The Hermitage guide

Finally, this section contains material unearthed during the excavation of Old Russian cities, notably Staraya Ladoga, the oldest city of the Russian Northwest, which rose on the banks of the Volkhov on the site of an ancient settlement of the eighth and ninth centuries. A clear picture of life in this thriving centre of trade and commerce in the various periods of its history can be obtained from the Staraya Ladoga collection which is noted for the excellent state of preservation of its exhibits, whether made of wood, leather or textiles. Other finds include kits of blacksmiths’, bronzeworkers’, shoemakers’, and wood-and bonecarvers’ tools, and specimens of their production. Objects from Scandinavia, the Baltic littoral, the Mediterranean, and the Orient bear witness to the extensive trade carried on by Staraya Ladoga, situated as it was at the crossroads of Eastern Europe’s important waterways. At the same time Staraya Ladoga furnishes valuable material that facilitates the solution of a series of important problems arising from research into the Slav-Varangian relations, and the settling of the Slavs over the northern region of the Old Russian state.

Among the remains of Russian culture of the tenth to thirteenth centuries, articles of the handicraft industry are particularly noteworthy. These are mainly temple rings, cast and chased in varied forms, characteristic of the areas settled by such Slavs as the Krivichi, Radimichi, Poliane, Severiane, and others. Most of these adornments come from barrows excavated in village cemeteries. The hoards buried by the urban nobility, many of which were interred during the Mongol invasion, contained gold and silver diadems, kolt pendants, bracelets, rings, chains and torques, and reliquary crosses, all decorated with niello, filigree work, enamels, and patterns of granulation.

This is only a brief, by no means exhaustive description of the famous collection that continually draws the attention of experts in many countries of the world.

G. Smirnova

1

Idol

Copper. Galich hoard. 2nd millennium B.C.

2

Clay statue tie of a seated woman

Southern Turkmenia, Kara-Depe. 3rd millennium B.C.

3

Fish

Stone. Chance find from the right bank of the Angara River, Irkutsk Region. 3rd millennium B.C.

4

Gold panther

Kelermes Barrow 1. 6th century B.C.

5

Gold plaques of a sword scabbard

Kelermes Barrow 1. 6th century B.C.

6

Saddle cover

Felt, leather, horse-hair. Pazyryk Barrow 1. 5th century B.C.

7

Head of a she-elk Horn.

Shigir peat-bog. 2nd millennium B.C.

8

Bronze pin in the form of a pole-axe

The Caucasus. 1st millennium B.C.

9

Bronze pole-top with a bull’s head

Ulsky Aul, Barrow 2. 5th century B.C.

10

Bronze pole-top with a sculptured goat

Minusinsk Region. 5th century B.C.

11

Bronze buckle with representations of a tiger and an ibex

Mongolia, Olen-Souli. 6th or 5th century B.C.

12

Gold buckle shaped as a coiled-up panther

Peter the Great’s Siberian Collection. 6th century B.C.

13

Pole-top with a stag Wood, leather.

Pazyryk Barrow 2. 5th or 4th century B.C.

14

Bronze cauldron with horse-shaped handles

Burial near the village of Troyany, Odessa Region. 1st century

15

Head of a beast

Horn. Staraya Ladoga. 9th or 10th century

16

Diadem

Gold, almandine, chalcedony, pearl

Khokhlach Barrow near Novocherkassk. 1st century

17

Gold comb

Solokha Barrow. 5th or 4th century B.C.

18

Pole-top with a gryphon’s head

Wood, leather. Pazyryk Barrow 2. 5th or 4th century B.C.

19

Bird-like idol

Bronze plate. Chance find from the village of Ust-Kishert, Perm Province

20

Gold bull-calf

Maikop Barrow. 3rd millennium B.C.

21

Chamfron in the shape of a horned tiger and goose

Horn. Pazyryk Barrow 2. 5th or 4th century B.C.

22

Piled rug

Wool. Pazyryk Barrow. 5th century B.C.

23

Stone women

Krasnodar Region. 11th or 12th century

The Department of Classical Antiquity

The Hermitage collection оf Greek and Roman antiquities is one of the largest in the world, and was assembled over a period of almost three hundred years. Interest in the art of Greece and Rome arose in Russia long before the Museum was founded: pieces of sculpture were being bought in Italy on the orders of the Russian court and the nobility in the early years of the eighteenth century. Thus, numerous marble statues, including the famous Venus of Tauris and The Shepherd, were brought into the country during the reign of Peter the Great. Later, most of them found their way into the Museum.

In the second half of the eighteenth century, several collections of cameos and intaglios acquired from the German painter Anton Raffaël Mengs, the Duke of Orleans, and Giovanni Battista Casanova, director of the Dresden Academy of Arts, formed the basis of a magnificent collection of antique gems. The Lyde Browne collection purchased in 1787 included, apart from Roman copies of Greek originals, a superb portrait bust of Philip the Arabian, and portraits of Posthumus and Salonina.