Portrait of Catherine II the Legislatress in the Temple Devoted to the Godess of Justice

Levitzky's 1780 Portrait of Catherine II the Legislatress in the Temple Devoted to the Goddess of Justice belongs to the most ambitious of his allegorical portraits of the empress — a work that combines the conventions of grand-manner portrait with the iconographic apparatus of Enlightenment political philosophy. The painting shows Catherine as a legislator-philosopher burning poppies on the altar of justice as symbolic self-sacrifice — sacrificing her sleep and comfort for the rule of law — while the Russian Fleet battles in the distance and the eagle of Zeus observes from above. The composition was designed by Nikolai Lvov, the poet-architect, and the program reflected the ideas of the Lvov circle about enlightened monarchy. The Tretyakov Gallery's version and the Russian Museum's version (1783) together testify to the image's dual production for different audiences. It remains one of the most intellectually complex political allegories in Russian painting.

Oil on canvas on a large scale appropriate to allegorical state portraiture. The complex iconographic program requires Levitzky to manage multiple zones of visual interest: the central figure, the altar and its flames, the distant sea battle, and the eagle above. The palette balances the warm crimson and gold of imperial dress against the cooler tones of the allegorical setting.