Utamaro. Lovers’ Quiet Conversation

The Hermitage possesses valuable examples of Japanese applied art, one of the distinctive features of which is the variety of materials and methods of execution. Miniature statuettes and decorative waist-pendants (netsuke), made from ivory and wood, depict scenes from the life of the people and from Japanese history, legend and mythology. Also of note are the details on the handles of swords (tsuba) made from iron, silver, bronze and different non-ferrous alloys and embellished with incisions and engraving. Refined taste, skill, and a wealth of imagination of the craftsmen are also evident in the lacquers; black and gold Japanese lacquer was particularly famous – see the caskets, and the boxes for Indian ink and brushes, for medicine, tea and tobacco. There are two caskets bearing the signature of the well-known craftsman Ogata Korin (1658-1716).

Hiroshige. Rain in the Vicinity of Tadasagawara

In the second room there is a fine collection of modern decorative and applied art – articles of clay, lacquer, metal, wood and bamboo, handmade by the foremost Japanese craftsmen. These items include a vase made of forged silver with fish designs; a cotton fabric screen, Pine Forest; a forged iron statuette, Sea-lion, and a flame-red lacquer vase. Folk art is represented by ceramic plates and dishes, fabrics, lacquers and wooden toys.

Bodhisattva and monk from the monastery known as the “Cave of a Thousand Buddhas”. 9th century
Moon deity. Khara-Khoto, 12-I3th centuries

Presented in room 352 are items found in Khara-Khoto, a dead town discovered among the sands of the Gobi by the Russian traveller Kozlov. At one time this was the capital of the Tangut kingdom, which fell in the thirteenth century under the attacks of Jen-ghiz-Khan. The paper money, fabrics, ceramics, tools and household articles found at Khara-Khoto testify to the extent to which crafts and trade had developed in this medieval eastern town. Some valuable works of art have come from Khara-Khoto, including paintings on canvas, paper and silk of the Tibeto-Tangutan and Chinese schools, sculptures, and some carved wooden boards for printing books and etchings.

Rooms 354-362 contain porcelain, lacquers, enamels, ivory and examples of painting and sculpture from the period of 1300 to 1900. The exhibition is rounded off by some examples of twentieth century art; room 363 contains the work of the famous Chinese artists Chi’i Pai-shih (1872-1957) and Hsu Pei-hung (1894-1953), and in room 364 there are examples of modern applied art.

Faience dish. Turkey, 16th century

The items in room 368 acquaint ‘ the-visitor with the art of various regions of the country – Bengal, Southern and Central India, Gujerat, the Punjab. Among these can be seen some small marble, wooden and bronze sculptures of the sixteenth to nineteenth century, more often than not representing the Hindu gods and the heroes of the old Indian epics Mehabharata and Ramayana.

From the exhibition in rooms 369 and 370 special mention should be made of the large collection of seventeenth to eighteenth century miniatures, including examples of the art of the Mogul, Rajputu and small local schools.

Open-work gilded iron helmet. India, late 17th century

Occupying an important place in the exhibition is one of the world’s finest collections of old Indian weapons. The offensive and defensive weapons are extremely varied and include helmets of openwork gilded steel, shields made from rhinoceros hide, pata swords with an armoured covering protecting the warrior’s arm, and kuttar daggers with the handle at right angles to the blade for the same purpose. Also displayed are some chakra, ring-like missiles with edges as sharp as blades, and side-arms with blades of Damascus steel (the home of which was India) richly decorated with engraving and inlaid with gold and silver leaf. Craft work of the seventeenth to nineteenth century is represented by some wonderful specimens of silk and velvet fabrics, carpets, ceramics, bronzes and objects made from ebony and ivory (rooms 369 and 370).

Jaimini Roy. Toilet. India, 20th century

Room 371 contains a collection of modern painting, in which we can note in particular the Fire Ordeal of Sita (water-colour on silk) by the famous painter Barad Ukil, The Road to Mayavahtl by Nandalal Bos, Shacks and Sands by Bimal Das Gupta, A Meeting of Yogis and Spring by S. Roerich, Returning Home by Madhava Satvalekar, Toilet by Jaimini Roy, and a bust of Mahatma Gandhi by the well-known sculptor Chintamani Kar. There is also a nineteenth century screen of exquisite open-work ivory presented to the Hermitage by Djarwaharlal Nehru.

Also displayed in this room is a very large collection of Persian carved stones and coins.

Room 384. In Persia the manufacture of bronze goods was widely developed. Varied in their shapes and their functions, they were produced by casting and chasing, and subsequently inlaid with red copper and silver. Excellent pieces of this sort of work are a twelfth century censer in the form of a cat, an aquamanile (1205) representing a female zebu with a calf, and two twelfth century bronze pots made by craftsmen from the town of Gerat.

Rooms 385-387. Persian ceramics, 12th-15th centuries. In the East lustre ware from the northern Persian towns of Kashan and Rayy was very highly esteemed, and there are in the exhibition examples of the work produced in these towns – glazed tiles for facing secular and devotional buildings. These include tiles dating from the thirteenth century which decorated the Iman-zade Yakhyya mausoleum in the town of Veramin, and a lustre mihrab, a prayer-niche facing Mecca in the wall of a mosque or mausoleum, from Kashan (1305). The most splendid item made by the Kashan craftsmen is a large lustre vase of the thirteenth century with the figures, in relief, of musicians, animals and scenes from a game of polo (room 387).

In rooms 391-394 there is a very rich collection of objects produced by craftsmen of the sixteenth to eighteenth century; among these are velvet and silk fabrics embroidered with gold and silver, carpets, copper and bronze utensils, in many cases with the texts of poems by famous Persian poets, ceramics from the towns of Kashan, Isfahan, Kerman and Yezd, damask sabres and daggers adorned with gold inlay, lacquers and articles made of coloured glass.

The items displayed in room 394 reflect the extensive trade connections which Persia maintained with Russia and many European nations. In room 392 are some miniatures of the Tabriz, Shiraz and Isfahan schools; these are also some originals of the well-known seventeenth century Persian artist Reza-i-Abbasi.

Room 388. Syria and Iraq, 13th-15th centuries. Syria was famous for its glassware with coloured enamel patterns, exported to many distant places, and of interest in this respect is a thirteenth century glass vessel in the form of a horn bearing Arabic inscriptions and the representations of Christian saints. The sixteenth century German-made silver mount was produced, as the inscription says, upon the order of a knight of the Livonian Order, Bruno Drollshagen. Enjoying wide renown were the bronze utensils produced by Syrian and Iraqi craftsmen who, by skilfully combining in their ornamentation engraving, niello and inlay work, could turn simple articles of everyday use into splendid works of art (see, for example, the basins, dishes, candlesticks, etc.).

Rooms 389 and 390. Egypt, 7th-15th centuries. This exhibition provides an introduction to the craft work of Mohommedan Egypt. Notice especially a large collection of seventh to twelfth century fabrics, two magnificent vessels made of rock crystal, some bronzes, glassware and ceramics. The fourteenth century glass lamps (room 390) painted with coloured enamels, and with the heraldic emblems and the names of the rulers of the Mameluke dynasty, remind us of Syrian glassware. It is known that after the conquest of the country by the Mamelukes, Syrian glass-blowers were taken to Egypt. Some details of thirteenth to fifteenth century architectural ornamentation are very striking – carved wooden panels for interior decorationj inlaid with ivory and valuable kinds of wood, and bearing a typical geometric design.

Lamp made of rock crystal. Egypt, 10th century

Rooms 395-397. Turkey, 15th-18th centuries. As a result of conquests the Ottoman Sultanate became, in the fifteenth century, one of the world’s most powerful states. In the centre of one of the rooms is exhibited a remarkable suit of armour belonging to a Turkish cavalry soldier of the fifteenth century. In cabinet 2 is the headdress of a Janissary, the Janissaries constituting a special corps of the Turkish regular army in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

The collection of Turkish applied art is exceptionally rich. Rooms 395 and 396 contain sixteenth and seventeenth century ceramics from the towns of Iznik in Asia Minor and Damascus in Syria, prominent centres of the ceramic industry. Eighteenth and early nineteenth century ceramics from the town of Kutahya are displayed in room 397. The towns of Bursa, Damascus and Scutari were renowned for their brocade, velvets and silk fabrics (see rooms 395-397). Carpets were manufactured everywhere, in Kula, Bergama, Ladip and Qhiordes; the finest of the carpets in the Hermitage was made in the town of Usak (room 396, frame 15). The favourite decorative motif, adorning ceramics, fabrics and carpets alike, is the representation of flowers – carnations, tulips, hyacinths, wild roses – and of pomegranates. In rooms 396 and 397 there is an enormous collection of richly ornamented weapons made by craftsmen in Istanbul, Trebizond and Erzurum.

Diptych representing circus scenes. Ivory. Bysantium, c. 500 A.D.

Room 381 is given up entirely to early relics of Byzantine art, some of which were found during excavations in the town of Chersonesus: see the fifth – sixth century relief and marble capitals, and the case containing items of applied art. Special mention ought to be made of two fifth century marble pieces – a representation, traditional in early Christian art, of the Good Shepherd and a bronze polycandelon in the form of a Byzantine basilica.

St Gregory the Thaumatargist. Icon. Byzantium, 12th century

Room 381 a. Antique motifs characteristic of early Byzantine art are found on some sixth – seventh century silver utensils, for example a dish with the figures of the mythological characters, Meleager and Atalanta, and a ewer decorated with figures of sea-nymphs (cabinet 3, case 4). Utensils bearing representations of a symbolic character, in the form of a cross or a Chi-Rho monogram (cabinet 6), testify to the appearance in art of new tendencies connected with the spread of Christianity. Occupying a prominent place in the exhibition are some items made of ivory, in the working of which Byzantine craftsmen reached a high degree of perfection. One of the outstanding exhibits in the collection is a diptych (c. 500) representing circus scenes, in which the tense moments of the contest between man and beast are convincingly conveyed (cabinet 3). The mosaic painting Angel is a characteristic example of Byzantine monumental art, specimens of which, as a result of the downfall of Byzantium, have been preserved in only a very few cases.

Sassanian silver dish with the representation of King Shapur II hunting. Persia, 4th century

Room 382 contains some interesting tenth to twelfth century caskets embellished with carved ivories depicting venators, actors and musicians. Of exceptional value are some twelfth to fourteenth century icons, including St Gregory the Thaumaturgist, The Transfiguration (a painting), St Theodore Slaying the Dragon (champ-leve and cloisonne enamel), and Four Saints (miniature mosaic). Articles made of bronze, glass and wood, fabrics, ceramics, gems, coins and medals all lend the Byzantine exhibition great diversity.

Among the best examples of Assyrian monumental art are some alabaster reliefs, which bear the remains of the earliest painting. These include examples from the ninth century B.C. with representations of divine guardians and the Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II, from the palace in the town of Nimrud; some eighth century reliefs depicting priests, from the palace of Sargon II in Khorsabad (Dur-Sharukin), and one with the figures of an archer and a shield-bearer from the palace of Tiglath-Pileser III at Nimrud. Reliefs played an important part in the decoration of palace rooms and were an original form in illustrating chronicles, the texts of which were often carved on the walls. These reliefs, specifically intended to glorify the power and might of the cruel Assyrian rulers and to immortalize their victories over enemies, bear the stamp of solemn, austere grandeur. The figures are frozen as it were in solemn poses, and the stony faces, framed in the schematically drawn ringlets of both hair and beard, reiterate the same type again and again.

Depictions of battles and mythological scenes are found in the carving on Assyrian seals and amulets made of semi-precious stones, such as agate, cornelian and chalcedony. The seal, the personal mark of the owner, was used for sealing doors, vessels and large baskets; taking the place of the signature, it ratified orders and treaties. The exhibition also presents Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian and Assyrian carved stones, many of which can rank among the finest masterpieces of the craft. In addition the exhibition introduces relics from neighbouring countries: painted vessels from Elam, Luristan bronze-ware and Phoenician glass.

Two warriors. Relief from a palace in the town of Nimrud. Assyria, 800-700 B.C.

The Hermitage possesses a valuable collection of relics from Palmyra. Situated in Syria at the intersection of trade routes, Palmyra served as the intermediary between the countries of the Orient and the Mediterranean coastlands in the second and third centuries A.D. She reached the height of her power in the third century during the reign of Queen Zenobia, when the fame of the beauty of Palmyrian palaces and gardens spread throughout the world. Rivalry with Rome ended with the defeat of Palmyra and her collapse in the year 273. On display is the famous “Palmyrian Tariff”, a marble slab with a text in Aramaic and Greek expounding the law issued on April 18th,

137 A.D. concerning the levying of duty on goods imported into Palmyra. The Aramaic part of the text is the most important Semitic stone inscription known to science. Also in this room are some second and third century Palmyrian tombstones,- sculptural portraits of the dead carved out of limestone (Khayran, the scribe of a Roman legion, an unknown young woman, and others).

Around 3,200 B.C. a unified, slave-owning state with a Pharaoh at its head took shape in the Nile Valley. During the period of the Old Kingdom (3,000-2,400 B.C.) the basic forms of art came into existance in Egypt. Architecture played the major role among them. At that time colossal edifices were built, such as the tombs of the Pharaohs – the pyramids – and the tombs of the nobility, upon the walls of which reliefs were carved. One such relief, dating back to between 2,500 and 2,400, came from the tomb of the high-ranking dignitary Nimaatra. Arranged in rows, the multifigured composition portrays a great nobleman sitting in front of an altar and making an offering. The figure of Nimaatra, in size much bigger than all the others, is presented in a manner characteristic of Egyptian art – the head and legs in profile, and the schoulders and eyes in full face. The monumental quality, the immobility and the symmetry, typical of the sculpture of the Old Kingdom, are also clearly evident in a sculptural group made of painted limestone portraying the nobleman Wejankhdjes with his wife Inefertef.

Wooden shabti-figures. Egypt, Middle Kingdom

Room 82. The Middle Kingdom (2,100-1,788) is represented in the exhibition by a number of excellent relics. Note panicularly the powerfully impressive statue of black granite representing Pharaoh Amonemhat III which dates from the nineteenth century B.C. The standard immobility of the figure is combined with an expressive rendering of the features and the body muscles. The painted wooden statuettes of servants, oarsmen and ploughmen are remarkable for the great variety of the poses (cases 20 and 22); such shabti-tigures were, according to custom, put into the tombs so that even in the life beyond the grave the servants and slaves could carry out the orders of the nobility.

Statue of Pharaoh Amonemhat III. Egypt, 1,900-1,800 B.C.

The Egyptians invented a material for writing – papyrus, made from the stems of bullrushes growing in the Nile. Before the appearance of parchment and paper papyrus was used by many peoples, not only in ancient times but also in the early Middle Ages. In the exhibition there is a world-famous example of Egyptian secular literature, a papyrus dating back to the nineteenth century B.C. entitled The Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor, and also two papyri from the sixteenth century B.C. copied from more ancient manuscripts – The Instructions of the Pharaoh to His Son Merikare and The Prophecy of Neferti. The first of these contains instructions given to the young emperor concerning the way in which he should govern the nation. The second tells of the rebellion started in Egypt by peasants, craftsmen and slaves about four thousand years ago. A valuable written document from the nineteenth century B.C. has been preserved on the lid of a coffin, in which lay the body of an Egyptian girl; upon the lid is one of the most ancient scripts, the seventeenth chapter of the Book of the Dead, a collection of Egyptian funeral texts.

Rooms 83 and 84. The New Empire (1,580-1,050 B.C.). A bronze dagger blade belonging to Pharaoh Thothmes III, part of a cuneiform tablet bearing the text of the peace treaty between the Egyptians and the Hittites and a relief portraying an Asiatic man bringing tribute (room 84), all remind us of the frequent wars due to which the New Empire obtained slaves and valuable booty. Several cases contain articles demonstrating aspects of everyday life among the Egyptian nobility – musical instruments, dice, vessels for w4ne and incense, bronze mirrors, necklaces, bracelets made of faience and glass, metal ornaments inlaid with gold, semi-precious stones and faience, and miniature figures of animals and scarabs carved from stone. An inscription on one of these states that Amonhotep III during ten years’ rule killed one hundred and two lions while hunting. The monumental sculpture of the New Empire is represented by a statue of the lion-headed goddess Sekhmet (1,500-1,400 B.C.) from the temple of the goddess Mut at Thebes, and by a sculptural group from the fourteenth century B.C. depicting the chief scribe – the Theban ruler Amenemheb, his wife and mother (granite).

Room 85. The Last Period (1,050-332 B.C.) in the history of Egypt is marked by the decline of the nation s power. In 525 B.C. the country was conquered by the Persians, and in 332 by Alexander the Great. In the art of the Late Period small bronze sculptures inlaid with gold and silver became very widespread; see, for example, the bronze statuettes of the seventh century B.C. in cases 111 and 118.

Rooms 86 and 87. The burial cult of ancient Egypt is presented in the form of sarcophagi made of granite and of painted wood, mummies, and vessels for preserving the viscera of the deceased, so-called canopic Jars. Room 87 contains a tablet with funeral prayers for the repose of the deceased’s soul, which for a poor man took the place of a sarcophagus. The tablet was attached to the corpse, which was then wrapped in matting and buried in an outlying part of the cemetery. The bodies of Egyptians of high birth were embalmed. For this purpose, as the authors of antiquity tell us, the body, after the brain and internal organs had been removed, was covered with different salts, saturated in balm, wound in a swathing of linen and then laid in the sarcophagus. In the centre of the room is the mummy of the priest Petese (10th century B.C.) and three sarcophagi successively inserted into one another. In them lay the mummy just mentioned. It was opened some years ago, at which time many thin linen bandages in a good state of preservation were removed. Also displayed in room 87 is the swaddled mummy of Babat, the daughter of the priest, and the embalmed mummies of falcons and a cat, regarded as sacred in ancient Egypt.

Coptic fabric representing Gaea, the goddess of the earth. Egypt, 4th century

In the last rooms of the exhibition, which are devoted to the culture of so-called Graeco-Roman Egypt and of the Coptic period, fragments of some Fayum portraits of the second century A.D. deserve particular attention. At the end of the last century some half-plundered tombs were accidentally found by Arabs in the Fayum oasis; instead of the masks customary in Egyptian burial rites, upon the mummies lay portraits painted in encaustic on canvas or on wood, remarkable for their unusual expressiveness. The exhibition concludes with the world-famous collection of the fourth to sixth century Coptic fabrics of linen, wool and silk.

Bronze figure of a deity. Urartu, 800-700 B.C.

The fortress received a tribute in the form of food-stuffs, collected from the tribes of Transcaucasia, and after processing this was sent to the capital of the state, Tushpa. Buildings were discovered, intended for the production of sesame oil, with heaps of oilcake wastage; a workshop for the brewing of beer, a store-room for grain, where large quantities of barley, wheat, millet and flour were kept, and enormous wine cellars with huge vessels half buried in the earthen floor. It is reckoned that more than four hundred thousand litres of wine could be kept in these vessels. The fortress perished around 585 B.C. after a Scythian raid – bronze Scythian arrow-heads were found in the unkilned bricks of the fortress wall. During the assault a fire broke out, buildings collapsed in the flames, burying beneath them people and various objects. Much bronze-ware was found in Teishebaini – helmets, shields, quivers and ninety-seven bowls. These bowls of sparkling golden bronze produce, when struck, a long-lasting, melodic ring, and in addition each of them, like a bell, had the sound of a particuarr key. The inscribed helmet of emperor Sar-duris II is especially noteworthy; the inscription reads: To the god Khaldis, the protector of Sardurls, from the son of Argistls for his life’s sake. Excavations on the fortress are going on, the items found at Teishebaini being sent to the Armenian Historical Museum and to the Hermitage.

Room 58. Transcaucasia, 3rd century B.C. – 3rd century A.D The items displayed here have come from rich burial-grounds discovered upon the lands of Georgia, Armenia, and Daghestan at the turn of the century.

Exhibited in a number of cases are objects which have been taken from the burial-ground in the village of Bori in the Kutaisi region, among them a collection of first and second century bronze vessels of Roman origin (cabinet 2) and some household articles (case 2, cabinet 4). A magnificent goblet of ruby-coloured glass with a chased silver rim, dating back to the second century A.D., was found near the ancient Georgian capital of Mtskheta (case 6). In cabinet 7 are some locally made clay vessels and others from Syria, made of glass, which were found in graves near the village of Ashnak in Armenia. A large number of gold objects from the same graves are kept in the Gold Room. Set upon a pedestal is the capital of a pillar from the first century temple at Garni near Erevan, one of the most splendid relics of the architecture of antiquity. In cabinet 11 there is a magnificent silver dish (second century A.D.) depicting a Nereid on a sea horse surrounded by Tritons playing in the waves. The dish is of Roman origin and was found in 1893 near the village of Enkighend in Azerbaijan.

Room 59. Transcaucasia, 4th – 8th centuries A. D. Bronze utensils- dishes, censers and pitchers – were brought to the Hermitage in the 1920s from the high mountain village of Kubachi in Daghes-tan and nearby settlements, where for centuries they had been preserved by local inhabitants. This fine collection of bronze-ware occupies an important place among the relics of oriental culture.

Room 60. Northern Caucasus, 1st-10th centuries A.D. The exhibition consists of material from burial-grounds and shrines in Daghe-stan, Northern Ossetia and the area of the Kuban river. These places were inhabited during the first millennium A.D. by tribes of cattle-breeders and farmers whom ancient writers called Alans. Various discoveries, including coins, confirm that the Alans had connections with Rome, Syria, Parthia, Persia, Byzantium, and the Arab caliphate. From the burial-grounds along the Kuban at the site of Mpshche-vaya Balka and the village of Khasaut near Kislovodsk comes a unique collection of fabrics. In cabinet 6 are examples of Daghestan bronze-ware, statuettes used in rituals and open-work buckles of the eighth and ninth centuries. In Northern Ossetia were found some beads made of chalcedony, cornelian and rock crystal, some produced locally, others imported from the northern Black Sea coast-lands and from Asia Minor (cabinet 1); silverware (case 3); and Roman glass bottles for incense (cases 2 and 5). In the same burial-grounds in Northern Ossetia were found some Roman enamel fibulae, and belt buckles of local origin (cabinet 14). The outstanding item in the exhibition is a cup (2nd – 1st century B.C.) apparently made in Alexandria and found near the town of Alozdok. The cup has two walls of transparent glass, between which is a gold-foil design (case 2).

Room 62. Medieval Georgia is represented by a limited number of exhibits, among which should be mentioned a collection of chased silver icon frames of the eleventh – twelfth and fifteenth – eighteenth centuries (cases 2, 4 and 13). Special attention may be drawn to some carved details of architectural ornamentation of the sixth to sixteenth centuries.

Silver dish representing a Nereid on a hippocampus. Azerbaijan, 2nd century A.D.

Room 63. Here there is a much larger collection of items, reflecting the culture of medieval Armenia. From the ancient capital, Dvin, we have some glazed and unglazed ceramics (cabinet 3) and fragments of stucco tiles of the ninth to thirteenth centuries used for decorating interiors (cases 2 and 4). The individual relics originate from the medieval capital of the Armenian kingdom, Ani – for example, fragments of twelfth century frescoes with the representation of the Virgin and Christ, and a stone slab with an inscription in Armenian relating to the erection in 1206 of the Anian fortress gates and towers. Cabinet 13 contains articles found in the fortress of Anberd, excavation work on which was led by J. Orbeli. Special mention should be irade of two twelfth and thirteenth century cast bronze mortars, decorated with plant designs, the figures of running animals and a decorative Arabic inscription.

A number of relics are associated with the Kilikian Armenian kingdom, which existed from the twelfth century up to the fourteenth on the north-eastern shores of the Mediterranean. These items include coins of the Kilikian monarch and a silver, three-panel folding icon made in 1293 in one of the Kilikian monasteries (case 17); a beautifully made silver cup, at the bottom of which is depicted the biblical King David playing the psaltery (case 16); and some Armenian illuminated manuscripts (case 14).

Room 64. Azerbaijan. The items displayed include locally made ceramics from the site of Oren-kala (twelfth and thirteenth centuries) and others imported from Persia-thirteenth century glazed tiles from the tomb of the Moslem saint Pir Hussein in the village of Khaneka in the Azerbaijanian Soviet Socialist Republic.

Room 65. Medieval Daghestan. This room contains a rich collection of twelfth and thirteenth century stone reliefs which adorned buildings, no longer preserved, in the village of Kubachi. One of these buildings was apparently the palace of the ruler, another a mosque. The reliefs are remarkable for the variety of subjects; there are scenes from the life of the peoples, a fight between two horsemen, and representations of fantastic animals and birds. Also of interest is a collection of twelfth and thirteenth century Daghestan bronze cauldrons, decorated with the figures of horsemen and beasts and plant designs similar to the depictions of the stone reliefs.

Rooms 61 and 66 contain examples of the work of Caucasian craftsmen from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century which testify to the close bond between their work and national traditions. These items include some woolen rugs, notable for the richness of design and the fine colour harmony. In cabinets 1 and 3 are some glazed ceramic utensils, and case 28 contains a selection of side-arms. Among the objects made of metal can be singled out two cast bronze candlesticks, made in the seventeenth century, with delicately engraved decorative designs. The art of stone and wood carving is represented by some very interesting examples.

Rooms 35-37. Central Asia, 3rd – 8th centuries A.D. These rooms contain unique examples of the monumental decorative art of the Middle Ages, discovered in recent years at Toprak-kala, Pya-njikent and Varakhsh.

Airtam frieze. Detail. Central Asia, 1st century A.D.

The Toprak-kala excavations, on the lands of ancient Khorezm, unearthed the palace of the third and fourth century rulers of Khorezm, a fortified three-towered castle with state apartments and living and domestic quarters. The rooms were decorated by tinted clay sculptures and murals painted in mineral pigments on clay plaster previously primed with a thin layer of alabaster. From Toprak-kala there are the statue of a woman, fragments of sculptural groups and a fragment of a wall painting entitled Woman with a Harp (room 35).

Ancient Pyanjikent, sixty kilometres from Samarkand in the outskirts of modern Pyanjikent, was the capital of the Sogdian principality in the seventh and eighth centuries. Discovered during excavations were two temples, groups of houses belonging to noblemen, country estates and some excellent works of art. Among these is a fragment of a large frieze of unbaked painted clay, which apparently adorned the colonnade of a temple dedicated to the deity of the river Zeravshan. Represented on the frieze are the inhabitants of an underwater kingdom rising from out of the waves- a Triton with the body of a man and a fish’s tail, a dragon, a dolphin and several others (room 35). Many examples of wooden sculpture were also found at Pyanjikent, the highlight of the collection being the statue of a dancing girl. The Pyanjikent murals produce an indelible impression on the visitor to the museum. Murals in the house of an eminent townsman completely covered the walls of a ceremonial hall, and a fragment of one of them is displayed in room 37. It is twelve metres long (a little over 39 ft.), up to 3.6 metres in height (11.7 ft.), and represents scenes of a narrative character – a warrior on a bay horse leaving for a military campaign, another in a duel with a mounted foe, a third fighting a dragon, and suchlike. Fragments from other murals-The Harp.?r, A Young Man and a Girl on Horses – further add to one’s knowledge of the great artistic skill of the Sogdians, the medieval ancestors of the modern Tadjiks and Uzbeks (room 35).

Mural from the house of an eminent townsman. Pyanjikent, Central Asia, 7th-8th century

Of great interest is the splendid mural painting in the Hall of the Elephants from the palace of the seventh to eighth century ruler of Varakhsh (near Bukhara), an ancient Sogdian town now buried in sand. This painted frieze depicts a file of men mounted on elephants and the tigers, leopards and griffins that are attacking them (room 36). The Varakhsh murals, like those from Pyanjikent, are extremely rare examples of Central Asian monumental art, and were found in a very damaged condition. That the visitor to the Hermitage can admire them on the walls of the museum is to the great credit not only of the archaeologists, but also of the restorers who, with tremendous skill and precision and by means of extremely complicated operations, brought back to life these remarkable relics. In 1932 on the mountain of Mug on the upper reaches of the Zeravshan river, a Tadjik shepherd by chance came across a manuscript written on hide, the first Sogdian document to be found on the territory of Sogdia. In the following year an expedition discovered there the remains of a fortress belonging to prince Divastich, who led the struggle of the Sogdians against the Arabs at the time of the latter s conquest of Central Asia. In the year 722, despite desperate resistance on the part of the Sogdians, the Arabs took their last stronghold, the citadel on Mount Mug. The objects discovered in the citadel are displayed in room 37 and include local and imported silk and cotton materials, parts of a wooden weaving-loom, a delicately made wicker hair-net, the painted shafts of reed arrows, and utensils. A unique relic from the early eighth century, a fragment of a wooden shield covered with leather and bearing a painted design representing the figure of a Sogdian horseman, is on view in room 36, case 3.

A Youth and a Girl on Horses. Mural. Pyanjikent, 7th-8th century

A great deal is learnt of life in Central Asia during the Middle Ages from written relics (room 37). In a horizontal case near the window is a letter written in Arabic by Divastich to the Arab military leader Al-Djarrakh concerning the fate of the two sons of the Sogdian ruler, who had himself committed suicide. There is also here a small stick bearing an inscription which indicates a path through the mountains. Cabinet 3 contains a large silver vessel with an ancient Turkish inscription: A present in exchange for the youngest daughter, Glrlunchuk, the bride, reminding us of the custom, according to which fiances brought “gifts” to the parents of the bride.

Rooms 38-40. Central Asia, 9th – 12th centuries. This exhibition covers almost four centuries, extremely tempestuous in the history of Central Asia. The establishment of Islam after the Arab conquest exercised a pronounced influence upon the nature of art; the realistic representation of man, animals and plants, customary in the art of the pre-Islamic era, gradually gave way to decorative designs, either geometric or stylized floral patterns, with the inclusion of Arabic inscriptions. Similar designs adorned the objects produced by the art crafts which had developed in the towns of Central Asia, prosperous centres of craft industry, trade and culture in the East during the Middle Ages. Among the specimens displayed in rooms 38 and 39 are ceramics unearthed during excavation work on the sites of ancient towns in Central Asia – Peikend, Afrasiab, Munchak-tepe and Taraz. Exhibited in room 39 are examples of ninth to twelfth century bronze, silver and glass ware. Room 40 is devoted to architecture, and of particular note are some unglazed carved tiles which adorned the gates of Samarkand and Uzgent, a manner of decoration widespread in the Central Asian architecture of the tenth to twelfth century. Towards the end of the twelfth century glazed tiles appeared on the scene, one of the earliest examples of which, with a relief Arabic inscription beneath a turquoise glazing, can be seen in the exibition (board 4).

Rooms 46 and 47. The Golden Horde, 13th-14th centuries. The Golden Horde came into existence in the thirteenth century after Batu-Khan’s excursion westwards. It reached the summit of its power in the fourteenth century during the time of Uzbek-Khan; in the fifteenth century it split up into separate khanates. A great many of the items in the exhibition come from the capital of the Golden Horde, Sarai-Berke, the ruins of which are near Volgograd on the banks of the Akhtuba. Excavation work was carried out there between 1843 and 1847. Room 46 (cabinet 7, case 4) contains items of warrior’s equipment and weapons, which were of great importance in a warlike nation such as the Mongol state (see the helmet, sabres, battle-axe, arrow-heads, rings made of bone and used for tightening bowstrings, and the equine apparel).

The numerous objects of art and articles of domestic life were created by craftsmen who had been moved to the Golden Horde capital by force from the conquered lands, including Central Asia, and because of this the Sarai-Berke relics bear a very close resemblance to the relics of Central Asian culture.

The ceramics from Sarai-Berke – glazed pottery (room 46) and brightly coloured mosaic tiles for the facing of buildings (room 47) – are the work of Central Asian potters, a fact which is evident from the shape of the objects, the decorative designs, the colours, and the way in which they were made. The caravan route from Europe to the East passed through Sarai-Berke, and some fragments of Chinese ceramics, Syrian glassware and a marble candlestick from Egypt are among the items reflecting the trade connections of the Golden Horde (room 46). Of great interest is the silver safe-conduct pass (paitsza), which dates back to the fourteenth century and was found in the province of Dnepropetrovsk. It is a permit for unhampered travel on the territory of the Golden Horde, such as was usually given to ambassadors, merchants and foreign travellers. The inscription on the paitsza reads: By the power of the eternal Heavens. With the protection of the great power. Whosoever does not regard with reverence the edict of Abdullah-Khan shall be liable to punishment and shall die (room 47, case 7).

Rooms 48 and 49. Central Asia, 14th-15th centuries. In the second half of the fourteenth century Centrall Asia became the centre of the powerful state of Timur (Tamburlaine), and Samarkand the capital of this most formidable conqueror. Room 48 contains-a very unusual historical document, a stone with the following in scription in Arabic and Mongolian: In ths summer of 793, in the year of sheep, in the middle spring month, the sultan of Turan – Timur-bey – set in out with two thousand troops, for his honour’s sake, against the khan of the Golden Horde-Tokhtamish. The stone, which was found in Kazakhstan, had been placed on the top of a burial-mound erected by order of Timur to commemorate his victory over Tokhtamish in 1391. Artists, architects and craftsmen brought from the conquered lands adorned Samarkand. On display in the exhibition are some tiles and carved slabs of marble and limestone – details of the architectural ornamentation of the Bibi-Khanym Madrasah, the most beautiful building in Samarkand at that time, built at Timur’s orders between 1399 and 1404 (room 48). There are also some tiles, made in different ways, which embellished the walls of the mausoleums in the famous Samarkand Shah-i Zindah complex.

Bronze cauldron. Presented by Timur to the mosque of Khwaja Ahmad Yasevi. Central Asia, 14th century

In room 49 there is a wonderful piece of fifteenth century art – the door of the Gur-Emir mausoleum in Samarkand, where Timur and members of his family are buried. The double door, which is made of juniper wood, is covered with the most exquisite carving and bears the remains of silver, copper, nacre, ebony and rosewood inlaid design. Room 48, contains an enormous cast bronze cauldron. It weighs two tons, is one hundred and sixty centimetres high (63 in.) and has a diameter of two hundred and forty-five centimetres (96 in.). The decorative Arabic inscription which encircles the cauldron in three bands states that it is for water, and it was a gift presented by Timur to the mosque of Khwaja Ahmad Yasevi in the present-day town of Turkestan in the Kazakh Soviet Republic. The words bless thee are repeated below ten times; the year in which the cauldron was made, 1399, is indicated, and the craftsman concerned was a certain Abd al-’Aziz from Tabriz. The inscription on the third band is completely taken up by the repeated Moslem dictum: The kingdom belongs to Allah.

Rooms 51-54. Central Asia, late 18th – early 20th centuries. In the last roorns of the exhibition there are some splendid examples of craft work – famous Central Asian rugs, ceramics from the workshops of Kokand, Khiva, Bukhara and Samarkand, side-arms made by Bukhara and Khiva craftsmen, jewellery, clothes embroidered with gold, and leather goods.