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Updated November 18, 2002 |
For Immediate Release |
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The Myths of St. Petersburg: Impressions of the City from the Hillwood CollectionAn exhibition celebrating St. Petersburg’s 300th anniversary Hillwood Museum & Gardens, which holds the most comprehensive collection of imperial Russian fine and decorative arts outside Russia, will present its first special exhibition, “The Myths of St. Petersburg: Impressions of the City from the Hillwood Collection.” The exhibit is being staged to honor the 300th anniversary of that city’s founding and will be on view from February 4 through December 31, 2003. Hillwood’s inaugural exhibition—featuring fifty-five objects normally displayed throughout the late Marjorie Merriweather Post’s mansion—will explore St. Petersburg’s symbolic meaning and place in Russian history. It will illustrate the changing culture of Russia as experienced in St. Petersburg, weaving the story of how Russians debated the meaning and importance of this city, its art, and its architecture. Did the city symbolize a path out of “backwardness” toward science, reason, and culture? Or, was it an artificial, even dangerous, graft onto the body of Russia, one that might lead the nation away from its proper political, religious, and cultural destiny? Hillwood’s extensive collection of Russian objects lends itself well to tell this fascinating story. The museum’s board and staff felt obliged to explore this subject because St. Petersburg and its history are so prominent within this unique museum that Mrs. Post created and left to the nation. Further, they felt it was imperative to tell its story in a separate space where visitors could focus entirely on the fascinating history of the city and how Russians interpreted the meaning of its existence. The exhibition will feature some of Hillwood’s most important objects, such as a late-eighteenth-century gold box decorated with a profile portrait of Catherine the Great as Minerva. Catherine II commissioned many representations of herself as Minerva, declaring herself to be an enlightened ruler, a defender of the arts and sciences, and a monarch who continued Peter the Great’s work of modernizing Russia. One of Hillwood’s greatest treasures, a chalice by Iver Windfeldt Buch, will also be featured. Catherine commissioned this magnificent example of neoclassical design for the interior of one of St. Petersburg’s cathedrals, and cut stones from her personal collection adorn its surface. The exhibition’s themes and connections to the Russian imperial art on view in the mansion will be explored in both audio and docent-led tours. Public programming throughout 2003 will provide exhibition-related programs that will include a spring symposium in collaboration with Georgetown University, “Capitals by Design,” focusing on architecture and the arts in St. Petersburg and Washington, D. C. from 1703–2003. In addition, in June, Hillwood will present a White Nights Festival that will feature performing arts influenced by eighteenth-century St. Petersburg. Family programming includes a “Meet the Romanovs” audio tour
created especially for young visitors, with members of the Romanov
family sharing stories about objects in the Hillwood was the Washington residence of Marjorie Merriweather Post (1887–1973), cereal heiress, collector, and philanthropist. Mrs. Post collected art throughout her life, concentrating on the finest French and Russian objects. The collection contains the largest collection of Russian imperial art outside of Russia, as well as a magnificent collection of eighteenth-century French decorative arts. Notable items include imperial eggs by Fabergé, chalices, icons, and liturgical vestments from imperial Russia as well as Beauvais tapestries and Sèvres porcelain from France. Hillwood is set amid twenty-five acres of natural woodlands and formal gardens including a Japanese-style garden and a French parterre. Hillwood is located at 4155 Linnean Ave.,
NW, Washington, D. C. |
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