Gaius Cilnius Maecenas

Lived approximately 70 years before the birth of Christ. His date of birth has not been established but is recalled in one of Horace’s odes:
This April Day, in Venerine month
Is split in two.
This day is more saintly and valued by me,
Then mine own birth, -
Cherished Maecenas
From him do we count the years.

Gaius Cilnius Maecenas was born into the social elite of Rome, into an Equite family, in his own words the genus Cilnii was derived from an ancient line of Etruscan kings. A wealthy aristocrat he was close to power, chosen by Octavian Augustus for various important duties, and was capable of using his influence for the arts. This has glorified Maecenas for centuries and his name has become a household word.

Project for a new, permanent exhibition at the State Hermitage Museum

Japanese Culture and Art

The permanent exhibition, Japanese Culture and Art includes works of Japanese Art held in the Oriental Department of the State Hermitage Museum.

The size of the collection consists of more than ten thousand items. The collection was started in 1891 when the Crown Prince, Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich brought back from travels in the Orient ten Japanese artworks. The kernel of the collection became the collection of Baron Stieglitz (1928), which consisted mainly of tapestries and porcelain (approximately three thousand items). In 1956 the Japanese Government offered the State Hermitage Museum a gift of twenty items of twentieth century art. In 1960 the museum received approximately three thousand netsukes from the collections of K. Faberge and M. Gorky as well as others. In 1980 another thousand items poured into the collection from the collection of S. Varshavsky.

The State Hermitage Museum has wooden and metal sculptures, tapestries, prints, porcelain, and small examples of plastic art. Among the better known exhibits are the lacquer painted screens from the 16th-17th century, the prints of Hokusai and Hiroshige, Samurai armour of the 18th century, silk carpets Fox Hunting from the end of the 19th century and a porcelain vase from Satsuma workshop of the end of the 19th century.

Tuman Zhumabaev

Arrived in Leningrad from Kyrgyzstan. In 1981 – 1985 he studied at the Serov Art College; in 1991 he graduated from the Repin Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, under the tuition of Profession Yu. M. Neprintsev.

His paintings are known in Austria, Vietnam, Iran, and China. The artist’s exhibitions are held every year in St. Petersburg and Moscow.

He has twice been the winner of the international competition ‘Poppy Prairie’ (Paris, France).

The artist’s paintings are held in collections of the Kyrgyzstan State Museum, Samara Regional Art Museum, the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art and private galleries in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

The Trojan War

Rare Book from St. Petersburg Publishing House

The history of the Trojan War in fragments from the works of ancient authors: Thucydides, Apollodorus of Athens, Homer, Pausanias, Dracontius, Philostratos, Diodorus Siculus, Paulus Orosius, Pompeius Trogus, Diktys of Crete, Virgil, Titius Livy.

The book contains 26 wood engravings by Sergei Shvemberger. The text is printed by a hand operated printing press from the 19th century on paper with a hand watermark. The binding is made of gilded leather, inset with the original engraving plates specially made for this book and underlining the uniqueness of each book. There are only 25 copies, numbered and signed by the artist and the publisher (size 32 õ 22 cm).

Dekalog (The Ten Commandments. Deuteronomy 5 (6-21))

The second printing of the Commandments is explained by the fact that they were twice recorded in the Bible (Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5) and were twice presented to Mosses.

A new design for the book has been implemented. The pages of the Commandments have been made from Egyptian dark papyrus, matza, specially prepared by hand. The text of the Commandments is printed on a hand operated press from the 19th century in an ancient Jewish font from the Bohemian Aggadah and is accompanied by translation into seven languages: ancient Greek, Church Slavonic, Arabic, Farsi, Sanskrit, Chinese and Japanese.

The translations are hand printed on parchment, manufactured in Israel. The cover has a piece of Matza on it, with patterning on it engraved with silver, into which the tablets, made of stone coming from the Sinai Mountain in the Sinai Desert – where they were revealed, are inserted. The stone from Sinai Mountain was acquired by a special expedition and worked on by stone-cutters. The binding, holding the pages is made from silver.

Scientific Consultant for the project was the Director of the State Hermitage Museum, Mikhail Piotrovsky.

Soloists of Catherine the Great (St. Petersburg)

A unique project by the Foundation for the Renewal of Ancient Music. Its mission is the reestablishment into contemporary culture of the extremely rich Russian musical legacy of the 18th to the beginning of the 19th century. The ensemble is carefully chosen for playing chamber music (duets, trios, quartets and quintets) and is the kernel of Catherine the Great Orchestra – the first professional baroque orchestra in Russia. Musicians of the ensemble, together with the best experts and musical scholars study Russian musical archives, and bring back to the stage forgotten musical masterpieces, written for the Russian court in the 18th century by such composers as Madonis, Khandoshkin, Zhernovik, Titz, Facius and others. The Soloists of Catherine the Great also have a special interest in music played in the courts and estates of Russian noblemen at the end of 18th – beginning of the 19th century. In 2007 the Soloists of Catherine the Great participated in the creation of the first baroque opera in Russia, Boris Godunov by Johann Mattheson.

Musicians:
Andrei Reshetin (violin) – ensemble director
Mariya Krestinskaya (violin)
Fatima Lafisheva (violin)
Andrei Penyugin (viola)
Alexander Listratov (cello)