Muses and Masks. Theatre and Music in Antiquity.
The Antique World on the Petersburg Stage

On 1 March 2005 an exhibition organized by the State Hermitage with participation from the St Petersburg State Museum of Theatre and Musical Arts opened in the Foyer of the Hermitage Theatre and in the Raphael Loggias.

The exhibition has two sections. The section entitled Theatre and Music in Antiquity features 170 exhibits from the collections of the Department of the Antique World and the Department of Numismatics of the State Hermitage. Sculpture in the round, reliefs, painted vases, bronze and terracotta statuettes, clay masks and lamps, cut stones and works of jewellery, as well as coins and tessera (tokens for admittance to theatrical and circus performances) attest to a universal love for the theatre. The works of art and objects of everyday use which Greeks had around them in their theatres and temples, at their feasts and in libraries were created in various regions of Ancient Greece and Italy - in Attica, Boeotia, Corinthia, Southern Italy, Etruria, Rome and the Northern Black Sea Littoral.

The second section, which is entitled The Antique World on the Petersburg Stage, displays 60 exhibits from the St Petersburg State Museum of Theatrical and Musical Arts and enables the visitor to trace the influence of ancient theatrical traditions on the performing arts of the 19th and 20th centuries. Exhibits include stage decorations and articles of clothing, original stage costumes, as well as copies of Antique musical instruments produced in the workshop of V. Maillon in Brussels during the period 1890 -1897. Of special interest are the sketches for costumes and stage designs by L. Bakst and A. Golovin. Bakst favored historical authenticity and introduced into stage decoration his characteristic palette of colors, which were his alone. Golovin presented Antiquity as it was understood by a chivalrous nobleman of the 18th century. The display items cover a period of nearly two hundred years of the history of the theatre, from the heroic ballet Caesar in Egypted historical authenticiyhenticitystage co aginsated in various regions of Ancient Greece and Italy - in of (1834) to Antigone in the staging which premiered in November 2004.

The State Hermitage has produced a full-color, illustrated catalogue of the exhibition ( ARS Publishing House, St Petersburg,, 2005).

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G.V.Vilinbakhov, Deputy Director for Research of the State Hermitage at the opening

At the opening of the exhibition

At the exhibition

The exhibition catalogue