Tsar Gazing
Words | Nancy Durrant The extravagance of the Russian imperial court comes to London this winter, as a show at the Victoria & Albert shows their sumptuous costumes for the first time WHEN RUSSIA COMES to mind, it’s accompanied by a series of contradictions: Fabergé eggs and queues for bread, the Sputnik space probe and ermine robes, marching workers [...]
Words | Nancy Durrant
The extravagance of the Russian imperial court comes to London this winter, as a show at the Victoria & Albert
shows their sumptuous costumes for the first time
WHEN RUSSIA COMES to mind, it’s accompanied by a series of contradictions: Fabergé eggs and queues for bread, the Sputnik space probe and ermine robes, marching
workers and errant empresses.
Our view of this vast country has always been fractured, split between the open excesses of empire and the hidden curtain of communism,
the limiting of intellectual freedom and the soaring artistic achievements of Stravinsky, Kandinsky, Chekhov and the rest.
Russia’s turbulent history, its long period of isolation and its geographical location – more Far Eastern than European – has made it an
endless source of fascination for the West. Its recent opening up, and the influx of flamboyantly wealthy Russians to the UK has done nothing to
dull this sense of exoticism.
This month, the V&A gives us a glimpse into a part of Russia that has long tantalised us. For the first time, more than 100 items of costume from
the collection of Moscow’s Kremlin Museum are coming to London in an exhibition entitled The Magnificence of the Tsars: Ceremonial Men’s
Dress of the Russian Imperial Court, 1721-1917.
This is the first collaboration between the institutions (the Kremlin is currently showing a hugely popular exhibition of British fashion from
the V&A), but it seems not to have suffered from any of the touch-and-go dramas that dogged the Royal Academy’s From Russia exhibition earlier this
year. “Given the real difficulties there have been between UK and Russian relations, I was a bit nervous about it,” admits the V&A’s Director,
Mark Jones, “but actually, the museum-to-museum relations couldn’t have been nicer. The Kremlin Museum always made it clear that the project
was going ahead.”
The idea for the collaboration was born at a meeting between Jones and the formidable director of the Kremlin Museum, Elena Gagarina
(daughter of Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin), whom Jones describes with some awe: “She’s very effective, a small bundle of energy…
very impressive.”
The pieces on show represent a vivid picture of the role played by dress in the life of a man at court, and includes the entire wardrobe of the boy emperor,
Peter II, who died at 14 of smallpox after just three years on the throne. Items range from undergarments (very rare and
thus incredibly exciting to a historian, says the show’s curator Lesley Miller, if somewhat drab in comparison with the rest)
to a magnificent fancy dress costume made for Tsar Nicholas II, worn to a Romanov-themed ball. The coat is of shimmering
cloth-of-gold, sumptuously decorated with jewels – the cuffs alone are covered with pearls and masses of cut diamonds, set
in gold. It can’t have been easy to dance in.
Jones is confident that the V&A have the timing right for this show. “The Russians are really interested in the tsars now.
They weren’t meant to be, under communism, but now they’re fascinated by the history of their own imperial family,” he
says. “We’re interested in them because they were immensely powerful, fabulously wealthy, and they ruled this enormous
country – in Europe but somehow not of Europe. Europeans have always felt that the relationship is quite complicated and
though they’re very full participants in European culture, there has always been a strong sense of Russia being
different and exotic in some ways.”
The kinship between our ruling families also has a part to play, as well as the tragedy that befell the family of
Nicholas II at the hands of the Bolshevik secret police, and the entirely spurious mystery over the possible escape of his
fourth daughter, Anastasia. Ultimately though, it will be the sheer glamour and dazzling extravagance of these costumes
that will bewitch visitors, wherever they come from.
Magnificence of the Tsars runs 10 December 2008 – 29 March 2009 at the V&A, Cromwell Road, London SW7,
+44 (0)20 7942 2000, www.vam.ac.uk Nancy Durrant is an arts writer for The Times
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Coat worn by Peter II This coat with silver embroidery was worn by the unfortunate grandson of Peter the Great. Born in 1715, he was ignored by his grandfather and his second wife, Catherine I. He became ruler at the age of 12, but died two years later of smallpox. |
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Coachman’s jacket, 1881–1917 Even the staff looked glamorous at the Russian imperial court. The name ‘Smith’ is written on the lining, implying an Englishman was employed. |
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Miniature telescope, mid-18th century The ornate detailing of this telescope – in red jasper, gold, silver, diamonds and rubies – show that it was intended for use in the theatre rather than on the battlefield. |
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Coronation mantle of Empress Maria Feodorovna, This mantle was worn by the empress on the coronation of her son Nicholas II, who was to be the last tsar. Seven metres long and weighing 13kg, it took seven chamberlains to carry. Nicholas and his wife wore identical mantles – the combined trimmings and capes used 2,691 ermine skins. Maria’s sister was married to Britain’s King Edward VII, and their son, George V, bore a strong resemblance to Nicholas. |
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Hat and detail from Emperor Nicholas II’s fancy dress costume, 1903 This fancy dress outfit was a creative interpretation of a traditional costume. Made of three or four different garments, it covered the body entirely and made the wearer’s movements slow and stately. Nicholas II wore it at a Romanov-themed ball in honour of his ancestors. |
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