This fall, visitors to the Georgia Museum of Art have the chance to see objects of Russian art never before shown in public. Highlighting a private collection on long-term loan to the museum, the exhibition Gifts and Prayers: The Romanovs and Their Subjects is on display until Dec. 31.
The House of Romanov ruled imperial Russia for 300 years until the Russian Revolution in 1917, which replaced the tsars with a Communist government. The court created elaborate gifts for military leaders, attendants, noble families and others, as part of a system of patronage that helped it maintain its power. Those gifts make up this display, which includes such treasures as the personal cigar box of Alexander II commemorating his coronation (which features individually painted miniatures covering its top), a miniature Faberge rendition of Peter the Great’s boat, diamond-encrusted brooches worn by ladies of the court, the 1802 Charter of Ennoblement, a luxurious folio volume presented to Lord Durham by Tsar Nicholas I, portraits, statues, photographs of the Romanov family and silver icons.
This exhibition is sponsored by the Fraser-Parker Foundation, the W. Newton Morris Charitable Foundation and the Friends of the Georgia Museum of Art.
