Saturday, 2 March

9:40-15:00 KLM flight from Schiphol to Moscow
15:00-16:30 Transfer from airport to hotel
20:00 Dinner (not included)

Sunday, 3 March

Morning Visit to fortified convent of Novodevichy (New Convent of the Virgin) and Cathedral of the Virgin of Smolensk (1524-25), the seat of the Metropolitan of Moscow. Our visit will take place during services, so that we can hear the monks’ choir, said to be the best in Moscow. We will be introduced by Guus van den Hout, director of the Catharijneconvent in Utrecht, who is currently organizing an exhibition of the treasures of Novodevichy. The complex was founded in 1524 by Tsar Vasily III in thanks for the Russian reannexation of Smolensk from the Lithuanians. During the 17th century several other churches were built inside the walls, and onion-domed towers were added to the cathedral. There is a small museum and a famous cemetery, where Anton Chekhov and Nikita Khrushshev are among the buried. For an English-language website on Novodevichy, with amateur photos
Afternoon Lunch in and visit to the Museum of Private Collections, an annex of the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. Large donations of private collectors, rather than being integrated seamlessly into the holdings of the Pushkin Museum, are displayed here with full credit to the donor. The museum is close to the Pushkin, and has a pleasant restaurant.
Evening Dinner at the residence of and upon invitation of the Ambassador of the Netherlands, Drs. T.P. Hofstee.

Monday, 4 March

All day The Pushkin Museum. On the closed Monday the museum will be open exclusively for CODART. The main feature is the exhibition of Dutch and Flemish drawings curated by our member Vadim Sadkov. His work is the last of three major exhibitions and catalogues of Dutch and Flemish art by which the Pushkin Museum marked its 100th anniversary. During the day of our visit we will also benefit from the research conducted for the two preceding projects, Xenia Egorova’s exhibition and catalogue of the Flemish paintings and those of Marina Senenko of the Dutch paintings. Xenia is no longer with us, but Marina will show us the extraordinarily rich painting reserves that left such a deep impression on participants in the CODART TWEE study trip in March 1999. To save time, we will eat lunch at the pizzeria across the street from the museum

Tuesday, 5 March

Morning Free. A visit to the Pushkin Museum printroom to see sheets not in the exhibition can always be arranged. Other museum visits will be suggested.
Afternoon By bus to Archangelskoje Palace, 16 kilometers from Moscow. The museum galleries will still be closed for the winter, but by special arrangement with the director, Vladimir V. Dlugach, CODART will be able to visit the reserves and see the paintings there. The French gardens that are the glory of Archangelskoje will be bare but charming.

Wednesday, 6 March

Morning Visit to two palaces in the Kremlin that are otherwise closed to the public, Terem Palace and the Palace of Façades. We will be received by the director of the Kremlin palaces, Elena Gagarina. (This part of the program may have to be moved to another day.)
Afternoon By bus to the Spaso-Andronikov Monastery and Rublev Icon Museum. See the text by Micha Jelisavcic and John Sloan at the site, which also provides images.
21:20-22:50 KLM flight from Moscow to Schiphol.