Attribution of old russian furniture in museums in the first quarter of the twentieth-first century

Attribution of Old Russian furniture in museums begins in the first third of the twentieth century, and its active development continues in the next century. In 2000, a catalog for the exhibition “One Hundred and Twelve Chairs” was published. For the first time, it includes images of several ancient artifacts and their brief annotations. The next edition on the topic of interest to us was published in St. Petersburg in 2003. Its Old Russian section includes a selective bibliography and two articles in which information about furniture production from antiquity to the XVII centuries is presented in chronological order on the basis of information gleaned from literature, as well as specific monuments for the consideration of stage phenomena. In 2015, a book about the collection of furniture of the Hermitage appeared. The catalog part includes several ancient artifacts previously published in the second half of the twentieth century, without a radical revision of the old information. An example of the practical use of the method of complex research of the monument is the 2017 article by N.V. Ugleva about a retractable table. A detailed study of the monument made it possible to determine that it, like its direct analogues, were made not in the XVII– XVIII, as previously thought, but at the end of the XIX century. In 2018, a book was published dedicated to Russian painted chests, which includes furniture of the XVI–XVII centuries. The author analyzes its design and decor, suggests a new dating. In the same year, a collective monograph was published, about the phenomenon of domestic throne chairs. Two articles directly concern the topic of interest to us. In the first of them, “For Fear and Greatness”, the question of terminology is solved, the historical evolution of this type of ceremonial setting for official receptions in Russia has been traced since ancient times. The second article about Russian throne chairs [24]. For the first time, these monuments are considered as examples of stylistic art. The same algorithm of practical work with museum exhibits is reflected in the published report by N.V. Ugleva on the new attribution of the curule chair from the collection of the Historical Museum. Previously considered a model of the XVII century. On the basis of an art history analysis, it was ranked among the works of the last third of the XV – first third of the XVI centuries. The only foreign author who published Russian artifacts of the XVII century is D. Miller, who included two monuments from the Hermitage collection. In the XXI century, the development of the science of ancient Russian furniture has risen to a new stage, when doubts were expressed about the relevance of old dating and the idea of separating the ancient heritage into a separate zone of independent research is being viewed.

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