Comprehensive conservation and restoration of two frames for the temple icons of the Sampson Cathedral in St. Petersburg

The article is devoted to the restoration of two carved gilded frames to the temple icons of the 1760s in the Rococo style, during the work on which the techniques of conservation, restoration, reconstruction and recreation associated with the severe physical condition of the objects of church decorative and applied art received in the restoration were comprehensively applied. The purpose of the study and practical work was to return the expositional appearance of church objects of decorative and applied art as monuments of cultural heritage of Russia. During the study part of the project, printed and handwritten materials of many Russian experts in art and restoration, including Andrei Petrovich Aplaksin, a member of the Imperial Archaeological Commission, author of the restoration project of the Sampson Cathedral in 1908-1909, diocesan architect-restorer, civil engineer, artist, archaeologist, historian of Russian architecture, writer, were studied. Thanks to the well-coordinated and consistent restoration and restoration processes performed on the monuments, professional craftsmen: sculptors, carpenters, wood carvers and gilding restorers managed to turn the shapeless, heavily soiled fragments of fragments of two frames to the temple icons back into frames. After a comprehensive restoration of the two frames, it was possible to restore them to their former expositional appearance, prolong their life and preserve these monuments of church art for contemporaries and descendants, and then place them in the temple in their former historical places, i.e., to fulfill the main task of the restorers – to preserve the cultural heritage of Russia.