Gravestone of a Woman's Bust

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This sculpture is a simple bust of a young woman named Asenkovoi, presenting herself in a very traditional manner with clothing that covers her completely and hair that is braided beautifully. The State Museum of City Sculptures was founded in 1932 to study, restore and protect city sculptures and tombstones, and this museum is responsible for the upkeep of many of St Petersburg's most famous sculptures. Several branches are located around St Petersburg, but the main ones are concentrated within the former territory of the Aleksandro-Nevsky Lavra, which was granted to the museum upon its founding. The Aleksandro-Nevsky Lavra's Tikhvinskoe Cemetery was established in 1823 and named after the Our Lady of Tikhvin Church, built here between 1869 and 1873. In 1931, the church was closed, and in 1932, the cemetery became a branch of the State Museum of City Sculptures, known as the Necropolis of Masters of Culture. This branch is so named because many leading figures of Russian culture have been laid to rest here, including writers Fyodor Dostoevsky, Nikolai Karamzin, and Ivan Krylov; composers Aleksandr Borodin, Mikhail Glinka, Modest Musorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and Pyotr Tchaikovsky; and artists Boris Kustodiev, Ivan Kramskoy, and Ivan Shishkin, among many more famous names.