A remarkable exhibition of Russian provincial portraiture of the 18th and 19th centuries, "Zertsalo" ("The Mirror"), is on at the Manege in Saint Petersburg

A remarkable exhibition of Russian provincial portraiture of the 18th and 19th centuries, "Zertsalo" ("The Mirror"), is on at the Manege in Saint Petersburg. Although most of the artists and most of the faces portrayed remain unknown, the curators have managed, within these terem chambers, to assemble a veritable treasury of types drawn from the Russian merchantry, nobility and clergy of two centuries. The distinctive manner of the truly Russian portrait, which seems to have been shaped by icon painting rather than by the European school, inspires unfeigned delight. In short, "Zertsalo" is what is really worth seeing this year: I remember rapturous accounts of the exhibition of Yaroslavl portraiture almost half a century ago, but here the finest pictures of the genre have been gathered from not one but many regional museums, and among the exhibits true masterpieces are often easy to spot.