Philatelia.Net: Fragments of Russian History / Plots / The Panorama «Defense of Sevastopol»


	Dmitry Karasyuk's author's project

Main

Fragments of Russian History

Plots

Countries

Artists

Bibliography

Concept

Author

Philatelia.Net / Fragments of Russian History / Plots /

The directory «Plots»

The Panorama «Defense of Sevastopol in 1854—1855»

The Panorama «Defense of Sevastopol in 1854-1855» is the well-known work of battle art and the monument to the heroic defenders of Sevastopol in Crimea(Crimean, Eastern) War 1853-1856, which was unleashed in the fight for the influence on the Middle East by Great Britain, France, Turkey and Sardinia against Russia.

Franz Alekseevich Roubaud (1856-1928), the outstanding battle-painter and the founder of Russian panoramic art is the author of the Panorama. The canvas and the life-size plan for the panorama were created in three years in the special pavilion in Munich where the artist lived.

Under the project of the military engineer F.-O.Enberg and the architect V.Feldman the works were carried out for the construction of the building for the panorama on Historical Boulevard in Sevastopol. A diameter of Panorama building is 36 m, and height is 36 m too. Classical 2-columns portal, revetted with inkerman's stone, is decorated at the top by elements of the military decor: soldier's Georgiy cross is entwined by Georgy's ribbon; at the centre - figure «349», the number of days of a Defense. On May 14(27), 1905 on the occasion of fiftieth anniversary of the heroic defense, the panorama was opened.

The panoramic work was nearly destroyed during World War II. On June 25, 1942, some bombs during bombardment cased fire. Thanks to the rescue works, 86 parts of canvas were saved. The destroyer «Tashkent» carried these fragments from the sieged Sevastopol.

After World War II it was decided to restore the panoramic painting. Unfortunately, the original canvas suffered badly and it was impossible to restore the saved fragments. The specialists decided to create a new canvas. Under the direction of academicians V.Yakovlev(1893-1953), and after his death by P.Sokolov-Skal(1899-1961), 17 Moscow painters recreated the panorama in 3 years as F.Roubaud «Rubo» did.

At the same time builders reconstructed the ruined panorama building. To mark the centannial of the first defense of Sevastopol on October 16, 1954, the Panorama was re-opened.

The Panorama tells about one of the 349 days of the Sevastopol devence - on June 6(18), 1855, when the defenders repelled the assault of the fortifications of the Korabelnaya Quarter.

The panorama's canvas is 14m x 115 m, the area of the life-size plan is about 1000 sq.m.

In 1974 in outside niches of a building there were added the marble sculptural portraits of the admirals V.A.Kornilov, P.S.Nakhimov, V.I.Istomin, A.I.Panfilov, F.M.Novosilsky, captain 1-st rank G.I.Butakov, general S.L.Khrulev, staff-captain A.V.Melnikov, the sailors Peter Koshka and Ignatiy Shevchenko, Dasha Sevastopolskaya (Darja Lavrentjevna Mikhailova, the 'Russian Florence Nightingale'), Doctor N.I.Pirogov, the great surgeon, and Leo Tolstoy, one of Russia's greatest authors, the author of «Sevastopol Stories» (aka «The Sevastopol Sketches»,»The Sebastopol Sketches», or «Sevastolpolskye Rasskazi»).

Ukraine, 2005.05.27, Sevastopol. The Panorama «Defense of Sevastopol»