What is going on in the painting ‘Folk Festivities During Shrovetide on Admiralteyskaya Square in St. Petersburg’?

Rebellious Professor

Konstantin Makovsky amazingly combined rebelliousness and academicism in his work. He was one of the best students of the Imperial Academy of Arts, but, in 1863, he refused to participate in the competition for a large gold medal and the creation of a painting on a given theme and, instead, joined the artists' artel (or team). In those years, he painted scenes from the life of Petersburgers. The largest was the canvas ‘Folk festivities during Shrovetide on Admiralteyskaya Square in St. Petersburg’. The artist presented it at the annual exhibition of the Academy and received the title of professor for it. The huge painting – 2.15 by 3.21 meters – was purchased for 900 rubles by Tsar Alexander II and placed in the Gatchina Palace.

Have fun, Shrovetide!

Makovsky depicted one of the most popular folk holidays – Maslenitsa or Shrovetide. According to tradition, during the week before Lent, there was a carnival associated with the farewell of winter and the arrival of spring. In St. Petersburg, large Shrovetide celebrations would be held on the square in front of the Main Admiralty building, but not only that: in the mid-19th century, Admiralty, St. Isaac's and Petrovskaya (now Senate) squares were one single space. So, you can imagine the scale of the fun! 

At that time, peep boxes, nativity scenes and booths were set up there, where puppet shows and performances with the participation of actors and ‘skomorokhs’ (harlequins), as well as “living pictures” were shown. “Booths. Large, round, box-shaped with galleries and passages and freshly built, staircased ‘theaters’ of all kinds. Carousels, rocking chairs, panoramas in tents fancifully sprouted over the square like mushrooms. There, against the background of scary images – animals, birds, volcanoes and  blackamoors – something mysterious was going on: mummers were moving, fussing: here was something like a harlequin with a hoarse voice and a tied neck, next to her a “Cossack woman” with feigned coquettish grimaces and a feather on a Polish cap, while another harlequin was beating a tambourine,” recalled Elena Makovskaya, the artist's daughter. 

A feast for all classes

Critics of the time wrote that in Makovsky's painting, all of St. Petersburg is having a good time, representatives of all classes and estates. There is a dandy in a pince-nez and a young lady in a fashionable hat, warming her hands in a fur muff, lively merchant women and traders of nuts and other foods, street children in shabby clothes, a vendor selling tea from a samovar, a policeman staring at something, a young thief and actors in colorful tights and mummers. 

Fashionable attraction 

In addition to the booths, the artist depicted a fashionable attraction of the time – “living pictures”. It is easily recognized by the sign: ‘The Eruption of Vesuvius’. There was no shortage of those who wanted to tickle their nerves. In addition, everyone wanted to be “inside” the famous painting ‘The Last Day of Pompeii’ by Karl Bryullov, which he created under the impression of a trip to excavate in the destroyed city. 

By the way, because of the similarity of compositions and dense population, the paintings by Bryullov and Makovsky were often compared. However, unlike Bryullov's canvas, created in the traditions of the historical genre, ‘Folk Festivities’ was given to characters understandable and close to Makovsky's contemporaries. 

In 1897, the painting was transferred from the Gatchina Palace to the Russian Museum, where it remains to this day.