RUSSIA vi. Persian Art Collections in Russia

 

RUSSIA

vi. Persian Art Collections in Russia

The collections of Iranian Art in Russia were kept in a number of different towns of the former Soviet Union.  Vladimir G. Lukonin and Anatol A. Ivanov made an attempt in the early 1980s to prepare the publication of a large album called “Treasures of Iranian Art in the Museums of USSR.” The album was ready for publication in 1983, but the process was taking a long time and was eventually suspended due to the breakup of the Soviet Union in the meantime. A shorter version was eventually published under the title of Persian Art (Bournemouth and Saint Petersburg, 1995). The collection of Iranian art in Russia is now kept in the two major cities of Moscow and Saint Petersburg.  There may also be some small collections and individual pieces that are preserved in other towns, but no information about them is available.

MOSCOW

In Moscow the Iranian art collections are preserved in four major museums: (a) The State Museum of Oriental Art; (b) The Kremlin Armory Museum; (c) The State Historical Museum; and (d) The Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts.

А. The State Museum of Oriental Art. The Iranian art objects preserved in this museum date from as early as the 18th century BCE to as late as the 20th century.  The basis of Iranian collection was the pieces originally owned by Ivan P. Stchoukin, which were transferred here from the State Historical Museum. This museum, founded in 1918, was known as Ars Asiatica until 1925, when it was renamed the Museum of Oriental Cultures.  It was known as such until 1962, when the name was changed to the Museum of the Art of the Orient, which remained its designation until 1992. 

Bibliography:

T. H. Enikeeva, “Shest fayansov s lyustrovoi rospisiyu v sobranii GMINV” (Six faiences with luster painting in the collection of State Museum of the Peoples of Orient], in Soobshcheniya Gosudarstvennogo Muzeya Narodov Vostoka I, Moscow, 1969, pp. 11-19.

Anatol A. Ivanov, “Eshche raz o portrete Imam-quli khana” (Once more about the portrait of Emāmqoli Khan], in U. A. Petrosian and V A Romodin, eds., Blizhniĭ i Sredniĭ Vostok: Istoriya, kul’tura, istochnikovedenie: Sbornik stateĭ v chest 70-letiya professora  I. P. Petrushevskogo, Moscow, 1968, pp. 61-66.

N. K. Karpova, “Miniatury iz rukopisi Khamse Nizami 1491 g. v. sobranii Gosudarstvennogo muzeya napodov Vostoka” (Miniatures from the Ḵamsa of Neẓāmi of the Year 1491], in Iskusstvo i archeologiya Irana:  Vsesoyuznaya konferentsiya (1969), Moscow, 1971, pp. 341-47.

Idem, Stankovaya zhivopis Irana XVIII-XIX vekov (Oil painting of Iran in 18th-19th centuries), Moscow, 1973.

Svetlana P. Maslenitsina, “Izraztsy Irana XII-XIV vv. v sobranii GMINV” (Iranian tiles of the 12th-14th centuries in the collection of GMINV), in Soobshcheniya Gosudarstvennogo Muzeya Iskusstva Narodov Vostoka I, Moscow, 1969, pp. 47-56.

Idem, “K atributsii dvukh chash minai iz kollektsii GMINV” (The attribution of two mināyi bowls from the collection of GMINV), in Iskusstvo i archeologiya Irana, Vsesoyuznaya Konferentsiya (1969), Moscow, 1971, pp. 199-206.

Idem, “Spetsifika stilya iranskoĭ keramiki XVIII-XIX vv. (The specifics of the style of Iranian ceramics of the 18th-19th centuries), in Soobshcheniya, Gosudarstvennogo Muzeya Iskusstva Narodov Vostoka 7, Moscow, 1973, pp. 24-40.

Idem, Iskusstvo Irana v sobranii Gosudarstvennogo muzeia iskusstva narodov Vostoka/Persian Art in the Collection of the Museum of Oriental Art, Text in English and Russian, Leningrad, 1975.

O. P. Pasternak and A. V. Nazimova, “Iranskaya zhivopis XIX veka v Rossii - dve kartiny iz sobraniya GMINV” (Iranian Painting of the 19th century in Russia, two pictures from collection of GMINV), in Pamyatniki kultury: Noviye otkrytiya 1995, Moscow 1996, pp. 216-22.

Raisa M. Polikarpova, Tekstil’noe iskusstvo sefevidskogo Irana: iz sobranii muzeev Moskvy i Leningrada: katalog vystavki (Textile art of Safavid Iran: From the collections of the museums of Moscow and Leningrad Catalogue of the exhibition), Moscow, 1980.

Olga V. Rumyantseva, Gosudarstvennyĭ Muzeĭ Narodov Vostoka. Kratkiĭ obzor kollektsiĭ (The State Museum of the Peoples of Orient. A short review of collections), Moscow, 1982, pp. 159-72.

N. V. Sazonova, “Iranskie khudozhestvennyĭ tkani sefevidskoĭ epokhi: k voprosu o technologii proizvodstva (Iranian fabrics of the Safavid period: The question of the technology of production), in Drevniĭ i srednevekovyĭ Vostok, part 2, Moscow, 1988, pp. 307-18.

Idem, Mir sefevidskikh tkanei XVI-XVII veka: Istoriya, estetika, technologiya, ispolzovanie, Katalogue kollektsii GMV (The world of Safavid textiles: Catalogue of the collection of the State Museum of Orient), Moscow, 2004.

T. N. Starodub, “K voprosu o datirovanii i atributsii keramiki s sine-chornoĭ rospisiyu (For the question of the dating of ceramics with blue and black painting), in Iskusstvo i archeologya Irana: II-ya Vsesoyuznaya konferentsiya, 19-23 noyabriya 1973 goda, Moscow, 1976, pp. 206-17.

Ivan P. Stchoukine, Persidskiya veshchi Stchukinskogo sobraniya (Persian objects from Stchoukine’s collection), Moscow, 1907.

В. The State Armory, Kremlin. This museum has very important objects of the Safavid period, mostly textiles and arms.  The total quantity of these objects is not known.  No general catalogue of Iranian objects exists.  Some pieces have been published in various guides, albums, and articles.

Bibliography:

N. V. Gordeev. “Oruzhie (Arms), Oruzheinaya Palata, Moscow, 1964, pp. 11-72.

Vladimir Lukonin and Anatol A. Ivanov, Persian Art, Saint Petersburg, 1995, nos. 179-80, 185, 200, 202, 206, 216 -17, 219-20, 231-32, 251.

Valentina I. Markova, Dragotsennye tkani, (Precious textiles, Moscow, 1971.

F. Y. Mishukov, “Zolotaya nasechka i inkrustatsiya na drevnem vooruzhenii (Gold inlay and incrustation on old arms), Gosudarstvennaya Oruzheinaya palata Moskovskogo Kremliya, Moscow 1954.

Putevoditel po vystavke iranskogo i turetskogo iskusstva XVI-XVII vv. (The guide to the exhibition of Iranian and Turkish art of the 16th-17th centuries), Moscow. 1960.

F. G. Solntsev and L. P. Akovlev, Drevnosti Rossiĭskogo gosudarstva (Antiquities of the Russian State), part 3, Moscow, 1853.

I. I. Vishnevskaya, Sokrovishcha prikladnogo iskusstva Irana i Turtsii XVI-XVIII vv katalog (The catalogue of the treasures of applied art of Iran and Turkey of the 16th-18th centuries), Moscow, 1979.

Idem, “K voprosu ob atributsii tkani sakkosa mitropolita Dionisiya” (The question of attribution of textile of the garment of Metropolitan Dionisius), in Proizvedeniya russkogo i zarubezhnogo iskusstva  XVI - nachala XVII veka: Materialy i issledovaniya, Moscow, 1984, pp. 83-95.

Idem, “Gruppa predmetov paradnogo konskogo ubranstva iranskoĭ raboty XVI-XVII vekov iz sobraniya muzeev Kremlia” (A group of horse trappings of Iranian workmanship of the 16th-17th cents. in the collections of the Museums of the Kremlin), Muzeĭ Kremliya: Materialy i issledovaniya Novye Attribuzii, Mosow, 1987.

Idem, “Istoriko-khudozhestvennoe znachenie Iranskikh tkanei Oruzheinoĭ Palaty: Avtoreferat kandidatskoĭ dissertatsii” (Historical and artistic significance of Iranian textiles of the State Armory; abstract of a Ph.D. diss., Moscow, 1986), in Gosudarstvennaya Oruzheinaya Palata, Moscow, 1988.

Idem, “Vo utvezhdeniye druzhby … Posolskiye dary russkim tzariam” (“In the name of Friendship …” Ambassadors’ gifts to Russian tsars), in Catalogue of the Exhibibition, Moscow, 2005.

Idem, “Vera i vlast: Epokha Ivana Groznogo” (The faith and power: The epoch of Ivan the Terrible), in Catalogue of the Exhibition, Moscow, 2007.

“The Tsars and the East: Gifts from Turkey and Iran in the Moscow Kremlin,” in Catalogue of the Exhibition, Washington, D.C., 2009.

Idem, “Stikhar Moskovskogo svyatitelya Alexeya, mitropolita Kievskogo i vseya Rusi (A garment of the priest Alexei, metropolitan of Kiev and all Russia), in Moskovskiĭ Kreml 14: Stoletiya drevnie svyatyni i istoricheskie pamyatniki, Moscow, 2009, pp. 321-28.

Idem, “Privozniye dragozennye tkani v sobranii muzeev Moskovskogo Kremliya” (Imported valuable textiles in the collection of the Museums of the Moscow Kremlin), Materialy i issledovaniya Gosudarstvennyĭ Muzeĭ Zapo Vednik Moskovskiĭ Kreml XX, Moscow, 2010, pp. 112-25.

C.  The State Historical Museum. This museum has some quantity of Iranian objects, metalwork, textiles, arms and a large collection of Iranian coins of different periods.  Only a few pieces have been published.

Bibliography

Phyllis Ackerman, “Persian Weaving Techniques: History,” in A Survey of Persian Art, 3rd ed., Tehran, 1977, V, pp. 2175-220.

Vladimir Klain, “Persian Weaving Techniques: Two Ṣafavid Figural Satins,” in A Survey of Persian Art, 3rd ed., Tehran, 1977, V, pp. 2221-26.

Vladimir Lukonin and Anatol Ivanov, Persian Art, Bournemouth and Saint Petersburg, 1995, nos. 53, 68, 70.

D.  The Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. The name commemorates the noted poet Alexander S. Pushkin (1799-1837). The collection of Iranian art objects at this large institution must be quite small; only one piece has been published so far. The museum’s renovation and growth continues. See, e.g., “The Fund of support and development of scientific and cultural programs under the name Sh. Mardjani,” in Devyanosto devyat imen Vsevyshnego. Klassicheskoe iskusstvo islamskogo mira IX-XIX vv (Ninety nine names of the Allmighty: Classical art of the Islamic world, 9th-19th centuries; papers of the conference held in 2013), Moscow, 2013.

Bibliography: 

Vladimir Lukonin and Anatol Ivanov, Persian Art, Bournemouth and Saint Petersburg, 1995, no. 23.

SAINT PETERSBURG

The collections of Iranian artworks in Saint Petersburg are kept in three museums and two libraries:  (а) the State Hermitage Museum; (b)  the State Museum of Ethnology; (с)  the State Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography;  (d)  the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts (previously Saint Petersburg Branch of the Institute of Orientology of the Academy of Sciences); (е) the National Library of Russia (previously the State Public Library by the name M. E. Saltykov-Sshchedrine).

A. The State Hermitage Museum.  The collections of the Hermitage Museum have already been described (see HERMITAGE MUSEUM). There has been no significant addition to the collections during last ten years. A number of objects have been published in various exhibition catalogues and articles, as listed below.  Only one catalogue about Iranian painting has been published (Adamova).

Bibliography

Adel T. Adamova, Persia: Thirty Centuries of Art and Culture, Hampshire, U.K., and Amsterdam, 2007 (Catalog of an exhibition in the Hermitage Amsterdam, March 31-September 16, 2007).

Idem, Persidskie rukopisi, zhivopis i risunok XV-nachala XX vekov v sobranii Ermitazha (Persian manuscripts, painting and drawings from the 15th to the beginning of the 20th century CE in the collection of the Hermitage), Saint Petersburg, 2010.

Idem, Persian Manuscripts, Paintings and Drawings from 15th to the early 20th Century in the Hermitage Collection, tr. J. M. Rogers, London, 2012.

Iran v Ermitazhe: Formirovanie kollektsii (Iran in the Hermitage: the formation of the collection), Saint Petersburg. 2004.

Anatol A. Ivanonv, “Muhammad hakkak - Iranskii mednik XIX veka” (Muhammad hakkak - Iranian coppersmith of the 19th century), in Ermitazhnie chteniya pamyati B. B. Piotrovskogo (14.II.1908 - 15.X.1990), Tezisy dokladov, Saint Petersburg, 2000, pp. 25-26.

Idem, “Bronze cauldron with the name of Mahmud ibn al-Ḥasan  al-Qazwini,” in Maria V. Fontana and Bruno Genito, eds., Studi in onore di Umberto Scerrato per il suo settantacinquesimo compleanno, Naples, 2003, pp. 479-84. 

Idem, “A Second ‘Herat’ Bucket and Its Congeners,” Muqarnas 21, 2004, pp. 171-79. 

Idem, “O nadpisi na bronzovoi kurilnitse XI veka” (About the inscription on a bronze incense burner of the 11th century), Trudy Gosudarstvennogo Ermitazha 39, Saint Peresburg 2008, pp. 52-59.

Idem, “Pechat velikogo knyaziya Konstantina Nikolaevicha (The Seal of Grand Duke Constantine Nicolavich), Soobshcheniya Gosudarstvennogo Ermitazha 67, Saint Petersburg, 2009, pp. 65-67.

Idem, “Raboty Iranskogo mednika XII veka Abu Nasra (The works of an Iranian coppersmith of the 12th century), Soobshcheniya Gosudarstvennogo Ermitazha 68, Saint Petersburg, 2010, pp.16-19.

Mikhail B. Piotrovsky, Zemnoe iskusstvo - nebesnaya krasota: iskusstvo islama/Earthy Art, Heavenly Beauty: Art of Islam, Saint Petersburg, 2000 (catalog of an exhibition held at the Hermitage, Saint Petersburg, June 13-September 17, 2000).

Mikhail B. Piotrovsky and J. Michael Rogers, Heaven on Earth: Art from Islamic Lands: Works from the State Hermitage Museum and the Khalili Collection, Catalogue of the Exhibition held in London, Munich, 2004

Mikhail B. Piotrovsky and Anton D Pritula, Beyond the Palace Walls: Islamic Art from the State Hermitage Museum, Islamic Art in a World Context, Edinburgh, 2006.

Idem, Vo dvortsakh i shatrakh: Islamskii mir ot Kitaya do Evropy, Katalog vysatvki (In palaces and Tents: The Islamic world from China to Europe, Catalogue of exhibition), Saint Petersburg, 2008 (Catalogue of an exhibition held at Gosudarstvennyĭ Ermitazh, Saint Petersburg, February 14-September 7, 2008).

B.  The State Museum of Ethnology.  This Museum holds a good number of Iranian art objects, including metalwork, textiles, and carpets, but only a few pieces have been published.

Bibliography:

Vladimir Lukonin and Anatol A. Ivanov, Persian Art, Bournemouth and Saint Petersburg, 1995, nos. 87, 112, 144, 223.

C.  The State Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of the Academy of Sciences.  The collection of Iranian ethnographical materials kept at this museum are from the 19th and early 20th centuries, but none of them has yet been published.

D. The Institute of Oriental Manuscripts (formerly known as the Saint Petersburg Branch of the Institute of Orientology of the Academy of Sciences). The Institute holds a collection of about one thousand Iranian Miniatures from the 15th to the 19th century, but only a few examples have so far been published.

Bibliography:

Oleg F. Akimushkin and Anatol A. Ivanov, Persidskie miniatyury XIV-XVII vv. (Persian miniatures from the 14th to the 17th century), Moscow, 1968.

Larissa N. Dodkhudoeva, “Dve rukopisi Khamse Nizami iz sobraniya LO IV AN SSSR (Two Ḵamsa of Neẓāmi),” in Pismennye pamyatniki i problemy istorii i kultury narodov Vostoka: XII Godichnaya nauchnaya sessiya LO IV AN SSSR, pt. 1, Moscow, 1977, pp. 107-12.

Leon T. Gyuzal’yan and Mikhail M. D’yakonov, Iranskie Miniatury v rukopisyakh Shakh-Name leningradskikh sobraniǐ (Iranian miniatures in the Šāh-nāma manuscripts in the Leningrad collections), Moscow and Leningrad, 1935.

Anatol A. Ivanov, “Persian Miniatures,” in The St. Petersburg Muraqqa: An Album of Indian and Persian Miniatures from the 16th through the 18th Century and Specimens of Persian Calligraphy by Imad al-Hasani, Milan, 1996, pp. 33-38. 

E.  The National Library of Russia.  This library, known as the State Public M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin Library in the Soviet era, has a collection of more than a thousand Iranian miniatures from the 16th to the 19th century as well as a number of manuscripts with very fine bindings. 

Bibliography:

Adel T. Adamova, “O persidskom khudozhnike XVIII veka Muhammade Bakire (About a Persian painter of the 18th century, Moḥammad-Bāqer), Soobstcheniya Gosudarstvennogo Ermitazha 51, Leningrad, 1986, pp. 55-59.

Idem,  “O dvukh lakovykh perepletakh 18 veka iz sobraniya Rossiiskoĭ Natsionalnoĭ Biblioteki (About two laquered bindings of  the 18th century from the collection of the Russian National Library), Vostochnyĭ sbornik, Vypusk 6, Saint Petersburg, 2003, pp. 200-206.

Adel T. Adamova and Leon T. Gyuzal’yan, Miniatury rukopisi poemy Shakhname 1333 goda, (The miniatures of the Šāh-nāma of 1333), Leningrad, 1985.

Oleg F. Akimushkin and Anatol Ivanov, Persidskie miniatyury XIV-XVII vv. (Persian miniatures from the 14th to the 17th century), Moscow, 1968.

Idem, “Kazi Ahmad o spiske sochineniya Abd ar-Rahmana Dzhami Lavaikh (Qāżi Aḥmad about the manuscript of Abd-al-Raḥmān Jāmi’s Lawāyeḥ),” in U. A. Petrosian and V. A. Romodin, eds., Blizhniĭ i Sredniĭ Vostok: istoriya, kultura, istochnikovedenie Sbornik stateĭ v. chest 70-letiya professora I. P. Petrushevskogo, Moscow, 1969, pp. 22-26.

Idem, “Zametki o spiske (Dorn 312) sochineniya Muhammada al-Viramini Ahsan al-kibar fi maarifat aimma al-athar iz sobraniya Rossiiskoĭ Natsionalnoĭ Biblioteki” (Notes about the work [Dorn 312] of Moḥammad al-Varāmini, Aḥsan al-kebār fi maʿrefat aʾemmat al-āṯār), in Iranskoe yazikoznanie i tipologiya yazykovykh situatsii, Sbornik stateĭ k 75-letiyu professora A. L. Gryunberg (1930-1995), Saint Petersburg, 2006, pp. 220-28.

Idem,  “Khudozhnik Kasim ibn Ali i spisok sochineniya al-Viramini Ahsan al-kibar iz Rossiiskoĭ Nitsionalnoĭ Biblioteki (DORN 312)” (The painter Qāsem b. Ali and the manuscript of the work al-Varāmini, Aḥsan al-kebār, from the Russian National Library), in Sovremennaya iranistika na Severnom Kavkaze: Materily mezhdunarodnoi nauchnoi konferentsii, Makhachkala, 2006, pp. 76-77.

Idem, “O miniaturakh Ahsan al-kibar Ardebilskogo sobraniya” (About the miniatures of Aḥsan al-kebār from the Ardabil collection), Vostochnye rukopisi: Materialy Mezhdunarodnoĭ nauchnoĭ konferentsii, Saint Petersburg, 14-16 iyunya 2005 g., Saint Petersburg, 2008, pp. 19-29.

Oleg F. Akimushkin and Anatol A. Ivanov, “The Art of Illumination,” in Basil Gray and Oleg F. Akimushkin, eds., The Arts of the Book in Central Asia, 14th-16th centuries, Boulder, Col., and Paris, 1979, pp. 35-57.

Larissa N. Dodkhudoeva, “O dvukh stiliyakh miniatur Khamse Nizami (PNS 370) (About of two styles of miniatures of Ḵamsa of Neẓāmi),” Pismennye pamyatniki i problemy istorii kultury narodov Vostoka XIII, godichnaya naychnaya sessiya LO IVAN SSSR (kratkie soobstcheniya), October 1977, Moscow, 1977, pp. 83-86.

Idem, “Miniatury Khamse Nizami (Dorn 339) i vremiya ikh sozdaniya” (Miniatures of Ḵamsa of Neżāmi (Dorn 339) and the time of its creation), Problemy istorii stran Blizhnego i Srednego Vostoka, Moscow, 1979.

O. I. Galerkina, “On Some Miniatures Attributed to Bihzad from Leningrad Collections,” Ars Orientalis, 8, 1970, pp. 121-38.

Idem, “Miniatura s izobrazheniem Alishera Navoi i Sultan Husaina v shkole (iz sobraniya GPB v Leningrade” (The miniature with the representation of Ali-Šir Navāʾi and Sultan Ḥosayn in the school), Kamaladdin Behzad [in commemoration of the 525th anniversary of the artist’s death), Tashkent, 1984, pp. 55-60.

Dzhamilia Gasanzade, “Miniatury rukopisi Gui i chougan 1524 goda” (The miniatures of the manuscript Guy o čowgān of 1524), Izvestiya Akademii Nauk Azerbaidzhanskoi SSR, Seriya literatury, yazika i iskusstva, Baku, 1981, pp. 94-101.

Leon T. Gyuzal’yan and Mikhail M. D’yakonov, Iranskie Miniatury v rukopisyakh Shakh-Name leningradskikh sobraniǐ (Iranian miniatures in the Šāh-nāma manuscripts in the Leningrad collections), Moscow and Leningrad, 1935.

Anatol A. Ivanov, “O miniatiyurakh divana Alishera Navoi (TNS 57)” (About the miniatures of the divān of Ali-Šir Navāʾi), Vostochnyĭ sbornik 5, Saint Petersburg, 1993, pp. 139-42.

K. Kerimov, “Miniatury rukopisi Dzhami at-tavarikh iz sobraniya GPB imeni, Saltykova-Shchedrina” (Miniatures of the manuscript Jāmeʿ al-tawāriḵ), Izvestiya Akademii nauk Azerbaidzhanskoi SSR, Seriya literatury, yazika i iskusstva, Baku, 1968, no. 3, pp. 119-33.

O. V. Vasilieva, “Cheĭ Album? Istoriya odnogo poiska” (To whom belongs the album? The history of one search), Vostochnaya kollektsiya  2/17, Moscow, 2004, pp. 28-41.

Idem, “Tri portreta na odnoĭ miniature (Alisher Navoi, Sultan Husain Baikara i Keldy  Muhammad) (Three  portraits on one miniature [ʿAli-Šir Navāʾi, Sultan Ḥosayn Bāyqarā, and Keldi Moḥammad]), in N. N. D’yakov and A. A. Zhukov, eds., Mezhdunarodnaya nauchnaya konferentsiya, Vostokovedenie i afrikanistika v universitetakh Sanct Peterburga, Rossii, Evropy 4-6 aprelia 2006 goda. K 150-letiyu Vostochnogo fakulteta SPb GU, Saint Petersburg, 2006, pp. 292-93.

O. V. Vasilieva and O. F. Akimushkin, Persidskiĭ lakovyĭ pereplet XVI veka (Persian laquered bindings of the 16th century), Saint Petersburg, 1994.

(Anatol A. Ivanov)

Originally Published: December 6, 2016

Last Updated: December 6, 2016

Cite this entry:

Anatol A. Ivanov, “RUSSIA vi. Persian Art Collections in Russia,” Encyclopædia Iranica, online edition, 2016, available at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/russia-06-art (accessed on 06 December 2016).