Wiesław Gierlowski
The enormous St Petersburg museum, which boasts grand collections of artworks, the heirlooms of the tsars and many other precious objects, has a comparatively modest amber collection. The collection has only 105 items, but some of them are sets made of many individual items, for instance a chessboard with 32 chess pieces or a flirt game (a very large box with four smaller boxes inside, and over a dozen chips with engraved pictures in each of the smaller boxes). The collection comprises only finished products and is a systematic although brief review of amber artefacts from the oldest works from the 4 th and 3 rd millennium BCE produced by cultures unknown in Europe, from what is now the vicinity of Tver in central Russia, through to 19 th century items. Another interesting set is a group of artefacts from the vicinity of Staraya Ladoga. A set of medieval artefacts related to the Eastern Orthodox Christianisation is representative of Old Rus. Most common are Greek crosses with arms of equal length, to be worn on the body or on clothing. Most artefacts come from today's Ukraine, but also from other important centres of Rus: Pskov, Novgorod and Gorodishche. Western European medieval amber craft is represented by fancy rosaries in which amber is complemented with precious metal and enamel ornamentation.
Modern masterpieces
As in all amber collections, the most distinct or even impressive part of the Hermitage collection is the one with the modern works dating from the Renaissance to Classicism. It opens with a small jewel box (105 x 79 x 89 mm): excellently built, without a wooden frame. This is the collection's earliest example of an object made for personal use, rather than associated with religion or magic. The jewel box's form and ornamentation are typical for Northern European Renaissance. The plant ornament engraved on the lid and sculpted in relief on the walls is in fact borrowed directly from patterns used by the Gdansk and Königsberg masters in the late 16 th century.
These workshops produced almost all of the large sacral and ornamental objects in the Hermitage collection. As mentioned in the introduction to this article, among the large objects of applied art, two pieces stand out:
- an 18 th century game of flirt – a large box (222 x 156 x 100 mm) with a wooden frame containing 4 small boxes with heart, fish, square and octagon-shaped chips with ornamentation and inscriptions. The large box and the small boxes are exquisitely decorated with genre scenes and city views in delicate eglomise and engraving techniques on the bottom of transparent amber windows. Made in Gdansk;
- a complete chess set from ca. 1710; large chessboard with 365 mm sides and 32 transparent squares with 8-pointed stars sculpted intaglio on their bottoms; the other half of the squares is smooth and made of light-coloured amber. The pieces are fully sculpted, with half of them made of white and the other half of transparent honey-colour amber. Made in Königsberg.
In terms of artistic value and precision of workmanship, the following pieces are deserving of the highest merit:
- a slender cup with a lid from the late 17 th century – height 220 mm, goblet diameter 75 mm; the goblet is made of transparent amber; decorated in low relief, the delicate ornamentation on the goblet's surface is divided into 4 sectors, where fantastic birds in flight are depicted in an illusory space. All the elements of the cup are designed and executed with great finesse: the base, stem, knop, goblet and lid crowned with a pineapple. The delicate elements required reinforcement with gilded frames;
- beer mug supported by lions, with portraits of German dukes from the late 17 th century – diameter 144 mm, height 126 mm; with a gilded handle and opening lid; made of dark (red) opaque amber, divided by spirally twisted columns of light amber. A unique masterwork made in Königsberg.
Until recently, both of the above receptacles were in disrepair. They were put together, filled in and preserved by experienced master Alexander Zhuravlov, long-standing artistic and technical director of the team which reconstructed the decor of the Amber Room. He was also the author of an excellent article on the principles of preserving modern amber artefacts in the catalogue of the sole exhibition of the Hermitage collection in 2002.
From among the modern sacral artefacts, let me present a comparison of two Passion scenes:
- a catholic Passion scene from the late 17 th century with the Blessed Virgin Mary and St John and the inscription INRI (the figure of the crucified Christ) – height 290 mm. A simple wooden cross edged with amber is placed on a complex and richly decorated pedestal, supported by four transparent spheres. The pedestal is a many-colour composition with crossed strips of marble amber and very large cabochons of transparent amber with Bible scenes engraved on their bottoms. They feature architectural elements (spiral columns, returns, miniature chequered floors). Larisa Jakovleva, author of the catalogue of the collection, describes the passion as made in Königsberg. I find this dubious as in the late 17 th century Königsberg was Lutheran and its amber masters worked for the Protestant community. Catholic Passion scenes, in turn, were the speciality of the Gdansk masters, tied to the Catholic Polish market. Ms Jakovleva usually describes Gdansk artefacts from the 17 th century as: “Danzig – Germany,” even though Gdansk was the largest city and port of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
-
an Eastern Orthodox Passion scene from the early 18 th century, also featuring the BVM and St John at the Cross, with the inscription “ИНЦI” in Cyrillic alphabet. The figure of Christ is sculpted with legs parallel to each other (rather than crossed) and nailed with two nails, as per the Eastern Orthodox tradition – height 640 mm; the cross is made of amber elements fastened on metal tangs while the symbols of the Evangelists adorn its arms. The pedestal is a sturdy baroque-style architectural structure made up of three storeys. The sections of the pedestal's walls have windows of transparent amber through which one can see scenes sculpted in ivory and symbols of the Lord's Passion. Made in Königsberg or Gdansk.
I have devoted much space to the description of the above artefacts as they give us an idea of the great significance of the entire collection for which only very special objects have been selected. In this context, a small jewel box given by Prussian King Frederic William I to Tsar Peter I, together with the entire decor of the Amber Room, comes out surprisingly modest. This small (144 x 114 x 130 mm) object was a historical artefact already when it became a diplomatic gift. It is a rather early Gdansk production, made of pure amber without a wooden frame. This can be seen as a certain supplement to the unusual transaction. The artefact's poor condition makes it impossible to notice the charm of the simple geometrical composition.
Polish viewers will find it especially interesting to see an amber medal with the image of King John III Sobieski. It is a round (diameter: 68 mm) cameo with a faithful portrait of the warrior-king in his prime made of a single yellow opaque amber nugget, one-sided, set in gilded silver. Made in Gdansk ca. 1684 r.
It is impossible to present the many important features of the Hermitage Collection in such a short essay. However, I cannot fail to devote but one sentence to the beautiful cutlery pieces with amber handles (some of them come from Slupsk workshops), a Parisian sword with a beautifully sculpted hilt made of transparent amber, and the extensive collection of Viennese amber and meerschaum pipes from the late 19 th century.
All in all, the collection is a must to see in person, but it is not easy to do so. On average, amber exhibitions take place at the Hermitage once every 100 years. The first one was held at the turn of the 20 th century, the second some hundred years later in 2002. Additionally, the people of Gdansk had the opportunity to see almost the entire collection in the latter half of 2006 at the newly opened Amber Museum at the Foregate Complex in Dluga St. Unfortunately, this unique opportunity was not fully taken advantage of, especially by today's amber artists. Now, we can only turn to the relevant literature or the kindness of the Hermitage's curators when we go to St Petersburg.
