ABSOLUTIST IDEA AND REPRESENTATION OF THE IMAGE OF PETER THE GREAT IN THE WORKS OF ARTISTS OF THE FRENCH QUARTER IN ST.-PETERSBURG
The article analyzes the works of sculptors, carvers and painters of the French Quarter of St. Petersburg as a source of the absolutist myth formation and a means of the absolutist idea translation in Russian art. On the basis of extant artworks of the Petrine era (such as the equestrian monument of Peter I by Bartholomeo Carlo Rastrelli, carved panels of the Oak Cabinet in the Grand Peterhof Palace by Nicolas Pineau, paintings by Louis Caravaque and Philippe Begagle), author reveals the characteristics of Peter the Great’s image representation. The article draws attention to the projects of unrealized works of monumental and monumental-decorative art in order to reveal the peculiarities of the transfer of French art ideas in the course of “Europeanization” of Russian art culture. The author concludes that it was the masters of the French Quarter who embodied Peter’s absolutist ideology in the plastic arts, although they did not provide the necessary political communication between the Emperor and his people.