Peter the Great. The Great Reformer
9 March 2013 - 13 September 2013
665 exhibits

The year 2013 has been announced as the Year of Russia in the Netherlands and the Year of the Netherlands in Russia. Among the numerous events this year a large-scale exhibition entitled Peter the Great. The Great Reformer stands out. It has been officially included in the programme as the Exhibition-Discovery of the Year.

The exhibition includes more than 660 works of visual and applied art, armament supplies and ammunition, instruments and tools, coins, documents, books and natural objects from the State Hermitage Museum’s collection. The exhibition aims at showing the complexity of the first Russian Emperor’s personality, an outstanding statesman and commander, seaman and collector, curious and hard-working man who mastered different crafts and showed his talent in many fields of activity.

Some items have been displayed in previous State Hermitage Museum projects. But in 2013 in Amsterdam ancient monuments from a famous Siberian Collection of Peter I, weapons and ammunition of the Northern War, scientific instruments and tools, clothes from the Emperor’s wardrobe and memorial items will be presented to such a full extent for the first time in history. Paintings and sculptures purchased in Europe by art agents of the Russian Tsar, including David and Jonathan by Rembrandt and the famous antique statue of Tauride Venus, are of a particular interest.

The exhibition consists of five sections: The Origin, Victories and Defeats, I’m an apprentice and I’m looking for teachers, Crowned Collector, Transformation of Russia.

The most important section for understanding the future reformer’s personality is dedicated to Muscovy of the last third of 17th century, when due to many reasons Peter Alexeyevich was outside the traditional system of ceremonies and conventionalities of the tsarist household. His amusements and freedom with few obligatory activities and “playing” soldiers even at that time showed Peter’s inexhaustible energy, passion and devotion to a game that imperceptibly became something big. Peter’s communication with inhabitants of the German Quarter in Moscow and overcoming the invisible but a strong psychological barrier, which divided two worlds foreign to each other - orthodox Rus and “impious” Europe, played an important role. The young tsar’s acquaintance with the White Sea set up a cult in ships and the sea. The Azov campaigns of 1695-1696 were his first military school; starting from there Peter began “counting” his achievements in his devotion to Russia.

And finally, perhaps the most important for the achievement of the future Russian reformer’s development was his long-term trip abroad, when he was a part of the Great Embassy in 1696-1697. Peter was not a delegation member, but an accompanying person, among other noblemen and servants. Such position gave him a considerable freedom and allowed him to acquire detailed knowledge of many sides of life in Holland, England and other countries. For the first time Peter saw the military and cultural power of West-European civilization, felt its spirit, sense and strength. From this trip abroad he brought not only new knowledge and impressions, unusual items and corns appeared due to his hard work, but he also formed an idea to make Russia powerful like the great states of Europe. It was exactly that moment when Peter’s commitment to West-European model of life was formed and this automatically meant turning away from old Muscovy, and led to a fierce rejection of everything that was associated with the “enemies”: Tsarina Sophia, Streltsy, the nobility.

Practically all of Peter’s rule was accompanied by military actions. Failure in the first Azov campaign didn’t break the tsar, but on the contrary made him particularly determined to start military reforms, to create an artillery corps and to build a national fleet. The triumphal victory in the Great Northern War, which lasted more than 20 years, gave Russia a leading military role in Europe. The Russian Imperial Guard was born in that war. Russian troops obtained immortality in the Battle of Poltava on June 27, 1709. An officer’s jacket of the Preobrazhensky Regiment, which Peter was a part of in the Battle of Poltava, will be exhibited for the first time in Amsterdam.

Peter the Great laid the foundation for collecting works of art in Russia and showed an example to his contemporaries. The wide range of the tsar’s interests is astonishing: paintings of Dutch, Flemish, French and Italian artists, gold articles made by Siberian nomadic tribes and freaks of nature are side by side in his collections in a remarkable manner. Peter’s interest in sculpture can be seen as exceptional, as sculpture was not known in Russia due to a prohibition of the Orthodox Church. Thanks to his focused activities the first antique statues appeared on the banks of the Neva River.

Reforms carried out by Peter the Great influenced practically all parts of Russian State life. The monarch truly desired to bring wealth to his Homeland, but his reformations gave no mercy to himself or Russia. Many of Peter’s innovations that proved their resilience and became accepted as the proper direction chosen by the tsar became monuments honoring the Great Reformer. But the main symbol of Peter’s age and the anthem to the first Russian Emperor is St. Petersburg, the city founded by him.

A scholarly catalogue in English and in Dutch has been prepared for the Peter the Great. The Great Reformer exhibition.