Azerbaijan National Museum of Art ( az, Azərbaycan Milli İncəsənət Muzeyi) is the biggest art museum of Azerbaijan. It was founded in 1936 in

Baku Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world a ...

and in 1943 was named after

Rustam Mustafayev , native_name_lang = , birth_name = , birth_date = , birth_place = Baku, Russian Empire , baptised = , death_date = , death_place = Baku, Soviet Union , resting_place = Alley of Honor , resting ...

, a prominent Azerbaijani scenic designer and theater artist. The museum consists of two 19th century buildings standing next to each other. The museum's total collection includes over 15,000 artworks. There are over 3,000 items in 60 rooms on permanent display. About 12,000 items are kept in storage. The museum changes the exhibits periodically so that more of these artworks can be displayed temporarily.

History

In 1936, the Council of People's Commissars of

Azerbaijan SSR Azerbaijan ( az, Азәрбајҹан, Azərbaycan, italics=no), officially the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic (Azerbaijan SSR; az, Азәрбајҹан Совет Сосиалист Республикасы, Azərbaycan Sovet Sosialist R ...

decided to separate the Art department from the Azerbaijan State Museum and organized it as an independent museum. Expeditions provided the museum with the first exhibits. In addition, other exhibits were purchased. The opening ceremony of the museum's first exhibition was organized in 1937 and in 1951, the museum moved to the

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

-style De Bour mansion built at the end of the 19th century. In July 1993, various artworks had been stolen from the museum and were later retrieved. In 2006, the building was thoroughly reconstructed and the opening of a new exhibition took place in 2009. In 2011, the museum was declared to be of first National and then European Museum Standard (EUMS), meeting international standards and criteria, as appropriate for a museum and implying high quality museum services and professional experience; this was by unanimous decision of the Council of Directors of the European Economic Chamber of Trade, Commerce and Industry – EEIG - located in Brussels. In May 2022, on International Museum Day, the Museum held a multimedia Museum Night as part of a strategic partnership with the UN to promote

sustainable development Sustainable development is an organizing principle for meeting human development goals while also sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide the natural resources and ecosystem services on which the economy and society depend. The des ...

. There are approximately 9,000 scientific books and monographs, catalogues, albums and other professional literature in the library of the museum. There is also a rare books collection of old publications. Exhibits preserved in the collection of Azerbaijan National Museum of Art include antique works of art that date from the 4th century BC. Ceramic bowls decorated with archaic ornamentation found in Nakhchivan, Mingachevir,

Füzuli Fuzuli ( az, Füzuli ) is a city and the capital of the Fuzuli District of Azerbaijan. The city had a population of 17,090 before its capture by Armenian forces on 23 August 1993, during the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, which resulted in the ex ...

and

Khanlar Goygol ( az, Göygöl , known as Helenendorf before 1931, Yelenino in 1931–1938, Khanlar in 1938–2008) is a city, municipality and the capital of the Goygol District in northwestern Azerbaijan. It is around south of Azerbaijan's second-larges ...

(now Goy-gol); decorative lamps and glazed tiles of the Seljuq period; parts of the friezes from the 13th century Bayil castle; 14th-18th century chests found in Absheron and Shamakhi; fine manuscripts about the

Qur’an The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , sing.: ...

and 16th century books about astrology; original 17th-18th century Tabriz miniatures in tempera, gold water and watercolor; works by the celebrated artists Mir Mohsun Navvab, Mirza Qadim Irevani, Usta Qambar Qarabaghi, by the first professional artists in Azerbaijan and by our contemporaries; artistic metal items from the 16th and 17th centuries and samples of original fabric, embroidery, national costume and carpets and jewellery from the 18th-20th centuries are preserved here. Moreover, the collection of the national treasures, the examples of statuary, fine and graphic arts and other decorative-applied arts of Western Europe ( France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Greece, Flanders, Denmark, Spain), the East ( Iran, Turkey,

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, India, Egypt, Middle East) and Russia is available at the museum. Along with the carpets, other types of Azerbaijan decorative and applied arts, such as different techniques of embroidery, artistic metalwork, artistic fabrics, carving in wood, jewellery making, etc. are exhibited here. The gold thread embroidery of "gulabatin" type is widely spread throughout Azerbaijan. Shamakhi, Shusha, and

have traditionally been centers for this kind of art. Red and green velvet used to be the base for the gold and silver thread embroidery. Hats and so-called "arakhchins" were ornamented with rosettes and medallions made from stylized petals and stars. The "arkhalig" and "kulaja" also used to be embroidered with gold threads. The objects of different shape, size and purpose embroidered with gold threads including "arakhchins", kerchiefs, shoes, etuis for combs and cosmetics, dyes for eyebrows and eyelashes, etuis for watches, pencil-boxes, and many other things are displayed at the museum.

Collection

Seven of the rooms in the first building feature European art, and ten rooms feature

Russian art Russian culture (russian: Культура России, Kul'tura Rossii) has been formed by the nation's history, its geographical location and its vast expanse, religious and social traditions, and Western influence. Russian writers and ph ...

. European art includes works of Italian ( Guercino, Leandro Bassano,

Francesco Solimena Francesco Solimena (4 October 1657 – 3 April 1747) was a prolific Italian painter of the Baroque era, one of an established family of painters and draughtsmen. Biography Francesco Solimena was born in Canale di Serino in the province of ...

, Lorenzo Bartolini), French (

Jules Dupré Jules Louis Dupré (April 5, 1811 – October 6, 1889) was a French painter, one of the chief members of the Barbizon school of landscape painters. If Corot stands for the lyric and Rousseau for the epic aspect of the poetry of nature, Dupré i ...

, Gaspard Dughet,

Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret Pascal-Adolphe-Jean Dagnan-Bouveret (7 January 1852 – 3 July 1929), was one of the leading French artists of the naturalist school. Biography He was born in Paris, the son of a tailor, and was raised by his grandfather after his father ...

Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant (also known as Benjamin-Constant), born Jean-Joseph Constant (10 June 1845 – 26 May 1902), was a French painter and etcher best known for his Oriental subjects and portraits. Biography Benjamin-Constant was bor ...

), Dutch/Flemish (

Frans Hals Frans Hals the Elder (, , ; – 26 August 1666) was a Dutch Golden Age painter, chiefly of individual and group portraits and of genre works, who lived and worked in Haarlem. Hals played an important role in the evolution of 17th-century group ...

, Michiel Jansz van Mierevelt, Adriaen Brouwer, Adriaen van Ostade, Justus Sustermans, Pieter Claesz), German ( Johann Heinrich Roos, Friedrich August von Kaulbach) and Polish ( Jan Styka) painters. The second edifice built in 1885 houses

Eastern art The history of Asian art includes a vast range of arts from various cultures, regions, and religions across the continent of Asia. The major regions of Asia include Central, East, South, Southeast, and West Asia. Central Asian art primarily co ...

, represented particularly by Persian,

Turkish Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities and mi ...

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

and

Japanese art Japanese art covers a wide range of art styles and media, including ancient pottery, sculpture, ink painting and calligraphy on silk and paper, ''ukiyo-e'' paintings and woodblock prints, ceramics, origami, and more recently manga and anime. It ...

. Russian art is encompassed notably by paintings of Karl Briullov, Alexey Venetsianov,

Vasily Vereshchagin Vasily Vasilyevich Vereshchagin (russian: Васи́лий Васи́льевич Вереща́гин, October 26, 1842April 13, 1904), was one of the most famous Russian war artists and one of the first Russian artists to be widely recognis ...

, Isaac Levitan, Vladimir Makovsky, Valentin Serov, Vladimir Borovikovsky, Vasily Tropinin, Konstantin Korovin and

Ivan Shishkin Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin (russian: Ива́н Ива́нович Ши́шкин; 25 January 1832 – 20 March 1898) was a Russian landscape painter closely associated with the Peredvizhniki movement. Biography Shishkin was born to a Russian me ...

. There are also restored samples of

Russian avant-garde The Russian avant-garde was a large, influential wave of avant-garde modern art that flourished in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, approximately from 1890 to 1930—although some have placed its beginning as early as 1850 and its e ...

. Among Azerbaijani artists represented are painters Mir Mohsun Navvab,

Bahruz Kangarli Bahruz Shirali bey oglu Kangarli ( az, Bəhruz Şirəlibəy oğlu Kəngərli; 22 January 1892, Nakhchivan – 7 February 1922, Nakhchivan) was an Azerbaijani painter and graphic artist. He was one of the first professional representatives of Azerb ...

Tair Salakhov Tahir Salahov ( Azerbaijani, in full: , russian: Таир Теймур Салахов; 29 November 1928 – 21 May 2021) was a Soviet, Azerbaijani painter and draughtsman. He was First Secretary of the Artists' Union of the USSR (1973–1992), V ...

, Azim Azimzade, Salam Salamzade,

Vidadi Narimanbekov Vidadi Narimanbekov ( az, Vidadi Nərimanbəyov; 13 July 1926 – 13 December 2001) was a painter, Honored Art Worker and People's Artist of the Azerbaijan SSR. Biography Vidadi's father Farman Narimanbekov was born in Shusha. He was one of the 4 ...

, Mikail Abdullayev,

Togrul Narimanbekov Togrul Farman oglu Narimanbekov ( az, Toğrul Fərman oğlu Nərimanbəyov, russian: Тогрул Нариманбеков; 7 August 1930 – 2 June 2013) was one of the prominent modern Azerbaijani artists. History Narimbanbekov was born in Bak ...

and sculptor

Omar Eldarov Omar Hasan oglu Eldarov ( az, Ömər Həsən oğlu Eldarov) is an Azerbaijani monumentalist sculptor, Honoured Art Worker of Azerbaijan (1962), People's Artist of Azerbaijan (1982), full member of the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan (200 ...

. The works of Sattar Bahlulzade fill one entire room. The museum also holds easel and book miniatures of 17th-19th centuries,

lacquered Lacquer is a type of hard and usually shiny coating or finish applied to materials such as wood or metal. It is most often made from resin extracted from trees and waxes and has been in use since antiquity. Asian lacquerware, which may be ca ...

miniatures of 18th-19th centuries and collection of sherbet spoons, made from mulberry tree. The first works were obtained from

Saint-Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

, Moscow and private collections. The museum expositions were later exhibited in Canada (1966), Cuba (1967),

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

(1968), France (1969), former Czechoslovakia, Algeria (both 1970), Iraq (1971) etc.

Architecture

Calm horizontal division of the building is harmonized with verticals of clubhouse and Sadikhov's residential building. Von derr Nonne in regards to red lines of free streets was not connected to other buildings. The volumetric solution was implemented to the building to highlight its location and its view to the sea Classical elements, plastic means on rustication's background highlight the architectural style of the building. This kind of buildings was usually made in the central streets of big cities. The gallery was also unique in the way it looked and was noticeable among other buildings. This building is considered one of the first attempts in the implementation of porticoes on the main facade, loggias - on the side and other plastic means. All this differentiates the building among others and gives volume on the perimeter of the building.

The collection of antique and medieval art of Azerbaijan

This collection includes works of art from antique and Middle Ages, including figures of birds from Manna, female figures from III-I centuries BC, various ancient dishes from various territories of Azerbaijan which were found during excavations, a tombstone in a shape of horse, etc. File:Female idol from Shaki Azerbaijan.JPG File:Ceramic dish from Gabala 1.jpg File:Bird figures from Nakhichevan, Azerbaijan.JPG File:Ceramic dish from Nakhchevan.jpg

Gallery

File:9aИкона. Богоматерь Владимирская..jpg, Theotokos of Vladimir, late 16th century File:Икона. Богоматерь Казанская..jpg, Our Lady of Kazan, late 17th century File:Bernardino Luini - Saint Catherine.jpg, Bernardino Luini - St. Catherine, 16th century File:Andrea del Sarto - Madonna of the Harpies 1517 in Azerbaijan National Art Museum.jpg,

Andrea del Sarto Andrea del Sarto (, , ; 16 July 1486 – 29 September 1530) was an Italian painter from Florence, whose career flourished during the High Renaissance and early Mannerism. He was known as an outstanding fresco decorator, painter of altar-pieces, ...

- Madonna of the Harpies, 1517-1519 File:Bartolomeo Schedoni - John the Baptist.jpg,

Bartolomeo Schedoni Bartolomeo Schedoni (sometimes Schedone) (1578 – 23 December 1615) was an Italian early Baroque painter from Modena. Biography He was born in Modena, and moved to Parma with his father, a mask-maker who served the Farnese court. In 1595 Schedo ...

- John the Baptist, 17th century File:Francesco Solimena - Boreas Abducting Oreithyia, Daughter of Erechteus - 1729.jpg,

- Boreas Abducting Oreithyia, Daughter of Erechteus, 1729 File:Guercino - Sleeping Endymion.jpg, Guercino - Sleeping Endymion, 17th century File:Leandro Bassano - Portrait of a woman.jpg, Leandro Bassano - Portrait of an Old Woman File:Balthasar Beschey - Venera and Adonis.JPG,

Balthasar Beschey Balthasar Beschey (1708, Antwerp – 1776, Antwerp) was a Flemish people, Flemish painter, draughtsman and decorative painter of interiors. He started his career as landscape painter but later on switched to history painting, history and portrait ...

- Venera and Adonis File:Pieter Claesz - Natrumot.jpg, Pieter Claesz - Still life File:Justus Sustermans - Portrait of F. Medici.jpg, Justus Sustermans - Portrait of F. Medici, 17th century File:Michiel Jansz. van Mierevelt - Portrait of the Duke of Wallenstein.jpg,

Michiel Jansz. van Mierevelt Michiel Janszoon van Mierevelt, often abbreviated as Michiel Jansz. and the surname also spelled Miereveld or Miereveldt, (; 1 May 1566 – 27 June 1641) was a Dutch painter and draftsman of the Dutch Golden Age. Biography Van Mierevelt was ...

- Portrait of the Duke of Wallenstein, 17th century File:Frans Hals - Portrait of man.JPG,

- Portrait of a man File:Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant - Portrait of the Empress Alexandra Fyodrovna.jpg,

- Portrait of the Empress Alexandra Fyodrovna, 19th century File:Friedrich August von Kaulbach - Portrait of 18 year old Alexandra Feodorovna.jpg, Friedrich August von Kaulbach - Portrait of Grand Duchess Elisabeth Feodorovna, 19th century File:Jean-Baptiste Greuze - Portrait of a young woman.jpg, Jean-Baptiste Greuze - Portrait of a young woman, 18th century File:Eduard Joseph d'Alton - Portrait of a woman.jpg,

Eduard Joseph d'Alton Joseph Wilhelm Eduard d’Alton (August 11, 1772 – May 11, 1840) was a German engraver and naturalist who was a native of Aquileia (today part of Italy). He was the father of anatomist Johann Samuel Eduard d'Alton (1803–1854). Originall ...

- Portrait of a woman, 19th century File:Louis Hersent - Peter I of Russia and Louis XV of France.jpg,

Louis Hersent Louis Hersent (10 March 1777 – 2 October 1860) was a French painter. Life and career He was born in Paris. He became a pupil of Jacques-Louis David, and obtained the Prix de Rome in 1797. In the Salon of 1802, he showed ''Metamorphosis of Nar ...

Peter I of Russia Peter I ( – ), most commonly known as Peter the Great,) or Pyotr Alekséyevich ( rus, Пётр Алексе́евич, p=ˈpʲɵtr ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪtɕ, , group=pron was a Russian monarch who ruled the Tsardom of Russia from t ...

and Louis XV of France File:Charles Le Brun - Banishment of Iliadore.JPG, Charles Le Brun - Banishment of Iliadore File:Adriaen Brouwer - Scene at a surgeon.jpg, Adriaen Brouwer - Scene at a surgeon, 17th century File:Роос Иоган Генрих, Стадо.jpg, Johann Heinrich Roos - Herd, 1676 File:Louis Victor Watelin - Landscape.JPG, Louis Victor Watelin - Landscape, 1873 File:Gaspard Dughet - Landscape.JPG, Gaspard Dughet - Landscape File:Иван Айвазовский - Дорога в лесу.jpg, Ivan Aivazovsky - The road in the woods, 1857 File:Иван Шишкин - Дорога в лесу..jpg,

- The road in the woods File:Jean-Honoré Fragonard - Pastoral.jpg, Jean-Honoré Fragonard - Pastorale File:В. Пукирев. Прерванное венчание.jpg, Vasili Pukirev - Interrupted wedding File:Shaki khan palace interier.jpg, Usta Gambar Karabakhi - Tree of life File:Portrait of sitting woman by Irevani.jpg, Mirza Kadym Irevani - Portrait of sitting woman, 1870 File:Khurshidbanu Natavan.jpg, Ogtay Sadıgzadeh - Portrait of

Khurshidbanu Natavan Khurshidbanu Natavan ( az, خورشیدبانو ناتوان / Xurşidbanu Natəvan; 6 August 1832 – 2 October 1897) was an Azerbaijani poet and philanthropist. She is considered one of the best lyrical poets of Azerbaijan. Her poems are in ei ...

References

External links

Official website

Museum's overview
(Bakupages.com) {{authority control 1936 establishments in Azerbaijan Art museums established in 1936 Cultural infrastructure completed in 1885 Art museums in Baku National museums of Azerbaijan