April, 08 - July, 24, 2011
the Assumption Belfry of the Moscow Kremlin
- Organized by:
- the Moscow Kremlin Museums
The exhibition, comprising articles made from semi-precious stones, is devoted to the Russian art of stone carving and its most distinguished craftsmen, i.e. jewellers Carl Fabergé, Avenir Sumin, Ivan Britsyn, suppliers to the Imperial court, Alexey K. Denisov (pseudonym Uralsky), known as “the artist and poet of the Urals”, as well as other eminent jewellers and stone carvers of the XVIIIth - XXth centuries from Jeremy Pauzie to Louis Cartier, whose style and art of jewellery making in the early XXth century has been developing under the influence of the Russian school of gem stone carving.
The display presents over 400 jewellery pieces made from precious and semiprecious stones, derived from the Urals, Siberian and Altai deposits. All of them reveal the highest level of craftsmanship, characteristic of manufacturers from the Imperial Lapidary Factories of Yekateringburg, Peterhof, Kolyvan, the firm of Verfel and the Ural workshops.
The stone sculpture factory, established by Carl Fabergé in Saint-Petersburg, continued the Russian tradition of working coloured stones. The firm’s stone carvers, many of whom had come from the Ural region, mastered to perfection Russian techniques of natural stone processing. Headed by Peter Kremlev, this stone workshop has produced great number of exclusive stone-cut articles remarkable for their delicate design and décor.
Memorial items executed by the Fabergé makers are of special interest as being related to historical events, persons, and primarily to the members of the Romanov family. Many of them are displayed in the Museum for the first time, which enhances the cultural impact of the exhibition.
Jewellery pieces of the famous Cartier firm, whose owners greatly appreciated carved artworks by the Russian distinguished craftsmen A. Denisov-Uralsky and P. Ovchinnikov, reveal considerable influence exerted by the Russian artistic tradition of working gem stones in the Cartier style and manner of jewellery-making.
Our visitors can admire the collection of accessories, interior implements, decorations, pieces of jewellery and tableware, produced by the Fabergé firm: vases of flowers and berries, various sweet boxes and other elegant articles of bright pink rhodonite, glittering rock crystal and multi-coloured jasper. Being made of semi-precious stones and finished with exuberant décor, these items serve as a symbol of Russia’s mineral wealth.
The highlight of the exposition are the six Imperial Easter eggs from the Faberge collection and funds of the Fersman Mineralogical Museum. The exhibition also presents rarely seen precious flowers and trees in the so-called genre of "Objets de Fantaisie", including fascinating figurines of people and animals.
One section of the exhibition is devoted to craftsmen and artists of the Soviet period, such as G. Zverev and V. Konovalenko, who continued and revived the best artistic traditions of the past to create outstanding artworks of semi-precious stones.
Composed of masterpieces from different collections, the exposition presents an exciting review of various types of items made from semi-precious stones or decorated with carved gems, gives an opportunity to trace the history of the development of the art of stone carving as well as the artistic tendencies in the art of jewellery-making.
General partner of the project is Gasprombank
With the assistance of Statoil