Castello del Buonconsiglio monumenti e collezioni provinciali

The Gold of the Horsemen of the Steppes

Collection from the Museums of Ukraine

Location: Trento, Castello del Buonconsiglio

31 Mai - 03 November 2007

Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday 10 am - 6 pm Closed Mondays

From the early Christian era to the Middle Ages, a succession of nomadic populations controlled the vast open spaces of the steppes, from Asia to Eastern Europe. In this exhibition, the valuable archaeological finds which have come to light in the wide expanses of Ukraine provide us with vivid impressions of them .
These tribes were warriors whose strength lay in perpetual mobility, based on horses, chariots and tents. They are known as Cimmerians, Scythians, Sarmatians, Goths, Avars and Huns, and their adventures and migrations influenced the course of western history. Historians and geographers of classical antiquity occasionally provided descriptions of them - as those who had never founded a city, had no defensive walls, took their homes with them, and lived in their horse-drawn vehicles - proud and savage barbarians at the edge of the civilised world.
The common thread which runs through the exhibition is represented by magnificent jewellery reflecting the taste and fashions of the time, impressive weapons decorated with gold and precious stones, and sumptuous dining services for ceremonial banquets – all symbols of the status and power of the warriors of the steppes. Many of these amazing treasures were found in large burial mounds, known as kurgan, which were designed to perpetuate the glorious memory of the deceased from the upper social classes, and constituted a fixed point of reference in the area covered by the nomads. Scintillating decoration on robes and headdresses, earrings, pendants, armlets, breastplates, and even golden swords, reflects the pomp of aristocratic life amongst these horsemen of the steppes, and the cultural contacts which existed between them and the urban civilisations of the Mediterranean and Asia, the ancient Greeks, Romans and Persians.
The art of these peoples was deeply influenced by the natural environment in which they lived. Daily contact with the world of the steppes found expression in “animalistic art”, characterised by a continual tension between the representation of real and mythical animals - between bold, naturalistic depiction, and stylised, artificial images. Griffons, cats, and deer, carved on gold sheets, together with ceremonial objects, evoke magic-religious cults, and the spiritual world of shamans. Works of original artistic expression coexists with figurative imports from the world of ancient Greece. As an introduction to the exhibition, there is an important section presenting a selection of evidence relating to the first sedentary farming populations, which preceded the predominance of the nomadic cultures.