Empress Catherine II

Samuel Friedrich Ivanovich Hallberg

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Hallberg, a sculptor of Swedish origin, studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Saint Petersburg and in Rome. In 1831 Czar Nicholas I commissioned from him a large marble statue of Catherine II for the conference hall of the Saint Petersburg Academy. This commission gained Hallberg a permanent appointment as professor at this prestigious institution. The bronze is a reduced version of the marble. The empress is depicted as a classical Roman ruler or deity wearing a laurel wreath and a richly draped robe and holding a scroll. The klismos throne chair, stripped to its bold essentials and strikingly beautiful in its curving and absolute purity, refers reassuringly to a settled past. It underlines Catherine's characterization as the embodiment of stately authority. Combined with her heroic appearance all'antiqua (in the antique manner), all this strongly emphasizes her reputation as "The Great Catherine."

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The fifty thousand objects in the Museum's comprehensive and historically important collection of European sculpture and decorative arts reflect the development of a number of art forms in Western European countries from the early fifteenth through the early twentieth century. The holdings include sculpture in many sizes and media, woodwork and furniture, ceramics and glass, metalwork and jewelry, horological and mathematical instruments, and tapestries and textiles. Ceramics made in Asia for export to European markets and sculpture and decorative arts produced in Latin America during this period are also included among these works.

Metropolitan Museum of Art