Art of Jewelry and Material Culture Seminar

On 3-10 April, 2003, the State Hermitage Museum hosted the 12th colloquium of the Jewelry Seminar. In her welcoming address the seminar leader N.A. Zakharova presented the program of the 12th colloquium and described results of the 7 years of the work of the seminar which was started in April 1996. Almost 80 museums and academic institutions of Russia, Germany and the Commonwealth of Independent States including the Hermitage took part in the colloquium. Presentations addressed various aspects of the art of jewelry from its origins (archeology) to modern production.

Marta Kryzhanovskaya (St. Petersburg) spoke of medieval jewelry pastiches, Valentin Skurlov (St. Petersburg) of Faberge table clocks, Marina Sergeyeva (Kiev) and Mariyam Dandamayeva (St. Petersburg) of the jewelry of pre-Columbian America, Elisabeth Schtrak (Hamburg, Germany) of gems.

Especially noteworthy was the presentation “Jewelry from the Kurgan Arzhan-2: Origins” made by Konstantin Chugunov, Herman Panzinger and Anatoly Negler (St. Petersburg, Berlin) about the recent sensational finds in Tuva. Medieval and modern art of jewelry and gems and minerals were also discussed. The presentation of Aleksandr Yemelyanov (Krasnodar) dealt with the restoration of jewelry. Participants in the colloquium visited the Hermitage exhibition halls and storerooms, the Winter Palace of Peter I and the Museum of the Russian Institute of Geology.

Seminar leader Natalia Zakharova

At the seminar

Exhibition of new books