CHAPTER II
CLASSICISM
SHUVALOV'S ACADEMY did not last more than five years. The Empress Catherine, unfavourably disposed toward the founder of the institution, put at the head of it I. I. Betzkoy, who enjoyed her personal favour and bore the reputation at the court, of a great educator. Unfortunately, Betzkoy proved in reality little more than a naive and rather stubborn dilettante, and the harm he did to the education of Russian youth was in no wise diminished by those good intentions, with which, a true son of his "idealistic" age, he overflowed. The effects of Betzkoy's incompetence were strongly felt in the Academy. In his eagerness to form fine characters, the new director lost sight of the main purpose of the institution as an art school. Something in the nature of a branch of the Foundling Hospital was established at the Academy. Here were presently accepted young children, who, in most cases, had no time to show any aptitude for art. As for the artistic part of the instruction, it was definitively subordinated to the æsthetic formalism, which
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