The State Hermitage Museum: Hermitage News

"The Jeweller’s Art and Material Culture": A Seminar

On 12-17 April 2004 a colloquium was held in the State Hermitage devoted to the study of the jeweller’s art. In her opening address to participants, Natalia Zakharova told about the program of the 13th Colloquium, which began in April 1996, and about what has been done over the past eight years.

Among the participants in the colloquium were staff from many museums and scholarly institutions of Russia, including the State Hermitage, from Germany, and from the countries of the CIS. The presentations given by participants were devoted to different aspects of the study of the jeweller’s art from the very beginning up to contemporary production.

This year reports devoted to archeology evoked the greatest interest. One can name the following as among the most significant of them: Roman Stoyanov (Petersburg) speaking about pieces of jewellery dating from the 5th to 4th centuries B.C. in private collections; Yuri Zaitsev (Simferopol) speaking about gold “facial” tablets in the Late Scythian culture of the Crimea; Valentina Mordvintseva (Simferopol) reporting on jewellery production in the Scythian Neapolis ; Olga Shcheglovaya (Petersburg) talking about Gepid fibulas dating from the 7th century in the Lower Dniepr region; and also Yelena Popelnitskaya (Kiev) reporting on decorations for women’s headdresses of the 16th -17th centuries.

In addition there were reports dedicated to the art of the 19th and 20th centuries: the jeweller’s art from 1830 – 1880 in Russia and France was the theme of a report by Tatyana Zuikova (Moscow); Olga Kalashnikova (Petersburg) spoke about accessories for women’s high society dresses in France in the second half of the 19th century; and Alexander Pivovarov (Moscow) delivered a report about Russian and French jewellery making from the 1880’s to the beginning of the 20th century.

Participants listened with great interest to presentations on the subjects of gemology and mineralogy, and we should mention in particular the talk given by gemologist Elisabeth Strack (Hamburg) analyzing and determining the provenance of emeralds from the age of the Moguls in the Hermitage displays.

Other reports which drew great interest were: a report by Valentina Skurlova ( St Petersburg) on the diadem which belonged to the families of the Romanovs and Pushkins and is now being exhibited in the Hermitage; and a presentation by Svetlana Chestnykh (St Petersburg) devoted to an analysis of the artistic and aesthetic level of works created by the company of Theo Faberge.

Students at institutions of higher learning, graduates, and young specialists also came to the colloquium and were among those who were especially attentive to reports by Alana Almametova (Petersburg) entitled “A description of a Japanese ‘tanto’ dagger from the collection of the Special Storeroom” and by Oksana Vashchuk (Petersburg), entitled "Examples of ‘New Jewellery’ in the Jewellery Art of Finland".

Sessions of the colloquium were combined with visits to the collections and exhibits of the Hermitage, as well as by special guided tours in the State Museum-Reserve "Gatchina" (Prioratsky Palace) and the A.S. Popov Central Museum of Communications.

At the seminar

During a report