Egyptian Collection of the Hermitage Museum
The Egyptian Collection of the
St. George's Hall. It was redesigned for the exhibition by Alexander Sivkov in 1940 and earlier served as the main buffet
of the Winter Palace.
History
The collection was established in 1852, the year the museum was made open to the public, when it purchased the collection of statuettes from Countess Alexandra Lavalle, previously stored in her mansion on
Eleventh dynasty of Egypt in the 1830s, was moved from the Imperial Academy of Arts
to the Hermitage. Some items were purchased for the museum from antiquities traders in Egypt and collections of Russian merchants or received as gifts.
In 1862, the collection expanded significantly, as the Castiglione collection, which was purchased by the
Vasily Struve was in charge of the Hermitage's Egyptian collection from 1918 to 1933. The highlights of the exhibition include the mummy of priest Petese (10th century BC) and a fragment of a tablet of Ramesses II's Egyptian–Hittite peace treaty
(13th century BC).
Other Egyptian antiquities in Saint Petersburg
Other notable Egyptian antiquities in present-day Saint Petersburg include the two sphinxes of Pharaoh Amenhotep III, adorning the Quay with Sphinxes in front of the Academy of Arts Building on Universitetskaya Embankment since 1832.
See also
- Oscar Eduardovich Lemm
Further reading
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Egyptian antiquities in Hermitage Museum.
- Bolshakov, Andrey O. Studies on Old Kingdom Reliefs and Sculpture in the Hermitage. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2005. ISBN 3-447-05184-1.
- Golénischeff, Wladimir. Ermitage Impérial. Inventaire de la collection égyptienne. Leipzig, 1891.
- Lieblein, Jens Daniel Carolus. Die ägyptischen Denkmäler in St. Petersburg, Helsingfors, Upsala und Copenhagen. Christiania, 1873.
- Лапис И.А., Матье М.Э. Древнеегипетская скульптура в собрании Государственного Эрмитажа. Москва: Наука, 1969.