Yu.P. Kalashnik
Greek Gold. From the Treasure Rooms of the Hermitage.
// Amsterdam: Waanders Publishers, Zwolle. 2004. 128 pp.
ISBN 90-400-89-71-x English edition; ISBN 90-400-89-70-1 Dutch edition
Catalogue for the exhibition ‘Greek Gold’ at the Hermitage Amsterdam from 28 February to 29 August 2004 organised by the State Hermitage Museum in St.Petersburg and the Hermitage Amsterdam.
Contents
Preface. — 9
Greek gold: a word to the reader. — 12
On the composition of the collection. — 13
The archaeological survey in the northern Black Sea region. — 14
The Greeks on the northern coast of the Black Sea. — 28
Gold jewellery in the Black Sea cities. — 34
The technique of making jewellery. — 48
Centres of ancient culture in the northern Black Sea region. — 66
Olbia. — 68
Chersonesus. — 71
The Bosporan Kingdom. — 74
The necropolises of the Bosporan Kingdom and their monuments. — 82
Pantikapaion. — 84
Kul Oba. — 90
Yuz Oba. — 99
The Great Bliznitsa barrow. — 103
The Artyukhovsky barrow. — 112
Further reading. — 117
Greek Gold. ^
The State Hermitage Museum is pleased to present one of the most remarkable collections in our museum to our friends in Amsterdam. The precious objects made by Greek goldsmiths, which were found during excavations of the graves of Scythian leaders and Greek colonists, form a unique entity unmatched elsewhere. The Greek gold from the Hermitage is the most important evidence of links between Hellenic civilisation and the ancient cultures of the Eurasian steppes. The extraordinarily beautiful works of the master goldsmiths are associated with compelling and dramatic tales of excavations, of finds, of scholarly research and crimes, of successes and disappointments. The study of the heritage of precious objects from Greek civilisation has long been one of the major fields of research at the Hermitage.
With this unusual presentation the Hermitage marks a historic event, the start of the first series of exhibitions in our centre in Amsterdam. The Neerlandia Building will permanently represent the Hermitage in the city which made Peter the Great decide to found St.Petersburg, at whose centre the Hermitage stands.
We are delighted that a long period of preparation, planning, restoration and research will be completed with a celebration. Every six months an exhibition from the Hermitage will open in Amsterdam. The State Hermitage Museum, the Stichting Hermitage aan de Amstel and the Nationale Stichting De Nieuwe Kerk have demonstrated their willingness and ability to act as partners in important cultural initiatives. We are delighted that Amsterdam is prepared to have a permanent embassy from the Hermitage and that it has done so much to bring this about.
We are also very grateful to the museums of Amsterdam who have agreed to take us into their family. Before us lie many opportunities for close cooperation. We thank all those who have worked, are working or will work with us. A dream has come true: the Hermitage Amsterdam has opened.
Mikhail Piotrovsky
Director, State Hermitage Museum
Chairman, Stichting Hermitage aan de Amstel
(9/10)
Preface. ^
The state of the national economy may be putting many in a sombre mood at the moment, but while writing this foreword I cannot escape the feeling that a golden era is dawning in Amsterdam. This catalogue marks two happy events at the same time, one temporary and one of a more permanent nature. The exhibition ‘Greek Gold’ brings the unrivalled art of the Greek goldsmiths of antiquity into the spotlight, and does so in an Olympic year. This is also the overture, however, to a work whose notes will long resound. The Russian authorities, the State Hermitage Museum in St.Petersburg and the Stichting Hermitage aan de Amstel have reached agreement on establishing a satellite of the Hermitage in Amsterdam. The opening of the exhibition ‘Greek Gold’ marks the start of the first phase of this plan for a new museum. St.Petersburg and Amsterdam are connected by a golden link.
Like this one, the first exhibition from the Hermitage ever held in the Nieuwe Kerk also struck gold; it was ‘The Gold of the Scyths’. That exhibition was the beginning of years of fruitful cooperation between the two organisations. The resulting close contacts with the directors of the Hermitage produced more than a number of splendid exhibitions at the Nieuwe Kerk. Gradually, the dream that Michail Piotrovsky the director of the Hermitage, and I had of founding a branch of the mother museum in Amsterdam took shape. Since Peter the Great visited Amsterdam in 1697 and drew inspiration from it when founding St.Petersburg, the historic ties between the two cities have been maintained in many ways. When in the mid-1990s it became known that the Amstelhof would be available in due course, it was not difficult to persuade Michail Piotrovsky that here, on the Amstel river, our dream could be fulfilled.
(10/11)
From the end of 2007 exhibitions from the rich collections of the Hermitage, which will complement the presentations of our national museums, will be on view within the walls of the superb 17th-century complex known as the Amstelhof. The first part of the master plan, the Neerlandia Building, which has been elegantly converted for its new function, will do the honours for the time being. An idea has been realised. This realisation has been made possible by the SponsorLoterij, the Province of North Holland and the City of Amsterdam. The first exhibition glitters before us, and here all that glitters really is gold!
Ernst W. Veen
Director of the Hermitage Amsterdam
Closing remarks. ^
In talking about a collection of ancient jewellery, one cannot avoid sad and even gloomy terms: grave, burial, skeleton… But this is inevitable: after all, opening a grave means entering a personal drama, even if it took place long ago. But the objects the dead once wore were also part of life; they were useful and pleasing for the living. Of course the finds also included artefacts made specially for mourning rites: wreaths, many copies of real clasps or jewellery (made from foil). But most of the objects reveal the genuine feelings of living people. And that is easy to explain: a girl wore a ring that had been passed down in her family for decades from old to young. For a woman about to marry a rich gown was made which she kept for the rest of her life. If her husband was to travel far from home, he gave her a ring with a symbolic meaning: she was to wait for him as Penelope waited for Odysseus.
In the world of golden wonders created by the Greek masters, flowers open and tendrils twine. That world is peopled by a host of living creatures; in that world magnificent deities rule. The objects themselves, even if they consist of a repetition of standard details, are harmonious and perfect. It is not so much that they radiate the gleaming of the sun, no, what shines here is joy in life, come to us across millennia.
Eternal is only what links with an invisible thread
Soul and spirit of the living
With the dark soul of the graves
(Ivan Bunin) *
Yuri Kalashnik
* Прим. сайта: Цитируется стихотворение «Надпись на чаше» (1903):
Древнюю чашу нашёл он у шумного синего моря,
В древней могиле, на диком песчаном прибрежье.
Долго трудился он; долго слагал воедино
То, что гробница хранила три тысячи лет, как святыню,
И прочитал он на чаше
Древнюю повесть безмолвных могил и гробниц:
«Вечно лишь море, безбрежное море и небо,
Вечно лишь солнце, земля и её красота,
Вечно лишь то, что связует незримою связью
Душу и сердце живых с тёмной душою могил».
наверх
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