The Hermitage collection of carved ivory allows us to trace the development of the art form in Europe from the sixteenth to twentieth centuries. Comprising some 700 pieces, it presents us with an incredible variety of object types: although dominated by the decorative arts, it also includes a number of small sculptures by celebrated masters.
Peter I laid the foundation for the collection when he brought back from a trip abroad a casket with scenes of The Fall of Adam and Eve. Further works, such as an equestrian statue of August the Strong (August II), Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, and Abraham’s Sacrifice, arrived as diplomatic gifts; they were probably presented to Empress Anna Ioannovna in 1734. Both sculptures are the work of a famous German carver, Simon Troger. Many other pieces were transferred from the Gallery of Objects of Virtue (now the Treasure Gallery), which once included ivory alongside works made from precious metals.
A large number of items entered the State Hermitage Museum in the 1920s, after the nationalisation of private collections and the reorganisation of state museums. Three pieces today considered to be amongst the masterpieces of the Hermitage collection formerly belonged to the Princes Yusupov: individual figures of Venus and Mercury and a group, Cupid and Psyche Asleep. All three were once in the house of Peter Paul Rubens and were carved by one of his pupils. From the collection of the Counts Shuvalov came a figure of a Putto Gravedigger, signed by the celebrated German sculptor Balthasar Permoser.
From the Arsenal at Tsarskoe Selo came two early sixteenth-century oliphants, both made by Portugese ivory-carvers for King Manuel the Fortunate. A bust of Empress Anna Ioannovna by the German sculptor Johann Christian Ludwig Lucke bears his signature; this was transferred from the Anichkov Palace, formerly residence of the heirs to the throne. Of no less interest are the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century cups and tankards that represent the fruits of collaboration between ivory carvers and celebrated silversmiths: not only does the fine carving not suffer by its juxtaposition with the sparkling precious settings, at times it dominates this creative union. Nor must we forget the large group of nineteenth-century objects made for a wide ranger of clients, such as brooches, snuffboxes, the handles of canes and walking-sticks, umbrellas and fans.
Elena Shlikevich
