MMFA Exhibition. Who wants to come with?

Catherine the Great: Art for Empire.
In partnership with the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts presents Catherine the Great: Art for Empire. Masterpieces from the State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg,from February 2 to May 7, 2006. This exhibition features more than 200 of the many treasures collected by the powerful and highly intelligent Empress Catherine II (1729-1796), arguably the eighteenth century’s greatest art collector and patron. Catherine believed in the political dimension of art and was convinced of her fundamental role in Russia’s social and cultural transformation. To illustrate the immense scope of her aspirations, the exhibition displays paintings, sculptures, furniture and decorative art objects. It also reveals her taste for classicism, which was new in Russia at the time. The snuff boxes in gold and precious stones, jewellery, cameos and intaglios that Catherine loved are displayed together, to re-create the Diamond Room, the Empress’s cabinet of precious objects in the Winter Palace. Many of these works of art and objects are being presented in North America for the first time; some have never before left the Hermitage.
Catherine’s dazzling coronation coach, exceptionally on loan from the Hermitage, is a highlight of the exhibition. It has travelled outside Russia only twice before: in 1991-1992 and in 1996. This is the last time it will be displayed abroad because of its fragile condition. The opulent coach was most likely commissioned by Peter the Great for the coronation ceremony of his wife, Catherine I.
Catherine the Great features major works of the eighteenth century commissioned, purchased or received by the Empress, including paintings and sculptures by Jean-Baptiste Siméon Chardin, Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Anton Raphael Mengs, Antoine Houdon, Angelica Kaufmann, Joseph Wright of Derby, Joshua Reynolds and Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, among others, as well as superb architectural drawings by Charles De Wailly, Charles-Louis Clérisseau, Jean-Louis Desprez and Charles Cameron. Among the furniture on display is a superb cylinder desk by the famous cabinet-maker David Roentgen. The exhibition also provides an opportunity to discover Russian artists and craftsmen. Various works and texts attest to Catherine’s relationships with some of the leading minds of her era, the Age of Enlightenment, such as Voltaire, Diderot and Grimm.
The exhibition is divided into five sections: Catherine of Russia, Philosopher Empress, Minerva of the North, Enlightened Patroness, Benefactress of the Arts and Manufactories. It delves into Catherine’s personality and legendary destiny and explores the ways in which she forged ties between Europe and Russia, simultaneously importing and encouraging the arts and cultural endeavours.

http://www.mmfa.qc.ca/forfaits/catherine/index_en.html