Moscow museum of A.S.Pushkin

After the State Hermitage in ­ Leningrad, Moscow museum of A.S.Pushkin is the second for value of the monuments of art of the Ancient East collected, the Ancient World and the Western Europe.

The short history of the museum. The idea of creation in Moscow of a museum of fine arts belonged to scientists of the Moscow university­. In 1831 the program ­ of the future museum was promulgated­. In particular­ it was specified in it: «... It would be desirable, that fine arts were not limited only to workshops of arts, but would enter directly into a circle of public ­ education and would form in the people feeling aesthetic. This purpose cannot be reached,­  not having of the best products ­ of a cutter, a brush and compasses.

Petersburg is rich by lots of ways: in ­ the Hermitage, Academy of arts, in many private ­ galleries, between original treasures, graceful moulds and copies can give concept about art to everyone, wishing ­to know about its secrets. Moscow, except some private galleries has no these treasures. A subject ­ of this project, from approval of the higher government, in ­ Moscow, under direct department of the Moscow university...is to base­ an aesthetic museum».

Only because of the advanced intelligency of Moscow with the leadind of professors of the Moscow university who have acted as active­ advocates of a museum, its building has been put on practical rails­. In 1894 works on ­ designing of a building for a museum began­. The project ­ has been developed by architect R.I.Klein ­ who has received for it a rank of the academician of architecture­. In 1898 the building of a museum was started and it was finished only in May, 1912. While the museum building was constructing, its organizers regularly ­ accumulated collections for the future exposition­. Besides monetary donations from private persons, moulds from ­ the most ancient works of art have also arrived­. Moulds from the glorified ­ products of Greece, Italy, France,­  England, Germany were ordered­­ for ­the future museum. Along with plaster casts the museum was also enriched by originals­. Well-known ­ Egyptian collection of V.S.Golenischev's, differing ­ by the originality and ­ a system of meetings was bought in 1911.

The state museum of the fine arts of A.S.Pushkin for the years­ of the Soviet power has considerably filled up its collections. On structure of monuments it was poorer earlier, than now. Its exposition was limited to department ­ of the Ancient East and departments of the sculptural moulds concerning the subsequent ­ cultures till XVI century. After October revolution ­ a museum was enriched with remarkable ­ picture gallery, original monuments of the West European painting, outstanding collections of graphic art.

The museum possesses by remarkable collections of monuments of art and material ­culture of Ancient Egypt. In an exposition there are originals, which are over 6000 years. The rare collection of originals concerns IV millenium BC - III century. In a museum exposition there are reliefs from ancient tombs, facades, sarcophagi, mummies.

In this section of a museum lots of the material ­ monuments confirming, that Egyptians in an antiquity gave a lot of work and ­ talent to a religious cult. Dead bodies were put around by amulets. Mummies of sacred cats and other animals are also exposed  in a museum .

Jugs, dishes, vessels, moulds illustrate a high culture of potter's manufacture. Necklaces, beads, desk sets, vessels for a toilet, a small sculpture tell about development of art craft, and subjects from a tree, a stone, faience and metal show a high level of art. Exclusive interest - papyruses (a special kind of a paper received from stalks of a marsh plant papyrus) on which as well as on inscriptions on ancient stone plates it was possible to decipher the difficult Egyptian writing consisting of hieroglyphs.

Thus, even in those ancient times there were a writing craft and the art craft confirming high level of the Egyptian culture.

In a separate hall monuments of art of the countries of Forward Asia are shown demonstrated. Along with ancient Egypt in a valley of the rivers  Tiger and Efrat, there are states of Forward Asia. By the end of III millenium BC the strong Babylon kingdom with capital Babylon will be formed. In an antiquity the Babylon kingdom also was famous for rather high and advanced culture for that times.
There are also presented originals of many written documents; trading documents, bills of sale for slaves, diplomatic correspondence and etc in a museum.

By the end of 11 millenium BC another ancient state - Assyria has towered. We admire unusual Assyrian art and to this day. Its architecture, palaces  and fortresses even today cause a general admiration of the scale and grandeur. You can also watch moulds of Assyrian culture with fantastic creatures that are presented in a museum. Such huge figures were put at an entrsncу in palaces of Assyrian lords. Besides moulds as well a number of originals are presented in expositions.