Showcase 46 (continuation). Pictorial artistic embroidery

With the official adoption of Christianity in 988, together with the art of fresco and icon-painting Russia received the art of pictorial embroidery; the aim of which was to depict saints and subjects from the Old and New testaments. Specimens of embroidery represented in the showcase bear an inscription containing the name of the person who commissioned the article and sometimes of the embroiderers too, as well as the date and place where it was made, thereby providing valuable historical information. Designs for embroidery were executed by special artists; fabric was decorated as a real masterpiece of art with delicate combination of background of various stitches with silk threads, pearls, precious stones and gold.

The Kremlin Museums possess about two hundred works of pictorial embroidery. They include liturgical objects, such as altar cloths, veils and shrouds. The content of the embroidery was determined by the object's function. Shrouds were embroidered with the Entombment or Mourning of Christ, covers for church vessels with Our Lady of the Sign and veils with Russian saints. In the XVth century embroidery in different coloured silks became particularly developed in Russia. One of the earliest specimens in the Armoury collection is the Puchezh shroud of 1441 depicting the Entombment. It got its name from the town of Puchezh in Ivanovo Region, where it was found in 1930. The shroud bears an embroidered inscription showing that it was executed in Novgorod and connected with the name of Archbishop Euthymius, known for his building activities in that city. The colours of the silks have been selected with great skill, from dark tones to light ones, giving the figures an element of depth.

In the XVIth century use of gold and silver thread in silk embroidery increased. Among the leading workshops in the middle of the century were those of the Staritsky princes. The showcase contains a shroud depicting the Entombment, which was presented by Princess Ephrosinia and her son Vladimir to the Joseph-Volokolamsk Monastery in 1558. The shroud is a fine specimen of the skill and artistic taste of Russian needlewomen. With the development of a national Russian market and the merchant class one finds an increasing number of items from the workshops of merchants and industrialists. The Stroganov workshops were particularly famous. Here you can see a pall (1657) of Metropolitan Jonah and a shroud (1678) which belonged to a rich Moscow merchant Ivan Guriev and repeats the composition on one of the Staritsky shrouds.

Ornamental embroidery was widespread in Russia as far back as pre-Christian times. Almost all the ceremonial robes and church vestments on display in this showcase are adorned with magnificent embroidery of pearls, precious stones and gold and silver plates. Nearly all these items were produced in the Kremlin chambers of the grand princes and tsars. The museums' collection contains about 500 pieces of ornamental embroidery. The style of embroidery changed over the centuries. It ceased to imitate painting. The main pattern depicted curving stems of plants with scrolls and shoots. In the XVIIth century more sumptuous embroidery appeared depicting flowers: carnations, tulips, pomegranate blossom, etc. Embroidery often imitated the patterns on Turkish fabrics (e.g., the phelonion of Patriarch Josaphat). The linen sakkos (1655) of Patriarch Nikon, already mentioned above, a splendid example of gold embroidery, gives the impression of being made of gold cloth. In the XVIIIth century pearl embroidery was not so common, but individual pieces are remarkable for the number of pearls used and the beauty of the pattern. The phelonion of Metropolitan Platon made of Italian velvet is decorated with 150,000 pearls in the form of intertwining branches with Catherine the Great's monogram in the middle.