Artworks of Russian Stone Carvers in the Diplomatic Service

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15826/qr.2021.2.608

Keywords:

artistic stone carving, Russian Empire, diplomatic relations, museum collections, private collections

Abstract

This review examines recently published works by Russian scholars in the field of artistic stone carving, namely, the reference book by N. M. Mavrodina, Works of Russian Stone-Carving Art in Collections outside Russia (2019), and the monograph by L. A. Budrina, Malachite Diplomacy (2020). Both works study objects created by Russian stone carving artists through the 18th – early twentieth century and which left the country as a result of various diplomatic occasions. The authors have adopted different research approaches. N. M. Mavrodina, preparing a catalogue of works exported from Russia, focuses mainly on the activities of Imperial stone-carving factories. The monograph by L. A. Budrina, on the other hand, focuses on the identification and study of carvings and their history; it also offers insights into the role of stone-carved objects in the formation of the image of the Russian state, and describes the main mechanisms that contributed to the formation of a fashion for Russian stone carving abroad. The two reviewed works offer a significant contribution to the historiography of stone carving art, as well as the role of works of art in creating the image of a country or region and their place in the formation of a single European art market.

Author Biography

Sergey Vinokurov

PhD (Art History), Head of Department of Decorative and Applied Arts, Yekaterinburg Museum of Fine Arts; Assistant Lecturer, Ural Federal University named after the first President of Russia B. N. Yeltsin.

5, Voevodin Str., 620014, Yekaterinburg, Russia.

19, Mira Str., 620002, Yekaterinburg, Russia.

ORCID 0000-0001-7548-8651

serg.vinokuroff@gmail.com

References

Budrina, L. A. (2013). Ural’skii sled v Meksike: peripetii kollektsii Demidovykh [The Ural Trace in Mexico. Adventures of the Demidovs’ Collection]. In Vesi. No. 8, pp. 38–40.

Budrina, L. A. (2015). Malakhit Svyatogo prestola: rossiiskie dary pontifikam 1840–1850-kh godov [The Malachite of the Holy See: Russian Gifts to Pontiffs in the 1840s–1850s]. In Kuchumovskie chteniya. Sbornik dokladov nauchnoi konferentsii “Atributsiya, istoriya i sud’ba predmetov iz imperatorskikh kollektsii”. St Petersburg, Gosudarstvennyi muzeizapovednik “Pavlovsk”, pp. 33–44.

Budrina, L. A. (2020). Malakhitovaya diplomatiya [Malachite Diplomacy]. Moscow, Yekaterinburg, Kabinetnyi uchenyi. 208 p.

Fersman, A. E. (1961). Ocherki po istorii kamnya v 2 t. [Essays on History of Gemstones. 2 Vols.]. Moscow, Izdatel’stvo Akademii nauk SSSR. Vol. 2. 372 p.

Mavrodina, N. M. (2007). Iskusstvo russkikh kamnerezov XVIII–XIX vekov. Katalog kollektsii [The Art of Russian Stone Carvers between the 18th and 19th centuries. Catalogue of the Collection]. St Petersburg, Izdatel’stvo Gosudarstvennogo Ermitazha. 560 p.

Mavrodina, N. M. (2019). Proizvedeniya russkogo kamnereznogo iskusstva za predelami Rossii. Spravochnik [Works of Russian Stone-Carving Art in Collections outside Russia. Reference Book]. St Petersburg, Izdatel’stvo Gosudarstvennogo Ermitazha. 160 p.

Semenov, V. B. (1987). Malakhit v 2 t. [Malachite. 2 Vols.]. Sverdlovsk, Sredne-Ural’skoe knizhnoe izdatel’stvo. Vol. 2. 140 p.

Semenov, V. B., Timofeev, N. I. (2003a). Ekaterinburgskaya granil’naya fabrika: 1861–1917 [The Yekaterinburg Lapidary Factory in 1861–1917]. Yekaterinburg, Istorikogemmologicheskoe obshchestvo “Lithica”. 496 p.

Semenov, V. B., Timofeev, N. I. (2003b). Ekaterinburgskaya kamnereznaya i antikovaya fabrika: 1805–1861 [The Yekaterinburg Lapidary Factory in 1805–1861]. Yekaterinburg, Istoriko-gemmologicheskoe obshchestvo “Lithica”. 752 p.

Published

2021-06-21

How to Cite

Vinokurov, S. (2021). Artworks of Russian Stone Carvers in the Diplomatic Service. Quaestio Rossica, 9(2), 761–767. https://doi.org/10.15826/qr.2021.2.608

Issue

Section

Controversiae et recensiones