Viktor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov (1848-1926)
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Viktor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov (1848-1926)

Original finished design for the menu of the Coronation Banquet of the Emperor Nicholas II Alexandrovich and his consort Alexandra Feodorovna

Details
Viktor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov (1848-1926)
Original finished design for the menu of the Coronation Banquet of the Emperor Nicholas II Alexandrovich and his consort Alexandra Feodorovna
signed in Cyrillic and dated 'Victor Vasnetsov 1886' (lower right) in pencil and again in pen (lower left)
pencil, ink, watercolour, heightened with gold and silver on paper laid on soft cardboard
37 3/8 x 10½ in. (95 x 26.7 cm.)
Provenance
Private Collection, Paris.
Sotheby's, London, 29 April 1999, lot 208.
Literature
E. Kirichenko, Russian Design and the Fine Arts, London, 1991, p. 152, pl. 138, for the printed menu. The Twilight of the Tsarism, South Bank Centre, March 1991, p. 172, no. 488, for the printed menu.
Copenhagen, The Royal Silver Room, Maria Feodorovna Empress of Russia, 1997, p. 461, for the printed menu.
Special notice
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis

Lot Essay

"Glory to God in Heaven, glory! To our Sovereign in this land, glory! Glory to all the Russian people! Glory to their faithful servants! Glory to their distinguished guests! May truth in Russia be more glorious than the sun, radiant glory! And we sing this praise to our bread, to our bread we sing, to our bred we pay honour, glory! For old people to be comforted, for all good people to hear, glory! Glory for ever and ever, glory!"

To emphasise the sanctity of the event, the 17th Century was evoked, an idealised time before secularisation eroded on a concensus of what is sacred. Vasnetsov was foremost amongst the artists rediscovering the old Russian traditions and was accorded a central place among artists commissioned to celebrate the coronation.

In the upper part of the menu, in an intricate frame formed by a foliate ornament intertwined with the monograms of Their Majesties, "N II" and "A", a scene of the coronation of Michael Feodorovich Romanov based on a depiction from a book published in 1673. Beneath it, a scene of the offering of bread and salt. Below, two peacocks borrowed from Prince Sviatoslav's Izbornik [Miscellany] from 1073. The banquet was held in the Granovitaya Palata in the Kremlin, the menu capturing the public imagination more than any other souvenir of the coronation and was widely reproduced and distributed. A copy of the menu, rolled up and tied with gold cord adorned with gold tassels, aly at each place setting. It occupied a central position in Vasnetsov's ouevre, and in the contemporary Slavophile movement for the rediscovery of ancient Russian forms. It is reproduced in teh two volume Coronation Album both as detail and also as a whole plate.

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