The Hermitage is very fond of St. Catherine's Day. The art of enamel.

[Евгений]

St. Petersburg, the Hermitage, from 8 December until 14 March
The Hermitage is very fond of St. Catherine's Day, December 7. Since the exact date of the museum's foundation is unknown, fifteen years ago this day was chosen for the various local festivals, including the annual report of the Director to staff, techniques, discoveries of major exhibitions. This year's Day of the Hermitage bring 320 things from a luxury collection of London Professor Nasser David Khalili - enamel art objects from Europe, Islamic countries and the Far East, established over the past three centuries.

The art of enamel know the ancient Egyptians, it spread in antiquity, and especially relished in Byzantium. Went to Persia, then he inherited the Arab Caliphate, in the VII century reached India and China. By the XVIII century, almost all enamel techniques were known and successfully used in Europe and Asia. The general principle remained the same: a glassy mass added oxides of various metals, were obtained by a mixture of different colors, which are then melted, cool and grind into powder. Cobalt gives blue and blue, chrome - green, tin - white, silver - yellow, iron - red and brown, manganese - purple and brown, copper - ruby, gold - pink and purple. Silicon gives refractoriness, sodium and potassium - ready fusibility. Lead increases the brightness, color intensity. Tin can change the tonal richness.

Читать дальше... 

In Europe, the XVIII century, thanks to orders of courts and the aristocracy, luxury items were replaced with the religious sphere of existence in the secular. Instead, reliquaries and other church plate steel to make caskets, dressing-cases, snuff boxes and needles, and old machinery notched enamel, where deepening in the sheet metal filled with powder and fired, and cloisonne, where the pattern is built on a wire soldered to the metal, prefer painted. It requires special enamel paint and comes closest to miniature painting; subtlety work allows exquisite landscapes and portraits. These little things have appeared in the East - in the exhibition is rounded Iranian box (about 1800), where the lid are three elegant aristocrat, one of whom the maid washes the tiny leg, and a cat. Light pastel colors and cozy nature just asks in a playful French Rococo.

In the next century, the rich demanded to watch, the framework for portraits, cigarette cases, medallions, instruments for writing, all sorts of fancy gizmos, enamel ware were among the exhibits many artistic and industrial exhibitions. By painted enamel added transparent or translucent, that is decorated with a painted relief or engraved - so to achieve greater depth of color that is "watered" light spillovers. Increasingly, objects appear precious and semiprecious stones, intensifying shine transparent color, and passion can be seen in the decoration of Chinese and Japanese art. At the turn of the XIX-XX centuries, the demand for beautiful trinkets and interest in the national past has led to a peculiar "the revival" - masters vied with each other began to update the repertoire with the help of neglected forms and techniques. Vivid example - scoops of Karl Faberge and Pavel Ovchinnikov, which, although made around 1900 in every way refer to the pre-Petrine Russia, including through decorated with cloisonne enamel on filigree. This technique is more commonly known under the name "enamel", and in her powder filled cells between twisted metal threads. The twentieth century turned to new forms and materials, in particular, has involved platinum, but remained loyal to ancient techniques and precious stones.

The exhibition shows a variety of royal and imperial diplomatic gifts as rewards for faithful service, products, received prizes at international exhibitions and influenced the development of enamel art. All of this multicolored luxury honorary member of School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London Art Nasser David Khalili has collected over the past thirty years - in his 1200 collection of enamels XVIII-XX centuries, made in different countries. And also one of the largest private collections of Islamic art from the VIII century, Indian and Swedish fabrics, the Japanese art of the Meiji Period (1868-1912), Spanish damask blades - 25 thousand items of the museum level. One can assume that the history of collection is not less interesting than she is.