(The Battle of Krasnoje 1812) of octagonal form, body with round medallion, white moulded scene, the base bearing the Cyrillic inscription "depicted and made by Count Fedor Tolstoj 1819 three-day battle at Krasnoje 1812", Ø 20,5 cm, Russia, 1819 (Ru)

The Battle of Krasnoje, was fought from 15.-18.11.1812, during Napoleon’s Russian campaign. Though the Russian army was unable to cut off the French forces leaving Smolensk, they inflicted heavy losses.
Lit.: Thieme-Becker, Leipzig, vol 33, p. 257: Count Fjodor Petrowitsch Tolstoi, (St. Petersburg 10.2.1783-13.4.1873); Russian medal maker, sculptor, painter, draughtsman, and engraver, originally a navy officer, 1802-1804 student at the St Petersburg, 1809 honorary member, as of 1825 lecturer, as of 1842 professor of the medal class at the academy; he created numerous important reliefs and medallions, marble busts etc. currently at various Russian museums, galleries, cathedrals, and private collections. Patriotic War of 1812. 1828 vice president of the Academy of Art, 1838 professor.
Lit.: exhibition catalogue "Europa in Wien" the Vienna Congress 1814/15, Unteres Belvedere and Orangerie, Vienna, 20.2.-21.6.2015. Werner Telesko p. 88, The "German Campaign" against Napoleon and the "Battle of the Nations" at Leipzig 1813, in a 20-part series of plaster reliefs, created by Fjodor Petrowitsch Tolstoi during the 1820ies, p. 100, plate 53-57, 64, consist of neoclassical tondi with allegoric allusions portraying the patriotic defence of Russia against the invasion of Napoleonic France. The artistic significance of these works, later (1838-1828) repeated in the form of gigantic stucco reliefs in the Alexander Hall in the St Petersburg Hermitage, was already acknowledged by Goethe.