Museums: Exhibition “Carl Fabergé and masters of stone carving. Russian masterpieces of semi-precious stones” launched in Moscow

A unique exhibition which puts on show jewelry masterpieces of Carl Fabergé and his contemporaries “Carl Fabergé and masters of stone carving. Russian masterpieces of semi-precious stones” opened April 6, 2011 at the Moscow Kremlin Museums.

The exhibition highlights unique collections from Moscow Kremlin Museums and other leading museums of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Irkutsk, Yekaterinburg and other cities of Russia.

It brings into focus outstanding artworks made from semi-precious stones from 18th c. up to present day. The exhibition covers not only masterpieces by remarkable Russian jeweler Peter Carl Fabergé, but also precious items executed by his renowned contemporaries Alexei Denisov-Uralsky, Avenir Sumin and Ivan Britsyn who frequently supplied the Court with lapidary articles and minerals. Pieces of workmanship from the Imperial Lapidary Factories of Yekaterinburg, Peterhof and Kolyvan are also on display.

The exposition also features works by the famous French Cartier firm, which was founded under the influence of stone carving works of Russian masters.

The centerpiece of the exposition is Carl Fabergé’s six Imperial Easter eggs from the collection of Moscow Kremlin Museums and Fersman Mineralogical Museum. The firm’s rarest pieces are precious flowers and trees which belong to graceful Objets de Fantaisie genre. Russian collections hold only a few of such masterpieces.

Separately are displayed the works of an outstanding Ural master A.K. Denisov-Uralsky, the author of a truly legendary series “Belligerent powers”, whose stone carved figures allegorically show participating countries of World War I.