I.N. UKHANOVA
The earliest Russian bone artefacts date back to the 8th-11th centuries. They came to the Hermitage after archaeological excavations were carried out in the ancient Russian cities of Staraya Ladoga, Novgorod, Pskov, Izyaslavl, Sarkel-Belaya Vezha and others. There are mass-produced items (combs, hairpins, pendants, ear cleaners etc.) among the exhibits as well as unique artistic objects such as an 11th-c. double-sided comb decorated with relief carvings showing the struggle between Hercules and a lion, figures of a peacock, hares and floral ornaments. Carvers would most often use geometric ornaments, especially the so-called circular patterns. Compositions of small circles were traditionally used by Russian bone and ivory carvers as late as the Kholmogory carvings of the 18th century.
The village of Kholmogory in the mouth of the Northern Dvina is one of the oldest bone-carving centres in Russia, known from the 14th century. In the 17th century, local craftsmen were invited to Moscow to work for the Tsar court and the Patriarchy. In the 18th century, the most skilled carvers were again invited to work in the capital, among them Osip Dudin and Nikolai Vereshchagin. Their works were bought by the Imperial court or were used as gifts presented to the Imperial family on festive occasions. O. Dudin made a unique cup in the 1710s, which was first kept in the St Petersburg Chamber of Curiosities and then transferred to the Imperial Hermitage. The cylindrical surface of the cup is decorated with 58 relief portraits of Russian princes and Tsars up to Catherine the Great, surrounded by a laced floral ornament. It is a perfect example of refined Rococo art. No less striking are decorative openwork vases with allegorical images in medallions carved by N. Vereshchagin, which were presented to Catherine the Great and her son, the future Emperor Paul I. Vereshchagin preferred the early Neoclassical style, transferring its typical features to the medium of ivory carving. A prominent late 19th-century carver was M. Bobretsov, whose works are also exhibited at the Hermitage.
The collection contains numerous chests and caskets, chess pieces and goblets, icons, furniture items, tobacco boxes, combs, beauty-spot boxes and other women's toiletry pieces made by the famous Kholmogory masters in the 18th and 19th centuries.
The collection of the Department of the History of Russian Culture possesses a unique set of bone artefacts from the early 18th century, made in Peter the Great's Court Turning Shop under the supervision of Andrei Nartov. These include various boxes, plaquettes, and decorations. The St Petersburg craftsmen were especially famous for their ivory chandeliers, one of which Peter the Great himself helped to carve. All these works were produced on the lathes which are now kept at the State Hermitage.
There were many renowned bone and ivory carvers in late-18th century St Petersburg, including Europeans such as N. Fay. He carried out various court commissions and tutored Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna, wife of the heir to the throne Grand Duke Paul Petrovich, in the art of ivory carving. Their decorative table pieces are preserved in the Hermitage.
In the 19th century, Yakov Seryakov, a self-taught carver from the Kostroma province, became famous in St Petersburg. He produced many portraits of his contemporaries - well-known actors, doctors, military men, merchants and members of the Royal family. His art was highly valued, despite the fact he was unable to receive a formal education at the Academy of Three Fine Arts. Each of his works masterfully captures the individuality of the person portrayed and is characterized by a soft and flexible treatment of his material. The Hermitage possesses plates with relief images and table sculptures signed by this master.
The collection also has a small number of works by Nizhny Novgorod carvers of the 18th-early 19th cc. These are tiny jack-knives made by the smiths in the villages of Pavlovo and Vorsma on the Oka, near the city of Nizhny Novgorod. The handles and cases for these knives were shaped as miniature sculptures, extremely vivid in shape.
Ivory carvings by Yakut craftsmen are another highlight of the collection. The carving techniques were brought to remote regions of Siberia by Russian settlers. The caskets, chests and combs made in the second half of the 19th century were decorated with characteristic patterns shaped like openwork nets, genre scenes in relief illustrating the life of Yakut tribes, as well as fantastic images.
The collection of Russian bone and ivory carvings in the Department of the History of Russian Culture highlights the different trends in the development of this genre of applied art in Russia.
