The Netherlands-Russia year is kicking off and what better way to start than with an exhibition dedicated to the most famous Russian of all time? At The Hermitage Amsterdam is therefore hosting the exhibition 'Peter the Great, an inspired tsar'. A biographical exhibition revolving around his life, wars, passions, collections and, above all, his boundless curiosity. These brought him to Amsterdam on two trips and inspired him to reform his country. Without him, today's Russia would never have existed.
Peter the Great (1672-1725) was not called that for nothing. The tsar was literally big: 2.04 metres tall. You can clearly see that when you stand in front of the costumes he once wore. They are part of some 350 objects that tell the story of Peter the Great. On display are sabres, and daggers, guns, anatomical specimens, paintings, marble Italian statues, a tapestry Louis XV gave him as a gift, curiosities, antique Siberian gold, a carriage, cityscapes and his stuffed dog Liza. A masterpiece closes the exhibition: the first Rembrandt ever bought by a Russian: ''David bids farewell to Jonathan''. For Peter loved art and brought many Western European paintings and sculptures to Russia. He established the first museum in Russia with his Kunstkamera in 1714. He thus laid the foundation for the Hermitage and was an example to friends, who also started collecting art.
Death mask
To set the tone, this grand exhibition of this grand, almost mythical figure starts small and intimate, with his death. Two paintings of Peter the Great on his deathbed, his death mask and some personal attributes such as a chessboard and a medallion open the exhibition. Next to it is a bronze cast of his large hand. To say: this monarch was only human too. But one who brought about much in his great empire.
Little Pyotr lost his father when he was four, became tsar at 10 and married when he was 16. That must not have been a good marriage, because his first wife put him in a convent after a few years and he remarried Marta Skawronska, later Tsarina Catherine I.
He did not live to be 52, but in that half-century he achieved much, thanks to his curiosity and ambitions. He was the first tsar to sail the sea and go abroad. He made two voyages to Western Europe, in 1697-98 and 1716-17, 'to see and learn'. Everything he saw and learned he wanted to use for his own country. The city of Amsterdam, for instance, was a great inspiration for the new city of St Petersburg, which he built out of the ground in a quarter of a century. St Petersburg, for instance, is built entirely on stilts, just like Amsterdam. Although France and Italy inspired him for the grandeur of the boulevards and palaces, the interiors of the houses resemble those of Amsterdam.
Carpenter's degree
In Amsterdam, he loved to be shown around. He had an inexhaustible interest and wanted to know everything about shipping, medicine, printing, geometry, physics. And then also do everything himself. So he also rolled up his sleeves. In Amsterdam, he worked at the VOC's shipyard and got his carpentry diploma. He learned to draw molars in Amsterdam (and continued to practise it as a hobby in his home country) he learned a total of 14 trades. With the aim of introducing a new, secular culture to his country and seeking rapprochement with Europe.
The exhibition shows how far his power reached and how beloved he was. According to tradition, he was a kind man, although he could also be hot-tempered and wicked. When he had ordered a thousand rebels to be killed, he himself took up the axe. And then there were the many ukazes he issued. When he returned from his first trip, he decreed that all Russian men should shave off their beards. Those who did not, had to pay beard tax. He introduced Western clothing and decreed that the Russian nobility should also wear it.
Long beards
This was a complete reform in the country that was entirely in the tradition of the Russian Orthodox Church. His father can still be seen in a painting: a man with a long beard, as an expression of the Orthodox faith. Instead, Peter the Great turned his sights outwards and opened the window to the west.
His enormous inquisitiveness makes you, as a visitor, increasingly curious about this man. Fortunately, there are still the catalogue and the museum shop, where there is much more to read about this best-dressed Russian ever. And the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica also dedicates a small exhibition to the monarch. There, it discusses, among other things, what fascinated Peter so much in cabinets of curiosities. You can also go to Zaandam. There you will find the Czar Peter cottage, where he stayed and worked incognito over three hundred years ago. The cottage has recently been completely renovated.
'Peter the Great, an inspired tsar'. T/m 13 September at The Hermitage Amsterdam. Catalogue 29.95 euros. www.hermitage.nl
'A curious tsar: Peter the Great discovers the Secrets of Nature - in Amsterdam'. T/m 20 September at Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica, Bloemstraat 13-19, Amsterdam.
Czaar Peter house at Zaans Museum. Www.zaansmuseum.nl
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