3: Imperial Porcelain. Art Nouveau

Easter Egg: Christ the Saviour Blessing the Children

1914

Made by Alexei Skvortsov from drawings by Piotr Krasnovsky and Rudolph Wilde

Imperial Porcelain Factory and Glassworks

Porcelain, with polychrome overglaze painting and gilding with selective matting

It was a tradition for the factory to produce porcelain eggs for presentation to the imperial family at Easter. The image painted in the figured medallion on the front side of the egg reproduces Timoleon von Neff's Christ the Saviour Blessing the Children. Neff created his painting for St Isaac's Cathedral in St Petersburg, where it can be found in the first tier of the iconostasis in St Catherine's Side-Chapel. On the other side of the egg is a depiction of a pelican feeding its young with its own blood and the inscription "Feeds without sparing itself". This composition was the emblem of the Imperial Foundling Hospital. The painterly decoration is complemented by carved plant ornament in the Russian style. This Easter egg was produced in 1914 by Alexei Skvortsov (1891-1977), one of the factory's best painters.