West Europe

Painting 16-18 centuries

    The selection of West-European painting is the core of the museum collection. It covers the period from the early sixteenth to the latter half of the twentieth century - from the Renaissance period to contemporary artistic trends. This exhibition begins with the former period, a unique phenomenon in the history of human culture. The paintings on display reflect the vivid features of the art of Italy, the homeland of the Renaissance; as well as the original insight of the masters of the Northern Renaissance (the Netherlands, Germany). The seventeenth century, theperiod of the formation of national schools, is represented in the museum collection by the works of the the great Dutch portraitist Frans Hals; the Flemish artist Teniers the Younger; the painter of the Spanish court Juan Carreno de Miranda; and the brilliant French portrait painter Pierre Mignard. The eighteenth century was the Golden Age of portrait and landscape painting.

Painting 19-20 centuries
    The nineteenth century in the history of West-Europe
an art is characterized by the onward march of realism, and its struggle with academicism and salon art which tried to escape from the social themes of the day, turning to biblical subjects and mythology. The ideological acuity and a realistic approach to life is vividly manifested in the work of such artists as Christoffel Bischop, Jozef Israels, Mihaly Munkacsy, and Albert Gustaf Edelfelt. The collection of twentieth-century art boasts the works of the French artist Susanna Savary and the American painter Rockwell Kent.

Sculpture

    Compared with paintings, sculptures in the Odessa museum are not so numerous. But this fact notwithstanding, they comprehensively cover the period from the sixteenth century up to the twentieth, representing milestones on the path of the evolution of the West-European sculpture of modern times. The museum sculptural exhibits are interesting from the viewpoint that they may be considered as links connecting various stages in the development of European art over a period of three and a half centuries. The Apostle John and The Apostle Peter contrast with Venus, which is marked by manneristic features, all three statues dating from the Renaissance period. Antoine Coysevox (Glory Mounted on Pegasus) is a representative of the Grand Style: his creative work signified the transition from the Baroque to Classicism. The next stage, the epoch of Louis XV, is reflected by Edme Bouchardon's Hercules with Cerberus. Sculptural portraiture of the late eighteenth century is exemplified by the bust of Queen Marie Antoinette cast in the nineteenth century from the original of Louis Simon Boizot. The nineteenth century is characterized by the struggle of the academic and realistic trends; Cesare Zocchi and Robert Cauer the Elder being the advocates of academicism, and Pierre Jules Mene and Paul Richer of realism. The historical sculpture Soldier with an Aster by the outstanding Hungarian sculptor Zsigmond Kisfaludi-Strobl.

Decorative and applied art

    The Odessa collection of West-European decorative and applied art is comparatively small but chronologically embraces a large period, from the sixteenth to the twentieth century. It is rich and diverse regarding the kinds of art represented. It contains furniture, tapestry, porcelain, majolica and glassware. The museum exhibition of works of decorative and applied art is of great importance due to the fact that visitors have a possibility to appreciate stylistic principles characteristic of different epochs. Peculiar features of any style manifest themselves most vividly in furniture and tapestry - the kinds of applied art closely connected with architecture. The Odessa museum possesses tapestry specimens made in the seventeenth-eighteenth centuries at the factories of Paris and Beauvais.

Art of the Orient

    The museum collection of Oriental art contains works by masters spanning several generations from Central and Southern Asia, the Near and Middle East. All the exhibits date from a comparatively recent period - the eighteenth-twentieth centuries. Yet, they are of special interest in view of the fact that they reflect a significant period in the world's history when Western and Eastern civilizations began to intensively communicate for political and economic reasons. It was at that time that a romantic 'wonderland' halo enhanced the image of India. The two philosophic systems and religions, Hinduism and Buddhism, which were responsible for much of this fascination are represented in the museum by various works of art. It was also the time when the popularity of Chinese porcelain in the West reached its acme (the museum displays articles dating from the period when a Chinese cup was paid for in gold). A hundred years ago, a passion for Japanese culture seized both Western and Eastern hemispheres. This led to the situation that works of certain kinds of Japanese art, which sold particularly well across the ocean, have now become a rarity in Japan itself (this applies to Utamaro's engravings and Satsuma faience vases, both represented in the museum).