Baroque architecture is characterised by the opening of volumes into surrounding space, dynamism, expression of forms, exaggeration of scales, majestic ensembles, and huge building sizes. It features powerful proportions, contrasts of closed and open spaces, twisted columns, and dramatic effects, including light coming from the dome above. Baroque architecture also includes illusions of statues coming to life, an abundance of colour and gilding, and
quadratura of paintings with
trompe-l'œil effects. In Russia, Baroque art had a number of special features. The second crucial difference between the development of Russian art and Western European art is that Russia's distance from the classical art centres of Athens, Rome, Florence, and Paris caused a delay and subsequent 'splicing' of historical artistic styles. These styles were consistently born and developed in the metropolises one after another. The chronology and typology of artistic styles in Russia during the 18th and 19th centuries differ significantly from those in Western Europe.
Natalia Kovalenskaya was the first historian of Russian art of the 18th century to identify the unique 'splicing' of artistic styles in Russia. She wrote that after Peter the Great's reforms in the early 18th century, "many stages, consistently undergone by other European nations, in Russia often appeared as if spliced, compacted...there were sometimes unexpected combinations of very dissimilar phenomena". In the 1940s
Boris Viipper further specified this thesis in his articles: "It is more correct, apparently, to imagine the picture of the development of the artistic outlook in Russia in the sense that, catching up with Europe at an ever more accelerating pace, Russian art simultaneously solved the problems of previous stages of development, and sometimes, on the contrary, unexpectedly leaped ahead of Europe and went out of the framework of a seemingly natural development, thus combining advanced features with backward elements, with traditions deeply conservative during the course of one evolution stage". Something similar happened in England, where the historical and territorial separation from continental Europe, combined with the unique English psychology, gave rise to a distinctive 'English style'. This style has remained largely unchanged over the centuries and unites local variants that are slightly different from each other, but very different from European, such as English
classicism,
baroque, and
rococo. Baroque art flourished in Russia, reflecting the growth and consolidation of the absolute monarchy. The Russian mature Baroque, especially in architecture, was distinguished from Western European Baroque by its structural clarity and simplicity of planning solutions, as well as the close connection between the structural basis and decorative elements. Another notable characteristic of Russian Baroque is its prominent use of colour, bold colour contrasts, and
chiaroscuro, including
gilding. == Main stages of Baroque style formation in Russia ==