Our Notes & References

Fine, complete example of this impressive catalogue describing of one the most important world art collections in Russia before the Revolution, particularly wide-ranging and now in the Hermitage and the Russian Museum.

Now very rare on the market, as we couldn’t trace any example passing through the trade outside Russia in the last 30 years.

The lavishly printed catalogue features not only reproductions of some artefacts in gilt and colour, but also black and whiote photographs of the displays. It comprises in particular much Greek terracotta, some Sassanid silver, a wealth of Byzantine enamels, sculptures and works of art of French and Italian renaissance and a few Russian artefacts, including a beautiful religious binding.

The long introduction was written by Mikhail Petrovich Botkin (1839-1914) himself, the wealthy antiquarian, patron of the arts and artist himself who gathered the famed collection at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries.

Botkin’s father developed important imports of tea import from China and the family’s business reached 40 branches all over Russia and one in London. Botkin himself was not only an heir, but also an active businessman: he was a director of a sugar beet factory, chair of governors of the first Russian Insurance Company and a member of the council of the St. Petersburg International Bank, to mention but a few of his roles. His nephew, Evgenii Sergeevich, was a court physician of Nicholas II and died together with the last tsar’s family.

An artist himself, Botkin became in 1888 a member of the Imperial Archaeological Commission, a post which allowed him to monitor the antiques market and source the best items for his own collection. This habit of competing with the Archaeological Commission didn’t go unnoticed by some of Botkin’s contemporaries and critics, who noted some reprehensible behaviour. Once, for example, the Hermitage Museum was in the process of acquiring a figurine dating back to the Sassanid Empire, which the Archaeological Commission evaluated at 500 roubles. Botkin, well aware of the whole process, offered 600 roubles directly to the seller to add the figurine to his own collection. Count Bobrinskii, the Head of the Commission, had to issue an official order to force the intrepid collector to return the figurine to the Hermitage.

Botkin’s first-rank collection was initially focusing on ancient Greco-Roman art, Byzantium and the Western European Middle Ages and Renaissance. He purchased masterpieces by Pinturicchio, Botticelli and Mantegna to name but a few, as well as prime examples of majolica pottery.

Under the influence of the antiquarian and icon dealer Nikolai Mikhailovich Postnikov, Botkin’s interest in ancient Russian art grew progressively, and he later became a member of the special Court Commission for the renovation of the Annunciation Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin.

The collection became remarkable for the extent of items it was putting together: Byzantine and early Russian bible covers, icon frames, medallions, crosses, metalwork and enamels, next to secular pieces such as buttons, rings, bracelets, necklaces, and earrings. Interestingly, Botkin also purchased items from cultures neighbouring the Byzantine and Russia empires, such as Turkish, Georgian, Armenian, Bulgarian, and Tartar.

Botkin had also an impressive collection of paintings by Alexander Ivanov, in particular his sketches for his masterpiece ‘Christ Appearing to the People’.

After Botkin’s death in 1914, his collection remained in his mansion on the banks of the Neva in St Petersburg, until 1917, when his widow gave it “for safe-keeping” to the State Russian Museum; a lesser part was later transferred to the Hermitage.

Bibliography

E. Petrova (ed.), Kollektsii Mikhaila i Sergeia Botkinykh. Sankt-Peterburg: Gos. Russkii Muzei: Palace Editions, 2011; Beruchashvili N. L. Ob istorii peregorodchatyh emalei iz kollektsii M. P. Botkina v Gosudarstvennom muzee iskusstv Gruzii // Iuvelirnoe iskusstvo i materialnaia kultura: Sb. st. Gosudarstvennyi Ermitazh. SPb, 2001. pp. 220–222.