Introduction to the Special issue ITALY-RUSSIA: ON THE CROSSROADS OF CULTURES

This special Russian-Italian issue of the "Tretyakov Gallery Magazine" was prepared by our editorial staff in co-operation with the Italian Cultural Institute in Moscow and with support from the Italian Embassy in Russia during the year of Russian language and culture in Italy, and Italian language and culture in Russia. This issue is our joint effort to develop and strengthen spiritual and creative dialogue and friendly cooperation between our two nations, as well as a realization of the “GRANY” Foundation’s project “On the Crossroads of Cultures”.

Perhaps no other country has given the world so many brilliant creative giants as Italy: Giotto and Cimabue, Leonardo and Michelangelo, Dante and Petrarch, Rafael and Botticelli, Donatello and Verrocchio, Titian and Giorgione, Caravaggio and Veronese, Canaletto and Magnasco, Bernini and Canova, Carlo Goldoni and Franco Sacchetti, Vivaldi and Rossini, Puccini and Verdi, Carlo Carra and Giorgio de Chirico, Fellini and Visconti, Pasolini and Vittorio De Sica, Morandi and Guttuso, Caruso and Pavarotti, Tonino Guerra and Cesare Pavese - the list could be prolonged indefinitely...

Many outstanding masters of Russian art and culture lived and worked in Italy; they found inspiration in its nature, spectacular architecture, and the masterpieces of its fine arts - sculpture, painting, and other graphic arts. Alexander Ivanov, Karl Briullov (Brullov), Sylvester Schedrin, Nikolai Gogol, Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Prokofiev, Mikhail Glinka, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Maxim Gorky, Vyacheslav Ivanov, Alexei Isupov, Alexander Deineka, Nikolai Benois, Joseph Brodsky — these are just a few names from the legion of those extraordinary Russian cultural figures...
The whole world knows of St. Peter’s Basilica, the Tower of Pisa, the Uffizi Gallery, the Villa Borghese, La Scala Theatre, the Venice Biennale... Italian poetry, music, fine arts, theatre, cinema, design and fashion have always captured our imagination, and earned the admiration and delight of millions of people all over the world and left a luminous, ever-lasting mark on the history of world civilization.

Age-old traditions tie Russia to the culture of Italy - creations of great architects and sculptors such as Aristotele Fioravanti, Bartolomeo Rastrelli, Antonio Rinaldi, Giacomo Quarenghi are among Russia’s glories. Well-known Russian artistic dynasties originated in the Apennines, such as those of the Bruni and Benois families.

This publication of the “Tretyakov Gallery Magazine” special issue “Italy-Russia: On the Crossroads of Cultures” is an extraordinary event in the history of bilateral cultural ties between our countries and a testament of the fruitful artistic collaboration between Italy and Russia.

The editors would like to express their sincere appreciation and gratitude to the Ambassador of the Republic of Italy to Russia Antonio Zanardi Landi; to Adriano Dell’Asta, Director of the Italian Cultural Institute in Moscow; to Maria Sica, Cultural Attache of the Embassy of the Republic of Italy in Russia, and to all our colleagues who contributed to this unique publication.

Editor-in-chief Alexander Rozhin