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Treasures of Catherine the Great The passion of Catherine the Great for science and fine arts resulted in a real treasure the world acquired - the collections of the Hermitage Museum. Diversity of Catherine's interests is reflected by the collections of prints and drawings, antique sculpture, engraved gems, coins and medals. She also purchased the richest libraries of Diderot and Voltaire and the cabinet of minerals. Her numerous commissions for articles of daily use from porcelain, precious metals and stones became the basis for the decorative arts collection. The First Gallery provided a visual presentation to introduce
the Hermitage itself. Golden Telecom (Moscow) is the firm that
provided telecommunication with St Petersburg. The visitors of Somerset
House had a chance to look across Palace Square to the Winter Palace in
real time. A six-minute video took the visitor through the most dazzling
interiors of the Hermitage, while computer screens allowed everybody to
explore the Hermitage website. The gallery housed the Portrait of Catherine
the Great by Alexander Roslin loaned from Houghton Hall, Norfolk,
built for Sir Robert Walpole, Britain's first prime minister. Catherine
bought the finest pictures from Walpole's important collection from his
grandson in 1779 and presented him, in return, with this magnificent portrait
which is still in its original frame. The walls were decorated with replicas
of the 19th-century watercolours, commissioned by Emperor Nicholas I and
his son The Second and largest Gallery evoked Catherine's life. Above the mantlepiece hung a visiting masterpiece, which changed every three months. The first of these masterpieces was one of Catherine's purchases: Moses Striking the Rock (1649) by Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665). Apart from the paintings representing Catherine the Great, including the equestrian portrait of the Empress by Vigilius Eriksen, the gallery featured a Meissen equestrian figure of Catherine modelled by Johann Joachim Kaendler. The showcases and other cabinet furniture in the Hermitage Rooms replicated the furniture made from the designs of the German architect Leo von Klenze, who was commissioned to create the designs of the public museum called the New Hermitage by Nicholas I. Two showcases were used to display jewels, portrait miniatures, gold medals and other small treasures among which were a miniature portrait of one of Catherine's most famous lovers, Count Grigory Orlov, painted in enamels on gold by Andrei Chorny; snuff boxes with childhood portraits of Catherine's grandsons Grand Dukes Alexander and Constantine, and a diamond badge with the monogram EII (for Ekaterina the Second). There were forty medals represented on display including one commemorating
the introduction of the smallpox vaccination to Russia in 1768. Of interest
for the public were clocks, one of which with a toilet-case and a musical
mechanism was made by James Cox of London in 1772. The most extraordinary
item in the display cases was Catherine's wig made entirely of silver
thread, never before publicly exhibited. The Third Gallery showed Catherine's passion for collecting engraved gems and cameos. Visitors had a chance to see 12 ancient Greek and Roman gems and 50 gems dating from the period of time starting from the Renaissance to the reign of Catherine the Great. One of them made of jasper by Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna, wife of the future Emperor Paul I, in 1789, showed Catherine II as Minerva. Catherine also commissioned glass copies to be made from the gems in the collection of James Tassie in London. Nearly 40 gems from Tassie's collection, with the famous Medusa among them, were part of the exhibition. On display was also one of the caskets made by Roach which contained Tassie's gems on the way to Russia. The most significant purchase of Catherine the Great was acquisition of the Duke of Orleans' collection of gems in 1787. From 1786 to 1796 nearly 200 works of this visual art created by the English carvers brothers William and Charles Brown were added to the collection. The German furniture master David Roentgen who visited St Petersburg in 1786 was commissioned by Catherine the Great to produce mahogany cabinets decorated with ormolu for gems and medals. A pride of the Hermitage collection is the Green Frog Service produced
by the outstanding English ceramist Josiah Wedgwood in 1774. Among a number
of pieces from this service displayed for the public was a plate with
a view of Somerset House. Another Wedgwood article was an unusually large
plaque representing Catherine the Great Awarding Arts and Patronizing
Commerce made in 1785. The topic of the exhibition in the Fourth Gallery was Catherine the Great as a patron of decorative arts and crafts. On display there were the items made at the Tula Small Arms Factory. These included gilt and inlaid tables, mirrors, chandeliers, an umbrella, a pillow, a chess set, a casket and also small pistols and sabres made for the grandsons of Catherine Alexander and Constantine, a hunting gun of Catherine the Great. The Gardner Factory, one of the first and best Russian private porcelain factories, was founded by the English merchant Francis Gardner in 1766. Catherine commissioned from this factory four services for the receptions held in the Winter Palace in honour of the cavaliers of the four highest orders of the Russian Empire. Some items from these services decorated the gallery. The Berlin Royal Manufactory was represented by dishes from the Potemkin's Service presented to Prince Potemkin by Friedrich the Great. The Fifth Gallery demonstrated Catherine's taste for Chinese objects and chinoiserie. Some of the pieces in this room were of the utmost rarity, such as the 23 gold ornaments for the dress and headdress and hairpins believed to have been a gift to Catherine from the Emperor of China. The only similar examples known to exist are in the Palace Museum in Taiwan. There were also extremely rare Chinese pieces from two silver filigree toilet services, including a life-like silver box in the form of a crab which stands on a gilded filigree leaf plate. Two apparently unique Chinese filigree silver toilet sets dating from around 1750 came to light only recently due to their reconstruction at the Hermitage and had their first public showing in this London exhibition. The fact that Chinese filigree silver of this type is virtually unknown makes this a particularly exciting discovery. The Hermitage possesses one of the best collections of English silver, including such superb pieces as a table-kettle, a stand and a burner produced in 1750 by Nicholas Sprimont that were represented on display. Antique busts and reliefs, most of which come from the collection of antiquities acquired by Catherine the Great in 1787 from G. Browne, Director of the Bank of England, were on display. Of interest were eight gouaches representing monuments of ancient Rome by the French architect and draughtsman Charles Louis Clairissot that once decorated the boudoir of Catherine in the Winter Palace. The wide scope of the exhibition enabled the visitors to fully appreciate the collection of Catherine the Great, one of the greatest collectors of all time, and recreated the atmosphere of magnificent interiors of the Winter Palace, the Small Hermitage and the New Hermitage. |
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