Vigilius Eriksen’s and Stefano Torelli’s Portraits of Catherine II in Russian Dress: Two Competing Images of Russianness? Part I

Abstract

A series of two articles offers an interpretation of the two portraits of Catherine II in Russian dress painted by Vigilius Eriksen and Stephano Torelli in the light of the conceptual fields of the terms “people” (French)/“Volk” (German) which was translated into Russian, as Ingrid Schirle revealed, as “народ” implying sociological meaning and “nation” (French)/“Nation” (German) translated into Russian as “государство” or “отечество”. A present paper examines Vigilius Eriksen’s portrait. Comparison with period visual material together with newly discovered textual evidence categorically proves that Vigilius Eriksen’s portrait, as well as Russian court dress, offers an image of boyar attire, though the elements perceived as Russian were, as shown by Svetlana Amelekhina and Daniel Green, characteristic for both pre-Petrine elite dress, some types of period folk dress and some even for European dress. Such dress implies and glorious centuries-long history of the state — the same ideas as those promoted in academic history painting. The paper offers analysis of the artistic traits of Eriksen’s portrait and ways of dissemination of the portrait which make it an efficient instrument of implementing Catherine’s idea.