Biography

Arseniy Petrov specializes in the relations between Russian medieval art and Italian Renaissance art, as well as contemporary art. In 2008 he received his PhD in Art History from Moscow State University and then worked at the Kremlin Museums until 2013, studying its collections and editing catalogs. From 2013 to 2021, as an Assistant Professor, he taught at the Russian State University for the Humanities. From 2017 to 2022, he was the head of the art department at the Letovo School. In the 2022-2023 academic year he was a visiting researcher at the University of Trento and then visiting professor at the Ca Foscari University. In Venice, he taught a course on architectural relations between Venice, Byzantium and Medieval Rus'. This course was supported by a research grant at Ca Foscari (2016). Another field of research for Arseniy Petrov is contemporary protest and anti-war art in Russia.

Project Summary

This project is the first to consider the coloring of temples built in Rus' by Renaissance architects in the fifteenth to sixteenth centuries. Centuries later, even the key monuments have been partially rebuilt and repainted, mostly whitewashed, and thus are studied in an altered state. Recently, a breakthrough has been made in the study of these monuments, but the theme of the color of the facades has not yet been given sufficient attention. Considering them in the context of the Italian Renaissance and disparate material cultural artifacts enables us to evaluate their original artistic image, their relationship to a larger ensemble, and should also serve in the future for correct restoration decisions.