Pentelic, which was quarried at Mount Pentelicon in Attica. The Elgin Marbles are carved in Pentelic. Widely used also were the somewhat coarser-grained translucent white marbles from the Aegean islands of Paros and Naxos. Parian marble was used for the celebrated Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. The pure white Carrara marble, quarried at Massa, Carrara, and Pietra Santa in Tuscany from the 3rd century BC, is the most famous of all sculptors' stones. It was used for the Apollo Belvedere, and was much favoured in the Renaissance, particularly by Michelangelo, who often visited the quarries to select material for his work. Neoclassical sculptors also favoured Carrara marble because of its ability to take a smooth, sleek surface, but it can look rather 'dead' compared with some of the finest Greek marbles. Palace is among the most impressive of St. Petersburg's former Imperial residences, and arguably the finest work of architect Antonio Rinaldi, a pioneer of NeoclassicismA style in European art and architecture from the mid 18th century until the end of the 19th century. Based as it was on the use of ancient Greek and Roman models and motifs, its development was greatly influenced by the excavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum, and by the theories of the German art historian Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717-1768). Intellectually and politically it was closely linked to the Enlightenment's rejection of the aristocratic frivolity of Rococo, the style of the Ancien Régime. Among Neoclassicism's leading figures were the French painter Jacques-Louis David (1744-1825), the German painter Anton Raffael Mengs (1728-1729), and the Italian sculptor Antonio Canova (1757-1822). in Russia. It was originally built for Count Grigory Orlov, who as a young artillery officer had led the conspiracy to dethrone Peter III in favour of the Emperor's wife, the future Catherine the Great. Among the rewards for his support and counsel during the early years of her reign, construction began on the Marble Palace in 1768, and alongside Rinaldi many of the finest foreign and Russian craftsmen and sculptors of the day were employed to provide its intricately decorated interiors. The name of the palace comes from the fact that in total 32 different types of marble were used to create the exterior and interior ornamentation of the Palace.
The photo shows the Marble Palace built by Rinaldi on Palace Embankment in St. Petersburg.
CITE THIS RECORD — BIBTEX
@online{wga-r0374a5523b3ee8,
author = {Krén, Emil and Marx, Daniel},
title = {Exterior view by RINALDI, Antonio},
organization = {{Web Gallery of Art}},
date = {2026-09-09},
url = {https://beta.wga.hu/artists/rinaldi-antonio-rc20d80a8d99ce8/exterior-view-r0374a5523b3ee8},
urldate = {2026-09-09},
langid = {english}
}ACCESSED 2026-09-09. REPLACE THE AUTHOR FIELD WITH THE COMMENTARY AUTHOR WHERE ONE IS NAMED.
OTHER WORKS BY ANTONIO RINALDI
The archive catalogues no further works by this artist.
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