Section 4
The last section provides a glimpse at the development of cultural relations between Italy and Russia from the 18th century on.
This period saw the passion of the Russian court for Italian taste transformed into a cultured and informed quest for all the various forms of art which represented the finest in Italian style. This "State collection mania" is at the basis of the present collections of the Hermitage. The Department of Western European Textiles alone contains 5000 articles testifying the development of this art from the Middle Ages to the 20th century. As examples of heritage, the exhibition contains four very large late 17th century embroideries for use in furnishing, hand sewn in silk and metallic thread or in the form of appliqué.
These majestic fabrics are used to form a theatrical setting for the masterpiece which concludes the whole exhibition: Cigoli's altarpiece of the "Circumcision". The presence of this painting in the exhibition represents an outstanding "homecoming" for a work of art originally created for Prato, transferred in 1825 in the Hermitage collections. The painting, with its solemnly theatrical composition, was commissioned by the powerful Migliorati family to Lodovico Cardi, known as 'Cigoli', in the first decade of the 17th century for the church of San Francesco, one of the most ancient churches in the city.
