St. Petersburg: Panorama, Streets, Architecture and Public Life

Among the Greek-Russian churches, that of the Smolnoi convent is distinguished for the taste of its decorations. It was finished about a year ago, and may serve strangers as a specimen of the modem Russian style of church architecture. It is more spacious than Russian churches are in general, and its five cupolas are placed in harmonious relation with one another. They are painted deep blue, spiinkled with golden stars. A high, magnificent, beautifully-designed iron grating — whose rails, or rather pillars, are wound with wreaths of vine-leaves and flowers, in ironwork — surroimds the courtyards of the convent ; and above it wave the elegant Hrch and lime trees. Seated on a gentle elevation on a corner of land, round which the Neva bends to the west, this cloister, with its mysterious reserve, and the alluring colours with which it is clothed, resembles a magic palace of the Arabian Nights. From the eastern suburb of St. Petersburg, and from Sunday-street, which is two versts long, and leads, directly to it, the cloister is seen far and near ; and from all quarters of the world, the orthodox believers bow and cross themselves at the sight of its cupolas. Tnis building is dedicated to the education and instruction of young girls of noble and citizen birth, of whom not less than 500 are brought up at the cost of the government, and 300 at their own. The church of the cloister, which is open to the public as a place of worship, has something extremely pleasing in its style of decoration ; only two colours are to be seen, that of the gold framework of the ornamental objects, and of the white imitative marble, highly polished, and covering all the walls, pillars, and arches. Several galleries, which are illuminated on high festival-days, run like garlands round the interior of the dome. Not less than four-and-twenty stoves of gigantic dimensions are scattered about the church, which they keep at the temperature of the study, and greet all that enter, with true Christian warmth. These stoves are built like little chapels, so that at first they are taken for church ornaments. The Russians love pomp and splendour in their churches ; in this, the balustrades surrounding the Ikonostas are of the finest glass, the doors are formed of golden columns twined and interlaced with vine leaAcs and ears of corn in carved and gilded wood. The pictures of this Ikonostas are all new, painted by the pupils of the St. Petersburg Academy. The faces of the apostles and saints, of the Madonna and of the Redeemer, in the old Russian pictures, have all the well-known Byzantine or Indian physiognomy on the handkerchief of St. Veronica in Boissere's collection ; small, long-cut eyes, dark complexion, excessively thin cheeks, a small mouth, thin lips, slender ringlets, and a scanty beard ; the nose uncommonly sharp and pointed, quite vanishing at the root between the eyes, and the head very round. In the new pictures of the Russian school, they have copied the national physiognomy as seen in the l^ussian merchants ; full red cheeks, a long beard, light and abundant hair, large blue eyes, and a blunted nose. It is wonderful that the Russian clergy have periTiitted this deviation from the old models ; the new ones, however, are held in very little respect by the people, who reverence only the old, dusty and dusky saints, and are as little inclined to accept faces they can understand, as to hear divine service in a language they can comprehend, for the old Slavonian dialect, which continues to be used, is unintelligible to them. The Empress Maria, the foundress and benefactress of the convent, has a simple monument in the church, which is dedicated in her honour to St. Mary.