Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Bellagio basking in Faberge’s light

What: "Faberge: Treasures From the Kremlin."

When: Opening today. 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. Through Jan. 26.

Where: Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art.

Tickets: $15, $12 students, senior citizens and Nevada residents.

Information: (702) 693-7870.

On the evening of July 17, 1918, Czar Nicholas II and his exiled family were corralled into a barren cellar, where they were lined up against a wall and shot. Thus ended the 300-year Romanov Dynasty and began some of the most enduring mysteries of the last century.

Did little Anastasia survive, after all? And what happened to the vast Romanov fortune? More broadly, how did it all fall apart?

"Faberge: Treasures From the Kremlin," which opens at Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art today, makes no attempt to solve either of these riddles.

Rather, the exhibit -- which displays 200 pieces of Faberge, including three Imperial Easter Eggs, carved figurines, jewelry, cigarette cases and personal memorabilia -- seems like an ethereal snapshot from a time in the royal family's life when it appears that the biggest decision of the day may have been deciding which card game to play that evening.

It is nearly impossible, however, for a viewer to separate the extravagant luxury of the Faberge ornaments, often poignantly inscribed with a personal note to a beloved family member, from the tragedy that eventually defined the pieces.

The most acclaimed jeweler of his time, Peter Carl Faberge's star began to rise in 1869 when he sold his first pieces to the St. Petersburg Hermitage. By 1885 his place among the high royal courts of Europe was secured when he was commissioned by Czar Alexander III to produce the first Imperial Easter egg.

The czar gave the Hen Egg to his wife Maria in 1885. Placed inside, the czarina found a hen made of multicolored gold with two ruby eyes, a small ruby egg and a miniature diamond replica of the czar's crown.

The gift so delighted the family that the czar ordered an Easter egg every year thereafter. When Nicholas II ascended to the throne, he gave two Easter eggs each year, one to his wife and one to his mother.

The Kremlin Armoury Museum in Moscow has the largest collection of imperial eggs in the world. For this exhibit, the Kremlin Museum and the Russian Ministry of Culture agreed to loan some of their rarest and most valuable masterpieces, including three of their 10 Faberge Imperial Easter Eggs.

In many ways the eggs are the epitome of everything Faberge. Although studded with diamonds, rubies, emeralds and pearls, Faberge was not particularly enamored of precious materials. Instead, he concentrated on exquisite detail and precise craftsmanship.

After building an exquisite shell, Faberge would place a tiny surprise inside. Six were mechanical, such as the famous rooster that pops up and crows. Others ranged from delicate portraits to reproductions of the Imperial Palace.

Among the rarest of rare art treasures, it is almost impossible to put a value on the eggs in the "Treasures From the Kremlin" collection; the last egg sold went to a private collector for $5.6 million in 1994.

The eggs in this collection are three of the imperial family's favorites. The Moscow Kremlin Egg is the most ambitious of the imperial eggs and was placed by Czarina Alexandra in the most prominent position in her personal display cabinet.

A reproduction of the cathedral where the czars of Russia were crowned, it recreates in minute detail the working clock and chimes of two of the towers. When wound, air coursed through tiny bellows in a unique musical tribute to the czar's favorite triumphal Easter hymns. Inside, through the windows, the interior of the cathedral is painted on rock crystal.

The Trans-Siberian Railway Egg commemorates the laying of the cornerstone for the construction of the railway. Hidden inside is a mechanical train that can chug along for three feet or more. The silver band that encases the eggshell contains a map of the Russian Empire, including the route of the proposed railway.

The last egg in this collection has to be the most heartbreakingly beautiful. Adorned with five miniature portraits of the children, the egg is engraved with their first initials and birthdates.

The surprise is a faithful reproduction of the relatively modest Alexandrovsky Palace and its gardens, the favorite home of the czar and his family before the Revolution.

Even if Faberge had never made the imperial eggs, however, he would be celebrated today for the high artistry of his enamels. Cigarette cases, given freely by the czar to favored guests, offered a perfect surface to experiment with color, texture and simple elegance.

The display at the Bellagio, about 60 cigarette cases on loan from the personal collection of John Traina, show the brilliance of Faberge's use of color. He perfected 145 colors from soft peach to deep ocean blue to iridescent green. The cases seem to glow with an inner light.

"Faberge perfected (enamel) to a level that no one has reproduced -- not even sort of reproduced," says Marc Glimcher, chairman of the Bellagio Gallery and curator of the exhibit. "No one knows how he did it."

But Faberge's light fell along with that of the Russian Empire. During the last years of the empire, his craftsmen were drafted to fight in World War I, the market for luxury goods dried up and he was ordered to produce hand grenades and shell casings instead of small artistic jewels.

By 1917 he was through. He sold his shares in his company and fled the country, dying three years later.

"It is mesmerizing," Glimcher says of the enameled surfaces of a cigarette case. "You can get lost in the depth of it."

Perhaps that is what they did.

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