This house has Pushkin & Tolstoy in… togas! But why?
This building in the center of Moscow has been surprising city residents for over 100 years. Initially, it would seem that it’s just one of many apartment buildings. But, there is a nuance: The facade is decorated with an unusual frieze (a long stretch of painted, sculpted or even calligraphic decoration), which depicts Russian classic writers in antique clothes.
At the beginning of the 20th century, German Broydo was considered to be one of the most famous developers in the city. For many of his projects, he hired Nikolai Zherikhov. He was a real gem: From a simple draftsman, he became a famous architect and created more than 40 apartment buildings in Moscow. In 1907, he built another house for Broydo in Khamovniki and decided to decorate it with an unusual frieze.
With great surprise, passers-by would recognize famous writers in the men dressed in Roman togas. Among them were Alexander Pushkin, Nikolai Gogol and even Leo Tolstoy. The latter was probably especially surprised, because this figure was his first lifetime sculptural image.
The writers are in the company of muses and patron of the arts Apollo, all embracing or clinging to one another. They are either hugging or congratulating each other on something – in general, it seems they are behaving quite playfully. In contrast to the usual plant ornaments or scenes with images of animals, such an external home decoration immediately attracted attention.
According to one version, the frieze was created by Lev Sinaev-Bernstein for the Alexander III Museum of Fine Arts (now the Pushkin Museum). The proposed version was, however, not approved, so it was decided that this work was to be placed on the Broido House. However, there is no actually evidence of this.
