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Treasury of the World.
Jewelled Arts of India in the Age of the Mughals The exhibition in the Concert Hall of the Winter Palace (Room N 190)
is organized by the Collection of The exhibition includes more than four hundred pieces of jewellery of the Mughals
epoch coming from the private collection of Sheikh Nasser
Sabah Islam penetrated into western regions of India already in the 8th century
and from the beginning of the 13th century all Northern India appeared
to be under the reign of Delhi sultanate - a large Muslim state that was
ruled by Turkiñ and Afghan dynasties but mainly with Hindu population.
Due to mutual influence of native and foreign cultures The Mughals brought highly developed culture, refined and dainty etiquette to India; Persian language became the language of the court and of the official life of the state. Synthesis of Indian and Persian cultural traditions that had outlined earlier reached its peak by the second quarter of the 17th century. During the first 150 years of existence of the Mughals state arts underwent rapid upsurge. Indeed, development of jewellery reaches its stunning peaks; that was greatly supported by the artistic workshops created under the court of Akbar and existed till the end of the 17th century. Thirteen sections of the Treasury of the World. Jewelled Art of India in the Age of the Mughals exhibition do not only give an idea about those amazing and at times unique monuments of jewellery but also get acquainted with different ways of stone and metal bracing and working. A cup made from rock crystal stands out among varied in form and purpose articles of the end of the 16th - 17th centuries from nephrite, cornelian, rock crystal, ivory with inlaid gold. Miniature pictorial images of faces and feathers of kingfisher are included in the design of its inner surface as well as the earliest example of dagger haft in a form of a horse head on a long neck that was so widely spread in the Mughal period. Golden hookah on a stand, perfect in its combination of volumes and the most subtle and harmonious patterns, is a real masterpiece. Dagger scattered with almost 2,400 stones stuns by its luxurious finishing while preserving its functionality and combat characteristics - it is, indeed, nearly the most refined piece of work of the kind. It relates to the group of articles that were mostly created between 1600 and 1640 and their most bright feature is a solid band or channel setting of stones ‘sunk in’ all over golden surface, covered with thin engraved pattern of creeping leaves and sprouts. Achievements of Indian craftsmen in the art of enamel are remarkable
even though it is not the original craft of India and it was introduced
by European jewellers. In the 16th century enamel production spread all over
India. At the beginning Indian form often blended with European decoration
and range of colours. But very soon Indian enamel craftsmen created their
own wide palette where the most famous colours were Miniature cups of strict, perfect contours and vessels repeating various natural forms, rings for archery extraordinarily laconic in their artistic design as well as bright and puffy figures of birds on rings and pendants are made of ivory, emerald, rock crystal, chalcedony, nephrite. Articles with relief carving and first of all carved emeralds as well as articles from nephrite of different shades, agate, rock crystal are various. For many thousands of years India was the only supplier in the world of decorations made from magnificent and sometimes enormous emeralds with fine carved plant patterns. At the same time craftsmen were not just striving to conceal defects of stone but to emphasize its splendour, beauty. And this is important principled position of Indian jewellery in whole - not to expose stone to forcible cutting but to reveal its natural charm. Handle of the baton, consisting of immensely beautiful Burman uncut rubies with a knob in a form of a dragon head, and case for amulets tavis, complex cutting of which originates in the form of the same name of a natural quartz crystal with two peaks, are remarkable. A separate section is made up by the collection of gems containing inscriptions
with names and years of reign of rulers mostly of the Mughals dynasty.
Such inscriptions were usually engraved on spinel, less frequently on emeralds
and other stones. The spinel that belonged in the 15th century
to Timuriud Ulugbek is a rightful pride of the collection of Various illustrated material posted not only on the walls of the room
but also in the The exhibition curator is Olga Deshpande, the head of the Far East Sector
of the State Hermitage.
The State Hermitage, the Jewellery Gallery, the Golden Storeroom. The collection of Indian jewellery items of the prime epoch of the reign of the Mughals dynasty dated back to the end of the 16th - beginning of the 18th centuries numbers in total approximately thirty articles. Most part of them was listed in the inventory of Catherine II at the second half of the 18th century but then their Indian origin had been forgotten and until the middle of the 20th century they were considered to be Iranian. Most part of these golden articles decorated with precious stones and splendid
enamel was brought to St Petersburg by the Iranian Embassy at the beginning
of 1741. The history of that embassy was not easy - in winter
The remaining Indian jewellery articles of the 17th - beginning of the 18th centuries are weapons (most of which are daggers with richly decorated hafts) that came to the Hermitage from the arsenal of Tsarskoe Selo. |
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Copyright © 2011 State Hermitage Museum |
