The State Hermitage Museum: Hermitage News

Castelli Ceramics: 16th-17th centuries from the State Hermitage Museum Collection

On 5 February 2008, in the Blue Bedroom of the Winter Palace (Hall 307) the Castelli Ceramics 16th-18th centuries from the State Hermitage Museum Collection exhibition was opened.

The exhibition presents 77 works, including those of the prominent Castelli masters: Pompeo de Bernamonte, Orazio Pompei, Francesco and Carlantonio Grue, Francesco Antonio Grue, Nicola Cappelletti, Carmine Gentile.

The State Hermitage Museum’s maiolica collection has been built up over two hundred years. Already by 1846 the Hermitage’s inventories mention four maiolica items, however, the core of the collection, consisting of 27 items, were among those brought to the State Hermitage Museum in 1920 from M.P. Botkin’s collection. The collection also includes works from the collections of the Shuvalov family, A.L. Stieglitz, À.K. Rudanovsky, and the Academy of Arts Museum.

The exhibition includes almost all of the most striking and artistically significant types of frescoes, adopted in Castelli during the 16th-18th centuries.
The Orsini-Colonna ceramics, in particular, stand out: pharmaceutical vases, pitchers, plates, and frescoes which stun the viewer with the fantastical originality of the images.
The State Hermitage Museum Collection preserves nine works by Carlantonio Grue (1655-1723), which in terms of the freedom, skill and creative approaches for the imagery lifted historical maiolica frescoes executed in the baroque to an unprecedented level.

The exhibition also displays 15 works by Carmine Gentile (1678-1763), often exhibited in the State Hermitage Museum’s collection. Among his works are the two examples of maiolica pottery which have been signed: a dish Ceres and Proserpine and a small plate Bacchus and Ariadne.

The exposition Castelli Ceramics 16th-18th centuries from the State Hermitage Museum Collection is being opened following a successful tour of Italian cities (Rome, Castelli and Teramo).

A scientific, illustrated catalogue has been prepared for the exhibition. The exhibition curator and author of the catalogue is Elena Nikolaevna Ivanova, a senior scientific researcher from the Department of Western European Applied Art, and a doctor of art history.

Georgy Vilinbachov, Deputy Director of the State Hermitage museum

At the opening of the exhibition

At the exhibition

Booklet of the exhibition