Princess Zinaida Alexey Volkonskaya ( fr. La princesse Zénaïde Wolkonsky ), nee Princess Beloselskaya ( 3 (14) December 1789 [2] Dresden - January 24 ( February 5 ) 1862 , Rome ) is the mistress of a literary salon, a writer, a poets artist, poet, 34 , January 24 ( February 5 ), 1862 , Rome. , a prominent figure of the Russian cultural life of the first half of the XIX century [3] .
| Zinaida Volkonskaya | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Birth name | Zinaida Beloselskaya |
| Date of Birth | December 3 (14), 1789 |
| Place of Birth | Dresden |
| Date of death | January 24 ( February 5 ) 1862 (72 years) |
| Place of death | Rome |
| A country | |
| Occupation | , , , , , , |
| Father | Prince Alexander Beloselsky-Belozersky ( 1752 - 1809 ) |
| Mother | Varvara Yakovlevna Tatischeva ( 1764 - 1792 ) |
| Spouse | |
| Children | son Alexander ( 1811 - 1878 ) |
Content
Biography
A representative of the princely family Beloselsky . She was born in the family of Prince Alexander Mikhailovich Beloselsky-Belozersky and Varvara Yakovlevna Tatischeva in Dresden, where her father was an envoy to the Saxon court [4] . Zinaida lost her mother early and was raised with her sisters, Natalia (who remained in Moscow in the Tatishchev family) and Maria, the father, an educated man, a famous patron of the arts, from whom she inherited a love of science and the arts.
In 1808 , being a maid of honor, she was a member of Queen Louise of Prussia . After marrying Prince Nikita Grigorievich Volkonsky on July 3, 1811 , she, along with her husband and son Alexander, born in 1811, accompanied Alexander I during his foreign campaigns, visited London and Paris, where she became famous for her stage and musical talent, performing on The stage of private theaters of the Opera Rossini , shone at the Congress of Vienna , later - at Verona . Since that time, friendly relations were established between her and Alexander I, and correspondence began, which lasted until his death.
Returning to St. Petersburg in 1817 , Princess Volkonskaya spent three years in Russia, taking advantage of the noisy secular success that served food and for slander, for example, about her trip to Odessa: who spoke for the sea, and who for the Italian artist Michelangelo Barberi.
(fragment)
The Queen of the Muses and Beauty,
With a gentle hand you hold
Magical scepter of inspiration,
And above the brooding brow,
Double crowned wreath,
And the genius winds and burns.
Life in Moscow
Having been fed up with the high life, Princess Volkonskaya, retiring from the light and the courtyard, after a short trip to Italy in 1822, started raising her son and learning Russian, history, ethnography and archeology of Russia. Her scientific work was negatively perceived in the high society of the capital, and therefore at the end of 1824 she moved to Moscow, to the house of her stepmother, Princess A. G. Beloselskaya , her birth. Kozitskaya , on Tverskaya, and this house soon became the center of mental and artistic life of “Griboyedovskaya Moscow”. The Moscow house of Z.A. Volkonskaya on Tverskaya Street , although rebuilt, exists and is known under the old name “Yeliseyevsky Shop” [5] . The beauty, intelligence and education of the princess, her wonderful contraltous voice and a special, inherent gift for her to attract hearts gathered at her musical and literary evenings and theatrical performances not only from Moscow nobility, but also professors, artists and musicians.
In 1825, Volkonskaya became a member of the Moscow Society of Russian History and Antiquities [6] , donated its library to the Moscow Society of Naturalists .
Many well-known writers gathered in her salon [7] : Pushkin , Baratynsky , Mitskevich , Venevitinov , Devita . The most famous characteristic of Volkonskaya and her salon was the phrase of P. A. Vyazemsky from a letter to A. I. Turgenev about the “magic castle of a musical fairy”, where “thoughts, feelings, conversation, movements — everything was singing” [8] . The best poets dedicated their creations to her [9] . She herself wrote in Russian, French and Italian, Pushkin called her "the queen of the muses and beauty", she was also called "Northern Corinna ."
Vyazemsky recalls how Pushkin first appeared in the Volkonskaya salon and was fascinated: she sang for him Pushkin’s elegy “The Daytime Light Turned Out” put to music by the composer Genishtoy. “Pushkin was vividly touched by this seduction of subtle and artistic coquetry,” Vyazemsky later wrote. - As usual, the paint flashed on his face. In it, this sign of strong impressionability was the undoubted expression of every tremendous sensation. ”
(fragment)
Why, why did you sing so sweetly?
Why and I listened to you so eagerly
And from your mouth, the singer of beauty,
Peel the poison of dreams and passions
joyless?
Passionately in love with her was the young, early deceased poet D.V. Venevitinov , before leaving him for St. Petersburg, where he soon died, the princess presented a bronze ring found during the excavations of Herculaneum - with him the poet as he wished, expressed in verses, and was buried (exhumed by the Soviet authorities, the ring is now stored in the funds of the Literary Museum [10] ).
“This remarkable woman,” writes a contemporary, “with remnants of beauty and in her declining years, wrote both prose and poems. Everything breathed grace and poetry in an extraordinary woman who fully devoted herself to art. According to her aristocratic relations, the most brilliant society of the capital of the throne gathered in her house; writers and artists turned to her, as if to some patron of the arts. A passionate lover of music, she arranged for not only concerts, but also Italian opera, and was herself on stage in the role of Tancred , striking everybody with a clever play and a wonderful voice: it was difficult to find a contralto equal to her. In the magnificent halls of the Beloselsky Opera House, living paintings and masquerades often recurred throughout this winter, and each performance was furnished with a special taste, because the Italians constantly surrounded the princess. Right there, in these salons, it was possible to meet everything that was only eminent in Russian Parnassus ” [11] .
In Volkonskaya's salon, Karolina Pavlova met Adam Mitskevich (and in her Italian salon, Yulia Samoilova and Karl Bryullov ).
Return to Italy
After the uprising of the Decembrists, the position of Volkonskaya was complicated. In 1826, Zinaida Volkonskaya set off to Siberia the wives of the Decembrists — EI Trubetskoy and MN Volkonskaya (the wives of Nikita Volkonsky's brother, her husband), which caused displeasure of the authorities. Volkonskaya was placed under secret police surveillance. In August 1826, the director of the office, von Fock, reported to the gendarme chief:
“Between the ladies are the two most irreconcilable and always ready to tear the government apart - Princess Volkonskaya and Generalsha Konovnitsyna . Their private circles serve as the focus of all the discontented; and there is no meaner evil than the one they spew on the government and its servants. "
At the same time, under the influence of the Jesuits, she converted to Catholicism (she was a parishioner of St. Catherine’s Church in St. Petersburg ) and after this she received permission from Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich to go abroad; her estate was transferred to the name of her son.
Taking a son with him and inviting a tutor to him, Professor S.P. Shevyrev , the princess settled in Rome in 1829 in a villa she had bought near St. John Lateran Square . Since then, she has only been to her homeland twice (in 1836 and 1840) to meet her son and husband.
She entered the Moscow salons,
So that in the city of tent domes
Sing to the bells
Scorching Petrarch Canzones.
And I love the dark icons,
Cyrillic, Slavic Horology,
To remember them among the balls
In a crowd of congresses of Vienna and Verona.
But again Ancient Rome appeared before her,
And forgot basil in the smoke
About poor temples with beggars in the aisles,
When burning purple prelate
Before her sang in solemn chapels
Tercine Catholic cantatas.
Roman villa of Princess Volkonskaya attracted artists and writers, both Russian and foreign; its most frequent visitors were Kamuchchini , O. Verne , Thorvaldsen ; from Russian: Bruni , Bryullov , Gogol , Pogodin , Ivanov .
In the last years of his life, Volkonskaya was seized by a gloomy mystical mood. She died on January 24, 1862 and was buried in Rome, in the church of Sts. Vikentiya and Anastasia, on Trevi Square, together with her husband and sister Maria Alexandrovna Vlasova ( 1787-1857 ) in the side chapel to the right of the entrance. If you believe the legend, the cause of death was a cold, received by the princess after she gave her coat on the street to a freezing poor woman. She was always distinguished by compassion and charity, and at the end of her life, helping those in need was for her almost an obsession.
After the death of the princess, her son Alexander Nikitich collected all the works of the mother and published them in French and Russian. Unfortunately, the richest archive of Volkonskaya, in which there were autographs of many prominent figures of Russian culture, was sold out.
In Italy, they remember the Russian princess, whom the Roman poor called the Pious, and even kept the name of Zinaida Volkonskaya in the name of one of the streets of the Eternal City.
Progeny
Son - Prince Alexander Nikitich Volkonsky ( 1811 - 1878 ), Privy Councilor. In 1829 he entered the service in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 1858, he was an ambassador extraordinary in Saxony, in 1860 - in Naples, in 1862 - in Spain. Author of the book "Rome and Italy". He collected paintings and sculpture of Western masters, ancient art. Alexander remained faithful to Orthodoxy, which greatly distressed the mother. However, she understood that the transfer of her son to another denomination would have a negative impact on his diplomatic career. It was impossible to forget about the material side of life. Indeed, according to the decree of Nicholas I, which was in force in Russia, all the property of Catholic neophytes was subject to confiscation, so Volkonskaya had to write down his extensive possessions in the name of his son so as not to lose the only source of subsistence. Remaining Orthodox A. N. Volkonsky, enjoyed great confidence in the Vatican circles. Possessing a natural nobility, warmly sympathizing with Pope Pius IX, he sincerely wanted to improve relations between St. Petersburg and the Apostolic Capital. He died of apoplexy in April 1878, as well as his parents, was buried in Rome.
His wife (since 09/17/1844) was Baroness Louise Leopoldovna von Lilien (06.23.1807–01.02.1871), in her first marriage von Herding; the only daughter of Baron Leopold von Lilien (1770–1829) and Maria Charlotte von Aachen (1770–?); goddaughter of the Duchess Louise of Hesse-Darmstadt . The marriage with Volkonsky was concluded in Bern in September 1844. In 1849, their daughter Zinaida was born in Warsaw, but she died at the age of four in 1853. Having no other children, with the consent and approval of Princess Zinaida, the Volkonskie in 1855 adopted the provincial noblewoman Nadezhda Vasilyevna Ilyina, the daughter of a distant relative of Volkonsky Vasily Vasilyevich Ilyin (1800–?), The ruler of their estate Urusovo .
Nadezhda Ilyina-Volkonskaya ( 1855 - 1923 ) was raised by her grandmother in an Italian villa surrounded by the most educated people of her time, in the best traditions of European enlightenment. Living permanently in Italy, Nadezhda married the marquis Vladimir Frantsevich Kampanari (d. 1931), who turned out to be a very loose and unreliable man who squandered the riches that Volkonskys had brought from Russia to Italy. They had four children:
- Alexander , who later married her cousin Anna Dmitrievna Ilina.
- Vladimir - to cousin Nina Dmitriyevna Ilina
- Catherine,
- Zinaïda , both marketed by the Italians.
There are references to the eldest son of Gregory, who died in infancy and was born Z. Volkonskaya allegedly from Emperor Alexander I .
Works
- literature:
- "Quatres nouvelles" Moscow, 1819
- The Slavic Painting of the V Century was published in Paris (1824), Moscow (1825) and Warsaw (1826). pdf
- music:
- The opera “Jeanne d'Arc” (“Giovanna d'Arco, dramma per musica ridotto da Schiller”), 1821. Was staged in Rome with Zinaida Volkonskaya in the lead role.
- "Cantata in memory of Emperor Alexander I" Karlsruhe , 1865
- editions:
- "Works of Princess Zinaida Volkonskaya" Karlsruhe, 1865 (in Russian) and " Fr. Oeuvres choisies de la princesse Zénaïde Volkonsky ”(in French) Paris and Karlsruhe, 1865 published by her son Prince Alexander Nikitich Volkonsky. [12]
In literature
(fragment)
... I soon rode to Moscow,
To sister Zinaida. Mila and smart
There was a young princess,
As music knew! How she sang!
Art she was a shrine.
She left us a book of short stories,
Filled with a grace of tender,
Poet Venevitinov stanzy she sang,
Love in her hopelessly;
In Italy, the year Zynaida lived
And to us - according to the poet -
"The color of the southern sky brought in the eyes."
The Queen of Moscow Light,
She was not alien artists, - life
They had Zina in the living room;
They respected, loved her
And North was named Corinna ...
- Princess Z. A. Volkonskaya (Pushkin)
- To my goddess (Venevitinov) , Elegy (Venevitinov) , To my ring (Venevitinov)
- “The Story of Two Houses” (V. Gilyarovsky)
- Nikolay Nekrasov . "Russian women. Princess M. N. Volkonskaya: stanza.
- Leonid Grossman . Sonnet "Zeneida Volkonskaya"
- In 1987, the publishing house "Moscow Worker" published a collection of "In the kingdom of the muses", compiled by Vl. Ants set out to recreate the look of the salon, gathering under one cover the works of the authors and the princess herself.
See also
- Villa Volkonskaya
Notes
- ↑ Smirensky B.V. Volkonskaya // Short Literary Encyclopedia - M .: Soviet Encyclopedia , 1962. - Vol. 1.
- ↑ According to other data, she was born on December 3, 1792, which is impossible, since her mother, Barbara Yakovlevna Beloselskaya, died on November 25, 1792 in Turin.
- ↑ Volkonskaya Z. A. Biographical information
- ↑ Volkonskaya, Princess Zinaida Aleksandrovna // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron : in 86 tons (82 tons and 4 extras). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
- ↑ Kovaleva Ye. A. Integrated lesson of world art culture on the topic: “Zinaida Volkonskaya Literary and Music Salon” Publishing House “First of September”
- ↑ M. I. Pylyaev. Encyclopedia of imperial Petersburg. —M: EKSMO, 2007, p.142
- ↑ Zinaida Volkonskaya: fans and their poems - Alexander I, Boratynsky, Pushkin, Vyazemsky. . The appeal date is June 18, 2019.
- ↑ Moscow Literary Salon of the book. Zinaida Volkonskaya
- ↑ Zinaida Volkonskaya
- ↑ V. Osokin. Ring Venevitinova
- ↑ Alexander Pushkin in love
- ↑ Volkonskaia, Zinaida Aleksandrovna, kniaginia, 1792–1862. Papers: Guide. Harvard University Library (eng.)
Literature
- Harris M. A. Zinaida Volkonskaya and Her Time. M., 1916
- SM Volkonsky, My Memories, in 2 vols. Berlin, "The Bronze Horseman", [1923-1924], and M., "Art", in 2 vols., 1992
- N. G. Okhotin. Volkonskaya Zinaida Aleksandrovna. - Russian writers. 1800-1917. M., SE, 1989, p.468-469
- Terebenina R.E. Pushkin and Z.A. Volkonskaya // Russian Literature. 1975. No. 2 .
- Vuich L.I. Lithographed portrait of Z. A. Volkonskaya // Vremennik Pushkin Commission / Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Olya. Pushkin. commissions - L .: Science. Leningrad Separation, 1987. - Vol. 21. - p. 185-192
- SAIKINA Natalya Vladimirovna. Moscow Literary Salon of the book. Zinaida Volkonskaya
- Saikina N.V. Materials to the early biography of the book. Z. A. Volkonskaya // Moscow University Bulletin. Ser. 9. Philology. 2017. No. 5. P. 197-223.
- Maria Fairweather, Pilgrim Princess: A life of Princess Zinaida Volkonsky, 1998
- Polunina N., Frolov A. Collectors of Old Moscow: Biographical Dictionary / Preface by Academician S. O. Schmidt. - Moscow: Nezavisimaya Gazeta, 1997. P. 107-111.