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Artist or Maker: Viktor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov (1848-1926)
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Provenance: Private Collection, Paris.
Sotheby's, London, 29 April 1999, lot 208.
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Literature: E. Kirichenko, Russian Design and the Fine Arts, London, 1991, p. 152, pl. 138, for the printed menu. The Twilight of the Tsarism, South Bank Centre, March 1991, p. 172, no. 488, for the printed menu.
Copenhagen, The Royal Silver Room, Maria Feodorovna Empress of Russia, 1997, p. 461, for the printed menu.
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Notes: Glory to God in Heaven, glory! To our Sovereign in this land, glory! Glory to all the Russian people! Glory to their faithful servants! Glory to their distinguished guests! May truth in Russia be more glorious than the sun, radiant glory! And we sing this praise to our bread, to our bread we sing, to our bread we pay honour, glory! For old people to be comforted, for all good people to hear, glory! Glory for ever and ever, glory!
To emphasise the sanctity of the Coronation of Nicholas II, an idealised version of the 17th Century was evoked. Vasnetsov was foremost amongst the artists rediscovering the old Russian traditions and was accorded a central place among artists commissioned to celebrate the Coronation.
In the upper part of the menu, in an intricate frame formed by a foliate ornament intertwined with the monograms of Their Majesties, "N II" and "A", there is a scene of the Coronation of Michael Feodorovich Romanov based on a depiction from a book published in 1673. Beneath it, a scene of the offering of bread and salt. Below, two peacocks borrowed from Prince Sviatoslav's Izbornik [Miscellany] from 1073.
The banquet was held in the Granovitaya Palata in the Kremlin, the menu capturing the public imagination more than any other souvenir of the coronation and widely reproduced and distributed. A copy of the menu, rolled up and tied with gold cord adorned with gold tassels, lay at each place setting. It occupied a central position in Vasnetsov's oeuvre, and in the contemporary Slavophile movement for the rediscovery of ancient Russian forms. It is reproduced in the two volume Coronation Album both in a detail and as a whole plate.
VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium.
This lot has been withdrawn.
