The cultural TV channel Russia-K has broadcast the latest programme in the authorial series by Hermitage Director Mikhail Piotrovsky – “Toys and Games in the Hermitage” devoted to games, intellectual and entertaining, for children and for adults, musical and artistic.
“What is our life? A game!” – those words of Herman’s from Tchaikovsky’s opera The Queen of Spades are reflected in full measure in items from the stocks of the Hermitage. Culture itself is constructed on play. It comes from play and does not exist without play, yet at the same time it remains the chief thing that humans have created.
Tsar Peter I was fond of playing spillikins, while Alexander Benois, the Keeper of the Picture Gallery in the Imperial Hermitage assembled a whole collection of folk toys.
The latest episode presents Peter the Great’s amazing amber chess set, playing cards inspired by Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, musical wonders with little moving figures, dolls from the Hermitage’s collection, and much else.
Musical mechanisms – be it “Playing Monkeys” or the famed Peacock Clock – are also a plaything. The movement of the figures and the melodious sounds are not always pure entertainment. Like paintings, they contain both an entertaining, amusing element and a deeper intellectual aspect.
You can watch a recording of the programme (in Russian) by following this link: http://clc.am/kaV5qg
