Dragotsenen moemu serdtsu: imperatorskie podarki iz sobraniia Pavlovskogo dvortsa (Dear to my heart: gifts of the Imperial family from the Pavlovsk Palace collections)
Moscow: Muzei-zapovednik Tsaritsyno, 2019. Sewn cl. This catalogue of an exhibition at Tsaritsyno Museum-Preserve in Moscow uses the theme of gift-giving to show works of art and artifacts of court life that were originally exchanged as gifts among members of the Romanov family or given to them by their subjects or foreign diplomats. Sources of works range from small workshops such as the Yusopov estate factory and famous art firms such as Fabergé. Drawn from the collections of Pavlovsk Palace Museum-Preserve, many gifts are representative examples of Russian industrial arts — for example, Tula arms makers and metal workers, Peterhof stone-carving factory, and Fabergé workshops. Another source of gifts was the church, which presented the emperor and empress with especially precious icons on special occasions such as marriages, coronations, and the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty. Other gifts are significant as artifacts of poignant biographical events such as the silver cigar case which Empress Alexandra Fedorovna gave to Nicholas II and which he had with him at the time of his murder at Ipatev House. Other gifts are unique for their personal connection to the imperial family: Maria Fedorovna, wife of Grand Duke (later emperor) Paul, studied the art of cameos from the stone carver Karl Leberecht and made her own works as gifts for her mother-in-law Catherine the Great and for Paul. Another category consists of diplomatic gifts received by Grand Duke Paul and Maria Fedorovna when they were traveling in Western Europe in 1781–82 (e.g., a one-of-a-kind toilet service from Sèvres received from Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette). Portraits by Russian and Western European artists and silhouettes (e. g., Orest Kiprenskii, Fedor Tolstoi) are faithful visual documents on the Romanovs. 303 p., 23 cm, approx. 200 color illus., Rus. Item #3658
ISBN: 9785916110968
Run: 500.
Price: $82.00