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2. Find the exhibition «Russian art of the 18th - early 20th century»

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The Holy Family

Creation period
First half of the 19th century
Dimensions
86x67,5 cm
86×67.5 cm
Technique
oil on canvas
5
Open in app
#1
Salvatore Tonci
The Holy Family
#2
The Holy Family depicts the Virgin Mary with the baby Jesus in her arms and her husband Joseph, as well as Elizabeth, a relative of Mary, and her son John the Baptist. 
 
Mary, John and Jesus are in the center of the picture, while Joseph and Elizabeth are standing beside, and their clothes almost merge with the background.

The picture illustrates a classic biblical story, which was often depicted on both icons and secular paintings in the Renaissance. Nowadays, the Russian Orthodox Church does not consider such icons canonical, because Joseph puts his arm around the Virgin Mary on them, which is unacceptable in the Orthodox tradition. 
 
Salvatore Tonci was born in Rome. He received a good education and served in the Neapolitan Guard for a long time. After he retired, he began to devote more time to music and poetry. Then, Tonci moved to St. Petersburg, where he became interested in painting. The artist learned to paint, copying Raphael, and in a very short time he turned from an amateur into a professional and, moreover, very popular metropolitan artist. But despite the flow of orders and even the fact that Alexander I himself was offering him a decent position at the Hermitage, Tonci moved to Moscow.

There he quickly became a favorite of the local nobility. His acquaintances considered him a witty, erudite and charismatic interlocutor. The memoirs of his contemporaries contain examples of the artist’s many talents: Tonci sang beautifully, accompanied himself on the guitar, and improvised.
#19
The most famous artworks of Salvatore Tonci are The Holy Family, The Nativity of Christ and The Baptism of Russia under St. Vladimir. The artist painted them in one of the hardest periods of his life.
S. Tonci, The Nativity of Christ, first half of the 19th century, oil on canvas
#21
After the Patriotic War of 1812, Tonci witnessed an angry mob tearing his friend, an interpreter Mikhail Vereshchagin, to pieces. His terrible fate was later described by Leo Tolstoy in the episode The Execution of Vereshchagin of his novel War and Peace. After this tragedy, Tonci began to go crazy. According to one story, the painter moved to Vladimir, where he tried to commit suicide, but he was saved. According to another, on the way to Vladimir, he fled to the forest, where he was captured by peasants, who mistook him for an enemy spy and threw to prison but, happily, not for a long.
#20
S. Tonci, The Baptism of Russia under St. Vladimir, 1813-1814, oil on canvas
For the rest of his life, Tonci was a supervisor of the drawing classes, and he retired with the rank of Collegiate Counsellor in 1842. 
 
The Holy Family and The Nativity of Christ belonged to Tonci’s daughter Maria, novice of the Fedorov Convent in the Vladimir Province. In early 20th century, the paintings were handed over to the State Vladimir-Suzdal Museum Reserve by Eugenia, the abbess of the convent.
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The Holy Family

Creation period
First half of the 19th century
Dimensions
86x67,5 cm
86×67.5 cm
Technique
oil on canvas
5
Point your smartphone camera to open in the app
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To see AR mode in action:
  1. Install ARTEFACT app for 
  2. iOS or Android;
  3. Find and download the «Paintings in Details» exhibition
  4. Push the «Augmented reality» button and point your phone's camera at the painting;
  5. Watch what happens on your phone screen whilst you flip through the pictures.
 
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