Day 127 of the 365 days of the treasures of the Hermitage. At the request of Tsar Nicholas II, a set of porcelain figures that describe the history of Russia’s diverse cultural heritage was created between 1907 and 1917 by Pavel P. Kamensky at the Imperial Porcelain Factory in St. Petersburg. The Nationalities of Russia series celebrates the ideal of respect of different ethnic cultures, and promotes the idea of “living together while remaining different.” These figures were commissioned as the Russian government shifted away from the Russification policies of the early 1900s. During this time, the Russian Empire underwent a tumultuous period of interethnic strain and strife. Economic problems and social conflict were compounded by these policies. Under the pressure of public opinion, the government revised the national policy. Please join Dr. Dr. Ekaterina Khmelnitskaya, curator of the Russian Porcelain and Ceramics collection of the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, tomorrow, May 8th, 7:30PM, at Hillwood Estate Museum and Gardens in Washington, D.C. for a lecture about the entire series of figures, commissioned as the Russian government publically embraced the population’s diversity. Dr. Khmelnitskaya, who goes by Tina, is herself a treasure of the Hermitage and is a long-time friend of the HMF. A 2001 graduate of St. Petersburg State University, Tina defended her doctoral dissertation on the styles of the interiors of the palace of the Romanov Grand Duke Vladimir. Since 2001, she has worked at the State Hermitage Museum, and since 2003 she has been a curator of Russian porcelain. She has received research support for work in Germany from the German Chancellor Fellowship and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and from the Max-Planck-Institut for research in Italy—Florence in 2010 and Rome in 2011. In 2012 she was a Fulbright Scholar at the Library of Congress and a Visiting Scholar at Stanford’s Center on Russian, Eastern European and Eurasian Studies. Tina is the author of more than 50 scholarly publications, including guidebooks as well as scholarly articles and 8 books on the porcelain collection of the State Hermitage Museum and about independent contemporary artists. She participated in organizing over twenty Hermitage exhibitions, including exhibitions in Japan, Germany, and Scotland as well as Russia. She was in charge of two porcelain exhibitions: “Under the Imperial Monogram: Porcelain from the collection of the State Hermitage Museum” (with Irina Bagdasarova) at the Kremlin in Moscow, 2007; and “Heraldry on Russian Porcelain” (with Irina Bagdasarova) at the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg in 2008.
Posted on: Wed, 07 May 2014 13:00:01 +0000