From the Editor

Established by an edict of Peter the Great, throughout the 260 years of its existence the Russian Academy of Arts has become an unique centre of professional artistic education, one that has encouraged the wider dissemination of aesthetic knowledge as well as the formation, development and preservation of the traditions of the Russian visual arts in painting, sculpture and architecture.

Over the course of nearly three centuries, the Academy has given rise to many outstanding artistic dynasties, families that have produced, over the generations, some classic figures of Russian culture. This distinguished company of individuals, who both embraced the ideals of the sublime and were also brilliant craftsmen, has included many figures for whom art has somehow seemed to be “in their blood”： the Argunovs and Yegorovs, Brunis and Shchedrins, Sokolovs and Turzhanskys, Benois and Lancerays, Ostroumov-Lebedevs and Kharshaks, Plastovs and Miturichs, Tkachevs and Mylnikovs, Favorskys and Shmarinovs, Manizers and Vereiskys, Tseretelis and Salakhovs, Chernyshovs and Kurilko-Ryumins, Pakhomovs and Bistis, Kugachs and Dronovs, Nechitailos and Bragovskys, Rukavishnikovs and Tsigals, Pereyaslavets and Komovs, Ponomarevs and Glukhovs, Bulgakovs and Starzhenetskys, Zhelvakovs and Prisekins, Bubnovs and Yakushins, Stekolshchikov-Finogenovs, Tolstoys and Sysoevs, Tugarinovs, Burganovs and Andriyakas…Such is a far from complete list of some of the distinguished personalities who have brought fame to Russia’s multi-ethnic culture, and deserve a place in its artistic spotlight both as individuals and as artists.

Throughout the 15 years of its publication, as well as exploring traditional fields the “Tretyakov Gallery” Magazine has always seen it as a priority to introduce Russian and international readers to such brilliant Russian artistic dynasties, whose legacy has become such an integral part of the cultural heritage of the nation.