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Notes on Moscow City Day

I’ve spent an entire day in Moscow city center. I’m sitting in Nikitsky Boulevard, blogging and noticing people walking past. Tomorrow is expected to be overcast but today there were many sunny spells. It was very warm, and is only just beginning to get chilly as the sunset approaches.

Although there are no major celebrations this year due to the pandemic, people went to the city centre to enjoy the good weather and some outdoor events. I mentioned the Soviet photography exhibition, which starts a dozen of meters away from my bench. Another set of events, Flower Jam, apparently lasts until October: there are different flowery displays scattered across the city, starting with Apothecary Garden.

People do wear masks in shops, museums, and on the public transport. Yet in the streets one only remembers about the coronavirus when a mask hanging under someone’s chin pops in the view.

Overall, the weather is almost spring-like, and it feels like there has never been any pandemic…

Moscow Celebrates 874th Anniversary

For the 874th anniversary of my native city I went to the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. There are currently two “Italian” exhibitions. One, in collaboration with Pinacoteca di Siena, focuses on the rise of the Sienese school of art. It features at least one work attributed to workshop of Duccio di Buoninsegna and works by Simone Martini, Giovanni di Paolo, and others. It also demonstrates some rare Sienese biccherni and 13-14th Italian paintings and altarpieces from the Pushkin Museum collection.

Another exhibition features works by Giambattista Tiepolo (18th c.) and other Italian painters of 17-18th cc.

In the city, in one of the boulevards, there is an exhibition of Soviet photography. Photos span 1930s-1980s and focus on celebrations in Red Square and Moscow architecture.

Below is one of exhibits, a painting by a 17th c. Neapolitan master, “The healing of the man sick with palsy”.

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