Jewellery coffret of Hedwig Jagiellon. A Masterpiece from the Collections of the State Hermitage Museum

The so-called Hedwig Jagiellon jewellery coffret is not just one of the most valuable exhibits belonging to the Saint Petersburg State Hermitage Museum’s Treasure Gallery, but one of the most impressive Renaissance-era goldsmithery art works in all of Europe in general. This masterpiece which was commissioned by Sigismund the Old and crafted by an anonymous master craftsman from Nürnberg from silver and gold, decorated with approximately 200 ornaments and almost one thousand various gemstones and pearls, testifies to the exceptional opulence of the Lithuanian and Polish ruler’s court and the refined aesthetic taste of the Jagiellonian rulers, not to mention their spending capabilities and well-established European cultural and artistic ties. At the same time, the coffret is symbolic of the dynastic associations of Europe’s states and rulers in the 16th–18th centuries which happened to determine the origins of this exquisite goldsmithery treasure and the route it took from Lithuania, to Poland, Germany and Russia.

 

Hedwig Jagiellon’s jewellery coffret is valued also as a unique Lithuanian treasure that is connected to the palace of the grand dukes of Lithuania, the last Jagiellonian’s residence there, the planned European dynastic bonds fostered there, and its impressive treasures that surprised all of Europe.

 

The organization of international exhibitions from the world’s most famous musuems, as well as the exposition of this exquisite coffret in Vilnius in the reconstructed Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania serves as confirmation of the integration of this museum into the global museum network and highlights the truly active cultural links between Lithuania and Russia, Vilnius and Saint Petersburg, specifically the State Hermitage and the National Museum – Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania, and the collegial and friendly cooperation of staff from these institutions.

 

Much like an allusion to the European dimension of historical and contemporary cultural, artistic and political ties, the organization of the exhibition featuring this unique jewellery coffret in Vilnius in 2013 during Lithuania’s presidency of the Council of the European Union enhances the symbolic meaning and purpose of this museum project.

 

The organizers sincerely thank the General Director of the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Mikhail Piotrovski, for his exceptional regard for this exhibition.

 

International exhibition „Jewellery coffret of Hedwig Jagiellon. A. Masterpiece from the Collections of the State Hermitage Museum“ opened on the 12th of September and will continue till 15th of December.

 

Exhibition organizers – State Hermitage Museum (Saint Petersburg, Russia) and National Museum – Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania

 

Exhibition patron

Prime Minister of the Republic of Lithuania Algirdas Butkevičius

 

Exhibition curator

Birutė Verbiejūtė, e-mail:  b.verbiejute@valdovurumai.lt, tel. +370 5 255 9152