Fantastic rise and tragic end of the discoverer of Russian porcelain Dmitry Vinogradov

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Russia has always been famous for its outstanding talents, but it is also an indisputable fact that these people did not always have a sweet and free time in their homeland. Russian history remembers many geniuses whose lives were ruined by the Russian system. A terrible fate befell and Dmitry Ivanovich Vinogradov, rightfully considered the father of Russian porcelain, who spent the last days of his life chained to a kiln.

The master was born in the ancient Russian city of Suzdal in 1720. In the early 1730s, the boy's father, seeing in his son great inclinations for science, sent him with his older brother Yakov to study in Moscow, where they studied at the Spasskaya School at the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy. It must be said that this school was one of the most authoritative educational institutions of the state at that time. At one time, many outstanding personalities studied in it.

It was there that fate brought together two future geniuses - Dmitry Vinogradov and Mikhail Lomonosov. Despite the nine-year age difference, they became good friends. An irresistible desire to study, dedication and talent for natural sciences helped Dmitry quickly catch up with Lomonosov, and then go through three classes with him in one year.

At the end of 1735, the Vinogradov brothers and Mikhail Lomonosov, along with twelve other gifted students, were sent to St. Petersburg to continue their education at the Imperial Academy of Sciences.

And not a year has passed since Dmitry Vinogradov, Mikhail Lomonosov and Gustav Ulrich Reiser, as the excellent students are sent from the academy to study in Germany. Just think: a boy at the age of sixteen, at the suggestion of the Secret Cabinet of Ministers, at the suggestion of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, at the decree of the Empress - as one of the best!

With his genius and striving for study, Dmitry was distinguished by "… and indomitable disposition, and violent behavior, and wastefulness, as well as a passion for revelry." But along with this, he selflessly studied everything that fascinated him. Realizing that theory without practice is not worth anything in itself, he traveled to the mines of Germany, getting acquainted with the structure of mines, the work of mechanisms. He often worked in these mines himself.

Having gained tremendous experience, Dmitry Vinogradov returned to Russia enlightened, where he was immediately examined by the Berg Collegium headed by the president of the institution V. S. Raiser. Having taken an exam from a talented techie, Raiser noted that he could not name a single European master who knew his business better than Vinogradov. After that, the newly minted specialist in mining was awarded the rank of bergmeister, giving the right to dispose of work at the mines. However, Dmitry Ivanovich did not get to the mines …

Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, hearing about Vinogradov's unprecedented talent, ordered to leave him in Moscow and sent him to the Porcelain Manufactory to carry out a secret business - the creation of a porcelain production in Russia.

Even Peter I tried to organize the production of domestic porcelain, knowing full well that in order to become a European state, in addition to military victories, one must also win ideological victories. During Peter's lifetime, this could not be accomplished, but the desire of his father was fully embodied by Empress Elizabeth. In 1744, by her decree, the Porcelain Manufactory was created - the first in Russia and the third in Europe. However, opening was not enough, it was necessary to produce products on it. And then no one knew how to make porcelain in Russia. By the way, the Russian Empire could only dream of it then, since the recipe for the already produced Chinese and European porcelain was kept in the strictest confidence.

In 1747, Dmitry Ivanovich began work on the creation of the coveted recipe, through numerous trials and experiments. And in order to unravel the recipe for making porcelain, Vinogradov had to accomplish a real labor feat. From day to day, from year to year, he experimented with clays of different deposits, changed the conditions of firing, designed furnaces himself and put them into operation until he achieved what he was striving for. And in order not to lose the results obtained by numerous experiments, and his successors did not have to “search for him again in the sweat of their brows,” the discoverer set out his experiments in a handwritten work diary, resorting to encryption. These recordings were in a mixture of Latin, German, Hebrew, and other languages.

And what is curious, Vinogradov managed to discover not only the secret of making porcelain, but also to explore various domestic deposits of clay. In the instructions he outlined the technology for washing different types of clays. The master chose the most optimal type of fuel for firing products, he himself designed special furnaces and furnaces, and then supervised their construction, he himself discovered the formulas for paints and glaze for painting. At the same time, Vinogradov was also engaged in the training of personnel, he trained specialists, assistants and successors of various levels in the manufacture and decoration of porcelain products.

What is especially striking in this story is the inhuman conditions in which the master lived. He was not allowed anywhere outside the factory, neither his hometown, nor his family, he never saw again, the master also did not create his family. And all because the porcelain recipe was a state secret. Therefore, Dmitry Ivanovich had no choice but to devote himself entirely to work and only work!

The porcelain manufactory started working in 1753, and the production of porcelain was put on stream. At first, small ones were produced, and then they began to produce larger products. The first imperial service "The Empress's Whim" was made "according to the recipe" of Vinogradov in 1756. It consisted of dinner plates and vases, tureens with "charming girls" and cups included.

The tragedy of the life of Dmitry Vinogradov

However, such selfless work did not bring the master either recognition or status. On the contrary, it cost Dmitry Vinogradov his life. Constant unbearable stress, which he tried to weaken by drinking alcohol, led to chronic alcoholism. Fearing that the master might issue a recipe for the porcelain he had discovered, the officials of the secret office ordered not to let him out of the workshop anywhere. Vinogradov was stripped of his salary and whipped for the slightest failure in production. And besides, his sword was taken away from him, which was then considered a complete disgrace! He was constantly watched, kept under guard, and when he tried to escape, he was put on a chain.

The patient, driven to hallucinations, physically and mentally weakened Vinogradov, was chained to the oven "for a while … so that he could sleep there." After "sitting" for three days, on August 25, 1758, Vinogradov died. He was 38 years old.

What can I say, the terrible death of a genius who performed a feat of labor and died in oblivion. The case was continued by his student Nikita Voinov.

It is very difficult to believe that an outstanding scientist, the best graduate of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, who through his work made Russia famous, was treated like a convict. By the way, Saxony did the same with Böttger, the inventor of European porcelain. He lived chained by the leg to his stove in Albrechtsburg Castle so that he would not run away and pass on the secret of porcelain making to anyone else.

Wild manners of the enlightened eighteenth century!

And finally, I would like to note that only about a dozen unique porcelain items by D. I. Vinogradov and some of his treatises, in which the master described the secrets of porcelain production. These antique items, with the author's stamp in the form of the year of manufacture and the initial letter of the surname of the creator, today are estimated at fabulous sums.

Continuing the theme of the tragic fate of geniuses, read: As a self-taught artist, Pavel Fedotov became an academician and because of this ended his life in a psychiatric hospital.