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For almost two millennia the egg has been a Christian symbol of fertility,
conception and the renewal of live. Legend has it that Mary Magdalene presented
Emperor Tiberius with a bright red egg. The Easter feast arrived in Rus'
with the adoption of Christianity under Prince Vladimir in the 10th century.
In Russia the celebration of Easter is the most important event in the Orthodox
Church calendar - the "feast of feasts, celebration of celebrations".
The exchange of coloured hen's eggs at Easter is a tradition going back
many centuries.
In the 18th century Europeans discovered the secret of making porcelain.
The Imperial Porcelain Factory, founded in St Petersburg in 1744, began
to produce attractively finished eggs which members of the imperial family
presented to their circle at Easter. Up until the reign of Nicholas I,
however, the number of such eggs turned out by the factory was very insignificant.
By the middle of the 19th century, though, the quantity of porcelain eggs
was about 5,000. Alexander III's reign saw the beginning of production
of eggs bearing the personal monograms of the Emperor and Empress.
Nicholas II's diaries make it possible to recreate episodes from the
Easter celebrations at the court of the last Russian emperor. In the early
years of his reign the feast was marked in the Winter Palace in accordance
with the established ceremonial - a service in the Great Church of the
imperial residence, a festive meal, the exchange of Easter greetings (a
triple kiss) and the distribution of gifts. Nicholas's family spent their
last Easters at the front and in military hospitals, exchanging the traditional
triple kiss with soldiers and giving presents to them. The austere Easter
eggs of the war years are very different from the elegant peacetime gifts
glistening with gold and attractively painted. Their simplicity conveys
the strict economies of wartime: the gilded monograms of the Emperor,
Empress and Tsesarevich worked in gold on a white background.
Nowhere else in the world did the manufacture of porcelain Easter
eggs attain such a scale as in Russia. In the 18th century porcelain eggs
were the privilege of the imperial family, since they were made exclusively
at the Imperial Porcelain Factory. The Hermitage can boast one of the
world's finest collections of porcelain Easter eggs, numbering some two
hundred items. Their painted decoration presents a pantheon of saints
especially venerated in the country, views of famous Russian churches,
monasteries and towns, providing an introduction to the world of Orthodox
culture.
After the revolution of 1917 services were no longer held in the palace
churches. The ritual of Easter greetings at court became a thing of the
past and the production of porcelain eggs ceased. This makes the fragile
Easter keepsakes that have survived all the more interesting. They take
us back deep into the past, reminding us of the most joyful days in the
life and history of Russia.
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Easter cheesecake and coloured eggs on a plate
Larger view
Easter
Mikhail Mokhov
Larger view
Easter Egg with Flowers and Birds
Larger view
Easter Egg with Chickens and Cockerels
Larger view
"Suprematism" Easter Egg
Larger view
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