Portrait of Grand Dukes Alexander Pavlovich and Konstantin Pavlovich
by BROMPTON, Richard, Oil on canvas, 210 x 147 cm
The painting represents the two grandsons of Empress Catherine II. The elder grandson is presented in the guise of Alexander the Great, with sword in hand slicing the Gordian knot. The younger boy is depicted with a labarum, the sacred standard of Roman emperor Constantine the Great, who in the early 4th century decreed Christianity to be the official religion of his empire.