In 1843, Bryullov was invited to take part in the painting of St. Isaac’s Cathedral. He immediately agreed and enthusiastically set to work.
To work attracted many artists, but Bryullov got the most important parts – the dome, the figures of four evangelists in sails, twelve apostles in the drum, several large compositions on the attic. Bryullov wanted to paint the cathedral in the traditional technique of fresco, but architect A. Montferrand insisted on oil painting, motivating it by the fact that the fresco could not withstand the raw St. Petersburg climate.
Time has confirmed Bryullov’s correctness – oil painting quickly deteriorated, and at the beginning of the 20th century it was replaced by a mosaic created on the basis of Bryullov sketches and surviving fragments – sketches of the painting of the plafond of St. Isaac’s Cathedral and the apostle’s head. Four years of his life Bryullov dedicated to the work in the cathedral – painting the dome in 1847, the artist caught a bad cold and fell down for many months, doctors feared for his life. Finished painting on the sketches of Briullov P. Basin.
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