The STaTe hermiTage muSeum annual reporT

conferences
participants had an opportunity to exchange their experiences,
present and discuss various strategies and scenarios
in solving problems that the state and the museum have
to face in the sphere of preservation of cultural heritage.
The spectrum of problems discussed included today’s legislation
and museum activities, museology and investments,
adaptation of historical buildings for museum premises,
museum collection enhancement and the history of state,
and legislation in the sphere of fundraising. The conference
was organized with the support of the Pro-Arte Foundation,
Ford Foundation, and Likeon – Museum Concepts
and Projects, Ltd.
By Anna Trofimova
25Th inTernaTional colloQuium of
The coRpus viTReaRum medii aevi (cvma)
It is the first colloquium in the history of the Corpus, held
in Russia. The theme of the colloquium was Stained Glass
Collections and Their History. It included about one hundred
participants from Europe and North America. During the
four days of the colloquium, twenty-two papers were read,
plus a number of poster presentations. The papers of the
Hermitage researchers were devoted to the history of the
Hermitage collection of stained glasses (Yelena Shlikevich),
the history and methods of restoring stained glasses at the
Hermitage laboratory (Yelena Krylova) and the collection
of cartoons for the Swiss sixteenth- and seventeenth-century
stained glasses preserved at the Department of Drawings
(Natalia Sepman). The other participants’ papers dealt
25th International Colloquium of the Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi (CVMA)
with the history of collections of Great Britain, France, the
United States, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium,
Austria, Spain and Poland. The participants also visited
the newly organized stained glass repository and restoration
workshop. In connection with the event, the museum
organized the exhibition, Swiss Stained Glasses of the 16th –
18th Centuries in the Collection of the Hermitage. The seventy
stained glasses shown at the exhibition are the best ones
in the Hermitage collection. The eight-year restoration had
been carried out jointly by the Section of Restoration of
Stained Glasses and the Expert Examination Department,
with the use of new restoration methods.
By Yelena Shlikevich
inTernaTional conference:
The cenTRal asian ciTY wiThin The sYsTem
of mediaeval oRienTal ciTies
The conference was dedicated to 60 years of Grigory Semenov
(1950–2007), Head of the Oriental Department
(from 2001) and the founder and head of the Hermitage
Bukhara Expedition (1981–2007), who has made an invaluable
contribution to the study of Central Asian antiquities.
Besides the researchers of the Hermitage, their colleagues
from other research centres took part in the conference,
viz. those of St. Petersburg, Moscow, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan,
Kirghizia, France, Germany and the United States. Most
of the papers given dealt with the topic Semenov had been
concerned with, i.e. the evolution of the mediaeval Central
Asian city. A special session was devoted to Penjikent
(Tajikistan), a most completely explored early mediaeval
site closely connected with Semenov’s career as an archaeologist
and Orientalist. Worthy of a special note are the papers
by participants from Tajikistan and Germany, devoted
to the recent excavation of the Sandjar-shokh site, and by
Pavel Lourie and Igor Malkiel of the State Hermitage, on
the excavation of Khisrak (Upper Zarevshan), characterized
by unusual architecture and unparalleled state of preservation
of the organic finds. With the ancient and early
mediaeval Oriental city were also connected papers concerned
with recent discoveries in Kirghizia and at Paikend
(Province of Bukhara, Uzbekistan), the site closely linked
to Grigory Semenov’s whole archaeological career. The socalled
“long walls” of Bukhara Oasis were used as an example
in the discussion of the problems connected with
the appearance and existence of similar structures in other
agricultural areas of Central Asia. A number of papers were
devoted to Mediaeval Buddhism in Semirechye (Kirghizia)
and Balkh Oasis (Northern Afghanistan), as well as the
antiquities of Fergana, Khoresm, Uyghur Khaganate,
the Golden Horde (Volga Region and the Crimea) and the
Northern Caucasus. A volume of the conference papers
is in preparation.
By Andrei Omelchenko
conferences
conference devoTed To 30 yearS
of The heraldic Seminar
It is, largely, due to close connection of heraldry and the
history of culture that the Hermitage has traditionally been
a repository of heraldic knowledge and centre of heraldry
research. In the 19th century, outstanding heraldry experts,
such as Florian Gilles and Baron Boris von Koehne,
worked in the Hermitage. The curator of the Jewellery
Gallery, Arminius von Voelkersahm and the curator of the
arms collection, Eduard Lenz were experts in methods of
heraldic analysis as well. In the early 20th century, among
the Hermitage curators was a renowned Russian heraldist
Sergei Troinitsky. During the Soviet period, the traditions
of heraldic studies in the Hermitage, with its richest
collections and the library, were maintained by the elder
generation of curators, such as Alexander Voitov (Russian
heraldry), Andrei Korsun (general and Western European
heraldry), Lev Rakov and Vladislav Glinka (Russian uniforms).
The outstanding numismatist Ivan Spassky was also
a historian of awards; Nikolai Semenovich was concerned
with the study of standards and banners. This tradition was
continued later on, the logical result of it having been the
organization, in 1980, of the seminar “Heraldry, an Auxiliary
Historical Discipline”. On 15–16 December 2010
a meeting dedicated to 30 years of the Hermitage Heraldic
Seminar was held in the State Council Room of the State
Hermitage, with the participation of representatives of the
Hermitage, the State Russian Museum, the Heraldic Council
under the President of the Russian Federation, the Institute
of Material Culture (Russian Academy of Sciences),
Historical and Archival Institute (Moscow) and Institute
of World History (Russian Academy of Sciences), as well
as researchers from Kirov, Ryazan, Yekaterinburg, Tver
and Krasnodar. A very significant role in the organization
of the meeting belongs to the leading expert on the history
of uniforms, head of the Military Heraldry Division of the
Hermitage Arsenal, Sergei Plotnikov, who died on 14 February
2011. Those who knew him and worked with him will
always miss a good friend and an outstanding scholar and
museologist worthy of the museum, which he represented
with dignity.
The range and scope of the papers given has demonstrated
close ties of the Hermitage Heraldic Seminar’s thirty
years’ activity with various directions in Russian heraldry,
both theoretical and applied.
By Georgy Vilinbakhov
diSSerTaTionS
98 99
inga yakovleva
chineSe porcelain of The laTe Qing
period (1796–1911). arTiSTic TradiTionS
and Their culTural conTexT
For the Degree of Kandidat (Candidate) of Art History
The object of the study is Chinese porcelain of the Late
Qing Period (1796–1911), which has not been duly dealt
with in scholarly publications so far. For this reason, the
theme is a considerable lacuna in the study of Chinese
pottery. The dissertation is a multi-aspect study of Late
Qing porcelain production, including criteria to discern
authentic works from fakes. The significance of the problem
of porcelain authenticity for the period in question
is connected with the fact that certain categories of works
were created as part of a retrospective trend concerned
with making replicas of earlier productions and aging
techniques.
The features of novelty of the present work include the
description of Chinese porcelain art in 1796–1911 as a historical
and cultural phenomenon, as well as a study of its
nineteenth-century milieu. A new periodization of Chinese
porcelain making in the 19th century has been suggested,
which reflects the major stages in its stylistic evolution. Besides,
the dissertation contains a differential classification
system of porcelain productions and principles of characterization
of individual works. The dissertation includes
translations from European and Chinese sources, fundamental
for the field in question, which contain data unreflected
in Russian publications.
The reconstruction of the general panorama of the development
of Chinese porcelain in the 19th century given in
the dissertation, as well as the description of the methods
and techniques used by porcelain makers can be the basis
for future studies in the present area.