From next Saturday, the "Splendor and Glory" of art produced over ten centuries to the Russian Orthodox Church, will take place in the rooms of the Hermitage Museum of Amsterdam. With more than three hundred pieces, including icons, fresco fragments, clothing, paintings, books and regalia associated to the worship and spirituality of the Christian community. A religion that has played a vital role in Russian society since its inception in the year 988, when Grand Prince Vladimir officially adopted Orthodox Christianity as its official religion.

After this baptism of history, the Orthodox faith spread rapidly throughout the kingdom, adding a new dimension to church history and art history. From the Byzantine origins of the community and its major traditions, Splendour and Glory displays those pieces that explain the meaning and the material wealth of the cult.  A tour that includes a comprehensive account of the gender of the icons starting from its origin in Kiev, from the collections of the Hermitage, and exhibits for the first time, an iconostasis with exceptional frescoes of Pskov.

Besides spreading the Orthodox faith, the exhibition focuses on the impact of monastic institutions in secular society.  The monasteries, which often served the political and economic interests, and its members, who assumed social responsibilities and the dissemination of cult society, spread the most iconic images of saints of Orthodox worship. The most venerable of them is the Mother of God, followed by St. Nicholas. And both appear together in this exhibition of magnificent treasures of the liturgical furnishings of the XV, XVI and XVII.

The exhibition concludes with a section dedicated exclusively to the church of St. Petersburg, the religious heart of Russia from 1703 to 1917. A complete overview of the origins and tradition of the Orthodox Church that will immerse the visitor in the spiritual atmosphere of Russian art.  It will be seen for six months in the Hermitage Museum in Amsterdam.  Alejandro Martínez 

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