by Zoya ZOLOTNITSKAYA, Shchusev State Research Museum of Architecture (Moscow) Art of architectural model making in the course of construction of major structures appeared in the medieval Europe and came to Russia in the first half of the 18th century. Later on their creation with direct involvement of an architect as the author became "a finishing stroke" on the developing of a project. Made of wood with maximum precision on a certain scale, a prototype of future palace buildings or an urban construction demonstrated facades, inner arrangement and decoration interiors, allowing to present a spatial composition, check correlation of parameters and accuracy of selected elements. The models under discussion (in contrast to copies and reconstructions, which reproduce buildings already constructed on a reduced scale) are called the authorial, design or original models. Alongside practical expediency (they were often used to make working sketches), they had representation significance creating a visible image of a proposed construction, especially important for the customer, and in many cases they were placed near the facility under construction for demonstration to the inquisitive public. Then they turned into the property of history of architecture, an evidence of a certain stage of creative search or the author's initial idea often not realized, which made such monuments even more valuable for the progeny. As Alexander Benua, the well-known painter and art historian, noted in 1907 in his article for the Old Years magazine*, "in olden times, when people were really fond of architecture and treated future construction with excited curiosity—how will everything be adjusted, how will all parts fit in, how will harmony of lines be attained—future artistic enjoyment of the monument itself was anticipated through its models, changes were estimated on models, and a possibility of such changes was checked right away". The interest in collection of ... Читать далее