Venus Tauride in the summer garden
LITERARY AND ARTISTIC ALMANAC
Venus Tauride. Description of one statue.
In the Hermitage, where during my university years and later, while I lived in the city center, I visited constantly, prolonging my walks already in time, I no, no, went down into the halls antique sculpture, where he was not particularly interested in anything, feeling the presence around the corner of a single statue, in comparison with which everything around faded.
View of the Temple of Vesta and the Palatine. 
Century carried out extensive excavations in Rome. During these excavations, archaeologists removed three meters of soil. Its ruins tell the story of the evolution of art, history, religion and culture of mankind. The Roman Forum contained numerous buildings and structures that played an important role in the life of the ancient Romans in Ancient Rome.
The Forum consists of 22 separate monuments. For example, the Curia hosted meetings of the Roman Senate, in which Roman emperors were also present. 
The Temple of Vesta was the central sanctuary of Rome in the Roman Forum. He stood behind Caesar and Dioscurentempel. The sacred fire of Vesta was burned in it, which was guarded by six vestals. The temple belongs to the tilom. The temple had six actual priestesses who guarded the fire in honor of the goddess Vesta, but also had great political influence. According to tradition, the temple went back to the second king of Rome, Numa Pompilius, and was shaped like a round hut, reminiscent of the first Roman dwellings.
Aphrodite (Venus Tauride). Roman copy from a Greek original of the 3rd century. BC. Marble.
The marble has not retained its purity and freshness, which is why the statue does not seem particularly attractive. But if you imagine her in all the pristine purity of snow-white marble, slightly painted to match the flesh color, as the Greeks did, with pupils emitting light and life, everything changes.
In the middle of its roof there was a hole for a fire chimney. Inside the temple are preserved the penates of the state, various objects that Aeneas supposedly saved from Troy, including the Palladion, ancient statue goddess Pallas Athena. The sacred interior of the temple was permitted only by a few persons, such as Vestalinnen or Pontiff Maximus.
IN close proximity from the temple was the House of the Vestals, where the priestesses dedicated to virginity lived. The House of the Vestals was a magnificent residential building in the Roman Forum. This was the residence of the priestesses of Vesta, the so-called vestals. It was a two-story villa, equipped with heating systems, with bedrooms, kitchens, reception rooms and a mill. The marble arcaded courtyard was decorated with fountains and statues of the most famous Vestals of the past. After the destruction of Rome by fire in 64 AD. Visible construction began, which was repeatedly repaired and rebuilt during the Emperor's era under Trajan and Septimius Severus.
The goddess had just bathed and came out to a secluded shore; Hearing someone's voices, she looked to the side, the movements of her hands are not difficult to guess - is it possible to imagine that Praxiteles' Aphrodite of Cnidus was more beautiful? Or the Venus de Milo? Meanwhile, the Tauride Venus has an amazing history.
It is known that in the transformations of Peter I, Slavophiles and Westerners alike saw only the borrowing of styles of foreign clothing, they started talking about joining the achievements of Western civilization, about the Europeanization of Russia... This is only the external side, an appearance, which to this day constitutes one of the black myths about Russia .
The Temple of Saturn is located at the foot of the Capitoline Hill in the Roman Forum in Rome. Its original date was between 501 and 498 BC. Built in the 3rd century BC, it is the second oldest temple in ancient Rome. The temple was rebuilt by Lucius Furius, possibly as a result of Galli's invasion. Finally, the temple burned down again towards the end of the century and was rebuilt in 283. From this time on, there is a fixed front of the temple with column settings and an inscription on the preserved architrave. Destroyed by fire and rebuilt by the Senate and the Roman people.
No culture develops without borrowing. The greatest receptivity to the civilizations of the East was demonstrated by the ancient Greek culture, which Rome took as its basis, a basis rejected by Christianity as pagan. A new appeal to the origins of European civilization in European countries in the 14th - 16th centuries gave birth to the Renaissance.
Even before the construction of the temple, an altar dedicated to Saturn was erected on the site. The anniversary of the dedication was one of the highest Roman holidays and was celebrated in December with the multi-day feast of Saturnalia. Tradition says that Dioskouri helped the Romans win the battle of that time. In gratitude, the Romans built a temple. The temple was renovated by Lucius Caecilius Metellus Delmaticus. The temple was used several times in the late Republic as a meeting place for the Senate.
In the name of Tiberius and his deceased brother Drusus. The occasion and time of the praise of this new building are unknown. 
Best view this temple is from the Colosseum. The Temple of Venus and Roma is a double temple in Rome. His preserved remains are located on the slope of Velia, facing the Colosseum. The chella facing the Forum Romanum was dedicated to the Roman goddess Roma, and the other practiced the cult of Venus, which was revived by the emperor Hadrian. The base of the temple was 140 by 100 meters, making it the largest temple in Rome.
Russia experienced the same thing in its historical periods. There is no talk of backwardness here, just as one cannot talk about the backwardness of a younger brother in relation to his elder, let the first try to imitate the second; and there is no need to talk much about borrowing, especially if the younger one is brilliantly gifted.
The most impressive properties and traits of Renaissance eras and personalities are the genius and universalism of knowledge and talents. Is it possible to imagine a king, a ruler, a king from all times and peoples, so that he would appear as an excellent blacksmith, carpenter, turner, shipbuilder, commander, connoisseur of books and art, straightener of the alphabet?
It began under Hadrian, but ended only under his successor Antoninus Pius. The foundations of this building have been partially used. The temple was flanked on its long sides by a double portico of gray granite pillars with a propylaea. In general, the architecture of the temple was more oriented towards Greek than Roman building rules.
Temple of Antoninus Pius and Faustina
Therefore, it did not have a high podium, which was necessary for Roman temples. 
July 138 until his death Roman Emperor. The Roman Empire under him, the fourth of six adopted emperors and founders of the Antonine dynasty, experienced its last long period of peace. His name was Titus Aurelius Fulvus Boionius Arrius Antoninus. Antonin was at. also built one named after his famous thermal baths at Carthage, but whose completion he did not live on.
Do you know where the Tauride Venus came from in the Hermitage? From Tavrida? From Greece? From Italy?
Or from the Tauride Palace? Apparently yes. But she got there from the Summer Garden, where a marble statue of a naked goddess was put on public display for the first time in Russia in the summer of 1719.
In Rus', they had never seen white devils, as Christians called the statues of the goddess of love and beauty, breaking her hands and throwing her into a ditch. A statue unearthed from the ground, in such rare condition and unique beauty, buying, it turned out, was not so easy: the Vatican, having learned about the find and the deal, seized the statue of Venus.
March 161 in Lanuvia in the Albanian Hills. Emperor Antoninus Pius had a temple built in 141 AD. for his late wife Faustina. The temple is raised on a high platform and from the south it extends across the street through the Sacra via a staircase. The currently visible brick staircase is a modern renovation. The front of Prostilos is dominated by six 17-meter-high monolithic pillars of Cipollino, a greenish marble with a fine, dark texture from the Greek island of Euboea. In the 18th century, the Church of San Lorenzo in Miranda was built as a temple.
The king's ministers had to intervene, enter into negotiations with the cardinals, and promise them to deliver the relics of Saint Brigid before Venus was allowed to leave the borders of blessed Italy. They didn’t dare take it out by sea: what if there was a storm or a shipwreck?
They were transported slowly through Vienna and on sleighs, waiting until winter. For almost a year or two, Tsar Peter, having made his second trip to Europe, having experienced the tragedy of his son’s flight to the Austrian emperor and the death of his youngest son, corresponded with his ambassadors about the delivery of Venus to St. Petersburg. The disasters that befell did not break his spirit. He organized a celebration unique for Orthodox Rus' in honor of the ancient guest on the Neva and in the Summer Garden.
The temple was also dedicated to him, and the dedicatory inscription, which was originally attached only to the architrave, was supplemented nearby in the Frisian zone. "For the deified Antoninus and the deified Faustina in the resolution of the Senate." 
The Basilica Julia is clearly visible from the Capitoline Hill - the building is located on the left side in the foreground. Basilica Julia was once an ancient hall in the Roman Forum in Rome. The construction of the basilica was probably 54 BC. Gaius Julius Caesar began on the site of a small building of its predecessor, the Basilica of Sempronius and a workshop of shops, veterans of the tabernacles.
What was it? Merezhkovsky begins his historical novel about Peter I and Alexei with a mention of this festival, although the latter by this time, a year later, had died, unable to bear torture, the usual method of inquiry in all countries since ancient times.
Films and studies have appeared in which the king is shown almost personally torturing his son and first wife Evdokia. All this is fiction! That is, from the same series of black myths about Russia. But if, let’s say, this is true, documents have been preserved that inspire confidence among historians - and there are no such documents - in all countries, when the conspiracy was discovered, the heads of those closest to the ruler flew at the throne first. There is no news here.
The still unfinished Basilica Julia was built 46 BC. Opened during the dictatorship of Caesar. The name comes, as often in Roman buildings, from the family of Julius Caesar - he comes from the Julian family. After another fire in 283, it was rebuilt again under Diocletian. With a length of 101 meters and a width of 49 meters, Basilica Julia was the largest basilica in the Roman Forum itself. He was lying on south side between Vicus Jugarius in the west and Vicus Tusk in the east. The basilica had a high nave and galleries above the aisles and an apse for the seat of the judge.
Today's remnants can only guess. 
One of the most recent monuments in the area of the Roman Forum is the so-called Phocas Column, built in honor of the Byzantine Emperor Phocas. The Column of Phocas is a Roman honorary column of honor built by order of the Exarch of Ravenna, Emerald, in 608 in honor of Emperor Phocas. The column is believed to be the last public structure built in the Roman Forum in antiquity. It was originally topped with a gilded statue of the emperor. Nearby are the remains of seven other pillars along the Via Sacra.
The essence of the actions of the reformer king is not in cruelty and coercion. This is not what makes it unique. We still laugh at the festivities that Tsar Peter loved to organize. Even Pushkin in “The Blackamoor of Peter the Great”, not without humor, mentions the assemblies that the tsar established, accustoming Russian society to the light in which the poet himself so loved to be in his time.
When this column was erected, from the old splendor of the forum and Eternal City left a little. After the war with the Goths, Emperor Justinian, Rome and Italy were devastated by 550. However, the construction of this column illustrates that Rome was also used for the Eastern Roman emperors. The Forum, the ancient center of the city, was apparently still in use at the time and was considered a suitable site for the erection of such an important monument - initially in the following decades it was to lose its importance entirely and finally serve as pasture land.
Meanwhile, the theater arose, the entire culture of antiquity began with national festivals. This is what the Tsar-Reformer introduced the Russian people to, as a person of genius, most likely unconsciously, but containing within himself all the richness of human nature, like the Greeks.
Now imagine the Summer Garden. On the Neva side, in a gallery of twelve paired columns, there is a statue of Venus. Guests, including nobles and craftsmen, builders of the city and ships, arrive on boats and barges. On the pier, Bacchus sits on barrels of wine, greeting everyone with a glass of wine.
Opposite the Caesarforum is the Forum of Trajan with Trajan's Column. The reliefs of the column report Trajan's two campaigns against the Dacians. The column is located, like the Caesarforum, below the current street level in a closed area. The relief details are difficult to recognize from a distance. Construction began near Trajan. At her foot there is a burial chamber in which the ashes of Emperor Trajan are buried. The Apostle Peter now sits on a throne at the top of the column.
The column consists of 18 marble drums with a diameter of 3.50 m, and on the outside a wide strip of reliefs is wound spirally upward. 
The Palatine Hill is bordered by the small valleys of the Roman Forum and the Circus Maximus. The name of the hill - one of the seven hills of Rome - probably comes from Pales, the goddess of shepherds. However, on this hill, according to tradition, Romulus revealed through excavations that the history of settlements on this hill is much older.
Along the alley leading to the Summer Palace there are tables with cold snacks, and there the Tsar and Tsarina greet the guests. Trumpets, drumming and cannon fire over the Neva herald the beginning of the festival in honor of Venus.
Mummers depicting gods, nymphs and satyrs, led by Neptune, arrive on boats. The celebration is in full swing. Lights with various symbols and fireworks are lit on the Neva.
Capitol Hill was once the center ancient Rome, and at its most high points there were temples of Juno Moneta and the Temple of Jupiter. The Capitoline Hill is one of the seven hills of Rome and at the same time the smallest. In the Capitoline Square there is an equestrian statue of Marc Aurel in the middle, and in the background is the Senator's Palace. 
The Capitoline Museums are the museum of the city of Rome and today consist of several collections of antiquities and art galleries. The most important are on the Capitoline Hill, above the Roman Forum in the Palazzo Conservatory and Palazzo Nuovo.
Here only the king's closest associates are older; most are all young, and some of the ladies are still young. On the boardwalk Summer Palace the orchestra is playing; the mummers began to dance in a round dance, the audience joined them, and at the height of the fun, the king and queen; the round dance is crowded, and it spreads along the alleys of the Summer Garden.
This is more than a celebration, but a mystery, with the appearance in the minds and worldview of Russian poets and artists of the gods of Greece, as was the case in European countries during the Renaissance.
A similar celebration, which amazed Europe, was organized in the Tauride Palace and Garden on April 28, 1791 by Potemkin, Prince of Tauride, formally in honor of Empress Catherine II. Works of art were exhibited there: paintings, sculptures, busts - exceptional, and among them Venus, in whose honor Tsar Peter organized a festival, soon, with the conclusion of peace with the Swedes, declared the All-Russian Emperor.
Venus of Tauride, take a closer look at it during your next visit to the Hermitage or at the photograph, it is now clear that this is a symbol of the Renaissance in Russia, with its origins in antiquity, which Peter I, the greatest Renaissance personality, was fully aware of. “Why! - the editor-in-chief of the Aurora publishing house told me, where I dropped in with the manuscript of the book “Renaissance in Russia” (woman). “He cut off the heads of the archers...”
Holy simplicity! This is how they overlooked the Renaissance in Russia, continually falling into self-deprecation and foolishness, right up to the destruction of the great state.
There is a sonnet dedicated to the Tauride Venus. In the Hermitage this unique statue occupies the best place: upon entering Big hall in the corner - most visitors pass by without noticing it among the many sculptures. And if with a guide, the group stops at the aisle, everyone’s attention is scattered; I don’t know what the guide is saying, but the Tauride Venus deserves to stand alone in a small hall, a wonderful symbol of the Renaissance in Russia, which the Hermitage embodies with all its treasures (not at all imperial power, as those ignorant of art think).