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Lot Essay
Based on Modest Mussorgski's opera, Boris Godunov, set in Russia and Poland in the late sixteenth century, each item of the desk-set depicts scenes taken from the historicacl epic.
The massive inkwell in the purest Pan-Slavic style depicts three boyars (landed Noblemen) discussing the country's fate and being interrupted by Prince Shuiski. The pen tray representing the distraught Boris Godunov holding his face in his hands and the seal has the face of the expressionless Feodor, son of Ivan the Terrible. The lamps represent the conflicting political forces watching the scene from behind the tower.
The cast and chased desk-set is a tours de force of Fabergé with a Russian historical subject in a very pure 19th century Russian style.
The Slavic revival style in Russia started in the 1850's when the Russian intelligentsia and the art community began to explore and revive past Russian forms.
The most well-known art colonies were Alramtseva and Talaskino, where the main purpose was the creation of clothing, furniture, ceramics and utensils using and developing into new concepts early Russian art forms.
In this new cultural context, an atmosphere of Russian historicism appears amongst painters and also in the world of the silversmith especially in Moscow.
The Fabergé Moscow branch used this new trend in producing functional items transforming them, with the help of designers, sculptors and silversmiths, into staggering works of art such as this present desk-set.
Using the lost wax process in its Moscow workshops, Fabergé was able to give new dimensions to the field of historical Russian sculpture which was in the silversmith world at the time.
Fabergé was not only able to use and coordinate the talents of artists from different fields, but he had this unique talent at perceiving the moood of his clientele and using the success of artistic events such as theater or opera which was usually not the main concern of the silversmith world.
In fact, it is worth to notice that the desk-set was produced at the same time when Diaghilev was successful with his opera stages.
Rimski-Korsakov's version of Boris Godunov was staged by Sergei Diaghilev at the Paris Opera with Feodor Chaliapin playing the role of Boris in 1908 and was followed a year later by the production of Rimski-Korsakov's Ivan the Terrible again staged by Diaghilev with sets by Nicholas Roerich.
It is interesting to notice the similarity of the costume worn by Feodor Chaliapin in the Boris Godunov production and the ones cast and chased on the desk-set.
The massive inkwell in the purest Pan-Slavic style depicts three boyars (landed Noblemen) discussing the country's fate and being interrupted by Prince Shuiski. The pen tray representing the distraught Boris Godunov holding his face in his hands and the seal has the face of the expressionless Feodor, son of Ivan the Terrible. The lamps represent the conflicting political forces watching the scene from behind the tower.
The cast and chased desk-set is a tours de force of Fabergé with a Russian historical subject in a very pure 19th century Russian style.
The Slavic revival style in Russia started in the 1850's when the Russian intelligentsia and the art community began to explore and revive past Russian forms.
The most well-known art colonies were Alramtseva and Talaskino, where the main purpose was the creation of clothing, furniture, ceramics and utensils using and developing into new concepts early Russian art forms.
In this new cultural context, an atmosphere of Russian historicism appears amongst painters and also in the world of the silversmith especially in Moscow.
The Fabergé Moscow branch used this new trend in producing functional items transforming them, with the help of designers, sculptors and silversmiths, into staggering works of art such as this present desk-set.
Using the lost wax process in its Moscow workshops, Fabergé was able to give new dimensions to the field of historical Russian sculpture which was in the silversmith world at the time.
Fabergé was not only able to use and coordinate the talents of artists from different fields, but he had this unique talent at perceiving the moood of his clientele and using the success of artistic events such as theater or opera which was usually not the main concern of the silversmith world.
In fact, it is worth to notice that the desk-set was produced at the same time when Diaghilev was successful with his opera stages.
Rimski-Korsakov's version of Boris Godunov was staged by Sergei Diaghilev at the Paris Opera with Feodor Chaliapin playing the role of Boris in 1908 and was followed a year later by the production of Rimski-Korsakov's Ivan the Terrible again staged by Diaghilev with sets by Nicholas Roerich.
It is interesting to notice the similarity of the costume worn by Feodor Chaliapin in the Boris Godunov production and the ones cast and chased on the desk-set.