Byzantine Antiquities

Panagia with cameo
"The Mother of God Blachernitissa ("The Incarnation")"
Constantinople, second half of the XIth-early XIIth century; the mount: Russia, the late XIVth century.
Chalcedony, carving; gold, precious stones, pearls; carving (the mount)
Banqueting bowl. Centaur musician
Asia Minor (?), the XIIth-XIIIth centuries.
Silver; chasing, engraving, gilding
Helmet
Deesis: Christ, the Mother of God, John the Baptist, the Archangels Michael and Gabriel, seraphim, the Apostles Peter and Paul; St Nicholas of Myra in Lycia.
Moscow (?), Greek and Russian craftsmen, second half of the XIVth century.
Steel, gold, silver; forging, damascening
Solidus
Emperor Phocas.
Constantinople, 602-610.
Gold; embossing
Cup from the set with a spoon
The Procession of Dionysus; Heracles.
Eastern Mediterranean (?), the late IVth-early Vth century.
Silver; chasing, engraving, gilding, casting
Four Gospels
Constantinople (?), 1271, scribe hieromonk Acacius.
Moldavia or Wallachia, 1716–1719 (the cover).
Parchment; tempera; wood, cloth, gold; chasing (the cover)
Pectoral cross with a carved cameo
"The Crucifixion"
Constantinople, the late XIIth-early XIIIth century; the mount: Moscow Kremlin workshops, mid XVIth century.
Sapphire; carving; gold, silver, sapphires, rubies, pearls; filigree, enamel, chasing, engraving, granulation (the mount)
Pectoral cross
Byzantium, the XIIth-XIVth centuries; the mount - Rus, the XIVth century.
Serpentine; carving; silver, glass; casting, gilding (the mount).
Pectoral cross
Byzantium, the XIIth century; the mount - Novgorod, the XVIth century.
Agate; carving; silver, almandine, turquoise, pearls; carving, casting, filigree, granulation, gilding (the mount)
Double-sided icon
"The Mother of God Hodegetria, with Feasts; the Crucifixion"
Byzantium, first third of the XVth century (the Crucifixion); Moscow, the early XVIIth century (Mother of God Hodegetria).
Wood, gesso; tempera
Panagia with cameo "The Transfiguration"
Constantinople, last third of the XIIIth century; the mount: Russia, the XIXth century.
Two-layered onyx; carving; silver, pearls; chasing, engraving, enamel, gilding (the mount)
Carved icon
The Presentation, the Entry into Jerusalem, the Crucifixion, the Descent into Hell; the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus.
The front side: second half of the XIIth-early XIIIth century; the backside: XIIIth-XIVth century; the mount: Moscow Kremlin Workshops, second half of the XVIth century.
Steatite; carving; silver, almandine, pearls, glass; chasing, gilding (the mount)
Icon
"Mother of God Hodegetria (Periblepta)"
Constantinople, the XIVth century.
Wood, gesso; egg tempera

June, 07 - July, 25, 2013

the front hall of the Armoury Chamber

Organized by:: the Moscow Kremlin Museums

01# Panagia with cameo The exposition in the front hall of the Armoury Chamber includes a small part of the unique collection, presented in the fundamental catalogue "Byzantine Antiquities in the Moscow Kremlin Museums". Some masterpieces are being exposed for the first time. Highly esteemed religious objects and church utensils – icons, panagias, pectoral icons and reliquaries, a framed gospel and etc.-, as well as several secular items and golden coins are on display. A number of archeological finds from the treasure-troves, discovered in various parts of the country, serve as witnesses to the centuries of links between Byzantium and Rus'. Among real pieces of workmanship the recently acquired early Byzantine silver dipper of the late IVth century and the XIIth-century cup are worthy of particular note.

The Moscow Kremlin collection of Byzantine antiquities was formed over a long time, the most intensive period being that of the formation of the Russian state and the Russian patriarchate. The core of the collection is the sacred relics from the grand princes' and tsars' treasury, icons from the Kremlin churches and pieces of the state regalia. These deeply venerated objects came to Moscow either from the Imperial City, or via other Russian lands, joined to Muscovy; and after the fall of Constantinople they were being granted by the clergy of the Christian East to the Moscow sovereigns in the XVIth and XVIIth centuries as the heritage of the Orthodox Empire.

Byzantine art is likewise sought after in the modern world, and interest in it has grown rapidly in recent decades. This is due not only to the esthetic merits of its works, but also to their spiritual value. Artworks by Constantinople craftsmen can be found in many European countries: they have become part of their history and national self-consciousness. The Kremlin collection of Byzantine painting occupies a special place as it is distinguished for the icons of great artistic merit and unusual iconography.

The Byzantine artworks in the Moscow Kremlin reveal the relations and interactions between the two cultures; most of them have been being kept in Moscow for centuries, some were mentioned in the wills of the grand princes and tsars, and many of them figured in the inventories of the tsar’s treasury, the Kremlin cathedrals, the Patriarchal Vestry and the documents of the Embassy Office: they served as personal sacred treasures of the princes, tsars, and, later on, emperors and empresses of Russia. Some of the items have been crafted in the XIVth-XVth centuries by Greek masters in collaboration with Russian makers. Several Byzantine pieces have been remodeled or integrated into later Russian artworks.