2024 № 4 (51)
Two Illuminated Letters of Queen Anne Stuart from the Russian State Archive of Ancient Documents Сollection in Moscow
UDC 7
LBC 85.103
DOI: 10.51678/2226-0072-2024-4-354-377
For cit.: Zolotova E.Yu. Two Illuminated Letters of Queen Anne Stuart from the Russian State Archive of Ancient Documents Сollection in Moscow. Hudozhestvennaya kul’tura [Art & Culture Studies], 2024, no. 4, pp. 354–377. https://doi.org/10.51678/2226‐0072‐2024‐4‐354‐377. (In Russian)
Zolotova Ekaterina Yu.
D. Sc. (in Art History), Leading Researcher, Classical Western Art Department, State Institute for Art Studies, 5 Kozitsky Lane, Moscow, 125375, Russia
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2410-3947
Two Illuminated Letters of Queen Anne Stuart from the Russian State Archive of Ancient Documents Сollection in Moscow
Abstract. The article for the first time publishes two illuminated parchment letters of Queen Anne Stuart of 1707 and 1708 addressed to Tsar Peter the Great from the collection of the Russian State Archive of Ancient Documents (RGADA) in Moscow. The analysis of their artistic decoration allows establishing that the letters were decorated in the royal workshop in London by its head, Thomas Brand, using the samples of ornamental engraving by the French master of the second half of the 17th century, Alexis Loir. Based on the material of the illuminated letters of the epoch from Charles II of England to Anne Stuart, including those stored in the English fund of the Russian State Archive of Ancient Documents (No. 35), the article for the first time presents a brief outline of the history of decorating parchment documents in England for half a century: the author traces the history of the royal workshop in the 1660s — 1710s, considers the issues of the influence of ornamental engraving and the evolution of style, and assesses the contribution of the leading craftsmen, as well as the role of the Queen Anne era and the court master Thomas Brand in updating the art of decorating letters at the beginning of the 18th century.
Keywords: English illuminated letters, printing press, engraved pattern, ornamental framing, royal coats of arms and emblems
Sources:
The Letter of King Charles II to Tsar Feodor III Alekseyevich: 1682. RGADA [Russian State Archive of Ancient Documents], f. 35, inv. 2, storage unit 111.
The Letter of Queen Anne to Tsar Peter the Great: 1702. RGADA [Russian State Archive of Ancient Documents], f. 35, inv. 3, storage unit 3.
The Letter of Queen Anne to Tsar Peter the Great: 1703. RGADA [Russian State Archive of Ancient Documents], f. 35, inv. 3, storage unit 4.
The Letter of Queen Anne to Tsar Peter the Great: 1704. RGADA [Russian State Archive of Ancient Documents], f. 35, inv. 3, storage unit 6.
The Letter of Queen Anne to Tsar Peter the Great: 1709. RGADA [Russian State Archive of Ancient Documents], f. 35, inv. 3, storage unit 12.
The Letter of Queen Anne to Tsar Peter the Great: 1709. RGADA [Russian State Archive of Ancient Documents], f. 35, inv. 3, storage unit 13.
The Letters of King George II to the Empress Anna Ioannovna: 1731-1737. AVPRI [Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Empire], f. 35, inv. 35/2, storage units 65, 67–69, 71, 72, 74.
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Received 02.09.2024
Accepted 17.10.2024
