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Gilbert Collection Celebrates 200th Anniversary of
Kremlin Armoury Museum This stunning exhibition presents magnificent and rare Elizabethan and Stuart silver and Russian gold and silver of the same period from the Kremlin's Armoury Museum.
The Armoury Museum houses the most important surviving group of English 16th and 17th century silver in the world. Britannia & Muscovy: English Silver at the Court of the Tsars is part of the celebrations of the 200th anniversary of the founding of the Armoury Museum by the decree of Emperor Alexander I in 1806. From the time when Richard Chancellor discovered a northern sea route to Russia in 1553 and was presented at the court of Ivan the Terrible, English travellers to Russia were amazed at the richness and opulence of the Russian Court with its displays of gold and silver designed to dazzle the visitor. Chancellor's visit marked the start of more than 100 years of intense diplomatic, trading and cultural relations between England and Muscovy - the principality from which modern Russia emerged - during which Ivan the Terrible even suggested a dynastic alliance between the two royal families and that he and Elizabeth I offer each other political asylum in the event of serious unrest in their own lands. The warmth of those relations ebbed and flowed between the 1550s and 1660s. Silver pieces and richly adorned weapons were always prominent amongst diplomatic gifts sent to Tsars, from Ivan the Terrible (r.1547-84) to Alexey Mikhaylovich (r.1645-76), by Elizabeth I (r.1558-1603), James I (r.1603-1625), Charles I (r.1625-49) and Charles II (r.1660-85) and by English merchants keen to establish trade with Russia. The gifts of magnificent silver in the Kremlin avoided being melted down, the fate of so much English silver during the English Civil War. These rare and historically important survivals give a vivid insight into the opulence of Elizabethan and Jacobean court life. Diplomatic Gift Giving and Early Trade Contact between England and Russia really began in the reign of Mary Tudor (r.1553-58). In 1553 the explorer Richard Chancellor, seeking a North-East passage to Cathay, found the way blocked by ice and sailed into the White Sea. Chancellor landed near what is now Arkhangelsk and was taken by sledge to the court of Ivan the Terrible in Moscow.
Chancellor persuaded Ivan to grant English merchants the right to trade within the realm of Muscovy and on his return to England in 1555 a group of English merchants formed the Muscovy Company to trade with Russia. The English took to Russia mainly prized English woollen cloth (but also English mastiffs!) and brought back furs, linen, tar, wax, tree trunks for ships' masts and rope. The last was vital for the rigging of the English fleet - in 1587 a quarter of the total expenses of the navy were for rope purchased from the Muscovy Company. The fruitful and tempestuous early history of Anglo-Russian relations was defined by the towering personalities of Elizabeth I and Ivan the Terrible - who maintained a regular, if not always friendly, correspondence. Throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, emissaries from the English Crown as well as from the Muscovy Company visited the Tsars' court bearing gifts - a very important diplomatic gesture of the period. Gifts of silver were highly prized as were exotic animals such as lions. In 1604 a large, richly decorated carriage, still in the Armoury today, was presented to Tsar Boris Godunov. Russian Tsars in return presented the British envoys with bundles of highly prized furs, particularly sables. The Russian Court
During the elaborate ceremonies that accompanied the reception of diplomatic missions, the English were astonished at the splendour of the Russian court with its abundant treasures of gold, silver and precious stones. They were amazed by the richly decorated icons and the scent of incense that lingered in the churches and palaces. Many travellers published their impressions of life in the Kremlin and beyond its walls, describing the enamelled and jewel-studded silver objects, the rich gold robes of the nobles and clergy and the distinctive Russian religious practices. In this exhibition, sixteen precious objects, many belonging to the Tsars, and devotional objects used by the religious leaders of Moscow give a sense of the opulence of the Russian court.
Outstanding amongst these is a gold kovsh, a traditional Russian vessel with a broad flat base rising to a handle at one end, set with rubies, sapphires and pearls. This striking object, made in the Kremlin workshops in 1624, belonged to Tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich (r.1613-45), the first Tsar of the Romanov dynasty. Also from the Kremlin workshops are a luxurious gold cup adorned with large precious stones and enamel made for the same Tsar in 1628 by Yakov Frik, who also worked on the royal crown, and an elaborately chased, carved and gilded early 17th century bratina or loving cup.
Religious objects include an icon of the Virgin of Vladimir painted in the late 16th or early 17th century with an early 17th century silver cover profusely decorated with sapphires, emeralds, turquoise and pearls. The sumptuous Italian velvet sakkos, the most important of all Orthodox vestments, was made in the Kremlin workshops for Patriarch Philaret (1619-33), head of the Russian Orthodox Church, by order of his son Tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich. English Silver Many of the pieces are of a size, grandeur and quality of craftsmanship beyond rival anywhere.
The most spectacular is the magnificent gilded silver heraldic leopard vessel, made in London in 1600-1 and possibly once owned by Elizabeth I (picture towards top of page). Standing over three feet high (94cm), it weighs over five stone (29kg). It and its pair were brought by Fabian Smith of the Muscovy Company for Tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich in 1629. These leopard vessels were sold by Charles I from the Jewel House with other silver pieces to raise money when Parliament refused to help him. Also from the Jewel House is the great silver-gilt water pot or ewer of 1604-5 standing 25in (64cm) high, its handle in the form of a serpent, its spout a winged dragon and the lower half of the body finely engraved with Tudor roses and thistles which was brought to Moscow with the leopard.
The earliest piece on show is a splendid engraved and gilded font-shaped cup made in London in 1557-8, possibly a gift to Ivan the Terrible from the English ambassador Anthony Jenkinson. Silver salts, once the centrepiece on every great table, are now exceedingly rare. The Kremlin has several, notably a magnificent example, London 1594-5, standing some 16in (41cm) high topped by a figure of a Roman warrior. The body is decorated with mythological and classical figures, the base with deer, boar, unicorn and lion hunts.
Two memorable royal gifts are the silver-gilt flagon of 1619-20 covered with flat-chased decoration including images of sea creatures which was presented to Tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich by James I via the embassy of John Merrick in 1620, and the unique perfuming pot and stand presented to Tsar Alexey Mikhaylovich by the recently restored King Charles II via the embassy of Charles Howard, Earl of Carlisle, in 1664. The same embassy also brought a royal heirloom - a gilded ewer and basin made in Paris in 1624, part of the trousseau of Charles' mother Henrietta Maria when she married Charles I in 1625.
Despite its rich gifts, Carlisle's embassy (for which the Secretary was the poet Andrew Marvell) was to end in failure. His haughty behaviour was offensive to the Russians and his visit ended with him sending back the Tsar's personal gifts and having his own personal gifts returned to him. By 1669 there were only two English merchants left in Moscow. Thus ended this period of the flowering of Anglo-Russian relations. English Firearms English firearms were prized throughout Europe in the late 16th and 17th centuries.
The Armoury Museum contains an important collection of early 17th century English firearms by outstanding gunsmiths, the most magnificent of which is the pair of presentation belt pistols of 1600-10, shown in this exhibition. The barrels, probably by Thomas Southwick, are elaborately decorated in steel, mother-of-pearl and damascened gold, possibly by Stephen Russell, gunsmith to the Prince of Wales, and fitted with the ingenious Anglo-Dutch shaphaunce locks typical of the period. The exhibition also includes a number of guns by Russian gunsmiths who followed English models. Britannia & Muscovy: English Silver at the Court of the Tsars offers a rare opportunity to see again in Britain an extraordinary part of our English heritage - preserved in the Kremlin since its arrival in Russia over 300 years ago - alongside stunning contemporary Russian gold and silver.
The exhibition is sponsored by LUKOIL and supported by The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation. The organisers are the Moscow Kremlin Museums, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, and the Gilbert Collection, London. The curators are Natalya Abramova and Yelena Yablonskaya from the Moscow Kremlin Museums. The catalogue is published by Yale University Press in association with the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, and the Gilbert Collection. The catalogue includes essays by Kremlin curators Natalya Abramova, Elena Yablonskaya and Irina Zagarodnaya, as well as by art historians Paul Bushkovitch, Olga Dmitrieva, Philippa Glanville, Maija Jansson, and Edward Kasinec. 288 pages, 45 b/w and 200 colour illustrations, ISBN 0300116780, price £50, $85 (hardback). More about the Moscow Kremlin Museum, below
Moscow's Kremlin is one of the best known historical and architectural sites in the world and has for centuries been at the heart of key events in Russian history and the symbol of Russian statehood. The first written record of Moscow dates back to 1147, to the reign of Great Prince Yuri of Kiev, the son of Vladimir Monomakh who married Princess Gytha, daughter of England's King Harold. Under Dmitry Donskoy in 1367-68, the white stone walls and towers of the Kremlin were erected and in 1485-95 the Kremlin was rebuilt and largely acquired its present appearance. The Faceted Chamber, a wing of the Kremlin Palace, where the Tsars received the English envoys and their silver gifts were displayed on great occasions, survives today. At the beginning of the 18th century, Peter I transferred the capital of Russia to St Petersburg but the contents of the treasury remained in the Kremlin and the coronation of the Tsars continued to be held there.
On 10 March 1806 Emperor Alexander I signed a decree: 'On the regulations for management and preservation in perpetual safety of the treasures in the Workshop and Armoury Chambers'. The Armoury - and the attached Kremlin workshops which had made silver items, arms and armour for the Russian court - was thus transformed into the nation's first museum of state significance. From then on, the royal and religious regalia, precious objects and other rarities that were part of the history of both the Russian state and the ruling dynasty were, for the first time, to be permanently accessible to the public. When in 1917 the Soviet government transferred the capital back to Moscow, the Kremlin became the seat of the highest state bodies and only those who lived or worked there were admitted. It was only in 1955 that the Kremlin's museums and treasures were again open to the public. The Kremlin has been the residence of the President of the Russian Federation and his administration since 1992. Today the Armoury forms the core of the Moscow Kremlin Museums, which incorporates the Cathedrals of the Dormition, Archangel and Annunciation, the Church of the Deposition, the Patriarch's Palace with its Church of the Twelve Apostles, the Ivan the Great Bell Tower with the Dormition Belfry as well as a collection of bells and artillery. The Kremlin is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Moscow Kremlin Museums is one of Russia's most dynamic museum organisations, successfully upholding the principles set out two centuries ago by which the collections should be made accessible to the widest possible audience. The Museums have an intensive research programme and ongoing archaeological excavations and are in the process of publishing a full multi-volume catalogue of the collections. Acquisitions are continually being made including works of applied art, paintings and items of historical significance and new exhibition spaces are being opened to facilitate the expansion of education programmes.
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