For International Museum Day, the State Hermitage prepared a present for its visitors: after being closed for a long period the refurbished permanent display “The Art of the Islamic Middle East: The Ottoman Empire” opened to the public.
The display was presented by Mikhail Piotrovsky, General Director of the State Hermitage.
“The event with which we are marking International Museum Day is the opening of the latest stage in the display of the East, devoted to the Ottoman Empire. Following the logic of our movement through the history of culture – from Byzantium via the Caliphate to the Mamelukes, we are returning to Asia Minor under the Ottomans, where some remarkable examples of Ottoman art are on display,” Mikhail Piotrovsky said. “Turkey is one of our closest neighbours and our traditional rival. We constantly fought and made friends. Where there is war, there is always friendship as well, and the exchange of gifts. And here all of that is presented.”
Mediaeval Turkish art occupies a special place in the history of the artistic culture of the Middle East. Despite coming into being relatively late, it nonetheless took a strikingly original approach in a number of aesthetic spheres that were important in the Middle Ages, particularly in architecture and applied art.
The State Hermitage possesses an extensive and significant collection of Turkish jewellery, weaponry, fabrics, carpets, ceramics and metal articles. The permanent display includes some 200 items. A separate section is devoted to weapons taken as trophies or received as diplomatic gifts in the 18th and 19th centuries.
The curator of the new display is Dmitry Vladimirovich Sadofeyev, researcher in the Byzantium and Middle East Sector within the State Hermitage’s Department of the East.
More about the display
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