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A tribute to the memory of Baron Alexander
Stieglitz On 8 and 9 July 2005, at the initiative of the Center for National Glory, a Regional Public Foundation, a number of events were staged in St Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast intended to honor the memory of Baron Alexander Liudovigovich Stieglitz, who was an outstanding Russian statesman of the 19th century, as well as a notable financier, industrialist and patron of the arts. The specific objective of the various events is to raise money to restore the Ivangorod Church of the Holy Trinity, the final resting place of Baron Stieglitz and his family. The church was built at the initiative and with funds provided by the Baron. On 8 July 2005 a requiem for Alexander Stieglitz was performed in the Church of the Holy Trinity. That same evening, within the framework of the commemorative program, the Mariinsky Theater gave a performance of Tchaikowsky’s opera Iolantha in the Ivangorod fortress. On 9 July 2005 the State Hermitage held a press conference in its Meeting Room devoted to the events honoring Baron Stieglitz. On the same day an exhibition opened in the Foyer of the Hermitage Theatre featuring a display of photographs and copies of documents as well as objects of decorative and applied art connected with the life and work of Alexander Stieglitz. The exhibition was jointly organized by the State Hermitage, the Kunstkamera and Museum of the St Petersburg State Academy of the Arts and Industry (the former Baron Stieglitz School of Technical Design). In his will Alexander Stieglitz bequeathed what was at the time a huge sum of money for the construction and operation of his school, for the purchase of art collections and the creation of a museum. From today’s perspective, more than 100 years later, one may say that this was the most important collection of applied art in Russia at the end of the 19th and start of the 20th century. A considerable part of the museum comprised a collection of art from the Orient, including works from China which were mostly first rate in terms of their artistic level. No other Russian art collection, with the likely exception of the tsarist collection, could compete with the School’s museum. This was the result of the size of the bequest from Baron Stieglitz, and also of the high degree of knowledge, taste and interest in oriental works among members of the Polovtsov family, who played a key role in shaping both the School and the museum from the moment they were created. One of the masterpieces of Chinese applied art purchased with the money left by Baron Stieglitz is a 16th century table that was made in the Chinese imperial workshops and is shown in the exhibition. This elegant table on five legs was very likely kept in the imperial Taoist temple and was used to support objects that were part of Taoist rites such as incense burners, vases or candlesticks. It is characteristic of the reign of Chinese Emperor Jiajing (1522-1566) in the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). A distinctive feature of this exhibit item is the material it is made from: carved red lacquer. Lacquer is a natural product in China, coming from sap of the lacquer tree. Lacquer was used in China from ancient times and was considered a very precious and costly material. In order to prepare carved red lacquer objects, a primed wooden base was coated with a great many (100 - 150) fine layers of lacquer colored with cinnabar. The dried and polished lacquer was then deeply carved, creating depictions of various subjects in relief. The production process was unbelievably labor-intensive and time-consuming, and this is why works of carved lacquer were normally small decorative pieces. Each work is unique. The table on display in the exhibition is the only example of furniture made from red lacquer in Russia. |
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