The Hermitage-Kazan Centre. The Art of the Portrait

	The entrance to the building of the Hermitage–Kazan Centre (1)		The Art of Ancient Rome and the Roman Provinces (1st century BC – 5th Century AD). The art of the East and the Mediterranean (1st–10th centuries AD) (8)
	The entrance to the exhibition halls of the Hermitage–Kazan Centre (2)		The Art of Western Europe, the East and Russia in the Late Middle Ages, Renaissance and Modern Era (11th–18th Centuries) (9)
	The Portrait in Contemporary Art (late 20th and 21st Centuries) (3)		The Art of Western Europe, the East and Russia in the Late Middle Ages, Renaissance and Modern Era (11th–18th Centuries) (10)
	The Pre-Portrait Period and the Culture of Ancient Egypt (4)		The Art of Western Europe, the East and Russia in the Late Middle Ages, Renaissance and Modern Era (11th–18th Centuries) (11)
	The Art of Ancient Greece, the Mediterranean Basin and the Northern Black Sea Region, 6th century BC – 3rd century AD (5)		The Art of Western Europe, the East and Russia. Late 18th and 19th Centuries (12)
	The Art of Ancient Greece, the Mediterranean Basin and the Northern Black Sea Region, 6th century BC – 3rd century AD (6)		The Art of Western Europe, the East and Russia. Late 18th and 19th Centuries (13)
	The Art of Ancient Rome and the Roman Provinces (1st century BC – 5th Century AD). The art of the East and the Mediterranean (1st–10th centuries AD) (7)		The Art of Western Europe, the East and Russia. Late 18th and 19th Centuries (14)

The Art of the Portrait

The Hermitage-Kazan Centre
9 November 2018 – 10 March 2019

The exhibition “The Art of the Portrait” provides a unique opportunity to present the most striking chapters in the history of portraiture worldwide. This is the first time such an exhibition has been organized, and its main idea is to show against the historical development of the genre: the origins and functions of the portrait, its main types, and the language of portrait forms. The evolution of portraiture is viewed across a sweeping timespan, from the 20th century BC to the 21st century AD, from its origins right up to our own time.

The exhibits represent three cultural-historical regions: the Orient, the West and Russia. Within each section, works of art from different countries are displayed together. This approach makes it possible to see the leading forms of portraiture at a certain historical juncture, to understand what changes and what remains unaltered in this genre of art, what distinctions there are in the depiction and perception of the human being in the art of different countries and eras.

The State Hermitage’s vast collection provides the opportunity to show the diversity of this genre in various types of art: painting, sculpture, graphic art, numismatics, applied art and photography.

A scholarly illustrated catalogue in Russian has been produced for the exhibition: Iskusstvo Portreta [The Art of the Portrait] (St Petersburg: Slavia, 2018 – 240 pp., ill.). The general editorship and the foreword are by Mikhail Borisovich Piotrovsky, General Director of the State Hermitage. The general concept of the exhibition and scholarly editorship of the catalogue are by Anna Alexeyevna Trofimova, the head of the State Hermitage’s Department of Classical Antiquities and curator of the exhibition.