FINE ART: Chapter or Worse?

Appendix A of Russia! still a page-turner.

Chuck Twardy

Visitors to Russia! The Majesty of the Tsars, Treasures from the Kremlin Museum at the Guggenheim Hermitage might find themselves a little perplexed if they also toured Fabergé: Treasures from the Kremlin nearly three years ago. One czar's treasures are another czar's entirely different treasures, it turns out.


The items in the 2002-2003 Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art's Fabergé show were ... well, Fabergé: delicate, intricate, sometimes astonishing. By contrast, and only by contrast, the earlier works in the Guggenheim show seem heavier, more brutish, studded with roughly cut stones and striking not for exquisiteness but for their blunt opulence.


Keep in mind the time period, though, the 16th and 17th centuries, before Russia came into its own as a European power under the guidance of the two Greats, Peter and Catherine. The latter started the collection that is the heart of the St. Petersburg's State Hermitage Museum, the Guggenheim partner here.


At the news conference officially opening the show, Guggenheim Foundation Director Thomas Krens insisted that the local Russia! installation had been conceived from the beginning as a chapter in a lengthy, visual tome. The bulk of the exhibition, including works from the Kremlin, the Hermitage and other repositories, is installed at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, center of a far-flung federation of venues. Krens said he hoped the two installations would prompt visitors to travel between both sites.


We'll see. It seems odd to pull these items, which mostly are more historical and scene-setting than aesthetically rewarding, from their chronological context. Why not, say, install some of the paintings from the Wanderers group, which included the great Ilya Repin, as a sidebar to the 19th-century section? Or for that matter, some of the paintings Catherine brought to Russia and thus to the Hermitage? Instead, it seems we got not a chapter but a lengthy footnote or appendix.


That said, the items displayed here are not to be dismissed lightly. Were they in New York, they'd likely comprise a section most viewers would slip through cursorily, so in a sense they get to shine here. They are divided into four groups, items from the czars' family life, hunting and war, religious items, and royal feasts, including diplomatic gifts.


Anyone interested in history—of art or in general—should find the links between the Byzantine empire and early Russia fascinating. These reveal themselves most clearly in icons, such as the splendid iconostasis from the 1560s that is the centerpiece of the Power and Faith section. Comprising seven panels, each with a larger, lower scene and two smaller scenes above from the life of Christ, it is painted in tempera and every void is filled with elaborately hammered gold.


It also is notable the degree to which pearls and turquoise were used in both religious and martial items. For instance, a Persian-made dagger and scabbard from the 17th century are richly studded with both. The border of a eucharistic cloth of the early 16th century is lined with letters fashioned from pearls.


Some of the finest work here, though, is found in the final section of royal feasts, some from Kremlin workshops and some received as ambassadorial gifts. Look closely at the 17th-century, silver-and-gold basin from Augsburg with its spirited battle scene. Two cavaliers discharge firearms simultaneously at each other—not a pleasant dinner scene, come to think of it—with the puffs of flintlock smoke rendered in tiny hammered dots.


No, it's not Fabergé, but it's historically significant splendor. You might quibble about the choice of chapter but it's well worth reading.



• • •


The Visiting Artist Program lecture series brings a slate of accomplished artists and art-world professionals to the UNLV campus every fall, with lectures at 7 p.m Tuesdays in the CBC building, room A108. Artist-photographer Stephen Shore, whose work ranges from images of Andy Warhol's Factory to striking views of the American countryside, speaks this Tuesday. Admission is free and the public is welcome.



Read more of Chuck Twardy's take on art and culture, old and new, at
http://members.cox.net/theanteroom/

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