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[PRE-COLUMBIAN ARTEFACTS] K 500-letiyu otkrytiya Ameriki. Katalog vystavki [v Gosudarstvennom Ermitazhe]. [i.e. On the 500th Anniversary of the Discovery of America. Exhibition Catalogue [in the State Hermitage]

Item #2237

St. Petersburg: Slaviya-Interbuk, 1993. 160 pp.: ill. 27,5x21,5 cm. ISBN 5-7664-0879-X.

First and only edition.
The catalogue is dedicated to the exhibition, held at the Hermitage museum, commemorating the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ discovery. The items shown originated from the collections of the Hermitage and Russian National Library. The discovery was called ‘the grandiose event in the history of humankind’, by the author of the preface to the catalogue Viktor Afanasiev (1947-2020), the celebrated Soviet asto-physicist, the head of Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The first section is dedicated to pre-Columbian civilizations of the Americas. The first exhibits of the collection arrived at the Hermitage in 1834 as part of a collection of ancient art pieces acquired from the Florentine physician Pizzati. The entire ancient American collection of the Imperial Hermitage was small at that time — just over two dozen exhibits, mostly Peruvian vessels. The bulk of today's collection was formed in the first third of the 20th century, when exhibits from other Russian museums that were liquidated in the 1920s and 1930s were transferred to the Hermitage. Pueblo Indian ceramics arrived at the Hermitage as part of an inter-museum exchange from the University of Pennsylvania Museum in 1934. In the post-war years, the collection was replenished with individual exhibits acquired from private individuals. The most significant acquisition during this period was the collection of terracotta, which was donated to the Hermitage in 1965 by J. Lopez Portillo, who later became President of Mexico.
65 objects from the pre-Columbian collections were displayed at the exhibition, and described in the catalogue with photos. The other sections included:
· Western European art and culture of the 16th-17th centuries.
· Drawings.
· Engravings.
· Applied art.
· Numismatics.
· Navigational instruments, watches, globes.
· America in book illustrations of the 16th-17th centuries.
· Maps and atlases.

Each section is accompanied with the explanatory article by Hermitage or SNL scholar.

Price: $200.00