When was the Zoological Museum founded? Moscow State University, Zoological Museum: symbol, exposition, excursion, reviews. Opening hours and address

An exhibition of animal painter Vasily Alekseevich Vatagin, the museum’s staff artist since 1931, has opened at the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University. He made a significant contribution to the development of Russian zoology and zoogeography, and his illustrations are still of scientific value. Separately, we can mention the so-called. "ethograms" - where the animal is depicted on one sheet at different points in time, in different poses - i.e. sketches for research behavior. Almost all of his life is connected with the current building of the Zoom Museum, first as a student, then as a professional.

A visitor to the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University, as they say from the very doorstep, already in the foyer - mysterious, high, slightly dark - is greeted by huge picturesque panels depicting the life of wildlife. These are also the works of Vasily Vatagin. He is called the founder of Russian animalistics, his work has been marked by many titles and awards. Vatagin devoted three decades of his work to the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University. Now the museum has opened a unique exhibition of his works "Lifelong Connection".

An amazing connection between scientific knowledge about nature and their artistic rethinking is the work of Vatagin. Animals in his drawings, paintings, sculptures are absolute personalities, no less, but even more vivid and meaningful than people. If we see a person in the plot of the Vatagin painting, then this is the background, and the main characters are animals and the natural world. And at the same time, not a single zoologist, scientist will find unreliability here. Even in the most complex artistic works, which art connoisseurs classify as symbolism, Art Nouveau, Orientalism and fascination with ancient cultures, Vatagin is impeccably accurate as a scientist who knows the structure of a living being.

Vasily Alekseevich was born in 1884 in big family, in which, besides him, there were four more brothers. All the Vatagin brothers studied at Moscow University at different faculties. Vasily chose the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics - it was at that time that biology was taught. Since 1902, this faculty was located in the current building of the Zoom Museum, and for Vatagin these walls were the same Alma mater, with which he did not lose touch until the end of his life.

In 1904, already a university student, he began attending drawing classes organized by the famous Russian painter K.F. Yuon. And at the University, as they would say now, the famous professor Mikhail Aleksandrovich Menzbir, a zoologist, zoogeographer, founder of Russian ornithology, became his “supervisor”. The drawing talents of the student Vatagin did not hide from his attentive eye, and the professor instructed him to illustrate his scientific works.

In 1908, Vasily Vatagin was sent on a business trip abroad to create a series of illustrations for the Zoogeographic Atlas. Vatagin painted animals from life in zoos and museums in Germany, Holland, Belgium, France, and England. According to the memoirs of Vatagin himself, Menzbir stopped any attempts of his student to evade science into art: “What are you doing here Artistic theater smeared!” Another professor, Konstantin Yuon, asked the young painter: “Where is the art?” These questions became for Vasily Vatagin the main creative contradiction in life.

Vasily Vatagin always said that he lacked a special art education. Life brought him back from the heights all the time pure art, again and again - to work in expeditions, zoos, museums. But one way or another, for everyone who sees these works now, it is obvious that art found a place for itself on these picturesque sheets, and we can safely say that each of them is a work of art.

At a time when the art and technique of photography had not yet reached its present heights, when there was neither Photoshop nor any other computer programs image processing, a biological drawing was almost as valuable as a scientific work. Almost every serious expedition included a full-time artist who was obliged to keep a visual diary of the expedition, sketch animals and plants, anatomical studies, and much more. The hands of the painters created a real fundamental science, which provided food for subsequent research of contemporaries, and sometimes irreplaceable to this day.

The degree of accuracy, detail and reliability of the old zoological and comparative anatomical atlases is simply impossible to overestimate for any researcher. And for someone who has artistic vision, grace is obvious, a special aesthetics of scientific drawing, which was given not to every painter or graphic artist, but only to a scientist-artist. These two aspects of his work were inseparable. Vatagin was one of those exceptional creators who can be counted on one hand all over the world.

Anna Tikhomirova, chief curator of the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University:
“Vatagin was an artist in two forms. On the one hand, he was a master of scientific illustration when it was necessary to be as close to the original as possible. Until now, artistic illustrations, for example, in bird guides, are of much greater value than photographs, if only because very few photographs have such an angle that one can see all the necessary identifying features.

Biological drawing always highlights some important details for specific purposes, adjusts the image for them.
And the second hypostasis is Vatagin the artist, who sought to realize some of his artistic ideas, to do something that no one had done before him. These two principles fought in him, as can be understood by reading his memoirs. The design of museums, rather, can be attributed to scientific illustration, in which he allowed himself something. On the one hand, he had the task of showing something that is not in the exposition, to supplement and enrich it. pictorial rows, show animals in their natural habitat - in the desert, in the sea, in the ice. Frieze with dinosaurs in the hall comparative anatomy- one of the best examples.

His sketches, which he made in zoos, where the animal is depicted on the same sheet at different points in time, in different poses, are full-fledged "etograms", sketches of poses for studying behavior. So, if you dig deep into Vatagin's drawings, you can learn a lot for modern scientific works. Vatagin saw reality, saw his objects through the eyes of a zoologist who had knowledge and understanding of the structure of the living. That is, as a zoologist, he drew correctly, but as an artist, it was also beautiful!”

In 1921, Vasily Vatagin took part in the marine Arctic expedition of the Floating Marine Scientific Institute on the icebreaker Malygin. The expedition to the Barents Sea and Novaya Zemlya lasted 47 days. Vatagin was the artist of this expedition and left many drawings of sea and land inhabitants of the Arctic, polar landscapes.

In the first decades of the 20th century, Vasily Vatagin worked for two Moscow museums, primarily the Darwin Museum, where he, in fact, was a co-author of the museum's founder Alexander Kots.

Since 1931, Vatagin has been a staff artist at the Zoom Museum of Moscow State University. This museum is in itself a huge permanent exhibition of his animalistic painting. Picturesque panels in the foyer are a real hallmark of the museum. A unique picturesque frieze on the theme of the history of the living world of the Earth adorns one of the halls dedicated to the comparative anatomy of animals. And in general, Vatagin's paintings - more than a hundred - can be found almost throughout permanent exhibition.

The Zoo Museum of Moscow State University has the largest collection of graphics by Vasily Vatagin in the museum collection. This collection has not yet been published. This exhibition is one of the first steps towards introducing the public to the work of this remarkable scientist-artist. It presents about 100 graphic works by V.A. Vatagin from the funds of the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University, most of which are exhibited for the first time, as well as sculpture, models for book illustrations, documents, personal items and photographs of V.A. Vatagin, made during his work in the museum, from the funds of the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University and from the personal archives of the V.A. Vatagin.

Today, two museums are cooperating in popularizing the work of Vasily Vatagin, which store most of his artistic heritage.

Anna Klyukina - Director of the State Darwin Museum:
“To publish a large album of Vatagin's work would be very good, and it would be possible to combine the efforts of our two museums. V Darwin Museum we have already published a catalog of Vasily Vatagin's graphics. We even have a lot of souvenirs with drawings by Vatagin. In general, we are trying to popularize Vatagin's work.”

Until now, at the Faculty of Biology at Moscow State University, students - even those who are completely alien to any kind of art - have to draw a lot from the very first year. It is necessary to sketch preparations of animals and plants at workshops, field practices. This is the path of the pioneers of classical science, which brings up the ability to see, highlight and memorize the main thing - a skill necessary for a scientist of any era, not only naturalists of the past, but also modern, armed with all the technologies of the century. No photographic equipment can replace your own eyes and the visual impression of the structure of a living being.

Mikhail Kalyakin, director of the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University:
“A person who comes to the Zoological Museum, without realizing it, is immediately taken prisoner by Vatagin. Being a biologist at first, and only then an artist, he laid the first stone in the building of our animalistics. His drawing is an exceptionally correct biological drawing. And any biologist perceives Vatagin's works not just as artwork- because from the point of view of the scientist they are impeccable. From any point of view - how the animal is arranged, how it moves, how its covers are arranged, whether it be fur or feathers.

After all, it is very difficult to depict a bird feather. Take 5-10 artists who draw birds, and compare - who achieved not only similarity, but also authenticity, a sense of life. I can bet you'll find a few.

By the way, in parallel with the exhibition of Vatagin, we now have an exhibition of another remarkable animal artist, our contemporary Vadim Alekseevich Gorbatov. Their works are not similar to each other - but this is the rare case when both artists are very loved by professional zoologists. Both of them are field workers, travelers, members of many expeditions. Vadim Gorbatov has a long-standing friendship with many ornithologists, whom we all consider classics.”

Vadim Gorbatov, animal artist:

Animalism is such a strange genre among visual arts. It is important for him to have some kind of primordial love and admiration for nature, for living beings. Congenital animalist - always surprised and always drawing! It manifests itself from childhood. And then, when creativity becomes already mature, professional, this very love and admiration give rise to interest. Then the artist begins to study his object, get acquainted with scientific literature, with researchers. He needs contacts with professional zoologists. From here friendships arise, and many years, joint trips, expeditions. But there is another way - like Vasily Vatagin, when a scientist, a connoisseur of nature, also in love with her since childhood, becomes an artist, but he goes to this through science. This fusion in animalism is obvious, but regardless of the path, it is born from admiration for the world that is around you.

I think that without any exaggeration it can be said that among the zoologists in our country there are no those who would not know the name of Vasily Vatagin. His paintings, hanging today in the classrooms of the Faculty of Biology of Moscow State University, can be considered as part of the educational heritage, as a reminder of the connection with the generations of domestic natural scientists, their vision of the world, reflected in their scientific works. It is completely unknown how, on an unconscious level, Vatagin unmistakably distinguishes "his own" from many, many "strangers". What's the secret? Probably, the fact that the artist and real biologists are united by a great love for nature, for its inhabitants and faith in its wisdom and beauty.

The State Zoological Museum of Moscow State University on Bolshaya Nikitskaya is the largest exhibition center in the capital.

It has the opportunity to appreciate how diverse the world of animals is - even on the bas-reliefs, that there are images of animals on the facade, and the museum logo - a desman animal. This is an amazing building, full of the most amazing specimens of the fauna of our planet. What it's like to be in such a place - can't even describe ... It's better to see with your own eyes.

The building is located in the city center. Official information can be found on the museum's website.

In contact with

History of occurrence

It was founded in 1791. At first, there was a small office at the capital's university where natural history was studied. In fact, a small exhibition was formed here a third of a century later, and it was called the “mineralogy cabinet”.

But, when biological specimens were presented among the exhibition specimens, they created an office of natural history. The head of the department was Ivan Andreevich Sibirsky.

It's important to know: a great contribution to the formation of the exhibits was made by P.G. Demidov, who at the beginning of the 19th century donated magnificent exhibits and a library to the center.

The first inventory of the new property dates back to 1806-1807. But, a fire in 1812 caused great damage to the complex, its property was almost destroyed.

G.I. Fisher took up active restoration, he attracted a large number of collectors and naturalists, and after some time the fund consisted of six thousand exhibits. And six years later, the property of the center doubled.

By the beginning of the 30s. The 19th century collection volume consisted of 25 thousand items. The building on Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street was built at the beginning of the 20th century. The project for him was developed by K.M. Bykovsky. And by the 30s. of the last century, the institution was transferred to the Faculty of Biology of Moscow State University.

Exposure

The exhibition in this case presents almost ten thousand copies. It is started by single-celled organisms, shown through artificial modeling, and completed by large reptiles and aurochs.

The main exhibition provides an opportunity to get acquainted with animals from all over the world and is built according to the class method (starts from the simplest, and gradually moves to the order of vertebrates).

In the lower hall, located on the 1st floor, a wide variety of the animal world is presented. Visitors can see both a single-celled organism and a large reptile here.

The number of exhibits is so huge that you can spend several days studying. The 2nd floor is occupied by the upper hall, which is completely "inhabited" by birds and mammals. There is also a Bone Hall. The exhibition in this case provides the device of animals from the inside. Visitors here can see:

• mammoth skeleton;
• fake rhino;
• model of an elephant;
• fake hippopotamus;
• stuffed crocodile and boa constrictor.

For visitors who want to learn more about animals, lectures are organized by the staff of the institution. They are carried out, taking into account children's age characteristics.

On weekends, fascinating lectures for children and parents are given by the "Biolectorium". The lobby and exhibition rooms feature paintings by famous animal painters. There are works here:

• V.A. Vatagin;
• N.N. Kondakov and others.

What interesting things you should know about the zoo museum:

• The symbol of the museum is the Russian muskrat, listed in the Red Book of Russia. She is featured on the emblem;
• The department of entomology has a collection of 4 million insect specimens;

• In addition to lectures, the staff of the institution conduct interactive classes for children of different age groups and organize children's birthday parties;
• Every Saturday and Sunday "Biolectorium" holds lectures for parents with children from five years old. Features and secrets of biology are presented here in an easy, relaxed way;
• The museum has a "Scientific Terrarium", which acquaints visitors with the peculiarities of the life of reptiles. Opening hours of the "Scientific Terrarium" - from 11.00 to 17.00 hours on weekends. You will need a separate ticket to visit it. The cost of such a ticket includes not only an exciting story, but also the opportunity to pick up rare animals;

Interesting fact: at the end of the last century, the institution was given the name Scientific Research Zoo museum Lomonosov Moscow State University. After numerous status changes, this name is still valid.

• Young naturalists' clubs were organized for high school students and students, he works on the author's development of a researcher E. Dunaev.

The address

The exhibition complex is located at the address: Moscow, Bolshaya Nikitskaya street, house 6. It is not difficult to find it. It is located directly in the center of the capital.

Is it difficult to get by public transport? Not at all - having reached the “Library im. Lenin ”or“ Okhotny Ryad ”, you need to head to house number 6 on Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street (this is the former Herzen Street). The place you are looking for is not far away, it takes less than ten minutes to get to it.

Working mode

From 10 am to 5 pm - open to visitors. Only Mondays are days off. The last Tuesday of the month is also non-working.

Ticket price

For adult visitors, the ticket price is 200 rubles. For kids school age, students and pensioners, there is a preferential price, it is 50 rubles.

Children under the age of seven have the opportunity to visit the exposition without tickets. This is also allowed to persons belonging to preferential categories.

If you come with the whole family or group, you can book a tour. For a group of 7 people it will cost 1500 rubles.

If you arrive without a group, but want to ask for a guide, then it is enough to purchase a ticket for 250 rubles. for an adult and 100 rubles. for a child and join any large tour group.

The Zoological Museum of Moscow State University is one of the most visited museums in Moscow. It is not surprising, because it is the oldest Moscow museum and also the largest. And it once began with just a small cabinet of natural history at the university, and only a hundred years later "moved" to a separate building, which was built by the architect Mikhail Bykovsky. At present, visitors are presented with an exposition of 10 thousand exhibits, which introduces almost the entire world fauna - from protozoa to vertebrates. In the halls of the zoological museum you can see the whole variety of the animal world from unicellular and reptiles to birds and mammals.

Why go to the zoological museum?

Parents often think about where to go with their children in Moscow, what place is better to choose so that children can gain new knowledge while having fun. Museums have long been recognized as the best places for recreation and education at the same time. If you want to instill in your child a love for museums, then you need to start with a trip to the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University. It is in the zoological museum that you will see the enthusiastic look of your baby and a genuine interest in what is happening, without an expression of boredom on your face and capriciousness.

Traveling with a child at st. Bolshaya Nikitskaya house 6 you will see a remarkable building. Its facade is decorated with images of lizards, squirrels, monkeys, bulls, bats, and sheep. The Zoological Museum of Moscow State University is one of the largest and oldest natural science museums in Russia with over two hundred years of history.

Most major contemporary museums have long gone beyond the usual exposure and storage of samples. They have turned into scientific complexes with lecture halls, where not only popularization takes place, but also the study of natural sciences. The Zoological Museum of Moscow State University was no exception. There is a bio-lecture hall and a biological circle for schoolchildren, where such interesting questions, like, for example - where does the giraffe get spots from, who lives at the bottom of the ocean, and many others.

In total, the museum has about ten million exhibits, of which about two hundred thousand belong to the class of mammals. There is big collection birds, but since there are most insects in the world, the largest collection is entomological - more than three million copies.

Acquaintance with the diversity of the fauna of our planet, with the internal structure and evolution of living beings not only expands the horizons of the child, but also forms curiosity, ingenuity, love for science and, of course, respect and compassion for all living things.

Looking at the exhibits, especially the skeletons of animals, the child will be able to see the patterns by which living beings are arranged.

At the stairs you will be met by a complete authentic mammoth skeleton. There used to be other skeletons of prehistoric animals here, but they were transferred to the paleontological museum, which we also highly recommend visiting. In paleontology, you can show children the skeletons of not only mammoths, but also dinosaurs, in full growth.

The stuffed animals of the brightest inhabitants of the Moscow zoo are also exhibited in the museum: tigers, lions, crocodiles, lizards, rhinoceroses. There is an orangutan, which has long been listed in the Red Book as an endangered species. Looking at the skeletons of animals, every now and then you are surprised how different the pig, the hippopotamus and the rhinoceros are on the outside, but they have a very similar structure inside.

The stands depict the stages of evolution, where the child will see how the first birds, reptiles and mammals appeared and developed. The walls of the museum are decorated with paintings by the outstanding Soviet animal painter Vasily Vatagin. Very popular with children is the "living corner" - a terrarium where you can hold a real agama in your hands or feed a chameleon. The museum has a DNA laboratory that studies the genetic code of dead animals that have become museum exhibits. Unfortunately, it is not easy to get into this laboratory, it is closed for excursions. In the museum, almost all exhibits are the original bodies of once living creatures, but there are exceptions.

For example, a cast of the most ancient coelacanth fish, which was considered the ancestor of the lobe-finned fish, was made especially for this museum. I really want visitors to understand how the Zoological Museum differs from the Darwin or Paleontological Museum, that real zoologists work here, who constantly go on new expeditions and replenish the museum's collection with new exhibits. On the territory of Russia it is difficult to discover new species of animals, the greatest variety is still represented in the tropics, but we also have something to see. For example, the skulls of the rarest polar bears that died in natural conditions.

It is worth coming to the zoological museum not only to see animals, but also to see how museums were built in the old days. Original planning solutions, twelve-meter high ceilings. Upstairs, on huge balconies, which are held on cast brackets, there is that very huge entomological collection. The museum once had a completely transparent glass roof, but during the Second World War it was broken by a shock wave, after which the ceiling was simply sewn up. Since its inception, the museum has been actively assisted by Empress Catherine the Second, Emperor Alexander the First, the family of patrons and businessmen of ancient times - the Demidovs. The Moscow intelligentsia of the 1920s and 1930s liked to "hang out" in the zoological museum.

Zoo museum- a division of the university, and from the first days of its existence, it was to some extent study guide. In addition, the Faculty of Biology (until 1955) and the various laboratories and departments that preceded it were located in the same building with the collections, and students really could get acquainted with animals at the same time as their studies. From here, by the way, practicums originate, and to this day they form the basis of special courses at the departments of the Faculty of Biology.

But the museum "worked" not only for students and university staff. Already from the first years of its history, albeit with interruptions, the museum has been open to the public. Without going into statistical calculations, let's just say that the number of visitors as a whole has been constantly growing, and today about 100,000 people visit each year. Pleased to note that most of them are children.

What can be seen in our museum?
Only modern animals, except for the complete skeleton of a mammoth, "meeting" visitors at the stairs to the second floor. Previously, the museum had a number of animal fossils, now they are in the Paleontological Museum.
Representatives of all groups of animals, from unicellular (mainly, of course, these are dummies) to birds and mammals.
Our exposition is systematic. The traditional arrangement of exhibits, originating from the educational collection, has been preserved. Animals are arranged in a systematic order, type by type, squad by squad, in accordance with ideas about the degree of their relationship and the course of animal evolution.

The main variety of animals, from unicellular to reptiles, is concentrated in, on the first floor of the museum. Above it is, fully occupied birds and mammals. And also on the second floor there is the so-called bone hall, the exposition of which is dedicated to showing internal structure vertebrates, on the example of which various aspects of the evolution of the structure in this group, which is so important for humans, are illustrated.

There is an exposition in the corridor of the second floor "Zoological Museum in the history of Moscow University: collections and people" dedicated to the history of the museum from its foundation in 1791 within the walls of Moscow University to the present day. Here you can look at the exhibits that appeared in the museum under its first director, Fischer von Waldheim; get acquainted with the museum during its heyday under the direction of A.P. Bogdanov in the second half of the 19th century; follow the complex history of the museum in the 20th century. It is pleasant to note that the exposition is made up of natural exhibits - witnesses of their time. The historical exposition will be of interest both to specialists - biologists and museum workers, and to everyone interested in the history of Russian science.