Adrian Victorovich Prakhov (; 16 March

1846 Events January–March * January 5 – The United States House of Representatives votes to stop sharing the Oregon Country with the United Kingdom. * January 13 – The Milan–Venice railway's bridge, over the Venetian Lagoon betwee ...

, Mstislavl,

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

- 14 May

1916 Events Below, the events of the First World War have the "WWI" prefix. January * January 1 – The British Empire, British Royal Army Medical Corps carries out the first successful blood transfusion, using blood that has been stored ...

Yalta Yalta (: ) is a resort town, resort city on the south coast of the Crimean Peninsula surrounded by the Black Sea. It serves as the administrative center of Yalta Municipality, one of the regions within Crimea. Yalta, along with the rest of Crime ...

) was a Russian

art critic An art critic is a person who is specialized in analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating art. Their written critiques or reviews contribute to art criticism and they are published in newspapers, magazines, books, exhibition brochures, and catalogue ...

, archaeologist and art historian.

Biography

In 1863, he entered Saint Petersburg University, where he studied history and

philology Philology () is the study of language in Oral tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also de ...

. After graduating in 1867, he was sent abroad for further studies, in preparation for employment with the department of art history. In Munich, he attended the lectures of several scientists, including Heinrich Brunn, and studied the examples of

Ancient Greek art Ancient Greek art stands out among that of other ancient cultures for its development of naturalistic but idealized depictions of the human body, in which largely nude male figures were generally the focus of innovation. The rate of stylistic d ...

in the collection of the

Glyptothek The Glyptothek () is a museum in Munich, Germany, which was commissioned by the Bavarian King Ludwig I of Bavaria, Ludwig I to house his collection of Ancient Greek art, Greek and Roman art, Roman sculptures (hence γλυπτο- ''glypto-'' "sculp ...

. This was followed by similar studies in Paris, London, Berlin, Vienna and Italy, where he became a member of the

German Archaeological Institute The German Archaeological Institute (, ''DAI'') is a research institute in the field of archaeology (and other related fields). The DAI is a "federal agency" under the Federal Foreign Office, Federal Foreign Office of Germany. Status, tasks and ...

of Rome.Biographical notes
by E.P. Potekhina @ Биографика СПбГУ/ Upon returning in 1873, he was awarded a master's degree for his thesis, "On the restoration of the eastern group of pediments at the temple to

Aegina Aegina (; ; ) is one of the Saronic Islands of Greece in the Saronic Gulf, from Athens. Tradition derives the name from Aegina (mythology), Aegina, the mother of the mythological hero Aeacus, who was born on the island and became its king. ...

in Athens". Shortly after, he was chosen to be a lecturer. From 1875 to 1878, he edited an illustrated magazine called ' (The Bee) and, from the same year to 1887, he taught the history and theory of fine art at the Imperial Academy of Arts. He received his doctoral degree in 1879 for his dissertation, "The Architecture of Ancient Egypt". After that, he turned to Ancient Russian art of the early Christian period, researching and sketching the mosaics and murals at Saint Sophia's Cathedral and St. Cyril's Monastery in Kyiv. From 1881 to 1882 he traveled throughout Greece, Turkey, and the Middle East. In 1886, he studied the Assumption Cathedral and several other structures in

Volodymyr-Volynskyi Volodymyr (, ), previously known as Volodymyr-Volynskyi () from 1944 to 2021, is a small city in Volyn Oblast, northwestern Ukraine. It serves as the administrative centre of Volodymyr Raion and the center of Volodymyr urban hromada. It is one ...

. The following year, he copied the unique frescoes at St. Michael's Monastery. The originals were lost in 1934, when the Soviet government demolished the monastery. That same year (1887), Prakhov moved from the University of Saint Petersburg to the

University of Kyiv The Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (; also known as Kyiv University, Shevchenko University, or KNU) is a public university in Kyiv, Ukraine. The university is the third-oldest university in Ukraine after the University of Lviv and ...

, where he taught until 1897. While there, he was in charge of managing interior decoration for

St Volodymyr's Cathedral St Volodymyr's Cathedral ( ) is a cathedral in the centre of Kyiv, and one of the city's major landmarks. Since the unification council of the Eastern Orthodox churches of Ukraine in December 2018, it has been under the ecclesiastical jurisdictio ...

, including marble and bronze works, frescoes and furniture. He made two trips to Greece to study

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

decorative styles and oversaw a large group of well-known Russian and Ukrainian painters, including Victor Vasnetsov and

Mikhail Nesterov Mikhail Vasilyevich Nesterov (; – 18 October 1942) was a Russian and Soviet painter; associated with the Peredvizhniki and Mir iskusstva. He was one of the first exponents of Symbolist art in Russia. Biography He was born to a strong ...

. In 1897, he returned to his former chair in Saint Petersburg and remained there until his death. After 1901, he and Alexandre Benois edited ''Художественные сокровища России'' (Russian Art Treasures), the monthly journal of the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts. His wife, , was a concert pianist who had studied with

Franz Liszt Franz Liszt (22 October 1811 – 31 July 1886) was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor and teacher of the Romantic music, Romantic period. With a diverse List of compositions by Franz Liszt, body of work spanning more than six ...

and also posed as a model for the painter, Mikhail Vrubel. His son, , was a painter and art historian. His daughter, , was an amateur artist, and worked as a model for

, to whom she was briefly engaged.

Writings available online

Критические наблюдения над формами изящных искусств. Зодчество древнего Египта.
(Critical observation of forms of Fine Arts. Architecture of Ancient Egypt) 1880.
Киевское искусство X, XI и XII вв. Каталог выставки копий с памятников искусства в Киеве X, XI и XII вв.
(Kyiv Art X, XI and XII centuries. Catalog of the exhibition of copies of works of art in Kyiv, X, XI and XII centuries) 1883.
Открытие фресок Киево-Кирилловской церкви XII века, исполненное в 1881 и 1882 г.г.
(The discovery of murals in St. Cyril's Church of Kyiv-the XII century, executed in 1881 and 1882) 1883.
Альбом Исторической выставки предметов искусства, устроенной в 1904 году в С.-Петербурге.
(Historical Album of art exhibitions, set up in 1904 in St. Petersburg) 1907.

References

External links

A description of the work at St Volodymyr's Cathedral
by Prakhov's son, Nikolai @ the Victor Vasnetsov website. {{DEFAULTSORT:Prakhov, Adrian 1846 births 1916 deaths Art critics from the Russian Empire Art historians from the Russian Empire Archaeologists from the Russian Empire People from Mstsislaw Saint Petersburg State University alumni Academic staff of the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv