Lot Essay
This pair of gilt-bronze candelabra from the Kremlin Palace, with inventory nos. 725 and 726, illustrate two of the most historic suits of Russian armour in the Moscow Kremlin Armoury Palace. The Armoury Palace was the storehouse of the Tsars, including at times their foundry, an icon-painting workshop, as well as their treasure house. Although housed in various buildings until the early 19th Century, the first museum was built by order of Alexander I in 1810, but on Napoleon's invasion the contents were rapidly evacuated to Nizhnii Novgorod. In 1851, on the orders of Nicholas I a new building was constructed near the Borovitskii Gate, designed by Konstantin Ton, the architect of the New Grand Kremlin Palace, the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, and the Mariinskii Palace in St. Petersburg.
These candelabra, most probably designed by the artist and archaeologist Feodor Solntsev using the 'Neo-Russian' style favoured by the Tsar, to commemorate the reconstruction of the Armoury Palace, illustrate armour based on Turkish designs displayed in the Armoury.
The figure on the right shows the mail shirt (kol'chuga) made for Prince Petr Ivanovich Shuiskii (who was killed at Smolensk in 1564) and later the gift of Ivan IV the Terrible to the Conqueror of Siberia Ermak (see: The State Armoury Palace of the Moscow Kremlin, Collection of Scholarly Works, Moscow, 1954, p. 70, and illustrated p. 72), with later plate armour (iushman) secured by leather straps, arm armour and the partly twisted fluted helmet made by Feodor Konstantinov circa 1643 (see: idem, pl. 30).
On the left figure is shown embossed mirror armour (zertsalo), and breastplate with the Byzantine double-headed eagle in the centre, the work of Grigorii Viatkin in 1670 (see idem, p. 108, pl. 30, and E. I. Smirnova, Museums of the Moscow Kremlin, Moscow, 1993, pl. 93). The remainder of the armour on this figure, especially the helmet, is very similar to that made for the first Romanov Tsar, Mikhail Feodorovich (1613-1642), and was made by Nikita Davydov. Both figures are as the armour was displayed
These candelabra, most probably designed by the artist and archaeologist Feodor Solntsev using the 'Neo-Russian' style favoured by the Tsar, to commemorate the reconstruction of the Armoury Palace, illustrate armour based on Turkish designs displayed in the Armoury.
The figure on the right shows the mail shirt (kol'chuga) made for Prince Petr Ivanovich Shuiskii (who was killed at Smolensk in 1564) and later the gift of Ivan IV the Terrible to the Conqueror of Siberia Ermak (see: The State Armoury Palace of the Moscow Kremlin, Collection of Scholarly Works, Moscow, 1954, p. 70, and illustrated p. 72), with later plate armour (iushman) secured by leather straps, arm armour and the partly twisted fluted helmet made by Feodor Konstantinov circa 1643 (see: idem, pl. 30).
On the left figure is shown embossed mirror armour (zertsalo), and breastplate with the Byzantine double-headed eagle in the centre, the work of Grigorii Viatkin in 1670 (see idem, p. 108, pl. 30, and E. I. Smirnova, Museums of the Moscow Kremlin, Moscow, 1993, pl. 93). The remainder of the armour on this figure, especially the helmet, is very similar to that made for the first Romanov Tsar, Mikhail Feodorovich (1613-1642), and was made by Nikita Davydov. Both figures are as the armour was displayed