Portrait of Metropolitan Mikhail, metropolitan of Saint Petersburg, Estland and Finland
Artist V.L. Borovikovsky. A smaller copy of the portrait of Mikhail archbishop of Chernigov (1816, State Russian Museum)
After 1818
Oil on cardboard
44 x 33 cm
From the collection of P.I.Shchukin, 1906–1912
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Metropolitan Mikhail (secular name M.M.Desnitski, 1762–1821), belonged to the generation of hierarchs of the Age of Enlightenment. At the choice of Metropolitan Platon (Levshin) he studied, along with the traditional education, at the philological seminar of freemasons N.Novikov and I.Shwartz, where he was inspired by the ideas of “spread of knowledge and evangelic love expressed in philanthropic activities”. With his comprehension of freemasonry he remained committed to Orthodoxy and deep understanding of the Christian teaching. In 1800’s he participated in the elaboration of the system of religious education and wrote many enlightening works. In 1814 he became one of the directors of the Bible Society in Russia and took the lead in the translation of Holy Writ into Russian. In 1818 he was elevated beyond his years to the rank of first Metropolitan in order to support the reform program of Ober-Procurator of the Holy Synod A.N.Golitsyn, but confessional politics of the latter caused their personal conflict and serious illness of the hierarch. Before he died Metropolitan addressed a letter to Emperor Alexander I asking “to save the Orthodox Church from the “blind” minister of religious affairs”.
More information...Conflicting spiritual quest of the century characterized Mikhail Desnitski as well as the artist who made this portrait. Vladimir Lukich Borovikovsky (1757–1825), artist, portraitist and icon painter was born in Little Russia (now Ukraine); he learned painting from his father. In 1788 in Saint Petersburg, he took advices of the portraitist D.G.Levitsky. In 1795 Borovikovsky was appointed an academician in Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts. From 1802 he was the Academy advisor and founded a private school in Saint Petersburg. At the same time, he was a well-known mason close to the circle of Ober-Procurator of the Holy Synod A.N.Golitsyn. Late in life he joined the mystical “Khlysts” sect of E.V.Tatarinova.
V.L.Borovikovsky made several portraits of Mikhail Desnitski. There are portraits painted in 1803 and 1816 (State Tretyakov Gallery, State Russian Museum), one small replica of the portrait of 1816 is kept in the Historical Museum and three others are in private collections. According to researchers, small portraits were traditionally made as gifts for “masonic brothers”.
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