Ekaterinburg Fine Arts Museum possesses a great collection of Stone and Gem Cutting Art, which includes the works of Ural masters of 18th -20th and the samples of natural and cut minerals.
      The base of the collection is the exhibits, made by the masters of Ekaterinburg gem works, that became the centre of cutting art industry in the Urals in the middle of 18th c. In 1760-1770 the craftsmen from the factory in Gorny Shchit worked out the technique of processing white and coloured marble, which was a great material to manufacture architectural details for palaces in St. Petersburg, as well as vases, bowls and obelisks. From the time of 1780 the factory took hard species in use. Such as agate, rhodonite and jasper, particularly. The collection of the museum owns classical engravings (1st half of 19th c.) on cornelain (“Nike”), agate (“Zeus”, “Bacchante”), jasper (“Zeus”) and coral (“Yunona”); and created with the help of the technique of “Russian mosaic” table tops, vases and boxes in malachite. In the 2nd half of the 19th century and early 20th century the factory and the workshops introduced the collection of chamber articles, that is vases and boxes in jasper, cut signets in quartz, animal figures in rock crystal (“Turtle-dove”, “The Head of the Horse”), smoky quarts(“Bear”), and amethyst (“Sea lion”, “Nestling”), blotters with applied relief compositions with leaves, flowers and berries(“Raspberry and Current”, “Grapes”) as well as presses made using the technique of “Florentine mosaic” (“Rose”, “Azalea”, “Lily of the Valley”).
      Modern masters, whose works are well represented in the collection of the museum, continue and take further the traditions of the Ural stone cutting art. They work in the style of “Russian mosaic” (A. Oberyukhtin, Vase 1957)and “Florentine mosaic”(Kolyasnikov. Press “Kamyishovka”.1992); make “filled” pictures (T. Chinchinko. “Night on Onega” 1991); boxes with applied cut elements (V. Chunakov. “Flowers”. 1994); small plastic articles (A. Busykin. “Mining-man” 1995). Animalistic art has been revived and is expanding rapidly. Animals and birds are depicted in hard stone in generalized form (A.Zhukov. “Raven”, 1989; S. Purtova. “Cat”. 1994) ; occasionally with natural stone fragments (V. Stekanov. “Mammoth”. 1991) or with characteristic carved details (N. Miryuk “Wild Boar”. 1994) Sometimes covered with carving (Ya. Bakhtin “Dog Bimka” 1994) Alongside work in the traditional manner the masters are looking for new plastic forms and images(V.Obolenskiy. “Unsuccessful acquaintance” 1995), some original vegetative forms also appear (V. Bakulin. Vases “Chamomile”, 1978 and “Awakening”, 1981) and works, created in constructive manner where clear-cut geometric lines dominate (Ryzhkov V. “Secrets of Space” 1980 and “Hard work” 1990; A.Zhukov , S. Zogorevskiy, Vase, 1991). The collection contains developed in Perm region carvings of soft stone: selenite, gypsum, calcite and talcochlorite. Basically, they are small-scale sculptural works, mainly animalistic art, which possesses precise silhouettes and realistic depiction in generalized form and exposure of characteristic details (A.V. Ovchinnikov. “Grizzli” 1987; A.M. Ovchinnikov “Cheetah” 1993). Once again they started to interest in household genre art (I. Nasibulin “Zhuchka, dance!” 1994 ; S. Krivoshchekov “Peasant” 1990); new soft material, steatite, is being actively used (I. Nasibullin. “Bull” 1993).
      The stone cutting art of the Urals continues to develop. New names become known; new works are created. This inspires hope that the collection of gem and stone cutting art in Ekaterinburg museum of Fine Arts will be further increased by interesting high-art exhibits.