|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 
150 Years of the New Hermitage The exhibition opened in the Rotunda (Room No. 156) and the Arab Hall (Room No. 155) of the Winter Palace is dedicated to the Research Library of the State Hermitage Museum and the New Hermitage which in 2002 celebrated respectively their 240th and 150th anniversaries. The show does not reproduce the 19th century book exhibition. 150 printed books and manuscripts from the 11th-20th centuries are the best specimens of the arts of design, illustration, publishing, printing and binding. The chronological exhibition includes three sections, European, Eastern and Russian books. Among the very early manuscripts are Cicero's De Amicitia of the 11th century in Latin and the Chronicle of Georgios Hamartolos of the 14th century in Russian. Alongside European manuscripts are displayed incunabulas, early printed books of the 15th century. Two incunabulas, G. Koehler's De Bacchi and Thomas-a-Kempis' De Imitatione Christi were showed 150 years ago at the Book Museum of the New Hermitage. The exhibition includes creations of the basic printer dynasties of the 16th-17th centuries, the Venetian Aldine and the Dutch Platents and Elzevirs. Their publishing houses exemplify the evolution of the art of printing in the late 16th - early 17th centuries. At this time typesetting improved, new types of various sizes and forms appeared and design changed. Secular books of special and popular character were gaining wider currency, such as geographic descriptions, reference books, guides, etc. Excellent specimens of French book-covers, facsimile editions of medieval manuscripts and reproductions of classical book-covers introduce European book masters of the 18th-20th centuries. First Russian printed books of the 16th century are represented by Ivan Fedorov's works such as his Apostle, the first exactly dated Muscovite printed book. Cyrillic books of the 17th century are displayed side by side with publications in the civil type introduced by Peter I in the early 18th century. Books from Imperial Libraries tell about the art of talented printers, binders, publishers and jewelers who worked in Russia in the 19th century. They include the Coronation Album of Alexander II and publications marking the Tercentenary of the Romanov House. Special attention is paid to sacred books of Christianity and Islam, the Bible and the Qur'an. An 18th century specimen of Chinese xylography and book art is displayed in a special showcase. European and Russian bibliophile books of the 19th and 20th centuries are represented by Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur and Oscar Wilde's Salome with illustrations by Aubrey Beardsley, ABC in Pictures by Alexander Benoit and fairy tales with illustrations by Ivan Bilibin. Among works of Russian and Western artists, noteworthy are Francois Rablais' Pantagruel with xylographs by Andre Derain, Virgil's didactic poem Georgics with illustrations by Aristide Maillol, contemporary hand-made books published by Redkaya Kniga iz Sankt-Peterburga and Maximilian Voloshin. Paris by Nina Kazimova. The exhibition is closed by contemporary publications about the Hermitage and its collections and catalogues of temporary exhibitions. |
|
|||||
|
Copyright © 2011 State Hermitage Museum |
