“Russia Engages the World” Exhibition Revised and Extended at The New York Public Library

New York, NY, February 10, 2004 -- With books, manuscripts, and other works on paper drawn exclusively from the collections of The New York Public Library, Russia Engages the World, 1453-1825 traces Russia’s development from the insular realm of Muscovy into a global empire and highlights its relationships with western, central, and northern Europe, as well as Asia, the great Muslim empires, and the Americas. The exhibition was originally on view through late January, however a revised version will open February 20 2004, in the Library’s D. Samuel and Jean H. Gottesman Exhibition Hall, where it can be seen through May 22. Russia Engages the World is on display at The New York Public Library’s Humanities and Social Sciences Library at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. Admission is free. The Library has also published a companion volume to the exhibition with Harvard University Press and developed a special exhibition website at russia.nypl.org.

A Kalmyk horseman. Hand-colored engraving from: The Costume of the Allied Armies in Paris in the Year 1815. [Paris, 1816]. Spencer Collection.

“During its initial run Russia Engages the World was viewed by more than 90,000 visitors,” said Library President Paul LeClerc, “making it one of our most popular exhibitions of the last several years. The exhibition not only provides an informative view of an era of sweeping change in Russia, but also serves as a bridge between the Library and a diverse range of local and international constituencies.” Although the reconfigured exhibition will utilize only the larger of the two galleries in which the original was displayed, the new version will feature some two-dozen items, including several recent acquisitions to Library collections, that were not displayed in the earlier run of the show. These include a rare European diplomat’s illustrated account of Peter the Great’s torture and execution of his mutinous musketeers and a rare 18th-century stipple engraving depicting the death of Catherine the Great’s lover, Potemkin.

The exhibition features approximately 230 items, many of which are being shown for the first time. In addition to materials from thirteen divisions of the Library, a small selection of decorative and fine art items loaned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, A La Vieille Russie, the American Numismatic Society, and private lenders is also included. “Most Americans know something about Tsar Nicholas II and the rise of the Soviet Union, but fewer know about Russia prior to the 20th century,” says Edward Kasinec of the Slavic and Baltic Division. Kasinec is co-curator of the exhibition, with Robert H. Davis, Jr. of the Library’s Slavic and Baltic Division and Professor Cynthia Hyla Whittaker of Baruch College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, in consultation with twelve other scholars. “And while many have heard of Catherine the Great or Peter the Great, it is often in relation to their imperial or personal excesses. The exhibition will expand the audience’s appreciation of Russian and world history and culture before, during, and after the dynamic reigns of Ivan the Terrible, Peter I, and Catherine II-as well as dazzle visitors with the sheer beauty of the materials that document the times.”

Russia Engages the World
The exhibition unfolds in the grand space of the D. Samuel and Jeane H. Gottesman Exhibition Hall, where the display is oriented around the points of the compass, to correspond with the realms examined in the exhibition. More than a third of the works shown are in languages other than Russian, underscoring the cultural exchanges that were taking place during the time period covered. More than 15 languages are represented, including Mandarin Chinese, Persian, and Ottoman Turkish in addition to English and other European languages.

Muscovy, A Distant World
In 1453, when Constantinople (present-day Istanbul) fell to the Ottoman Turks, Russia was truly a distant world in every sense. Christianized in the 10th century by missionaries, the Eastern Slavs adopted the sacred art, music, and traditions of the Orthodox church of the Byzantine Empire, centered on Constantinople. In the 15th century,  the nascent state of Muscovy assumed the mantle of the only remaining true Orthodox realm. Until the mid-17th century Muscovite Russia would effectively maintain the isolation that prevailed under Mongol rule during the 13th and 14th centuries.

The exhibition begins with items evoking the isolated realm of Muscovy in the middle ages. The importance of Orthodox Christianity in the remote environs is illustrated with a 15th-century manuscript of the Gospels and a remarkable, hand-colored 1606 printed edition of the Gospels believed to have originally belonged to the Moscow Patriarch (later saint) Germogen. A selection of chants and liturgical music from the period can be heard on individual headsets in the gallery.

Russia’s isolation gradually came to an end as curious foreigners braved the distance to penetrate the kingdom and publish accounts of their travels. A fine example is the account of the journeys of Adam Olearius, Ambassador of the Grand Duchy of Holstein, to Muscovy in the 1630s. It is open to an engraving of Olearius being presented to the Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich in the Kremlin, a scene almost unchanged from a similar presentation recorded by a Danish visitor nearly a century before. By the 17th century, however, the Tsars of Muscovy were significant players on the east European and Eurasian stage. They expanded their territories west of the Urals and east to conquer Siberia, reaching the shores of the Pacific Ocean.

Peter the Great and St. Petersburg
Russia underwent a metamorphosis during the reign of Peter the Great (r. 1682?1725). Peter overturned the old order and devised a blueprint to bring his realm up to the technological and cultural standards of western European countries. In 1703 he founded St. Petersburg, personally overseeing the construction and moved his capital from the ancient city of Moscow to the new city, which bore his name. Russia’s only warm water port, the cosmopolitan capital of St. Petersburg embodied not only Russia’s new cultural identity but its imperial aspirations as well.

The growth of St. Petersburg is represented in maps and rare engravings depicting the majestic expanse of the city, including fine prints by the 18th-century artist and engraver Mikhail Makhaev. In contrast to these are three late 18th-century etchings of the Moscow Kremlin by the Italian artist Francesco Camporesi. A Dutch atlas (1703-1704) by hydrographer Cornelius Cruys is open to the allegorical title page showing the foot of a youthful Tsar Peter resting on the maroon and gold crescent ensign of the Ottoman Empire, an allusion to Peter’s capture of the Crimean city of Azov from the Ottomans.

From 1725 to 1801, the throne changed hands eight times, and in six instances succession crises erupted, with four coups d’état and two assassinations. The most dramatic of these occurred in 1762 when Catherine II overthrew her husband, Peter III, who had ruled for only six months.

Catherine the Great
Catherine II, better known as Catherine the Great (r. 1762-96), brought Peter the Great’s projects for europeanizing Russia to successful conclusion and confirmed Russia’s status as an imperial power. During her reign the empire expanded to the Black Sea, the Crimea, the Caucasus, and into Poland, partitioning the country with Austria and Prussia. An enlightened absolute monarch, Catherine the Great was inspired by the ideas of the French Enlightenment, and she corresponded with Voltaire and Diderot and other philosophes. Her reign saw a flowering of arts and letters in Russia; Catherine herself authored about two dozen plays.

The section of the exhibition devoted to Catherine the Great’s reign occupies the central portion of Gottesman Hall. Among the highlights is Diversity and Pleasure, a rare late 18th-century Russian manuscript collection of poetry and prose inscribed to “Her Imperial Highness, Grand Duchess Ekaterina Alekseevna,” the empress-to-be. Many items illustrate the pageantry of the court, among them an engraving depicting the coronation banquet of Catherine II. Exemplifying Catherine’s largesse toward supporters is an Imperial Charter granting privileges and lands. Richly illuminated, and displayed with box and seal, this document is signed by the empress. Another of Catherine’s gifts is a splendid Altar Gospels-a book held aloft during the liturgy to be seen by the entire congregation-given to the Monastery of Aleksandro-Nevsky. Bound in gilded silver with enameled medallions of Christ and the Evangelists surrounded by green stones, it is a rare survivor of the Bolshevik Revolution, when such objects were often stripped of their precious jewels and metal ornaments, which were melted down.

Russian Exploration and Engagement with Muslim Empires
During Catherine’s reign, Russia launched numerous expeditions to explore its eastern territories, and in the early 19th century several Russian explorers circumnavigated the globe. Many expeditions employed foreign scholars to document the flora, fauna, and native peoples they encountered. Of special note are Ludovik Choris’s colorful ethnographic depictions of Pacific Islanders.

Russians had interacted commercially and culturally with peoples of the east, since the formation of their first state in the ninth century. Although under Peter and Catherine encounters with the Islamic world were primarily military or diplomatic, a Romantic fascination still persisted, which found expression in maps, travel literature, music, and engravings depicting the Ottoman Empire, Persia, and India as lands of splendor and mystery. Russia Engages the World features many items that document interactions with Muslim cultures, including a 1686 royal property charter granted for service in the war with the Turkish Sultan and the Crimean Khan, and an album of watercolors, ca. 1829, documenting Ottoman costume of the era.

The end date of the exhibition’s chronological span, 1825, corresponds to the death and end of the reign of Catherine’s grandson Tsar Alexander I (r. 1801-25). Alexander’s victory over France led to the emergence of a proud and self-confident Russia, a vast, multiethnic empire at the pinnacle of its glory. The year 1825 ended with the warning shots of the Decembrist Revolt, an initial attempt to force the pace of domestic reform. The suppression of this revolt began a century of unrest that would culminate in the end of the Romanov dynasty and the ushering in of the Soviet regime. Since 1991, a new Russia has signaled a return to some of the trends described in this exhibition, with Russia once again identifying itself as an integral part of the European family of nations and a participant in the endeavors of the entire global community.

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Russia Engages the World, 1453-1825 will be on view from February 20 through May 22, 2004, at The New York Public Library, Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street, in the D. Samuel and Jeane H. Gottesman Exhibition Hall. Exhibition hours are Tuesday and Wednesday from 11:00 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.; Thursday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.; closed Sundays, Mondays, and national holidays. Admission is free. For more information about exhibitions at The New York Public Library, the public may call 212.869.8089 or visit the Library’s website at www.nypl.org.

Free Docent-led tours of Russia Engages the World are available daily at 12:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. Group tours are available by appointment; call 212.930.0501 for reservations and fees.

Major underwriting support for this exhibition has been provided by a generous gift from The Boris Jordan Family.

Additional support has been provided by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Special thanks to Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, the Trust for Mutual Understanding, Jacqueline and John P. Rosenthal, Irwin T. and Shirley Holtzman, Grace Allen, Mrs. Daniel P. Davison, The Harriman Institute at Columbia University in the City of New York, and an anonymous donor, for generous gifts in support of this exhibition.

Support for The New York Public Library’s Exhibitions Program has been provided by Pinewood Foundation and by Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III.

Press Contact: Herb Scher, 212.221.7676.

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