The Russian Empire 1450–1801

Figure 13.3

This modern engraving of a 1672 portrait of Tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich from the

“Tituliarnik

”(a collection of portraits of contemporary

rulers) shows the tsar arrayed in religious symbols of legitimacy, in sharp contrast to the anonymous contemporary portrait of his son, the young Pete

r

I, beardless and dashing in cuirass, blue sash, and Order of St. Andrew. The juxtaposition nevertheless underplays the degree of cultural and politic

al

change that Aleksei Mikhailovich himself initiated and that paved the way for Peter

’s reforms. General Research Division, The New York Public

Library; with permission of Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.