The Department of the History of Culture and Art of foreign Oriental countries starts with the exhibition devoted to EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITIES which covers the period from the 4th millennium Ð’. C. to the 4th century A. D. (ground floor, rooms 80 — 91). It is not representative of monumental sculpture though there are some good examples of it, the greater part of the collection being composed of objects used for funerary purposes and exhibiting the skill shown by Egyptian craftsmen in minor arts. Of outstanding interest is the collection of papyri, of which the one named “The Tale of a Shipwrecked” (20th century Ð’. C.) is of world renown. Hermitage, room â„– 81). Among the most notable exhibits special mention deserve the black granite statue of Amenemhat III (19th century Ð’. C, Middle Kingdom); the figure of the goddess Sekhmet, also in black granite (15th century Ð’. C, New Kingdom); a wooden statuette of a man (15th century Ð’ С ) two granite sarcophagi of queen Nakht-Bastot-ru and her son general Ahmose (6th century Ð’. C ) ; a bronze statuette of Takharka, the’last ruler of the Ethiopian dynasty in Egypt (7th century Ð’. C ) ; and some Fajum portraits. The collection is exceptionally rich in textiles of the Coptic Egypt (4th — 5th centuries A. D.). Hermitage, room 90).
Head of a woman. Palmyra. Late 2nd century A. D.
Among the rooms devoted to the Oriental antiquities some are set aside for the BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN SECTION ( 4 th – 1 st millennia Ð’. C.) as well as for the collection of objects from PALMYRA ( 2 n d — 3rd centuries A. D.). The latter — although small — may rank among the best collections in the world (ground floor, rooms 92-96).
Unrivalled is the BYZANTINE COLLECTION of the Hermitage. Though taking but three rooms (2nd floor, rooms 381, 38la, 382) it presents not only a widely representative series of all the categories of Byzantine artistic production but enables the visitor to trace the main phases of Byzantine art from the 4th to the 15th century A. D. Especially noteworthy is the collection of silver, the richest in the world, revealing the noble simplicity of Byzantine silversmiths’ work. It presents a considerable variety of objects the most outstanding being a group of plates from the treasures discovered in the Ural district and in the Ukraine. Almost all of them are of equally high craftsmanship, perhaps the most often quoted being that representing in relief a shepherd pensively seated beside his dog and browsing goats (6th century) and another one attributed to the 7th century A. D., containing four figures and two horses in a row derived from the story of Atalanta and Meleager. Both the plates exemplify but do not exhaust the noteworthy objects of this group.
Icon of St. Gregory. Byzantium. 12th century
Of no less interest is the magnificent collection of Byzantine ivories of which a group of consular diptychs is the noteworthiest. One of them, dating from about 500 A. D., representing the circus scenes, is especially remarkable both for keenness of observation and perfection of execution. Byzantine icons of the 11th — 12th centuries, just following the iconoclast movement, are of great rarity. The Hermitage can show a fine series of this type of work, the most noteworthy being, the twelfth-century icon of St. Gregory executed obviously by an artist from Constantinople and exhibiting a strong influence of mural paintings and mosaics, and the icon of Christ Pantocrator dated 1363.