Museum of Russian Icons
The oldest collection of Russian icons in Western Europe
The Museum of Russian Icons is located in Palazzo Pitti and houses the oldest collection in the world outside Russia.
Seventy-eight prestigious icons that - with the exception of a few specimens that belong to the Medici and go back to the 16th-17th centuries - date back to the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty and arrived in Tuscany by 1761.
The itinerary, set up in the rooms that were part of the summer apartment of Grand Duke Cosimo III and his wife Marguerite Louise d'Orleans, begins with the earliest works - 16th century - made at the Kremlin Armory Palace in Moscow and concludes with a series of works from the 18th century, when the capital of the Russian Empire moved to St. Petersburg.
These are devotional images, mostly small in size, intended for private worship.
Among the most valuable works in the collection are the two panels that make up the Menologium, the calendar of Orthodox religious holidays divided by semesters, and the icon with St. Catherine of Alexandria, datable between 1693 and 1694.
The martyr princess is depicted with attributes very similar to those represented in Western art: the palm and wheel of martyrdom, books and the armillary sphere alluding to her vast knowledge.
