September, 19, 2007 - January, 15, 2008

Samara, the Samara Regional Art Museum

The Moscow Kremlin Museums represent precious masterpieces XVIIIth-XXth centuries of the jewellery collection, formed after 1920 on a base of the Imperial treasury and Gokhran, the Russian State Depository for precious metals and gems.

Jewellery artworks of the remarkable makers reveal the development of goldsmithery in different styles from baroque to modern.

There are over 140 items, displayed at the exhibition, i.e. cult and secular objects, pieces of jewellery, executed by remarkable Moscow, St Petersburg makers and grand jeweller's firms of Sazikov, Nichols and Plinke, Hlebnikov, Ovchinnikov, Semenova as well as provincial makers of Yaroslavl and Kostroma, nielloed and enamelled artworks of Solvychegodsk, Velikiy Ustyug, Tobolsk and others.

In the late XVIIth century Russian makers were carried away by new tendencies of baroque, which won its recognition in the first half of the XVIIIth century. At the exhibition this style is represented by a chalice, executed by Timothy Ilyin and decorated with openwork embossment, a silver cup with engraved image of a cupid by maker Timothy Siluyanov, a figured tabernacle in the form of a pigeon.

In the 1740s rococo was in great demand with makers and customers. Its distinguishing features we can reveal when examining bouillotte and communion cross by a well-known maker Deihman Zahariy, or dainty cast candlestick, executed by Johann Kepping.

In the late XVIIIth century a preference was given to classicism. The exhibited plate by silversmith Alexey Ratkov can serve as an example of such an elegant style.

Modern, as a new fashionable style, replaced other tendencies by the early XXth century. Outstanding tableware as well as pieces of jewellery, accessories of the late XIXth century are worthy of particular attention.

Contemporary articles, executed during the last quarter of the XXth century, include exclusive works by Aliniy Petrov, Victoria Ignatieva, Boris Gladkov and others. For the first time a jewellery set by Vera Chernova, gained the first prize of the "De Beers" competition, is displayed at the exhibition.