Abstract
The sculpture class at the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences – from 1749 to 1762 under the direction of Johann F. Duncker – has received little attention from Russian scholars, even less from foreign scholars. However, this class was probably the first one in St Petersburg to offer regular training in sculpture, combined with more theoretical aspects. Its new academic system was influenced by artists who came from the West to teach there and also by the art books that were translated there. Like many elements related to foreign personalities in Russia, especially from the Germanic worlds, the historiography concerning Johann F. Duncker and the sculpture class was often neglected for ideological reasons This article will take a fresh look at this class, its teachers and students, in order to reassess their legacy in the transmission of the arts in Russia.