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The "Hermitage to the South of Russia"
Program This exhibition is one of the most important parts of the multifaceted cultural and educational "Hermitage to the South of Russia" Program which has been prepared by the State Hermitage together with the Basic Element Company, which is the program's co-organizer and general sponsor. More than 100 exhibits are on display: Antique vases and sculptures, paintings, sculptures and decorative and applied art by masters from the 12th - 19th centuries. These demonstrate how in the course of two and a half millennia ideas about heroes and the heroic have changed. A number of Antique monuments depict the hero of the Ancient World Heracles and his feats; episodes from the Trojan War; various mythological personages, as well as outstanding historical figures like Alexander of Macedon and Julius Caesar. There are interesting compositions in marble which served as decorations to the fountain of the Infant Heracles by a 1st century Roman master, as well as a miniature sculpture of Heracles with one of his characteristic attributes - the skin of the Nemean lion (Greece, 1st century B.C.). White-ground Lekythos vessels for oil form an original group among the painted ceramics on display. Among the canvases some show mythological personages like Paris in the painter A. Kauffman's (1741-1807) Venus Persuading Helen to Love Paris, Achilles and Perseus in works by J.-B. Renault (1754-1829) - The Education of Achilles by the Centaur Chiron and The Marriage of Perseus and Andromeda. There are also real historical personages depicted in other paintings, such as Alexander of Macedon in the work of the Flemish artist I. Felpacher (worked in the mid-17th century) - The Atelier of Apelles (Apelles paints Campaspa in the presence of Alexander of Macedon.) Louis XIV is depicted by A.F. Van der Meulen (1632-1693) in the composition entitled Louis XIV at the Taking of Besancon. Three canvases by the French artist F. Flameng (1856-1923) are shown in the exhibition: Reception at Malmaison in 1802, Reception at Compiegne in 1810 and Napoleon I and the King of Rome in Saint Cloud in 1811. Marble busts of Peter the Great were made by the Italian C. Albachini (circa 1734-1813) and of Catherine the Great, by an unknown sculptor of the second half of the 18th century. There is the sculptor M. I. Kozlovsky's (1753-1802) bronze model of a monument to the Generalissimo A.V. Suvorov in the form of Mars, the god of war. A painted portrait of A.S. Menshikov, the great grandson of the closest member of Peter the Great's retinue, was done by the English painter. G. Dawe (1781-1829), who was the creator of the War Gallery of 1812 in the Winter Palace. A portrait of one of the heroes of the Patriotic War against Napoleon, General P.A. Chicherin, made by the French master R. Lefevre (1755-1830), completes this heroic series of personages from Russian history. The exhibition includes examples of small sculptures, tapestries, bronze, porcelain and jewelry. The earliest of the exhibits are a lamp with the figure of the Old Testament hero Samson tearing asunder the jaws of a lion (Flanders, 12th century) and a sword with depiction of Alexander of Macedon (Germany, 12th century). Splendid examples of the work of Italy's furniture makers of the second half of the 16th century may be found in the caisson trunks with scenes from the life of Julius Caesar. Heracles remained a widespread image in applied art, as we see in the hearth bellows decorated with carvings in grotesque ornamentation and showing the hero in combat with the Lernaean Hydra made by an Italian Renaissance master, or the ivory statuette of Heracles - a typical example of work by German masters at the end of the 17th and beginning of the 18th century. The heroic theme is continued in the art of tapestry weaving as we see in the series entitled the Story of Constantine which was made on the basis of cartoons by Peter-Paul Rubens in the Paris atelier of R. de la Planche in the middle of the 17th century, and the tapestry entitled The Coronation of Marcus Aurelius, made by the Antwerp atelier of M. Wauters in the third quarter of the same century. The exhibition displays works by ceramics masters of the 18th and first half of the 19th centuries. One can also see here the diplomatic gift of King of Prussia Friedrich II to the Russian Empress Catherine the Great - a Berlin service with paintings and sculptural groups glorifying the victories of Russian arms. Among works of porcelain dating from the early 19th century, two monarchs serve as the central personages - Alexander I and Napoleon. They are depicted as heroes from Antiquity and decorate porcelain made in Paris and in Petersburg. The exhibition has a biscuit bust of Napoleon done in the Sevres Manufactory and a cup with the portrait of Alexander I (Blerzy et Sauvage, Paris). Portraits of Russian military commanders, heroes from the Patriotic War of 1812 were also popular at this time: for example the Ataman of the Don Cossack Army M.I. Platov. A bronze mantle clock depicting the Watch of Alexander of Macedon (1830-1840, Russia) is based on a model by the French artist P.F. Thomir and corresponds to the theme of the exhibition. The exhibition is rounded out by examples of jewellery dating from the end of the 18th century through first third of the 19th century: a gold snuff box with portrait of A.V. Suvorov in the image of a hero from Antiquity (Russia) and a silver box with the portrait of Napoleon on the lid and medals and coins commemorating the Emperor's victories chased on the sides. The museum's researchers have prepared an illustrated catalogue of the exhibition which was issued by the Slavia Publishing House of St Petersburg. The volume opens with words of greeting from the State Hermitage Director Mikhil Piotrovsky and with a message from the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Basic Element Company, O.V. Deripaska. The authors of the introductory articles are Leading Researcher in the Department of Western European Art A.A. Babin, Researcher in the same department D.P. Aleksinsky and Researcher in the Department of the Antique World I.D. Arsentiev. |
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