Argunov - family of artists and architects, serfs of counts Sheremetev. They worked in Moscow and in Sheremetev’s mansions (Kuskovo, Ostankino, etc.), and also in St.Petersburg.
An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only. The term is often used in the entertainment business, especially in a business context, for musicians and other performers. "Artiste" is a variant used in English only in this context. Use of the term to describe writers, for example, is valid, but less common, and mostly restricted to contexts like criticism.
An architect is a person who plans, designs and reviews the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that have human occupancy or use as their principal purpose. Etymologically, architect derives from the Latin architectus, which derives from the Greek, i.e., chief builder.
Count (Male), or Countess (Female), is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. The etymologically related English term, "county" denoted the land owned by a count. Equivalents of the rank of count exist or have existed in the nobility structures of some non-European countries, such as hakushaku during the Japanese Imperial era.
- Fedor Leontyevich Argunov (1716-1754) - the painter.
- Fedor Semenovich Argunov (about 1732 - 1768) - the cousin of painter I. P. Argunov. He probably studied at S. I. Chevakinski in St.Petersburg. He participated in construction of a house of Sheremetev on Fontanka (1750-1755) and lived in St.Petersburg. He was the author of the project of a Kitchen wing (1755), Grotto (1755 - 1775), Greenhouses (presumably, 1761-1762) and other constructions in style of a baroque in mansion Kuskovo.
- Ivan Petrovich Argunov (1729 - 1802) - the painter, one of ancestors of a chamber portrait in Russian art (portraits К. А. and H. M. Khripunov - both 1757, in Ostankino Palace-museum; "The Unknown person in Russian suit", 1784).
- Pavel Ivanovich Argunov (about 1768-1806) - the architect. He was the son of I. P. Argunov. From 1793 he headed construction of wooden palace-theatre in mansion Ostankino near Moscow (it is constructed in style of Russian classicism) in which under his projects a number of interiors was created.
- Nikolai Ivanovich Argunov (1771 - 1829) - the painter, the academician of the St.Petersburg Academy of arts (1818). The son of I. P. Argunov. His products: classical portraits of T. V. Granatova (1789), Praskovya Ivanovna Zhemchugova in a red shawl (1802-1803) - both in the Museum of ceramics in Kuskovo.
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface. The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and airbrushes, can be used. The final work is also called a painting.
A grotto is a natural or artificial cave used by humans in both modern times and antiquity, and historically or prehistorically. Naturally occurring grottoes are often small caves near water that are usually flooded or liable to flood at high tide. Sometimes, artificial grottoes are used as garden features. The Grotta Azzurra at Capri and the grotto at the villa of Tiberius in the Bay of Naples are examples of popular natural seashore grottoes.
The Baroque is a highly ornate and often extravagant style of architecture, music, painting, sculpture and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th until the mid-18th century. It followed the Renaissance style and preceded the Rococo and Neoclassical styles. It was encouraged by the Catholic Church as a means to counter the simplicity and austerity of Protestant architecture, art and music, though Lutheran Baroque art developed in parts of Europe as well. The Baroque style used contrast, movement, exuberant detail, deep colour, grandeur and surprise to achieve a sense of awe. The style began at the start of the 17th century in Rome, then spread rapidly to France, northern Italy, Spain and Portugal, then to Austria and southern Germany. By the 1730s, it had evolved into an even more flamboyant style, called rocaille or Rococo, which appeared in France and central Europe until the mid to late 18th century.
