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View the masterpieces of this collection Panoramic view of Hall 3 of the Diamond Rooms In 1714, when all official bodies were being transferred from Moscow to St Petersburg, Peter the Great had part of the Armoury Chamber collection moved too. Since the 16th century that Moscow institution had been a repository for arms and armour, war trophies, treasures and items of church plate. Peter’s reign saw the appearance in the new capital of the personal icons and crosses of 17th-century members of the royal family. The icon mounts are richly decorated with enamel, niello and precious stones. Extremely precious family heirlooms were the personal pectoral reliquary crosses that are repeatedly mentioned in the wills of grand princes and tsars. In the 17th century pearls, large and small, drilled and threaded, were often used for the decoration of book covers. The technique of pearl embroidery covering whole areas was particularly laborious. In the second half of the 18th century two magnificent communion sets were brought to St Petersburg. They had been made in 1677-79 on the orders of Tsar Fiodor Alexeyevich (1656-1682), the elder brother of Peter the Great. These works by Moscow court jewellers are finished in a particularly luxurious and magnificent manner. The liturgical vessels were kept in the Great Church of the Winter Palace and used on festive occasions. One of the masterpieces of the Hermitage’s late-18th-century stocks is a chalice by the St Petersburg-based jeweller Boudde that was commissioned by Catherine II in 1790. The gold bowl of the chalice is decorated with painted medallions and entwined by a fine net of gold filigree. For stylistic refinement this work is comparable with the most exquisite products of Byzantium. |
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