Representations of Antique Arms and Armour in the Architectural decor of St. Petersburg

Abstract

The matter of the article is the representation of ancient arms and armour in Saint Petetrburg’s architecture. Classisism style (1770-1840) and New Classicism style (1905-1915) are studied. The main point of the article is the representation of helmets in military décor. The article contains: 1. Typology of ancient military décor; 2. The full list of buildings with ancient military décor of Saint Petersburg; 3. Examples of ancient helmets in military décor of Saint Petersburg; 4. Aesthetical Analysis of the art, symbolic and ideological reasons for using ancient military décor in Saint Petersburg’s buildings; 5. The attempt to prove that archaic helmets are the most frequent kind of Saint Petersburg’s military décor; 6. The attempt to prove that Russian architects and sculptors did not copy ancient helmets and other arms but they created new samples according to the canons of Classicism art.