Hermitage exhibit with names and descriptions. What to see in the Hermitage? Three tours of the best museum in Europe

Art

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Someone calculated that it would take eight years to walk around the entire Hermitage, devoting only a minute to inspecting each exhibit. So, going for new aesthetic impressions to one of the main museums of the country, you need to stock up on enough time and the appropriate mood.

The main museum of the Hermitage is a collection of five buildings built at different times by different architects for different purposes, and connected in series with each other, but visually different in color of the facades (this can be seen especially well from the spit of Vasilyevsky Island): the Winter Palace is the creation of Bartalameo Rastrelli, commissioned by Empress Elizabeth, then comes the Small Hermitage, then the suite of rooms of the Old Hermitage (the former living quarters of the imperial family), smoothly flowing into the building of the New Hermitage (designed by the European "museum" architect Leo von Klenze to accommodate the rapidly growing collection) and the Hermitage theater.

Must-see masterpieces are marked on the museum plan with arrows and pictures - in principle, this is the traditional route of most guides and tourists.

Below is the optimal list of Hermitage must sees.

The classic excursion route around the main Hermitage Museum starts from the Jordan Staircase, or, as it is also commonly called, the Ambassador Staircase (it was through this staircase that noble guests of emperors and envoys of foreign powers passed to the palace). After the white-and-gold marble staircase, the road forks: a suite of state rooms goes forward and into the distance, to the left - the Field Marshal's Hall. The ceremonial halls stretching along the Neva look somewhat deserted and are now used to host temporary exhibitions. On the left, the second suite of ceremonial halls begins, resting on the Throne Room, which, in contrast to the main staircase, looks rather modest.

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Part of the first floor, which can be reached by descending the October Staircase (straight from the Impressionists), is dedicated to the art of the ancient inhabitants of Asia - the Scythians. Hall number 26 presents rather well-preserved items made of organic material found during excavations of the royal necropolis in the Altai Mountains, the so-called fifth Pazyryk burial mound. The Pazyryk culture dates back to the 6th-3rd centuries. BC e. ‒ the era of the early Iron Age. All the items found were preserved in excellent condition due to the special climatic conditions – an ice lens formed around the mound, resulting in a kind of “natural refrigerator” in which items can be stored for a very long period. Archaeologists discovered a burial chamber, which was a four-meter-high wooden frame, inside of which were placed the mummified bodies of a man and a woman, as well as a horse burial located outside the frame. Items found during excavations indicate the high social status of the buried. In ancient times, the mound was robbed, but the horse burial remained untouched. The wagon was found disassembled, presumably, it was harnessed by four horses. A special pride of the collection is a well-preserved felt carpet depicting a fantastic flower, a male rider and a larger woman, apparently a deity. Archaeologists have not come to a consensus as to when and why this carpet was made, detailed studies have shown that it was subsequently added, perhaps specifically for burial. Other interesting exhibits located in the window opposite are felt figurines of swans stuffed with reindeer fur. Swans have foreign black wings, presumably they were taken from vultures (funeral birds). Thus, the ancients endowed the swan with the property of transcendence, turning it into an inhabitant of all three levels of the universe: heavenly, earthly and watery. In total, four felt figurines of birds were found, which allows us to assume that the swans were related to the wagon in which they were supposed to be taken to afterworld the souls of the dead (during excavations, swans were found between the wagon and the carpet). “Imported finds” were also found in the mound, for example, horse saddlecloths trimmed with Iranian woolen fabric and fabric from China, which allows us to speak about the contacts of the Scythian population of the Altai Mountains with cultures Central Asia and the Ancient East already in the VI-III centuries. BC e.

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Main Museum Complex, Winter Palace, II floor, rooms 151, 153

If you are a little tired of the variety of paintings and sculptures, you can get a little distracted by switching to a small room french art XV-XVII centuries, where the ceramics of Saint-Porcher and Bernard Palissy are presented. There are only about 70 pieces of Saint-Porcher around the world, and in the Hermitage you can see as many as four copies. The Saint-Porcher technique (named after the supposed place of origin) can be schematically described as follows: ordinary clay was placed in molds, and then an ornament was squeezed out with metal matrices on the molds (there are as many ornaments as there are matrices), then the recesses were filled with clay of a contrasting color, the product was covered with transparent glaze and fired in a kiln. After firing, decorative painting was added. As you can see, as a result of such an intricate and laborious process, an extremely elegant and fragile little thing was obtained. In the showcase opposite, another type of ceramics is presented - ceramics of the circle of Bernard Palissy - the most famous master ceramist of the 16th century. Colorful, unusual, so-called "rural clays" are immediately striking - dishes depicting the inhabitants of the water element. The technique of making these dishes is still a mystery, but art historians believe that they were made using casts from prints. It was as if a stuffed sea reptile was smeared with fat, and a piece of clay was placed on top and burned. An effigy was pulled out of the burnt clay and an impression was made. There is an opinion that the reptiles, during the time when clay was applied to them, were only immobilized by the ether, but by no means dead. Casts were made from the resulting impression, which were attached to dishes, everything was painted with colored glaze, then covered with transparent and fired. The dishes of Bernard Palissy were so popular that he had a myriad of followers and imitators.

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Main Museum Complex, Winter Palace, II floor, rooms 272‒292

If you walk through the enfilade of front rooms along the Neva, you will find yourself on the spare half of the rooms with residential interiors - here you can find strictly classical interiors, and living rooms decorated in the style of historicism, and rococo-intricate furniture, and Art Deco furniture, and Gothic wooden furniture. a two-tier library of Nicholas II with ancient folios, easily immersing you in the atmosphere of the Middle Ages.

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Main Museum Complex, Winter Palace, II floor, rooms 187–176

Few people get to the third floor, to the department of the countries of the East. If you go a little further from the world of Matisse-Picasso-Derain, overcoming the temptation to go down the wooden stairs, then you will find yourself in the department of the countries of the East. In several halls of the Far East and Central Asia exposition, there are wall frescoes, partly lost, partly restored with the help of computer technology, which are more than one hundred years old. They represent the incredibly refined art of painting cave and ground Buddhist temples from the Karashar, Turfan and Kuchar oases, located along the route of the Great Silk Road. The frescoes serve as a unique evidence of the unity of the Buddhist world in India, Central Asia and China of the pre-Mongolian period. A few years ago, part of the frescoes from the collection was transported to the restoration and storage center " Old village where they are now on display.

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Main Museum Complex, Winter Palace, 3rd floor, halls 359‒367, exposition "Culture and Art of Central Asia"

Impressionist works (Monet, Renoir, Degas, Sisley, Pizarro) are presented on the third floor Winter Palace. One of the true gems of the collection is Claude Monet's Lady in the Garden of Sainte-Adresse (Claude Monet, Femme au jardin, 1867). By the dress of the girl, one can definitely determine the year the picture was written - it was then that such dresses came into fashion. And it was this work that adorned the cover of the catalog of the exhibition of Monet's works from around the world, which took place a few years ago in Paris at the Grand Palais. The collection also abounds with post-impressionist works by Cezanne, Gauguin, Van Gogh and others. French artists early 20th century: Matisse, Derain, Picasso, Marquet, Vallotton. How did this wealth end up in the museum's collection? All the paintings were previously in the collections of Russian merchants Morozov and Shchukin, who bought the works of French painters in Paris, thereby saving them from starvation. After the revolution, the paintings were nationalized by the Soviet state and placed in the Moscow Museum of New Western Art. In those years, Alfred Barr, the founder of the New York Museum of Modern Art, visited Moscow, for whom the Shchukin and Morozov collections served as a prototype for his future brainchild. After the war, the museum was disbanded due to its anti-national and formalistic content, and the collection was divided between the two largest museums in Russia - Pushkin in Moscow and the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. Special thanks also deserve the then director of the Hermitage, Joseph Orbeli, who was not afraid to take responsibility and take away the most radical works of Kandinsky, Matisse and Picasso. The second part of the Morozov-Shchukin collection can be admired today in the Gallery of European and American Art of the 19th-20th centuries. Moscow Pushkin Museum that on Volkhonka.

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Main Museum Complex, Winter Palace, III floor, rooms 316‒350

Just as all roads lead to Rome, so all the paths through the Hermitage go through the Pavilion Hall with famous clock, familiar to everyone from the intro of the Kultura TV channel. The marvelous beauty of the peacock was made by the then fashionable English master James Cox, purchased by Prince Grigory Potemkin-Tavrichesky as a gift to Catherine the Great, delivered to St. Petersburg disassembled and already assembled on the spot by Ivan Kulibin. To understand where the clock is located, you need to get to the fence and look under the feet of the peacock - there is a small mushroom in the center, and it is in its cap that the clock is located. The mechanism is in working order, once a week (on Wednesdays) the watchmaker enters the glass cage, and the peacock turns and spreads its tail, the rooster crows, and the owl in the cage spins around its axis. The pavilion hall is located in the Small Hermitage, and it offers a view of the hanging garden of Catherine, - once there was real garden with bushes, trees and even animals, partially covered with a glass roof. The Small Hermitage itself was built by order of Catherine II for dinners and evenings in an intimate circle of friends - “hermitages”, where even servants were not allowed. The design of the Pavilion Hall belongs to the later, post-Catherine period and is made in an eclectic style: marble, crystal, gold, and mosaics. In the hall you can find many more extremely interesting exhibits - these are elegant tables placed around the hall here and there, inlaid with enamel and semi-precious stones (mother-of-pearl, garnet, onyx, lapis lazuli), and Bakhchisarai fountains of tears, located symmetrically opposite each other on both walls. According to legend, the Crimean Khan Girey, bitterly mourning the death of his beloved concubine Dilyara, ordered the craftsmen to build fountains in memory of his grief - drop by drop, water falls from one shell to another like tears.

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Main Museum Complex, Small Hermitage, II floor, room 204

The usual path from the Throne Room leads straight to the clock with a peacock, which is immediately left along the gallery with applied art of the Middle Ages. But if you turn right and take a little walk, you can see a very interesting collection of Netherlandish paintings of the 16th-17th centuries. For example, here is an altarpiece by Jean Bellgambe dedicated to the Annunciation. Once in the possession of the church, the triptych is valuable because it came to in full force to the present day. In the center of the triptych, next to the archangel Gabriel, who brought the good news to Mary, there is a donor (the customer of the painting), which for the Dutch painting of the 16th century. was a very bold move. The central part is built as if in perspective: the scene of the Annunciation occupies the foreground, and in the background the Virgin Mary is already busy with her everyday affairs - sewing diapers in anticipation of the birth of a baby. It is also worth paying attention to two group portraits of the corporation (guild) of the Amsterdam shooters by Dirk Jacobs, which in itself is a rarity for any museum collection painting outside the Netherlands. Group portraits are a special pictorial genre, characteristic of this particular country. Such paintings were commissioned by associations (for example, shooters, doctors, trustees of charitable institutions), and, as a rule, remained in the country and were not taken out of its borders. Not so long ago, the Hermitage hosted an exhibition of group portraits brought from the Amsterdam Museum, including two paintings from the Hermitage collection.

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Main Museum Complex, Small Hermitage, II floor, room 262

Currently, there are 14 surviving works by the famous Renaissance painter Leonardo da Vinci in the world. The Hermitage has two paintings of his undeniable authorship - " Madonna Benois and Madonna Litta. And this is a huge treasure! Outstanding Artist, humanist, inventor, architect, scientist, writer, in a word, genius - Leonardo da Vinci is cornerstone all the art of the European Renaissance. It was he who initiated the tradition of oil painting (before that, more and more tempera was used - a mixture of natural color pigments and egg yolk), he also gave rise to a triangular composition of the picture, in which the Madonna and Child and the saints and angels surrounding them were built. Also be sure to pay attention to the six doors of this hall, inlaid with gilded metal details and tortoiseshell.

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Main Museum Complex, Big (Old) Hermitage, II floor, room 214

The main staircase of the New Hermitage rises from the historic entrance to the museum from Millionnaya Street, and its porch is decorated with ten atlantes made of gray Serdobol granite. Atlantes were made under the guidance of the Russian sculpture Terebenev, hence the second name of the stairs. Once upon a time, the route of the first visitors to the museum began from this porch (until the mid-twenties of the last century). According to tradition - for good luck and in order to return - you need to rub the heel of any of the Atlanteans.

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Main Museum Complex, New Hermitage

You won't be able to get past this hall. Prodigal son" - one of the last and most famous paintings by Rembrandt - is indicated on all plans and guides, and in front of him, just like in front of the Parisian "La Gioconda", whole crowds always gather. The picture glares, and it can only be seen well with a raised head, or a little from afar - from the platform of the Soviet stairs (named not in honor of the country of the Soviets, but in honor of the State Council, which gathered nearby, in the hall on the ground floor). The Hermitage has the second largest collection of Rembrandt paintings, rivaled only by the Rembrandt Museum in Amsterdam. Here is the infamous Danae (be sure to compare it with Titian's Danae - two great masters interpret the same plot), - in the eighties, a museum visitor splashed sulfuric acid on the canvas and inflicted two knife blows. The painting was carefully restored in the Hermitage workshops over the course of 12 years. There is also a beautifully mystical “Flora”, which supposedly depicts the artist’s wife, Saskia, as the goddess of fertility, as well as a less popular, as if intimate picture, “David’s Farewell to Jonathan”. It depicts the farewell of the young commander David and his faithful friend Jonathan, the son of the envious King Saul. Men say goodbye at the Azel stone, which means "separation" in translation. The plot is taken from the Old Testament, and before Rembrandt there was no tradition of iconographic depiction of scenes from the Old Testament. The painting, filled with subtle light sadness, was painted after the death of Rembrandt's beloved wife and reflects his farewell to Saskia.

- Well, where did you go for the weekend?
- Yes, I was in St. Petersburg.
- Did you go to the Hermitage?

This is what dialogue with friends and acquaintances looks like, isn't it? :) And not in vain...
- the largest art and historical and cultural museum in the world! The founding date is considered to be 1764, when Catherine the Great acquired a collection of 255 paintings in Berlin. To date, the Hermitage has about 3 million exhibits and displays culture and art different countries and peoples. They say that if you spend 1 minute to examine one exhibit, then it will take 11 years to study all of them.

The main building of the Hermitage - winter palace adorns the front staircase, called Jordanian. Received such a name, because during the feast of the Epiphany descended on it procession to the Neva, where an ice-hole was cut down for the consecration of water, the so-called Jordan. Previously, the staircase was called Ambassadorial.
It occupies the entire height of the building.
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Plafond "Olympus" - a picturesque illustration, occupying 200 square meters.
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Climbing up to the second floor we get into Field Marshal's Hall. A luxurious chandelier catches the eye. Portraits of Russian field marshals are placed in the walls, which explains the name of the hall.
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Petrovsky (Small Throne) Hall. Dedicated to the memory of Peter I.
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In the niche, decorated in the form of a triumphal arch, there is a throne, and above it is a painting. "Peter I with the Goddess of Wisdom Minerva".
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Armorial hall was intended for ceremonial receptions. One of the largest front rooms of the Hermitage. In the center of the hall is a bowl of aventurine.
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At the entrance to the hall there are sculptures of ancient Russian warriors with banners.
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The hall is surrounded by a colonnade carrying a balcony with a balustrade
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It was created according to the project of Carl Rossi in honor of the victory Russian Empire over Napoleonic France.
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On the walls of the gallery there are 332 portraits of generals who participated in the war of 1812 and foreign campaigns in 1813-1814. The authors of the paintings are George Dow, Polyakov and Golike. In the center is a large portrait of Alexander I on horseback, painted by the Berlin court painter Kruger.
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On the left is a full-length portrait of Kutuzov.
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St George's Hall or Great throne room. Official ceremonies and receptions were held here. Above the Throne Place there is a bas-relief "George the Victorious slaying the dragon with a spear".
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The large imperial throne was executed in London by order of Anna Ioannovna.
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Going to the Small Hermitage, we go to pavilion hall. The interior design combines various architectural styles: the motifs of antiquity, the Renaissance and the East.
Marble columns soar up to gold-cut stucco lace, from which gilded chandeliers hang.
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Four marble fountains - copies of the "Fountain of Tears" in Bakhchisarai Palace decorate the walls of the hall.
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A half-sized copy of a Roman mosaic found during excavations of the baths in 1780 in the city of Okrikulum. Here are the characters of ancient mythology: in the center is the head of the Gorgon Medusa, the god Neptune and the inhabitants of his sea kingdom, the fighting Lapith and the Centaur.
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Gilded watch.
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The main attraction of the Pavilion Hall is the Peacock clock. They were purchased by Prince Potemkin for Empress Catherine. The author of the machine was James Cox, a famous jeweler and inventor of complex mechanisms in those years. The clock was brought to St. Petersburg disassembled. They were collected by the Russian master Ivan Kulibin. An important feature of these watches is that they are still working: the owl turns its head, claps its eyes, and with the help of the bells that are attached to its cage, a melody is played, the peacock spreads its tail and bows to the audience, and the rooster crows. All figures move as if alive.
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hanging garden in front of the pavilion. Let me remind you that we are on the second floor.
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On Soviet stairs. The name is explained by the fact that the premises of the State Council were located on the ground floor. On the upper platform there is a malachite vase created in the middle of the 19th century in Yekaterinburg.
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Rembrandt Hall. In the photo, the painting "Danae", written based on ancient Greek myth. The god Zeus, in the form of golden rain, entered Danae, who was imprisoned, after which she gave birth to Perseus.
An attempt was made on this painting in 1985. The man poured sulfuric acid on her and cut the painting twice with a knife. The attacker explained his act with political motives, but the court recognized him as mentally ill and placed him in a psychiatric hospital.
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big italian skylight. The hall displays an exposition of the Italian painting XVII-XVIII centuries.
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Tabletop element made of 19th-century malochite.
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Sculpture "Death of Adonis". Based on the ancient Roman poem "Metamorphoses".
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majolica hall.
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One of the two masterpieces of the hall is Raphael's "Madonna of Conestabile", painted in 1504.
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Knight's Hall- one of the large ceremonial interiors of the Small Hermitage. Here are the richest collection of weapons, numbering about 15 thousand items.
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Main staircase New Hermitage.
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panther in Hall of Dionysus, which was created for the exhibition of ancient sculpture.
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Aphrodite - the goddess of beauty and love (Venus Tauride) II century. It was found during excavations in Rome at the beginning of the 18th century. And Peter I brought it to St. Petersburg. The sculpture adorned the Tauride Palace, hence the name.
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Hall of Jupiter.
Sarcophagus "Marriage Ceremony". On all the walls of the marble Roman sarcophagus are depicted relief figures, revealing the plots of the wedding, hunting and life. And the cover is dedicated to the gods of Olympus.
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Statue of Jupiter, late 1st century. Is one of the biggest ancient sculptures preserved in museums around the world. It is 3.5 meters in height.
IN right hand Jupiter holds the figurine of Victoria, the goddess of victory.
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Hall of the Great Vase. Covered with a vault with stucco decoration, the hall is decorated with arched loggias and white marble columns. Even before the walls were covered with artificial marble, the Kolyvan jasper vase, more than 2.5 m high and weighing 19 tons, was installed. Work on its creation, due to its enormous size, was carried out right at the quarry for 12 years. In 1843 the vase was completed. First, it was transported to St. Petersburg by land, where there were up to 160 horses in a team, then on a special barge by water, and 770 people worked on the installation in the hall.
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Hall of Ancient Egypt. It was created in 1940, on the site of the buffet of the Winter Palace. The name of the hall speaks for itself: here is an exposition dedicated to Ancient Egypt, covering the period from the 4th millennium BC to the turn of our era.
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Bas-relief in the corridor between the halls.
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Hall of twenty columns. Two rows of monolithic columns made of Serdobol granite divide it into three parts. The paintings of the walls and the mosaic floor are made in the style of the ancient tradition. The hall houses a collection of ancient Italian art of the late 9th - 2nd century. BC.
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IN big yard The Winter Palace exhibits the sculpture "Snow Tower" - the image of a boy on crutches, carrying a house on his back, the belt of which strangles him. Author Enrique Martinez Zelaya says the main theme is "the idea of ​​the loss of a child's ability to perceive the brilliance of the world around and the appearance of spiritual opacity, which is always accompanied by disappointment", the emigrant theme is also revealed in the sculpture.
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Oh no, going to the Hermitage once is not enough! After the first visit, only a general concept of the museum structure is created. It seems to me that the Hermitage is like "War and Peace" - a book that needs to be read several times at different ages in order to be presented every time new meaning. Only you need to go to this world-class museum much more often and discover something new every time!
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The Hermitage collection contains about 3,000,000 exhibits. This includes works of painting, sculpture and graphics, objects applied arts, numismatics and weapons, archaeological sites and other valuables created by the peoples of the world from antiquity to our time.

The Hermitage is an extraordinary world, an amazing space, a wonderland. And every visitor finds here something that causes incredible delight, which makes the soul rejoice and the heart is inspired. That is why people get acquainted with the Hermitage in different ways.

You can study the halls of the Hermitage, visiting them one by one, there is an opportunity to get acquainted with the history, culture and art of the countries of interest. The museum has 7 huge departments of the cultural history of different countries, plus many permanent and temporary exhibitions.

The museum is a collection of 5 buildings erected for different purposes, in different periods of time and, logically, by different architects. Visually differing in the color of the facades, they are all interconnected.

Winter Palace - architectural masterpiece Bartalameo Rastrelli, created in 1754-1762 by order of Empress Elizabeth. It is followed by the Small Hermitage, built in 1764-1766 by decree of Empress Catherine II by architects - Yuri Matveyevich Felten, Jean Baptiste Michel Vallin-Delamot.

The continuation of the palace buildings located on the embankment is the Old (Large) Hermitage, erected by the architect Yu. The entire front suite, including the reception room, of the Old (Large) Hermitage was decorated by A. Stackenschneider.

The above halls smoothly transition into the building of the New Hermitage, which was erected in 1842–1851 according to the project of the “museum” architect Leo von Klenze. Finally, the Hermitage Theater was built in 1783-1787 on behalf of Catherine II by the architect Giacomo Quarenghi.

The most valuable thing to see is marked on the plan of the museum, which makes up the traditional route. There is even a list of MUST SEE in the Hermitage. But everyone is looking for their own.

The list of the Hermitage's most valuable exhibits, given below, may help to determine the order of the review, but, above all, it will provide basic knowledge about the value of the Hermitage collection.

jordan stairs

The classic excursion route around the main Hermitage Museum starts from the Jordan Staircase, or, as it is commonly called, the Ambassador Staircase.

Important guests of emperors and envoys of foreign powers ascended the snow-white marble staircase, trimmed with gold, to the palace.

Egyptian exposition

Today, monuments of culture and art of Egypt occupy 3 halls of the 1st floor at the end of the suite of the right wing. The permanent exhibition of Ancient Egypt allows visitors to trace the development of ancient civilization from the end of the 4th millennium BC to the 1st millennium AD. The entire exposition provides an opportunity to get acquainted with Egypt of the ancient, Ptolemaic and Roman periods.

The permanent exhibition displays the main milestones in the development of the culture of Ancient Egypt. The Old Kingdom is represented by fragments of wall reliefs from the tombs of the nobility of the 5th-6th dynasties, as well as cult items - steles, wooden figures of servants, and private figurines. Statue of the king of the 12th dynasty Amenemhat III - best portrait ruler. The new kingdom is characterized by sculptures, steles, and handicrafts. During the reign of the Macedonian dynasty was created the most unique masterpiece, which is the pearl of the collection, is a statue of the last queen of the Ptolemaic dynasty - Cleopatra VII.

Pazyryk barrow

Part of the 1st floor is dedicated to the art of the ancient inhabitants of Asia - the Scythians. Hall No. 26 presents items found during excavations of the royal necropolis in Gorny Altai, the 5th Pazyryk mound. The Pazyryk culture dates back to the 6th-3rd centuries. BC e. ‒ the era of the early Iron Age.

A special pride of the collection is a well-preserved felt carpet depicting a fantastic flower, a male rider and a larger woman, apparently a deity. Other interesting exhibits located in the window opposite are felt figurines of swans stuffed with reindeer fur.

Far East and Central Asia

Rooms 359‒367 on the 3rd floor of the Winter Palace contain wall frescoes from Buddhist cave and ground temples from the Karashar, Turfan and Kuchar oases located along the route of the Great Silk Road. Their age is more than one hundred years old. The frescoes serve as a unique evidence of the unity of the Buddhist world in India, Central Asia and China of the pre-Mongolian period. A few years ago, some of the frescoes from the collection were moved to the Old Village restoration and storage center, where they are now on display.

Artistic decoration of the Russian interior of the 19th - early 20th centuries.

Passing on the 2nd floor along the enfilade of the front rooms of the Winter Palace along the Neva, you can get into halls Nos. 187-176 with residential interiors. Of interest are the living rooms, decorated in the style of historicism, and rococo-intricate furniture, and Art Deco furniture, and the Gothic wooden two-tier library of Nicholas II with old folios and cozy decoration, immersing in the atmosphere of the Middle Ages.

The gallery is located in the Winter Palace on the 2nd floor. Halls No. 151 and 153 will allow you to see all the emperors, starting from the 17th century and, accordingly, from the first emperor of the Russian Empire - Peter the Great to the last - Nicholas II. There are also portraits of all members of the royal families. Here you can study history in person.

Works of the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists

On the 3rd floor of the Winter Palace, in rooms 316-350, you can see masterpieces by Monet, Renoir, Degas, Sisley, Pizarro and other impressionists. One of the true gems of the collection is Claude Monet's Lady in the Garden of Sainte-Adresse. This work graced the cover of the catalog of an exhibition of Monet's works from around the world, which took place a few years ago in Paris at the Grand Palais.

The collection also abounds with works by the post-impressionists Cezanne, Gauguin, Van Gogh and other French artists of the early 20th century: Matisse, Derain, Picasso, Marquet, Vallotton. All the paintings were previously in the collections of Russian merchants Morozov and Shchukin, who bought the works of French painters in Paris, thereby saving them from starvation.

After the revolution, Alfred Barr, the founder of the New York Museum of Modern Art, bought some of the paintings. Special thanks also deserve the then director of the Hermitage, Joseph Orbeli, who took upon himself the responsibility of preserving the works of Kandinsky, Malevich, Matisse and Picasso.

Art of Italy

Of great interest within the framework of this topic is the work of Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, Giorgione, Titian. State Hermitage one of the few museums in the world that has authentic works of the greatest Renaissance artist - Leonardo da Vinci. In room No. 214 of the Old Hermitage on the 2nd floor there are 2 (out of 14 preserved in the world) masterpieces of the master - “Madonna Litta” and “Madonna Benois”. Leonardo da Vinci is the leader of all European Renaissance art. It was he who laid the tradition of oil painting, gave rise to the triangular composition of the picture.

The work of Titian is represented in the Hermitage by 8 works, among them the painting "Penitent Mary Magdalene" deserves special attention. The first version of the painting was commissioned by the artist in 1560, but it made such an impression on his contemporaries that Titian had to write three more versions, each of which changed the background, the position of the hands and head of the heroine. The version kept in the Hermitage is considered the most perfect. The canvas depicts an earthly woman, whose share fell a lot of mental anguish. Her eyes are full of tears, and her gaze is full of remorse. In 1850, Nicholas the First acquired it and several other paintings for the museum collection.

In the hall of Italian art of the XVII-XVIII centuries from outstanding works It is worth noting the sculpture of Giuseppe Mazzuola - “The Death of Adonis”, the painting by Luca Giordano - “The Battle of the Lapiths with the Centaurs”, the paintings by Tiepolo - “The Triumph of the Emperor” and others with scenes from the history of Ancient Rome.

The gallery is located in the New Hermitage on the 2nd floor in room No. 227. This is a copy of the gallery from the Pope's Palace in the Vatican. It was painted by Raphael's students according to the teacher's sketches from his workshop and reproduced in St. Petersburg at the request of Catherine II. The vaults that adorn the paintings on the Old Testament and Gospel scenes were called - "Raphael's Bible".

Art of Spain

The Hermitage collections of Spanish painting are among the best in the world. The Hermitage has one painting by the greatest painter Domenikos Theotokopoulos, a Greek by nationality, born on the island of Crete, and therefore received the pseudonym El Greco. “The Apostles Peter and Paul” is the only work of the master, but it is authentic, it is known for certain.

The greatest painter of the 17th century, Diego Velazquez de Silva, who had a great influence on the development of realism in art in a number of European countries, is represented by several works. Among them, the most famous is the painting "Breakfast", made in the genre of "bodegon", typical for that time, when the characters are in a drinking establishment, but the main attention is paid to still life - food, tableware and crockery. But the uniqueness of the work lies in the fact that it contains visual deception. It immediately seems that the picture depicts four heroes, but upon closer examination it turns out that there are three of them. The collar on the wall is misleading.

The Hermitage presents the work of the last great Spanish painter of the 17th century, Bartolome Esteban Murillo. His painting "The Annunciation", written by the master in 1660-1665, which arrived in St. Petersburg from Amsterdam in 1814, truly admires him. During his lifetime, Ilya Repin even recommended going to the Hermitage to study Murillo.

Art of Flanders and Holland

The artists of Flanders played a huge role in the development of European painting in the 17th century. The exhibition of Flemish paintings is one of the richest and best in the Hermitage.

Here are first-class works by Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, Jacob Jordans, Frans Snyders and other world-famous Flemish artists.

"Shops" by Snyders are large-format canvases that depict various shops in all their delicious splendor, in rich and colorful colors and elements. Snyders painted still lifes, and he achieved such high skill that his dishes look more appetizing than you can imagine.

Artworks Dutch artists exhibited in the Tent Hall. The Hermitage has the 2nd largest collection of Rembrandt paintings, and only the Rembrandt Museum in Amsterdam can compete with it.

The brightest pearls in the New Hermitage on the 2nd floor in room No. 254 are Rembrandt's paintings - "Danaë", "The Return of the Prodigal Son", "Descent from the Cross", "Portrait of an Old Man in Red".

The Return of the Prodigal Son is one of Rembrandt's last and most famous paintings. Together with Titian, Rembrandt interprets the same plot by painting the painting “Danae”. But with the latter, it is infamous initially and subsequently. It was dedicated to Rembrandt's beloved wife, Saskia. Next to the heroine was a laughing angel, and golden rain poured down on her. But after the death of his wife, Rembrandt changed the face of the girl in the portrait, giving him the features of his new companion. Apparently, the artist's grief for his deceased wife was very strong. An old servant girl appeared on the canvas, and the expression on the angel's face became pained.

Plus, in the 80s of the last century, a museum visitor splashed sulfuric acid on the canvas and stabbed twice. The painting was restored in the Hermitage workshops for a whole dozen years. Today we see a picture recreated anew, but filled with the same subtle and bright sadness of the author. It was rewritten after Rembrandt's other beloved wife left for the world, and it has the features of another woman, but still it reflects the master's farewell to his Saskia.

french art

The collection of works of French art in the Hermitage (Winter Palace, 2nd floor, rooms 272–292) is considered the richest in the world. With the exception of France itself, no country in the world has such a vast and varied collection. Of interest are Limoges enamels of the 15th - 16th centuries, faiences by Bernard Palissy, works by Poussin, Watteau, Chardin, landscapes by Lorrain, numerous silverware, tapestries, sculptures by Falcone, and much more.

English art

The exposition is of great interest to the works of the largest English painter Joshua Reynolds, as well as the famous English portrait painter Thomas Gainsborough. The Hermitage presents famous paintings by masters: Joshua Reynolds - "The Infant Hercules Strangling the Serpent" and Thomas Gainsborough - "Lady in Blue".

Dutch painting

In the Small Hermitage on the 2nd floor in room No. 262 there is a triptych from the church - an altarpiece by Jean Bellgambe dedicated to the Annunciation. The scene of the Annunciation occupies the foreground, the Virgin Mary is visible in the second, busy sewing diapers in anticipation of her first child. In the center is a donor, which was unusual for church painting of those years, next to him is the archangel Gabriel, who brought the good news to Mary.

Also worthy of special attention are 2 group portraits of the corporation (guild) of the Amsterdam shooters by Dirk Jacobs, which in itself is a rarity for any museum collection of paintings located outside the Netherlands.

Works of European gunsmiths

The Hermitage has the richest collection of Western European weapons of the 15th-17th centuries. At the entrance to hall No. 243, you can see weapons from the 15th century. Next to the chain mail, which protected the body of a warrior from chopping blows of the sword, there is a dagger for piercing chain mail. Improvement of ammunition occurred at the end of the XIV-beginning of the XV century. At this time, Gothic traditions were strong in the art of a number of countries, which was reflected in the forms of armor, which were called "Gothic".

Peasant weapons, which were often based on the forms of the tools of their labor familiar to peasants: a combat scythe, a combat scourge, a combat flail, "morgenstern" ( morning Star) is displayed not far from the chain mail, against the wall on the left.

A variety of weapons of the infantry of the townspeople is located in the central part of the hall, against the wall opposite the windows. These are huge two-handed swords, polearms, halberds, glaives, a saddle, small arms (showcase on the left), in particular crossbows. Next to this showcase is exhibited armor that appeared in the 16th century.

There is a cannon made by the 17th century Italian gunsmith Mazarolli, the barrel of which is decorated with garlands of vines and figurines of ancient deities, a gilded bronze shield with a chased image of a battle scene, made by the German master Zigman. There are many more types of tournament and hunting weapons in the hall.

A complete collection of paintings from the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.

The French poet and philosopher Paul Valéry once spoke of painting as an art that reveals things to us as they once were when they were looked at with love. This is exactly the feeling that comes when you look at the paintings of the Hermitage. This museum miraculously collected the artistic treasures of all generations from the late Middle Ages to the present day. More four thousand magnificent works that appeared under the brush of the greatest masters from different parts of the world. Is this not to be considered the real wealth of today?!

The Hermitage delightfully opens up to connoisseurs of high art the nobility and elegance of Western European painting, the luxury and genuine sincerity of paintings by the artists of Flanders and Holland, the rich inner world and warmth of the hearts of the amazing masters of England and Spain of the 17th-18th centuries. Among all the canvases, the sensual and exciting works of the early Italian Renaissance are remembered. famous artists vividly conveyed their color perception, which today reflects sophisticated silhouettes classic masterpieces that era and modern aesthetics.

Especially in the collection of the Hermitage I would like to note the paintings of Henri Matisse. This artist, with the help of his canvases, made the world radiate amazing beauty, rhythmic expression and an extraordinary glow. It would seem that his works are so simple, but the extremely simplified lines and forms show the viewer the tension of the “screaming” emotional world. This approach is observed in many works presented in the famous museum. But, despite their inherent classics and organic nature, the painting of the Hermitage is full of bright dynamics. It is this combination of futurism and classicism that so attracts the attention of connoisseurs of high art from all over the world.

Hermitage painting

Dear guests! The Hermitage's collection of paintings is divided into 13 parts. The 14th part contains just over a hundred selected paintings in extremely high resolution. The pictures in the 14th part are repeated. Please note - file size full images in the 14th part reaches 100 MB, if you access the Internet using a modem connection, then the time required to download the full image can be very significant (from several hours to several days).

Many of the canvases present in the 14th part were removed from the baguette before shooting, which allows you to see the picture in full size, to the very edges of the canvas. Photographs were taken using professional lighting, photographic equipment and color tables, which minimizes the likelihood of glare and color imbalance in the pictures. Post-processing of images included correction of linear distortions (up to 2°), cropping, accurate color correction.

The 14th part contains not only paintings from the Hermitage, but also high-resolution paintings that are in other museums, but fell into the same photo session.

Hermitage collection - a bit of history

For all tourists visiting St. Petersburg, the question arises: what to visit during the trip. However, almost everyone wants to be on Palace Square and visit largest museum peace - the Hermitage. Experienced guides recommend their clients to visit this world's best gallery during bad weather. You must immediately expect that you will spend at least 4 hours there. And if you decide to just walk around the entire exposition, you will walk about 20 km. Therefore, it is better to make several visits. The collection of 3 million exhibits reflects the development of human civilization from the era of Ancient Egypt to the culture of the 20th century in Europe.

Particularly famous and the most famous part of the collection is the art gallery. Which includes works by Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, Titian, Rembrandt, Rubens, Renoir, Cezanne, Monet, Van Gogh, Matisse, Gauguin. Right from the moment of its creation, the Hermitage collection, like a real treasury, was very important for everyone who was interested in history and art. Prior to receiving the status of a museum in 1852, access to the Hermitage was very limited. So, A.S. Pushkin sought the opportunity to work with the collection through V.A. Zhukovsky, who worked as a Russian language teacher for Princess Charlotte ( future wife Nicholas 1, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna). The history of the museum dates back to 1764, when the Empress Catherine the Great was offered a collection of 255 paintings in Berlin in payment of a debt to Russia. Immediately after this, Catherine issued an order to buy up all valuable works of art that were put up for sale. Since then, the collection has been constantly growing.

The modern State Hermitage Museum is a complex museum complex consisting of six buildings located along the Neva river embankment. The main building is the Winter Palace. The Hermitage Museum Complex consists of 5 buildings. All of them were designed and built under the guidance of the best architects of their time. Until now, the splendor, elegance and genius of the Hermitage buildings themselves delight many modern experts. Main building, Winter Palace, former residence Russian emperors, was designed by the architect Rastreli in the Baroque style and built between 1754 and 1762. This luxurious and meticulously executed building surprises with its spaciousness, the building has more than 1500 rooms, more than 1700 doors and more than 1000 windows. Many tourists visiting the Hermitage for the first time note that the building itself deserves no less attention than the collection itself.

In the first years after the founding of the Hermitage, it was replenished by acquiring entire collections of paintings from European aristocrats. From 1769 to 1781 the collections of Count Johann Cobenzl in Brussels, Count Heinrich Brühl in Dresden, the Tronchen collection in Geneva, the banker Pierre Crozat in Paris, Lord Walpole in England, and Count François Baudouin in Paris were acquired. These collections shaped the future character of the Hermitage's collection of paintings. In the future, not only collections were bought, but also individual works, for example, Alexander I purchased Caravaggio's Lute Player. In the 19th century, an exhibition dedicated to Spanish art appears, after the acquisition of the Kuzvelt collection in Amsterdam. In addition, in the 19th century, the Old Dutch collection appeared, it was based on the collection of the Dutch King Wilhelm II and the gift of D.P. Tatishchev. Many works appeared in the collection thanks to D.A. Golitsyn, who served as the Russian ambassador to France, where he became friends with many representatives of culture. Because of this, the Hermitage has famous masterpieces: "The Return of the Prodigal Son" by Rembrandt, "Judith" by Giorgione, "Bacchus" by Rubens and other famous canvases.

Epoch 17-18 centuries. presented much broader, fuller and more diverse. The Hermitage has paintings by all the greatest Western European artists. The art of Holland, Flanders, France, England, Spain can be studied in every detail. Entire trends in painting - the Italian Renaissance, French Impressionism - are presented so well that they give a detailed idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthese eras. At the same time, some key works are missing in other areas of painting. For example, in the Spanish collection there are no works by Francis Goya, and in the collection Dutch masters no works by Vermeer of Delft. This is explained by the fact that the collection was formed as a private one, and it was not necessary to select paintings in order to reflect the course of the development of the era.

By the beginning of the 20th century in the Hermitage there were more than 600 thousand works of art and antiquities.

The Hermitage collection changed significantly after the October Revolution, when, as a result of nationalization, the museum's collection was replenished with private collections. There were works by Cezanne, Van Gogh, Matisse, Picasso. However, the most famous works the new government sold. Thus, Botticelli's Adoration of the Magi left Russia forever, and 48 other most valuable works were lost, which caused irreparable damage to the Hermitage. During the war years, the Hermitage collection was evacuated to Sverdlovsk, and the building itself was used as a bomb shelter. Immediately after the completion of the restoration work, the Hermitage resumed its work as a museum and the collection was returned from evacuation. In 1981, the Menshikov Palace became one of the divisions of the Hermitage, and in 1999 the eastern part of the General Staff building was also transferred to the museum. In the 2000s, the Fund Storage was built. The museum is periodically renovated and many masterpieces have been made available to the public.

The Hermitage is a National Treasury of World Art

Everyone who comes to St. Petersburg strives to get into the world-famous State Hermitage, the largest museum in Russia. It is located in the complex of luxurious buildings of the Winter Palace, which were the property of royal family. It is rightly called the national treasury of world art.

The name "Hermitage" was given to a building built next to the palace by order of Empress Catherine the Great. Translated into Russian, it means "solitude". Indeed, these chambers were intended for the private pastime of the queen. Here she liked to spend hours of rest, arranged dinner parties for the chosen circle.

The founding date of the palace museum is 1764. This year, Catherine, a great lover of art, brought her first collection of paintings from Berlin to be placed in the buildings of the Hermitage. Every year, the amazing collections grew continuously, as the Empress spared no expense to acquire them. It soon became clear that a small museum is too small for masterpieces of world art of such an impressive size. Thus, another building appeared, called the Great Hermitage.

The Greater Hermitage includes the building of the Hermitage Theatre. It was built in 1787. architect Quarenghi, inspired by the achievements of the architecture of ancient Rome. Therefore, the visual places here were located in the form of an amphitheater. Delightful marble of pink and gray color, statues of Apollo and nine muses created a sense of antiquity. During the reign of Empress Catherine 2, performances were staged in the theater for relatives and friends, foreign diplomats and other distinguished guests. Before the start of the performances, the invited intelligentsia strolled slowly around the Hermitage, contemplating the paintings of Botticelli, Leonardo, Raphael, Rembrandt and many other masters. Currently, ballet evenings with the participation of the most famous stage stars, classical music concerts, and opera evenings are being held here.

The Hermitage has surprised and continues to surprise everyone who has ever visited it. The famous Spanish diplomat and writer Juan Valera, after visiting the Hermitage in 1856, reflected his impressions in Letters from Russia. He describes some of the wonders he saw - a variety of jasper, gilding, malachite, majestic portraits of emperors in an elegant frame, a large number of skillfully painted paintings, perfect in beauty and grace of sculptures, unprecedented luxury of jewelry. He was especially impressed by the works of Spanish and Italian artists, Roman sculpture, antique gold jewelry, an extensive numismatic collection, as well as a collection of antique carved stones.

It is very difficult to describe in words the impressions of visiting the Hermitage. From the very first steps on its royal Jordanian stairs, the luxury and splendor reigning here open up to the eye. Time seems to stop in these majestic halls among huge malachite vases, Egyptian sarcophagi, paintings by the great masters of European painting and sculpture, silver of various decorative arts.

After the reign of Catherine, under Nicholas 1, another building of this greatest museum complex was erected, called the New Hermitage. Its main facade overlooking Millionnaya Street is decorated with powerful granite figures of Atlanteans. This is the first building in Russia built specifically for an art museum.

The largest collections of art objects located here became available to visitors only after the October Revolution. Before that, only the lucky ones who were awarded the personal invitation of the monarch could admire them. Today you can look into any hall of interest. All five buildings are connected by internal passages, stairs and galleries. The richest collections of the Hermitage contain more than 3 million exhibits, and the exposition area is 50 thousand square meters. m.

To get a general idea of ​​the museum, it is worth climbing the Ambassador Stairs to the second floor of the palace. Next, go through the ceremonial rooms of the halls in military gallery, erected in honor of the victory of the Russian army over Napoleon. Its walls carefully keep hundreds of portraits of Russian generals participating in wars. Then there is the Great Throne (Georgievsky) Hall, from where there is an exit to the Small Hermitage, famous for the magnificence of the Pavilion Hall. Its special attraction is the unusual Peacock clock. They were made in Great Britain in the 1770s from bronze, silver, rhinestones and gilding. The watch is still in working order. This is the only largest automatic machine of the 18th century in the world that has been preserved unchanged.

The Pinakothek, that is, a collection of art collections, begins in the Great Hermitage. Masterpieces of Italian painting are presented in 40 halls. One of the old paintings of Italian art is the “Madonna”, executed by the Sienese artist Simone Martini, which is the design of the fold-diptych “Annunciation”, created back in the 14th century. The next two galleries are dedicated to Florentine and Venetian painting. From here you can go to the Leonardo da Vinci Hall. As a rule, there are many people in it, and queues can often be seen for such famous works as Benois Madonna, Lita Madonna, etc.

The Italian collection continues in the New Hermitage. Here you need to visit the charming loggias of Raphael - an exact copy of the Vatican creation of a talented master. The luxury of the decoration of the majestic halls is created by breathtaking parquets, fireplaces, tables painted with gold colors, huge lapis lazuli vases, lamps made of rhodonite, jasper, porphyry, heavy bronze candelabra, which are true works of art.

In addition to Italian art, Spanish art certainly deserves special attention in the Hermitage. The works exhibited in the two halls abound with the names of the greatest Spanish masters. Among them are El Greco, Murillo, Velazquez and even Goya. The Rembrandt Hall houses an unforgettable collection of his works. The Hermitage has collected about a thousand paintings by the most famous Dutch artists. You can get acquainted with their workshops, filled with incredible realistic landscapes and still lifes.

Next, visitors will find one of the world's finest collections of French art. Here you can see with your own eyes the stunning works of the French Impressionists and Post-Impressionists: Claude Monet, Renoir, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Matisse, Pablo Picasso.

You should not miss the opportunity to admire the interior of the Golden Living Room with gilded walls. There is a collection of carved cameos bought by Catherine the Great from the Duke of Orleans. Evenings of music were organized in the crimson drawing room, which is reminiscent of the wall decoration with silk depicting musical instruments.

After the first part of the excursion program, you can relax with a cup of aromatic coffee in the cozy museum cafeteria. After all, ahead of the audience awaits the antique hall of Ancient Egypt, where among the numerous exhibits you can see the mummy of an Egyptian priest, dated to the 10th century BC. BC e. The Egyptian collection is quite interesting in that it represents almost all periods of the development of this ancient state.

Continuing the tour of the museum, it is impossible to pass by such a valuable exhibit as the Kolyvan vase. Its weight is 19 tons, and its height reaches 3 meters. The vase was made at the Kolyvan factory in Altai, by long-term carving (for 14 years) from a Revnev jasper monolith. Then the vase was delivered to St. Petersburg and installed in the Hermitage.

In addition to all this, the Hermitage has a spacious Twenty-Column Hall, decorated with monolithic columns made of gray granite, with elegantly decorated Roman mosaic floors. A variety of antique vases and amphoras dominate here. The best known is the black-gloss Kuma vase, called the "Queen of Vases", placed in the center of the hall, under a special glass cap. It is dedicated to the gods of fertility, it is distinguished by a beautiful relief that has preserved gilding and traces of bright colors. There is also a small but quite noteworthy Etruscan collection.

A tour of the first floor of the New Hermitage will be very interesting and memorable. Here is an opportunity to see wonderful collections ancient art. Among them is a statue of Jupiter, whose height reaches more than 3 meters, found in the country villa of the Roman emperor Domitian. The sculpture of Venus Taurida was acquired from the Pope back in the time of Peter the Great and is considered the first ancient monument of the Russian Empire. More than 20 halls are dedicated to the ancient world in the museum. Art of Ancient Italy and Rome, Ancient Greece, the Northern Black Sea region is expressed by the rarest collections of vases, precious stones, jewelry, sculptures, terracotta.

The extensive museum complex provides a unique opportunity to visit the Gold and Diamond Storerooms, sacredly keeping items made of precious metals and stones. Numerous exhibits were brought from various countries and are elements of their history - from the era of Scythian and Greek gold to modern jewelry delights. The fantasies of skilled jewelers, embodied in a wonderful variety of bracelets, Athenian rings, snuff boxes, bonbonnieres, travel bags, precious weapons, and luxury items of Russian queens, fascinate the eye. You can also see gold items and jewelry of members of the Romanov imperial family, monuments church art, diplomatic gifts to the Russian court, products of the famous Faberge company. Contemplating with my own eyes all this splendor, one involuntarily thinks about how spiritually the mastery of the compositions of artists and sculptors is expressed, and how unthinkably masterly their technical execution is. The Hermitage is the abode of revived history, after visiting which everyone keeps the impressions of what he saw for the rest of his life.

Old Hermitage

The Old, or Great, Hermitage was built according to the project of Yu. M. Felten in 1770-87 for the rapidly growing collections of Catherine II, which no longer had enough space in Small Hermitage. This was originally a Hermitage building, the second in a row, located along Palace embankment, was called "building in line with Armitage" and changed its name only in the middle of the 19th century, in connection with the addition of a new Imperial Museum to it. It was then that the “building in line with Armitage” was given the name Old Hermitage, and the building erected from the Bolshaya Millionnaya was called New Hermitage. Thus, the architectural history of the Old Hermitage turned out to be closely intertwined with the development of the entire complex of buildings of the imperial residence and can be divided into two historical period. The first covers the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th century, when the "building in line with Armitage" was formed as an independent building. The second period is associated with a radical reconstruction of the interiors of the Old Hermitage, carried out in the middle of the 19th century.

In the 18th century, the construction of the Old Hermitage was carried out in two stages. Initially, Felten erected a small building, connecting it with an “air” passage with the Small Hermitage. Then, at the direction of Catherine II, the architect expanded it to the corner of the Palace Embankment and the Winter Canal. Shortly after the appearance of the Hermitage Theater on the opposite bank of the canal, Felten threw an archway across it, thus linking all the buildings of the imperial residence facing the Neva. The architect paid special attention to the decoration of the interiors of the second floor of the Old Hermitage, combined into the front Neva enfilade. It was through her that the path of the so-called official exits of the Empress from the Hermitage Theater after the performances ran.

Solemn passage through the halls, surrounded by the palace retinue, past the paintings of Italian, Spanish and Dutch schools, collections of glyptics and numismatics, usually ended in the Northern Pavilion of the Small Hermitage with the Great Kurtag, or "Hermitage", which was attended by up to 300 guests. In the early 1850s, after the completion of the construction of a special museum building - the New Hermitage - and the transfer of most of the collections there, the purpose and decoration of the interiors of the Old Hermitage were changed. In connection with the placement in the lower floors of the building of the State Council and the Committee of Ministers of the Russian Empire, the architect A.I. famous library Voltaire, created the Main Staircase, which connected the buildings of the State Council with the Small Hermitage and the Winter Palace. A magnificent staircase leads to the second floor, surrounded by exquisite Carrara white marble columns. The plafond by the 18th-century French painter Gabriel François Doyen is the only thing that Stackenschneider has preserved from the Oval Hall. It depicts "Virtues representing the Russian youth to Minerva" - an allegory reminiscent of the fact that the Hermitage once belonged to the "Russian Minerva" - the patroness of sciences, crafts and arts, Empress Catherine II. The layout of the rooms behind the Soviet Staircase was left unchanged by Stackenschneider, but the decoration is in the style of historicism. The architect, with his inherent refined taste and imagination, harmoniously combining elements of different historical styles, variety art forms and materials, has reached true perfection here.

Since the end of the 18th century, the hall next to the Soviet Stairs has housed one of the best collections of paintings in the Imperial Hermitage - paintings by the great Dutch painter Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn. After the construction of the New Hermitage was completed and the collections moved there, Stackenschneider radically changed the purpose and nature of the decorative finishes of this interior. The space of the Front Reception Room, built here, was saturated with an abundance of colored, shining gold details: eight columns made of green Revnevskaya jasper with gilded capitals, installed along the walls, rested on pedestals made of gray and red artificial marble. Instead of Swedish stoves, fireplaces decorated with colored marble and gilding were placed on the end walls of the hall. There are decorative pilasters with picturesque panels on the snow-white, artificial marble walls. Thus, from the museum premises, the hall turned into the front reception room. Currently there is a collection of works early stage Italian painting, the so-called Proto-Renaissance era. At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century, such works were called primitives, hence the name of the room - the Hall of Italian Primitives.

The large double-height hall of the Old Hermitage at the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th century contained a collection of works by Italian masters of the 15th-18th centuries and was called Italian. Its decoration was distinguished by simplicity and rigor. Stackenschneider turned the hall into a luxurious palace interior, striking with a variety of finishes made from rare materials. Surprisingly beautiful red-green columns of ribbon Kushkulda jasper are installed on white, Carrara marble, fireplaces, decorated with lapis lazuli and mosaic panels. The unique doors of the hall, made of ebony, are lined with an ornament that imitates the “boule” technique - a combination of tortoiseshell and gilded copper. To the picturesque panels of Alessandro Padovanino (Varotari), which were here before perestroika, several smaller panels were added by the Russian painter Fyodor Antonovich Bruni. Above the doors there are relief medallions with portraits of Russian field marshals: P. A. Rumyantsev, A. V. Suvorov, M. I. Kutuzov, I. F. Paskevich. At present, two masterpieces from the Hermitage collection are exhibited here - the Benois Madonna and the Litta Madonna by Leonardo da Vinci, which is why the hall is named after the great Italian artist.

By the end of the 1850s, the decoration of the new rooms of the Neva Enfilade of the Old Hermitage was completed. This residential half was intended for the son of Emperor Alexander II - the heir-priest Nicholas Alexandrovich. But the mortally ill heir died in Nice in 1865, and his rooms, which he never saw, became one of the spare halves of the winter imperial residence.

In the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries, the purpose of the halls of the front suite changed several times. Until 1899, it housed an extensive collection of French and Flemish schools of painting, which, after transferring the collection of paintings of the Russian school to the Museum Alexander III(now the State Russian Museum), took their place in the halls of the New Hermitage. The vacated premises were returned to their original purpose as living quarters of the 7th reserve half of the Winter Palace. Eminent guests of the Imperial Court sometimes stayed in luxurious interiors.

A few decades later, the halls were again given to the museum. Today, in this architectural setting of the mid-19th century, there is one of the most famous Hermitage collections - a collection of Italian works of art of the Renaissance.

The building of the Old Hermitage occupies a space bounded on the east by a narrow canal - the Winter Canal, which connects two rivers - the wide, full-flowing Neva and the small, winding Moika. At the beginning of the 18th century, the Winter Palace of Peter I stood on the opposite bank, dilapidated and deserted by the end of the century. On the site of this ensemble, Catherine II in 1783 ordered her court architect J. Quarenghi to build a new court theater. The decree on its construction was signed on November 6, 1783. Quarenghi managed to create a true architectural masterpiece - one of the most perfect palace theaters in Russia and Europe. The architect used the first floor of the old Winter Palace of Peter the Great as a basement, arranging a theater Hall and the stage. The theater begins with a foyer located at the top of the archway. Two longitudinal walls of the hall, cut from floor to ceiling with windows, create the illusion of open space above the smooth surface of the Neva, on the one hand, and above the closed, refined world of St. Petersburg buildings stretched along the Moika, on the other.

The foyer acquired its modern look by 1904, after a new finish, made by the architect Leonty Nikolaevich Benois in imitation of the Rococo style. The auditorium impresses with balance and proportionality of proportions. Taking the form of the ancient Roman theater as a basis, Quarenghi arranged the rows of seats in the form of an amphitheatre.

Quarenghi designed the stage portal and walls with Corinthian columns, lined them with polychrome artificial marble, skillfully introduced decorative reliefs and sculpture into the ensemble of the hall, which depicted heavenly and earthly gods. The theater became a favorite vacation spot for Empress Catherine II. Everyone is in harmony here. best achievements European theatrical architecture - excellent acoustics, a comfortable stage, comfortable seats for spectators - with the elegance and intimacy inherent in the imperial home theater. The performances were usually attended by the entire Court, the family of the heir, diplomats - sometimes up to 200 guests. Architecture auditorium enthralled contemporaries. Troupes of the best Russian and foreign performers performed on its stage.

At present, performances are being staged in the Hermitage Theatre, artists of the leading productions from St. Petersburg, Russia and all over the world are performing. A special attraction of the Hermitage Theater is the memorial exposition "The Winter Palace of Peter the Great" located on its lower floor. It was created quite recently - during the reconstruction of the theater, carried out in 1987-89 by specialists from the Hermitage. Extensive archaeological research undertaken at that time in the basements of the theater revealed genuine architectural fragments of the Petrovsky Palace, the construction of which was begun in 1716 according to the project of the architect Georg Johann Matarnovi and completed in 1723, after his death, by Domenico Trezzini. G. Quarenghi did not destroy the building, making the first floor of Peter's Palace the foundation of the building of the Hermitage Theatre, and thus made it possible 200 years later to recreate its courtyard, a gallery with an arcade and part of the interiors. The rooms of the Third, and last, Winter Palace of Peter I have been preserved without interior decoration.

The restored after the restoration Dining Room, the Study and the Turnery show objects that were in use at the Tsar's Court from the Hermitage storerooms. In the surviving courtyard, covered with paving stones of the time of Peter the Great, there is a pleasure carriage made according to the drawings of Nicola Pino. Now in the exposition of the palace of Peter I there is a posthumous wax figure, or "Wax person", the king, made by B. K. Rastrelli. Casts from the face of Peter I and the hands were made by the sculptor after the death of the emperor. The finished work is an exact copy of his appearance. Thus, two historical epochs met in the Hermitage Theatre, fanned by the genius of two great emperors - Peter I and Catherine II.

New Hermitage

The idea of ​​building the New Hermitage, which united within its walls the artistic treasures of the imperial crown, previously dispersed among the collections of the Small and Old Hermitages, Tauride, Anichkov, Tsarskoye Selo, Peterhof and other royal palaces, belonged to Emperor Nicholas I, by whose decree in 1842-51. not far from the Winter Palace, a new museum was erected, which complemented the architectural appearance of the St. Petersburg imperial residence. The project of the building was executed by the famous architect Leo von Klenze (1784-1864) - the author of two famous Munich museums - the Pinakothek and the Glyptotek, built to house the paintings and sculpture collections of the Bavarian king Ludwig I. In 1838, Nicholas I visited them and, being under a strong impression From what he saw, he ordered Klenze to design the "Imperial Museum" in St. Petersburg.

The Russian monarch set a task for the architect that surpassed all previous projects of the author in terms of scale and complexity of the solution. In the New Hermitage, the first art museum in Russia, the most advanced ideas about the museum as a universal repository of the artistic experience of mankind were to be embodied. Huge collections were supposed to be placed in it according to a clear system and methodology, which made it possible to obtain the most complete information about the history of world art. In addition, according to the will of Nicholas I, the facades and interiors of the Imperial Museum had to have a grand appearance, befitting the status of the imperial residence, of which it was a part.

It is precisely such a museum within a museum in which diverse genres and forms of fine art and architecture harmoniously coexist that Klenze created the New Imperial Hermitage. The majestic building, the exterior of which is decorated in neo-Greek style, also received its architectural symbol - a portico with ten figures of Atlanteans. Executed in Serdobol granite in the workshop of the sculptor Alexander Ivanovich Terebenev, they, like the ancient Propylaea, decorate the entrance to the Temple of High Art.

An outstanding role in the creation of the New Hermitage belonged to Construction Commission, which brought together the leading architects and engineers of St. Petersburg, among which two architects - V.P. Stasov and N.E. Efimov - are rightfully considered co-authors of L. von Klenze. The unique decoration of each facade, halls, galleries or cabinets of the New Hermitage was created according to Klenze's original designs. It is to him that the main merit belongs in the creation of a grandiose ensemble of museum interiors, which, with all the richness and variety of forms and types of pictorial, sculptural and decorative finishes, leave the impression of a surprisingly integral architectural and museum space.

According to the general layout, the premises of the lower floor of the New Hermitage were given over to sculpture collections, while the halls of the upper floor were to accommodate the pictorial collections of the Imperial Museum. The main front enfilade on the second floor is formed by three so-called Large Light Halls. The unique type of giant vaults topped with skylights gave them their distinctive name. It was here that the largest paintings from the collections of the Italian and Spanish schools of painting were placed, for the exposure of which the upper natural light was considered the most beneficial.

translucent halls

Under the noble radiance of the golden stucco of the vaults, against the background of dark red walls, canvases of great masters, tables, vases, floor lamps made of malachite, porphyry, rhodonite, jasper, lapis lazuli, made at the Peterhof, Yekaterinburg and Kolyvan cutting factories, solemnly coexist in a single interior space. From the side of the Winter Canal, an elongated gallery adjoins the Great Clearances, which is a repetition of Raphael's Loggias in the Vatican. The gallery, built in the 16th century by the architect Bramante and later painted by Raphael in the fresco technique, was recreated in St. Petersburg according to the sovereign will of Empress Catherine the Great in 1783-92. Architectural measurements in Rome were carried out by G. Quarenghi and in exact accordance with them he erected a building in St. Petersburg.

Copies of Raphael's frescoes were ordered from the Roman painter Christoph Unterberger, who, together with his assistants, transferred the master's Vatican masterpieces to canvas. In 1787-88 they were reinforced in the interiors of the St. Petersburg Loggias of Raphael. The gallery consists of thirteen compartments - Loggias. Their walls and vaults are covered with intricate decorative painting, the so-called grotesque ornament, created by Raphael under the influence of ancient paintings, which he studied at the excavations of ancient Rome. Each vault contains four paintings on biblical subjects - from the foundation of the world and the history of Adam and Eve to the crucifixion of Christ. This ensemble experienced its second birth in the middle of the 19th century.

enfilade

When the New Hermitage was being built, the old building of the Raphael Loggias was dismantled, and the murals made in the 18th century on canvas were dismantled. According to the will of Nicholas I, the architect Klenze included in the Imperial Museum a complete recreation of the Loggias of Raphael. Thus, the picturesque copies of the now almost lost Vatican frescoes by the great master of the Renaissance found a worthy place in the ensemble of the museum's interiors. However, the Picture Gallery did not occupy all the rooms on the second floor of the New Hermitage. The whole enfilade, located along the Loggias of Raphael - from the modern hall of Italian majolica to the Knights and the Twelve-column halls - included collections of stone-cutting art and numismatics. The decoration of these interiors was distinguished by greater decorative richness. Polychrome paintings of walls and ceilings, reliefs and stucco, as well as unique type-setting parquets, constituted a precious frame for collections of miniature works of glyptics and medal art.

antique painting

The Historical Gallery of Ancient Painting, like Raphael's Loggias, is another artistic ensemble of the New Hermitage, in which a cycle of monumental paintings dominates the interior decoration. The walls of the gallery are decorated with 86 unique paintings, painted in the ancient encaustic technique - wax paints on copper boards. Performed by the Munich painter Georg Hiltensperger, they captured the events of ancient history and legendary stories that tell about the origin of art in antiquity, about the discoveries and achievements of ancient painters, about the inventions of various painting techniques and technologies, about the heyday of art in Hellas and its decline in Ancient Rome, in troubled times vandal invasions.

Legendary art history displayed on the walls of the History Gallery ancient painting, now largely forgotten, according to the architect's plan, it was supposed to precede the meeting of museum visitors who got here along the Main Staircase with genuine masterpieces of European painting in the halls of the second floor of the New Hermitage. The wide and sloping Main Staircase, divided into three flights, forms an expressive perspective, in which the white marble steps, the magnificent yellow stack of walls effectively contrast with the granite colonnades of the upper galleries, flooded from both sides with streams of light. Twenty columns made of Serdobol granite support the coffered ceiling, complete the rhythmically slender, refined in color architectural composition of the upper landing and galleries of the Main Staircase. Since 1861, a collection of Western European sculpture of the late XVIII - early XIX century, in which the works of the leading masters of neoclassicism - Antonio Panova and Bertel Thorvaldsen - stood out.

The collections of ancient art are located in the halls on the first floor specially created for them. In the decoration of the interiors of this part of the building, Klenze achieved true perfection. Creating the most harmonious space for exhibiting ancient and modern marble sculpture, decorative vases, small plastic arts, numismatics and glyptics of the Ancient World, the architect subtly stylized the historical environment in which these works existed.

On the sides of the front vestibule, designed in the form of an ancient peristyle, Klenze placed collections of ancient sculptures from Greece and Rome.

Hall of Dionysus

The Hall of Dionysus reproduces the appearance of an ancient gallery, the longitudinal walls of which are dissected by powerful pillars, the floor is decorated with polychrome mosaics, and the ceiling decoration is stylized in the spirit of an ancient coffered ceiling. Lined with red artificial marble, the hall serves as an excellent environment for exhibiting white marble antique statues. The classical balance of proportions distinguishes sculptural compositions, cabinets, showcases, armchairs, sofas for visitors, made in the "neo-Greek" style according to von Klenze's sketches. A similar effect of synthesis of interior architecture and museum exposition also present in the Hall of Twenty Columns and the Hall of Jupiter.

The vast space of the Hall of Jupiter resembles in its scale the halls of the Roman emperors. The gigantic flat vault, cut through by powerful formworks, decorated with polychrome reliefs, rests on powerful pylons protruding from the walls. They are finished with artificial marble in a dark green tone, imitating squares with an arbitrary pattern of texture. Against the background of the longitudinal wall, in deep depressions formed by pylons, white marble statues of ancient gods, relief sarcophagi, busts of Roman emperors flaunt against a noble green background. The overall decorative effect is enhanced by the parquet flooring, made in the Florentine mosaic technique.

Hall of twenty columns

In the Twenty-Column Hall, Klenze masterfully stylized the space of an ancient temple, dividing the room with two rows of monumental Ionic columns. The hall was designed by the architect specifically for the collection of Greco-Etruscan vases. In this regard, in the decoration of the walls, beams and caissons of the ceiling, Klenze included ornamental, floral and multi-figured compositions made in the spirit of ancient vase painting. Genuine work art - the mosaic floor, made in the most complex technique of Venetian terrazzo by the craftsmen of the Peterhof Lapidary Factory, is an independent exhibit of the hall. Nowadays, in the space of the Twenty-Column Hall, behind the slender rows of colonnades, painted antique vases, glassware, metal, and precious gems flaunt.

Strict classical stylization prevailing in the decoration of the interiors of the first floor of the New Hermitage sets off the noble beauty of the works of art of the ancient world, being the highest achievement in the art of museum interiors of the 19th century.

For the first time the New Hermitage became accessible to visitors on February 5 (17), 1852. The museum, according to the instructions of Nicholas I, became a continuation of the imperial residence.

Hermitage Museum. 5 buildings. 20 km of corridors. 350 halls. 60,000 paintings. To view which you will need 40 days. If you stop at each picture for at least 1 minute.

The Hermitage has not lived up to its name for a long time. Translated from French, this word means "secluded place, cell." So it was until the middle of the 19th century. When only a select few could visit it. With special passes. In 1852 the museum was opened to all comers.

There are so many masterpieces in the collection that it is very difficult to plan a route through the museum. Here are just 7 ingenious paintings. different eras and styles. Worth seeing for everyone.

1. Leonardo da Vinci. Madonna Litta. 1490-1491

Leonardo da Vinci. Madonna Litta. 1490-1491 State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg

There are few works in the Hermitage. But among them there are already two works. This is despite the fact that there are only 19 works of the master in the world! The museum acquired the masterpiece in the middle of the 19th century. The Italian aristocratic family Litta.

The painting returned to Russia. Because she was already there. Half a century earlier, Giulio Litta, a representative of the family, brought her with him. After he became a subject of Russia. He married Potemkin's niece. However, his heiress, daughter of his stepdaughter, returned the painting to her Italian relatives after his death.

The picture is small. 41 by 32 cm. But after a few seconds you stop noticing it. Something very majestic is contained in such a small space of the picture. Timeless.

The mother looks at the baby with great tenderness. He dropped to his chest. With slightly sad eyes, he looks in our direction. After all, five minutes before that, a little drama had played out. The Virgin Mary decided to wean the child from her breast. Feeding cutouts were neatly stitched.

But she could not resist the requests and crying of the baby. One notch was hastily torn off. So Leonardo portrayed the mercy and love of a mother for her child.

2. Rafael. Madonna Conestabile. 1504

Raphael. Madonna Conestabile. 1502 State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg

Another masterpiece is kept in the Hermitage. "Madonna Conestabile" by Raphael. It was bought for his wife by Alexander II. The purchase was scandalous.

The public in Italy was outraged that their legacy was leaving the country. They scolded the owner, the Count of Conestabile. They agreed not to sell. They even raised money to buy the masterpiece and leave it at home. But they didn't collect it. The picture went to Russia.

It is stored in its "native" frame. Which was executed according to the drawings of Raphael.

Raphael. Conestabile Madonna (with frame). 1504 State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg. Rushist.com

Raphael created his masterpiece at a young age. He was barely twenty years old. But this work is valuable. It was created in the city of Perugia. In the teacher's workshop. Raphael has not yet seen the work of Michelangelo. Which will greatly affect him.

His art is still very original. Thin lines. Delicate colors. harmonious landscape. We see his genius in its original form. Thanks to Madonna Conestabile.

3. Caravaggio. lute player. 1595-1596

Caravaggio. lute player. 1595-1596 State Hermitage, St. Petersburg. wikipedia.org

The lute player Caravaggio was bought at the beginning of the 19th century. At the request of Alexander I. For a long time, the picture hung in the Hermitage under the name “Lute Player”. So the young man is depicted as sensual. Only a flat chest suggests that this is not a girl.

The young Caravaggio noticed that paintings with such young men were popular with some representatives of the Catholic Church. Therefore, he willingly wrote them.

But soon he will abandon such plots. Increasingly depicting tragic biblical stories. . Assumption of Mary. .

Caravaggio has often been called a naturalist. For his extraordinary attention to detail. Spoiled fruits. Crack in the lute. Lost notes.

In The Lute Player, Caravaggio uses his famous tenebroso for the first time. When figures and objects are snatched by a dim beam from pitch darkness.

This is how an almost tangible volume appears. And the character's emotions take on a dramatic connotation. Such a theatrical effect would become very popular during the Baroque era.

Read about the artist's work in the article.

4. Rembrandt. The return of the prodigal son. 1669

Rembrandt. The return of the prodigal son. 1669 State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg. Arthistory.ru

The painting The Prodigal Son is one of the earliest acquisitions of the Hermitage. It was bought from the French duke by order of Catherine II back in 1766.

This last picture Rembrandt. She always has a crowd. Because it makes a strong impression on many.

Before us is a story from the Gospel of Luke. The youngest son wandered the world. Spent his father's inheritance. I squandered everything. Being in captivity of their passions.

And now, in extreme need, he returned to the threshold of his father's house. His clothes were in tatters. Slippers are worn out. The head is shaved, because hard labor is behind him. The father graciously accepts the son. He leaned over him and placed his hands gently on his shoulders.

The picture is in darkness. Only a weak light molds the figures. The woman in the background is barely visible. Perhaps this is the mother of the returned son.

A picture of parental mercy. About forgiveness. The fact that even a downcast person has a hope of finding shelter. Take away pride. On my knees

Read about the painting in the article

5. Gainsborough. Lady in blue. 1778-1782

Thomas Gainsborough. Portrait of a lady in blue. 1778-1782 State Hermitage, St. Petersburg. Be-in.ru

At the beginning of the 20th century, the “Lady in Blue” was transferred to the Hermitage under the will of the nobleman Alexei Khitrovo. Free of charge.

It is considered one of the best works of Gainsborough. Although he did not like to paint portraits. I had to make them to order in order to feed my family. Thanks to the portraits and became famous.

Gauguin was a very extraordinary person. A quarter Peruvian, he was always attracted away from noisy cities. And one day he got to Tahiti.

There it was written "Woman holding the fruit." flatness of the image. Bright colors. Exotic details (on the road “waves” of sand and grass, as in Japanese paintings).

Pay attention to how thin the paint is. We see the texture of the canvas. Gauguin was extremely poor. The paint was expensive. I had to protect her.

The public did not take such unusual painting well. Gauguin was begging. Only a few years before his death, his paintings began to be bought.

Read about the artist also in the article by Henri Matisse. Dance (II). 1909-1910 Hermitage, St. Petersburg

The painting “Dance” was commissioned by the Russian merchant and collector Sergei Shchukin. Before being sent to Russia, the panels were shown at an exhibition in Paris. The audience scolded the work very much. Shchukin is accustomed to being called a collector of all sorts of rubbish.

But this time he trembled. Refused the order. Then he changed his mind, apologized to the artist for his weakness. The picture, together with the work “Music” paired with it, safely reached Russia.

Now this "trash" is considered one of the main masterpieces of modernism. On it is an image of the golden age of mankind. That was the era. People enjoyed progress and art. They believed that they live in the most prosperous time. But it was only the calm before the storm. Ahead - terrible tests in the form of world wars.

The picture is painted with only three colors. Which further emphasizes the symbolism of the figures. They whirl in a frantic dance. It is the quintessence of passionate, pure movement.

But this emotionality is not chaotic. It is balanced by the movement in a circle, by centrifugal force. And also the classic outlines of the left figure.

The Hermitage collection is grandiose. No wonder the museum ranks 13th in the world in terms of attendance. But there are also some peculiarities.

For a century, the collection was formed through the acquisition of private collections. The owners of which did not think about showing future generations all the milestones in the development of painting.

Therefore, the collection has a lot of works of baroque and rococo. Nymphs. Angels. Lush beauties. Still lifes with an abundance of fruits and lobsters. Which looked so good in the dining rooms of noble people.

As a result, there are “white spots” in the collection. For example, the Hermitage has a significant collection of Dutch painters. But among them there is not a single job.

Alas, the Hermitage collection also suffered serious losses. After the 1917 revolution, the Soviet government sold 48 masterpieces!

Russia left "Venus at the Mirror". "Madonna Alba" by Raphael. "The Adoration of the Magi". This is also part of the history of the Hermitage. The sad part.

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