Overview of the "Ballroom" display with the Romanov family tree as a mural on the left tracing the relationship to the Dutch Queen Anna Paulowna, whose large portrait as Russian Grand Princess in 1849 can be seen on the right. Three of her personal bracelets were on loan to the exhibition from the Dutch Royal collection.

Jewels! The Glitter of the Russian Court (Dutch: Juwelen! Schitteren aan het Russische Hof) was the second jubileum exhibition in Amsterdam by the H'ART Museum, focussed on the personal taste for luxury by Russian nobility.[1][2] The show, which was planned to run from 14 September 2019 to 15 March 2020, suffered from the pandemic and was extended twice, ending finally 16 October 2020.

The main theme of the exhibition, jewelry, was loosely grouped into categories: personal jewelry for balls, show jewelry for treasury displays of the nobility, jewelry for children, men, weddings, mourning dress and finally, the end of an era, or fin-de siècle. Each category was shown in context of other clothing, accessories and furniture through paintings. The time periods ranged roughly from 1700-1900. The entrance to the exhibition began with two formal jackets for court balls, one for a chamberlain, and one for a princess with a long train. Besides a few specifically named loan items, everything on show was from the Hermitage collections in St. Petersburg.

Ballroom

Portrait of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna (1709-1761)

In the central ballroom, a helpful Romanov family tree showed miniature versions of the portraits on display. Viewing the clothing of the rulers in their portraits helps to put their jewelry in context. They are portrayed wearing their ermine-lined mantles with lots of prominent jewelry, and some portraits show pieces which can be traced from one generation to the next. They are seen wearing a star or badge of the order of St Andrew.

Pendant portraits, 1848

Non-royal portraits also lined the walls. These were court ball attendees wearing the style of nearby clothing and accessories on display. For example, the portraits of Arkady Telyakovsky and his wife Julia Kanshina show how the clothing and accessories were worn in the mid-19th century. Arkady is wearing a dress uniform with silver buttons and silver epaulets. On his chest can be seen several military honors. Julia carries a porte-bouquet and wears several bracelets at once, and one of them has a miniature portrait of her husband.

The dresses were often designed with accessories in mind, and some examples of matching shoes were on display.

Treasury room

Bouquet of flowers by Jérémie Pauzié

The second major display room held objects created by jewelers which were treasured as sculptures. Many unusual snuffboxes were probably collected by Catherine II. The main attraction was a bouquet made of gems meant to be worn as a corsage, though the bodice of the dress to bear it would need to be very strong to carry it. Today it is displayed in a vase.

Upstairs

A photo taken circa 1918 and published in 1922, with the Romanov Imperial Russian crown jewels on display of which many were taken apart and sold. This photo was blown up and shown as a mural in an exhibition walkway.

Overshadowing the opulence is the awareness that it all ended abruptly, and a mural gave a short discussion of the losses due to the execution of the Romanov family during the 1917 revolution. In the same walkway, two court jewelers were on display, both of whom probably made works that were later sold off by the Bolsheviks.

Catherine the Great

A display with items belonging to Catherine the Great showed some items from her gold toilet set which contains 46 pieces. The most remarkable personal item was a wig made of silver thread and a mid 1700s court dress.

Children

Elaborate gem-studded toy cannon

Court dress for children was just as extravagant as for adults. It is unknown whether they were allowed to play in such clothes however.

Weddings

Various Russian wedding traditions were explained, most notably the usage of turquoise in jewellery. In the ballroom were two bracelets on loan from the Dutch Royal collection. These show Anna Pauwlowna's Russian heritage and have the bride and groom's braided hair behind their initials and their names in turquoise.

Gentlemen

Men's jewelry on show was either military awards, or functional objects such as watches and smoking paraphernalia.

Mourning

A remarkable tradition was wearing human hair of the deceased.

Fin-de-siècle

This spectacular Fabergé diadem was on loan from the Fabergé Museum

The main attraction of the Fin-de-siècle display room was the Fabergé diadem, that was placed on a rotating turntable to show how much it caught the light while the dangling parts moved.

Ambassadors

Three Dutch fashion designers were ambassadors for this exhibition, who visited the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg and chose items there that inspired them and which they felt should be in the show.[3] Their individual stories became part of the accompanying audiotour for the three items they selected, and one item by each was on show in the final room of the exhibition.

References

  1. ^ Press release (Dutch), Hermitage Amsterdam website, 2019
  2. ^ Press release (English and Russian), Hermitage Museum website, 2019
  3. ^ Dutch press release about the ambassadors on the Hermitage Amsterdam website
  4. ^ Short film of Bibi van der Velden unpacking the Neptune sculpture, filmed by Hermitage Amsterdam
  5. ^ Dress posted on Oudshoorn's Instagram
  6. ^ Dutch podcast interview of Edwin Oudshoorn about his design for the Jewels exhibition, by Atelier Amsterdam, 16 September 2019
  7. ^ Jacket and information notice in the Jewels! exhibition, June 2020, on Flickr
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