 | This gilded silver basin created circa 1624-1625 by French silversmith Antoinette Marqueron is one of the rare English silver objects on view in the exhibition. |
Silver objects from the Russian court -- rarely seen by American audiences -- will be on view in an exhibition opening at the Yale Center for British Art on Thursday, May 25.
The exhibit, "Britannia & Muscovy: English Silver at the Court of the Tsars," features nearly 80 works, including 36 silver objects, from the time of Queen Elizabeth I through the early reign of Charles II, that are now housed in the Armory Museum of the Kremlin. The objects from England served to reinforce developing diplomatic trade and cultural ties with Russia from the 1550s to the 1660s. Much of the silver from this period that remained in England was melted down during the English Civil War, making the objects at the Kremlin both rare and historically significant.
The objects in "English Silver in the Court of the Tsars" are gilded and heavily embellished. The earliest piece on view is a font-shaped cup from 1557, possibly a gift to Ivan the Terrible from the English ambassador Anthony Jenkinson. Several pieces in the exhibition were brought to Russia as diplomatic gifts from English monarchs to the rulers of Moscow, or were presented by English trading agents. Others were purchased for the Tsar's treasury, such as two water pots and a flagon in the form of a rearing leopard, which were purchased from the English royal collection by the first Romanov tsar, Mikhail Romanov. Gifts from Charles II to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich will be on display, including a standing cup, a ewer and basin formerly in the collection of Charles' mother Queen Henrietta Maria, and a perfuming pot. Also on view will be a group of firearms that demonstrate the Russian fascination with English weaponry of the period. Many of the guns are decorated with gold and mother-of-pearl inlays and carved locks.
The exhibition illustrates the relationships among the English crown, the Muscovy Company and the Russian tsars, ranging from Ivan the Terrible to Mikhail Romanov. The first contact between England and Russia took place in 1553 when the explorer Richard Chancellor, attempting to find a passage to the Far East from the North Sea, sailed into the port of St. Nicholas. In 1555 a group of English merchants formed the Muscovy Company in order to trade with Russia.
In order to recreate the splendor that English visitors encountered in the Russian court, "English Silver in the Court of the Tsars" includes 15 precious objects made by Russian craftsmen, including vessels belonging to the first tsars and devotional objects used by the religious leaders of Moscow. In addition, rare books and charters will provide a look at the early history of Anglo-Russian relations. Representations of elaborate ceremonies staged in conjunction with diplomatic missions to the Kremlin palace will also be on display, as will topographical views of the Kremlin complex and Moscow from the 16th- and 17th-centuries. Contemporary maps and sea charts will allow viewers to trace the routes used by travelers between England and Russia.
"English Silver at the Court of the Tsars" will be on view through Sept. 10. Following its debut at the Yale Center for British Art, the exhibition travels to the Gilbert Collection at Somerset House in London. New Haven and London are the exhibition's only venues.
Special events in conjunction with the exhibit include an opening lecture on "Images of Power in Early Modern England" by Kevin M. Sharpe, the Leverhulme Research Professor and professor of Renaissance studies at the School of English and Drama, Queen Mary, University of London. His talk on Wednesday, May 24, will begin at 5:30 p.m. at the center. On Tuesday, June 13, Yale history professor Paul Bushkovitch will lead an Art in Context talk at 12:30 p.m. A week-long "Great Russian Masterpieces" film series will begin on Saturday, June 10, with a screening of "Ivan Groznyy I" at 2 p.m.
The items on display were selected by Natalya Abramova with Yelena Yablonskaya from the Kremlin Museum. The organizing curator at the Yale Center for British Art is Cassandra Albinson, assistant curator of paintings and sculpture. The exhibition coincides with the 200th anniversary of the Armory Museum, a part of the Kremlin Museums where precious objects are displayed. The exhibition is supported by a grant from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation.
The Yale Center for British Art, 1080 Chapel St., is free and open to the public Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., and Sunday, noon-5 p.m. It is closed on Mondays and major holidays.
For more information, visit the center's website at www.yale.edu/ycba.
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