The Freiburg Cross and its World. Western European Applied Art of the Middle Ages from the Collection of the State Hermitage

On 18 March 2004 an exhibition of Western European applied art of the Middle Ages opened in the Blue Bedroom of the Winter Palace (Room 307).

The exhibition traces the main stages of development of medieval applied art in its diversity and richness. One of the high points of this development was the main display item of the show, the so-called Freiburg Cross. This processional cross was created at the end of the 18th century in Strasbourg for the Monastery of St Trudpert near Freiburg. The exhibition also displays crosses of English, French, and Spanish provenance.

Two ivory caskets in the show reflect the basic sources of medieval art: Roman culture and the culture of the barbarians. The Carolingian period is represented in the exhibition by an ivory relief with evangelical subject. The diversity of Romanesque style is underlined by works in carved ivory, recessed enamel, bronze castings and objects made of silver. Limoges enamel is represented among other objects by a reliquary casket from the beginning of the 13th century. A special place in the exhibition is taken by a casket made in the atelier of the 13th century master Hugues d’Oignies. The exhibition also includes jewel boxes, small boxes for mirrors, figure-shaped vessels, fabrics, as well as objects decorated with heraldic motifs - candlesticks and brackets for a horse’s harness.

The Hermitage’s collection of medieval monuments of applied art is among the best in the world. It had its origins in the collection of A.P. Bazilevsky (1829 - 1899), which accounts for 13 display items in the show, and in the collection of the Shuvalov family. A large portion of the items exhibited here come from the collection of the Museum of the School of Technical Drawing created by Baron Stieglitz (1814-1884).

An illustrated scholarly catalogue to the exhibition has been prepared and published. Its author is M.Ya. Kryzhanovskaya, senior researcher in the State Hermitage’s Department of Western European Art and curator of the exhibition.

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Mikhail Piotrovsky, Director of the State Hermitage, at the opening of the exhibition

Marta Kryzhanovskaya, curator of the exhibition

At the exhibition in the Blue Bedroom

The catalogue