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Provenance: Prince Anatole Demidoff
Prince Paul Demidoff
San Donato sale, May 5, 1880, lot 316
Debuck
Anonymous?
The Estate of Frederic R. Halsey, Anderson Galleries, New York, January 22-25, 1919, lot 423.
The Collection of Mrs. Harriet Rider, Anderson Galleries, New York, October 8-9, 1920, lot 315.
Acquired by the current owner's family from the above
Thence by descent

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Notes: Atop one of the rarest and most extraordinary micromosaic tables ever known is a scene from the Russo-Turkish War of 1828-1829 with the title, artist, and date in micromosaic at its lower border: Prise de Bounchoux pres de la Forteresse de Kartz....Gioacchino Barberi F. Roma 1833 (Capture of the Horsetail Flag near the Fortress of Kars ... Gioacchino Barberi Made it in Rome 1833). Intensive research by a team of art historians, archivists, and other specialists led by Dr. Jeanette Hanisee Gabriel, Honorary Curator of the Gilbert Collection, Victoria & Albert Museum, London and author of Micromosaics: The Gilbert Collection (London, 2000) has produced extensive evidence suggesting that the original, intended owner of this table could only have been Nicholas I, Emperor of Russia from 1825-1855.

Several preeminent aspects of Nicholas' personal and official life are embodied in this object. First, the majestic table base consists of three Russian Imperial double-headed eagles with attributes dating exclusively to the reigns of Nicholas and his predecessor and older brother, Alexander I. Second, the aesthetic elements composing the tabletop epitomize Nicholas I's fierce Russian patriotism and well-defined aesthetic preferences: a central dramatic, yet detailed, battle scene from the Russo-Turkish War of 1828-1829, after an original watercolor by a Russian court artist. This is surrounded by emblems of the victor and the vanquished, trophies, uniforms, weapons, flags, as well as oak leaves representing strength and laurel leaves symbolic of victory. Third, the incomparable aesthetic quality of this richly executed table's subject matter demonstrates the Emperor's second great passion, art. Nicholas I was one of the greatest patrons of the arts among nineteenth-century monarchs, perhaps the best heir to his grandmother Catherine II's program of art collecting and museum building. The use of Roman micromosaic as the tabletop's medium attests to Nicholas' role as a major patron of this relatively new and rare art form.

During Nicholas I's reign, there were four stated prerogatives of Sovereign Power: Exemption from law; Inviolability; [possession of] The Imperial Court, and, most relevant to this table, the "prerogative of honour – the Monarch's title and coat of arms...The coat of arms has for its principle element the two-headed eagle adopted by Grand Duke Ivan III...after 1472." (Statesman's Handbook, vol. 1, p. 8) Only members of the Russian Court were empowered to display the Imperial coat of arms, also known as the Imperial state seal (Gosudarstvennyi gerb). In fact, the Complete Collection of Laws of the Russian Empire (Polnoe Sobranie Zakonov Rossiiskoi Imperii ) states in both the 1797 and 1857 editions that the use of the Imperial state seal in which the double-headed eagle has on its breast the Moscow city seal (the shield with St. George slaying the dragon) is limited exclusively to the Emperor and direct heir (PSZRI-1, 1797, #17906, p. 41). The eagles on the table base, as well as those rendered in golden micromosaic on the tabletop, are the second of two official variants used during the reign of Nicholas I. The first variant was an older form long in use in Imperial Russia: a thrice-crowned double-headed eagle with raised wings, with a shield with St. George slaying a dragon on their breast, and holding an orb and scepter in their talons. The double-headed eagle in the Imperial state seal of the second type had lowered wings, a single, large crown, and a shield with St. George slaying a dragon; one talon held a laurel wreath and in the other was some combination of a sword, lightning bolts and a torch. In a recent study of Russian state symbolism, Georgii Vilinbakhov, Deputy Director of the State Hermitage Museum and Russia's State Heraldry Master, notes that the variant of the Imperial state seal which appears on the table base first emerged during the reign of Alexander I (1801-1825) in the wake of Russia's victories in the Napoleonic Wars and symbolized Russia's military supremacy. During Nicholas I's reign, this variant was increasingly used to decorate items associated with the Russian army and navy, such as regimental banners (Vilinbakhov 2010, pp. 64-65). It is well documented that the Emperor maintained almost obsessive control over the smallest details of court art and protocol. It follows that the choice of iconography, subject matter, medium, and artists for this mosaic table must have come from Nicholas.

This tabletop's mosaic scene was painstakingly copied from a watercolor painting by Alexander Orlovski, dated 1830, which has been traced to the Museum of Modern Art in Lodz, Poland (Atsarkina, p. 182 and Ertman, pp. 139-140). Clearly, this watercolor served as the cartoon for the micromosaic tabletop scene. It is almost identical in scale and is a perfect match in color and compositional detail to the scene on the table. During his lifetime, Orlovski achieved great renown among Russia's artistic and intellectual circles; the poet Pushkin made clear his contemporaries' regard for Orlovski's skill as a battle painter in the seminal poem Ruslan and Ludmila (1820), when, in Canto Two, the narrator, wanting to describe a battle, invokes the artist's name: "Your pencil, quick, Orlovski! Make us / a sketch of that night-shrouded fray." Orlovski was equally accomplished at attracting influential patrons. Although born the son of an inn-keeper, he was able to attract the attention of Princess Izabela Czartoryska, an influential Warsaw art collector and founder of Poland's first museum, who in 1793 began to pay for his studies with her court artist, Jean-Pierre Norblin de la Gourdaine. After a brief stint fighting and being wounded in the Kosciuszko Uprising, he secured the patronage of Prince Jozef Poniatowski. By 1802, he felt that he needed to find a larger stage for his work and moved to the Imperial capital of St. Petersburg, where the Czartoryskis and Poniatowskis arranged introductions to the city's most influential collectors and salonniers such as Prince Alexander Naryshkin, Director of the Imperial Theaters, and Count Stanislaw Pototski, who introduced him to the emperor's brother, Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich, who made him a Painter to the Grand Duke's court and provided him with a three-room apartment in the Grand Duke's St. Petersburg Marble Palace where his duties were described as providing Konstantin with drawings "of the formation and transformation of the Russian Army and of contemporary events in which it had gloriously participated" (Karsavin, p. 314). He earned the title, Academician of Battle Painting from the Russian Academy of Arts in 1809 for his painting "The Cossack Bivouac" (The State Russian Museum) and later worked under the aegis of the Topographical Department of the Imperial Army's General Staff. Over the years, he earned a significant reputation as a specialist depicting military uniforms, made several series of drawings and prints of Russian uniforms for the General Staff and designed uniforms for Polish regiments (Valkovich, pp. 11-18 and "Pisma Vel. Kn. Konstantin..."). This would have been appreciated by the Emperor, who was fanatical about accurate depictions of uniforms and all things military. Orlovski was therefore a natural choice to paint the composition for this table.

Nicholas I was a patriot and art collector with a particular passion for military scenes. This central mosaic panel is exuberant with the action, color, and drama of a Russian conquest, perfectly suited to his taste. Besides purchasing the finest mosaics available, Nicholas originated the idea of commissioning individualistic designs. This table's artistic program is believed the earliest known example of his innovation of ordering micromosaic compositions based on his own personal experiences, a practice similarly reflected in his commissions for oil paintings of contemporary incidents, such as Sauerweid's "Attack on the Fortress of Varna on 29 September, 1828" (Rebbecchini, p. 60). This combination of elements characteristic of Nicholas I's tastes are exquisitely merged in the Kars table.

The inspiration for the table's mosaic battle scene occurred a few years after Nicholas became emperor, when Russia entered the Russo-Turkish War of 1828-1829. This was an especially dramatic episode for Nicholas because he was the first Russian Emperor to set foot in Turkish territory since Peter the Great in 1711. He crossed the western front through Bulgaria, and over the next few weeks was elated by his troops' successes, including taking the Fortress of Kars on 23 June 1828. Although he was soon confronted with the brutal realities of war: shortages of water, provisions and ammunition; deadly heat, and disease, victory was essential. While the Russo-Turkish War of 1828-29 was motivated in part by Russia's desire to keep the Turkish Straits open and exports flowing, Nicholas also wanted to emphasize Russia's position as protector of her Orthodox brethren living in Greece, who had been involved in a bloody uprising against the Ottomans since 1821. The plight of the Greeks was well-known across Europe and inspired such monumental and inspiring works as Eugène Delacroix's 1824 "The Massacre at Chios" (Louvre). While Alexander I had been loath to engage Russia in another series of wars, Nicholas I was eager to engage the Porte on behalf of Russian trade and religious freedom for Orthodox believers in the Balkans and Greece. The Russian army's great success, and the territories gained or reclaimed were commemorated in numerous paintings by Sauerweid, Suchodolski and others and informed the basic interior design of the Alexandria Cottage, Nicholas I's beloved family retreat near Peterhof. The vestibule had embedded within its walls a stone taken from the Ottoman fortress at Varna in 1828 and a pair of captured Turkish cannons was placed at the gates (Shemanskii and Geichenko, p. 7 and Wortman, pp. 339-341). This table was undoubtedly one of many items that would have been commissioned to memorialize the victory.

The Russian capture of the bunchuk, the horsetail flag of Mehmet-Emin Pasha, Commander of the Fortress, was a decisive moment in the siege of Kars. The ancient Fortress of Kars sat atop a high rocky cliff on the major trade route from Asia Minor, and had always been considered impregnable. Fourteen Russian battalions were present at the siege; two each of the Thirty-Ninth, Fortieth and Forty-Second Jager regiments; two battalions each of Crimean and Shirvan Infantry Regiments; two battalions each of the Georgian Grenadier and the Yerivan Carabineer Regiments. The blue uniformed figure may represent the Polish Joint Lancer regiment. The Russian soldiers in green uniforms appear to be the Russian Forty-Second Jaeger Regiment. The composition can be seen as something of a response to Delacroix's "The Massacre at Chios," in which the foreground is filled with ill and injured men, women, and children waiting, as the painting's full title specifies, either to be slaughtered or enslaved by the Ottoman warrior astride a horse at right. In the center of the tabletop and Orlovski's watercolor, an Ottoman horseman is surrounded on all sides by advancing Russian troops. One Russian officer brandishes a sword while his comrade, who has been knocked off his fallen horse and lost his cap struggles heroically, and successfully, to take possession of the Ottoman battle standard.

Raised and trained in a military environment, Nicholas was infatuated with the army and its spectacle. He was ecstatic when Emperor Alexander allowed him to join the army in 1814. However, his mother, Dowager Empress Maria Fedorovna, exerted her influence to balance his education with an equally strong cultural emphasis. From as early as age eight, various artists were engaged to tutor Grand Duke Nicholas. Emperor Alexander arranged in 1816 for the important military painter, Alexander Sauerweid, to teach Nicholas drawing. Nicholas' favorite artistic subjects related to his army life; parades, military reviews, military architecture, forts, uniforms, cavalry, and, of course, battles. He became highly skilled, and even painted military figures into some of the existing landscape paintings in the Imperial collections. Some of his drawings are still preserved in the Russian State Archives. His education also included extensive touring abroad with scholars to study the great art collections of Europe, and, over time, he became a sophisticated connoisseur. By the time this table was produced, the Emperor was actively collecting art of many genres and periods. However, his personal focus was on military and battle scenes which he viewed as vitally important documentary vehicles for preserving Russia's historic triumphs, stating "I love these paintings and consider them highly useful: there is so much history we must pass down to our descendants – our great feats in the Caucasus and much else...it takes a military man to paint these subjects." (Rebecchini, p. 59)

Clearly, the two most significant influences in Nicholas I's background, art and the military, became merged. Upon becoming Emperor in 1825, he named his former art tutor, Sauerweid, as First Artist of the Military Topography Department for the Army. By 1829, Nicholas had placed the St. Petersburg Academy of Art under the authority of the Ministry of the Imperial Court. He became intimately involved in overseeing the smallest details of artists and their productions. His hands-on involvement was the dominant force in Russian art. This trend continued when he later established the "New Hermitage," the first Russian museum available to the Russian people. In this artistic milieu as well, the smallest detail was subject to his overriding preference and approval, from the color of walls to the distance between paintings. This all-encompassing, autocratic approach is further indication that this micromosaic table could almost certainly have only been created at his will and discretion.

Nicholas I was the greatest patron of Roman micromosaics during the zenith of its production in the second quarter of the nineteenth century. It was a direct consequence of the Emperor's Imperial patronage that the micromosaic art form reached it highest point. Michelangelo Barberi's micromosaic portrait of Nicholas I which portrays him at about the time of his accession, is now at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Nicholas I collected micromosaics of the highest quality and originality, and actively promoted development of the art form.

In 1823, Michelangelo Barberi created "The Triumph of Cupid" (Hermitage) a prize winning table exhibited in Rome, and intended for Pope Pius VII, who died that year. Nicholas apparently heard of the table and made arrangements for its purchase. Barberi delivered the table to Russia in 1827. The mosaicist declined the Emperor's invitation to stay and work on other projects, and citing poor health, left for Paris. This event was described in the Notizie del Giorno (Rome, 17 June, 1828): "Il Cav Michelangelo Barberi, of whom we have frequently made honourable mention, arrived in this city last week from Paris, after having given to several of the sovereigns of Europe proofs of his taste in the fine arts, and received the most valuable presents at their hands. A dangerous illness has obliged him to leave Moscow at the moment when a vast career was opened to his talent. He had been charged by the Russian government to restore that part of the Cremlin [sic] which had been inhabited by the Czar Alex. Michelovitz in the seventeenth century; and previously to his departure, he sent several designs and notes for the conduct of the works, which gave perfect satisfaction to the Emperor Nicholas." (Lady Morgan, p. 61)

A file under the name, G. (Gioacchino) Barberi, dated September 28, 1826, was recently discovered in the Russian State Historical Archives in St. Petersburg. This file contains a document of payment signed by Prince Alexander Golitsyn "from the Cabinet of His Imperial Majesty to the Italians [sic] G. Barberi for various mosaic objects made by him..." (RGIA, f. 519, o. 9, d. 495, p. 1) In this document, two payments of six thousand rubles each were paid to "G. Barberi" for the "Table with Cupids." The record of two payments to G. Barberi suggests that Gioacchino and Michelangelo were collaborating as mosaicists at this date. These documents and Michelangelo's illness may also explain why the next important mosaic table believed to have been ordered by the Emperor, our present lot, was signed by Gioacchino Barberi.

A tabletop of this complexity would have taken several years to complete, hence the gap between the date of the battle and the date on its top. Each of the two Barberis had large workshops near the Spanish Steps in Rome, an area known for mosaic ateliers, and would have shared their numerous craftsmen. Michelangelo's greatest fame was for his tabletops, although he did not see fit to leave a record of his small works (Alfieri, p. 279). Gioacchino, on the other hand, has historically been known as an exceptional maker of small mosaics. An example is a Russian military scene depicting a "Band of Tartar Warriors," a subject similar to the Kars table (Sotheby's, New York, 23 June, 1983, Lot 24). In 2010 a large table with "Doves of Pliny" by G. Barberi, signed and dated 1820, was discovered in a private English collection. Another of his tables, signed and dated 1840, displays a central mosaic of a Rothschild coat-of-arms (Gabriel, p. 281).

Nicholas I was instrumental in the design of at least two later tables by Michelangelo Barberi (now believed to be the brother of Gioacchino Barberi, who made the Kars table). The first of these tables, called "The Beautiful Skies of Italy," dated 1846, features a central profile portrait of the Empress Alexandra Fedorovna (Hermitage; Efimova, No. 73). The second table, circa 1850, titled "Flora of the Two Sicilies," was inspired by the Emperor's 1845 tour of Europe, and displays a central portrait of his daughter, Grand Duchess Olga. (Gilbert Collection in London; Gabriel, No. 32). In Michelangelo Barberi's book of 1856, he describes the Emperor's visit in 1845: "When his Majesty the Emperor of all the Russians honored the Cavaliere Barberi with a visit to his studio, he deemed to order, besides the table The Beautiful Skies of Italy, another table made up of three vedute of Sicily and equally of Naples and its vicinity. The Tsar also requested that a portrait of his daughter, Grand Duchess Olga should be in the center of the table, symbolically placed inside a star obscuring the sun so that one could say, 'C'est une beauté qui efface le soleil'." (Gabriel, pp. 86-87)

Illustrious provenance from the late nineteenth century has been found for the Kars table. It appeared in the famous 1880 sale of the Palace of San Donato by Prince Paul Demidoff, heir and nephew to Prince Anatole Demidoff. The Demidoffs were a rich and powerful Russian dynasty of industrialists, the major producers of steel and cast iron, and chief suppliers of arms to the Russian army. Their mines also produced precious metals, gems and semi-precious stones, such as malachite and lapis lazuli, used throughout Europe in the finest furniture, art objects and architecture. Their riches produced one of the greatest art collections in history.

San Donato, the Florentine residence of the Demidoffs, was built in Polverosa, north of Florence, by Nikolai Nikitich Demidoff (1773-1828), a few years after he had been made Russian ambassador to the Court of Tuscany in 1819. Nikolai was succeeded by Anatole (1813-1870), who further expanded the art collections. San Donato had a fourteen-room museum to hold many of his treasures. The San Donato sale catalogue lists three micromosaics in the Mosaic Room. This room was so-named in honor of two large micromosaic pictures, the Roman Forum and Saint Peter's Plaza by M. Barberi. These were gifts to Anatole from Grand Duke Leopold II of Tuscany, and demonstrate the high esteem in which the micromosaic art was held. ("Le Palais de San Donato..." The third micromosaic listed in the "Micromosaic Room," lot 316, was the table now offered for sale. It is described in the Palais de San Donato catalog as a "Grand et beau guéridon rond à dessus en mosaïque de Rome, signé Gioachino Barberi, 1833. Représentant la Prise de Bounchkoux [sic], près la forteresse de Kartz, par l'armée russe sur les Turcs. Le pied, en bronze doré, est composé de trois aigles russes à deux têtes, tenant dans leurs serres des sceptres et des couronnes, et portant des écussons représentant l'archange saint Michel. Diam., 1 m. 05 cent." How this table came into the possession of Anatole Demidoff is not known. One can speculate that Demidoff may have acquired it by gift or purchase during the reign of Alexander II when many of Nicholas I's royal art works, reputed not to have been in Alexander II's taste, were deaccessioned.

Prince Paul Demidoff's personal catalogue, notated in his handwriting, refers to the purchaser of this table only as "Debuck" or " Dubuck." (San Donato Catalog, Wallace Collection). Debuck has not been further identified, but seems most likely to have been a buyer's agent or a dealer. The table appears next in New York at the sale of Frederick R. Halsey in 1919. It came up at the same auction house the following year, 1920, in the sale of Mrs. Harriet Rider, where it was likely purchased by the ancestor of the present owner.

Identifying the place in history of this phenomenal table has revealed that its Russian-designed top and likely Russian gilt bronze base are unique and of such quality that it can be ranked as the most important known micromosaic. Gioacchino Barberi has been brought to light as a major mosaicist. New facets of the vehement role of Nicholas I as an innovative monarch and collector have been revealed; this table demonstrates a fervent and conscious employment of the visual arts in promotion of Russia. The importance of the Kars table transcends its form as a functional object, or even as an art work of surpassing value and quality. It came into existence with the purpose of glorifying and proclaiming Russian power and patriotism. Its micromosaic top makes a statement by means of a pictorial representation of a contemporary historic Russian military event, a victory which is literally and figuratively supported by the Imperial coat of arms of Nicholas I, three golden double-headed eagles which symbolize the emperor's role as supporter of the nation. It is thrilling that this table of surpassing quality and historic magnitude, which has remained unidentified in private American collections for a century, should now emerge to worldwide awareness.

Sotheby's is grateful to Dr. Jeanette Hanisee Gabriel for compilation of this scholarly note. Dr. Gabriel wishes to thank the following for assistance in researching and cataloging this lot: Svetlana Chestnykh, Marina Dobronovskaya, Dmitry Gurevich, Dr. Alexander Mikaberidze, Dr. Igor Sychev (State Hermitage Museum), Jeremy Warren (Wallace Collection), Paulina Woszczak (Muzeum Sztuki w Łodzi), and Juna Zek (State Hermitage Museum)

Sources

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Alfieri, Massimo. "New Notes on Giacomo Raffaelli and Michelangelo Barberi," in Gabriel, ed. Micromosaics, op cit., pp. 263-280.

Atsarkina, Esfir. Aleksandr Osipovich Orlovskii: 1777-1832, Moscow: Iskusstvo, 1971.

Efimova, E.M. West European Mosaics of the 13th-19th Centuries in the Collection of the Hermitage, Leningrad: Sovetskii khudozhnik, 1968.

Ertman, Marta. Malarstwo polskie od XVII do początku XX wieku w zbiorach Muzeum Sztuki w Łodzi, Łódź: Muzeum Sztuki, 2009.

Gabriel, Jeanette Hanisee. Micromosaics: The Gilbert Collection. London: Philip Wilson, 2000.

Karsavin, L. "Orlovskii, Aleksandr Osipovich," Russkii biograficheskii slovar. Obezianimoe-Ochkin. St. Petersburg, 1902, pp. 313-315.

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