One of the most famous museums in the world.It lined kilometer queue, regardless of the weather outside.It has many branches, its own theater, orchestra and unusual cats.
Read this article and you will be known for a brief history of the Hermitage.You will get acquainted with some exhibits and a luxurious atmosphere rooms.We'll talk about the different buildings included in the complex of the museum.
information will be interesting for all fans of the national culture and connoisseurs of the masterpieces of world art.
Hermitage in the Russian Empire
Before the description of the Hermitage, is briefly acquainted with its history.The huge today a collection that is housed in the halls of many different buildings, once started with the personal collection of pictures of Catherine the Great.
In 1764, she got it for debt Johanna Gotzkowsky Russian Prince Vladimir Dolgoruky.The collection includes more than three hundred paintings brought from Berlin.Total cost of the paintings ranges from one hundred and eighty thousand German thaler of the eighteenth century.
Thus, the history of the Hermitage began with the works of Babyurena, van Dyck, Balen, Rembrandt, Rubens, Jordaens and the rest of the Dutch and Flemish painters.From an initial list of paintings now safely left ninety-six masterpieces.About where the others were gone, we'll talk in other parts of the article.
originally set aside space for the collection in the halls of the Winter Palace.Later the building was built, which today is known as the Small Hermitage (located below the photo).But in the process of the museum, Catherine the Great followed the increase in the number of exhibits.Gradually, the place was not enough, and for sixteen years was built by architect Felten more (or Old) Hermitage.
During the eighteenth century the collection was replenished by many thousands of works of art.Meeting were acquired the Saxon minister Count Heinrich von Bruhl, the collection of the French Baron Pierre Crozat, as well as a number of masterpieces from the collection of the British Prime Minister Robert Walpole.
In the nineteenth century the case of Catherine the Great continued Alexander I and Nicholas I. They are no longer just bought entire collections at different noble Europeans and complementary meeting eras, styles and individual artists.So it was purchased "Lute Player" Caravaggio and the "Adoration of the Magi" by Botticelli.
big role in the popularization of the Hermitage played Nikolay I. In 1852, he opened the exhibition for public viewing.Until that time, could only admire the masterpieces of elected officials from the higher strata of society.After opening the collection to the public in the New Hermitage attendance reached fifty thousand people in the first year.
significant figures in art of the second half of the nineteenth century was Andrei Somov, who was superintendent of the Museum for twenty-two years.He has made several catalogs of Italian and Spanish art that were exhibited at the Hermitage.
situation changed dramatically after the abdication of Nicholas II from the throne and the Bolsheviks came to power.
History of the Hermitage since 1917
In the twenties of the twentieth century, the history of the Hermitage is undergoing some changes.Collection replenished from many meetings of the imperial nobility.For example, from the halls of the Winter Palace was moved most of the interior, the treasures of the Mughals.
The collection of the disbanded poured collections from the Museum of New Western Art (works by European impressionists paintings and Shchukin, Morozov).But the Hermitage gallery was carrying and loss.Thus, the Diamond Room of the Winter Palace moved to the Moscow Kremlin and the main works of the artists of the seventeenth century were in the Museum of Fine Arts.
The turning point was the sale of masterpieces in five years (from 1929 to 1934).It was an unexpected blow to the collection.During this time, more than forty paintings lost Hermitage (photo of one of them located below).For example, the "Annunciation" by Jan van Eyck now kept in a museum in Washington.
The next test was the Great Patriotic War.The surprising fact, but no copies of the two million items evacuated to the Urals was not lost.After the return of only a few of them were in need of restoration.
In 1945 the Hermitage collection considerably enlarged by the Berlin trophies.They were transported Pergamon altar and some of the things from Egypt.But in 1958 the Soviet government return them in the German Democratic Republic.
After perestroika and the fall of the Soviet State Hermitage one of the first announced stored in the vaults of his works, which for the whole world were considered lost.
In addition, using a specially created fund gradually filled the gaps in the exhibits of the twentieth century.So, it was acquired works Soutine, Rouault, Utrillo and other artists.
Appears project "Hermitage 20 \ 21", during which the planned purchase and display of works by contemporary authors.
in 2006 was a little embarrassing with the loss of two hundred small items (jewelry, silverware, icons, etc.).But the investigation quickly established the perpetrators of theft, and most of the things managed to return.
Greater Hermitage Rooms
For the beginner rooms of the Hermitage are a likeness of the infinite maze of Knossos in Crete.It combined three buildings in which there are twenty-eight sections and about four hundred rooms.
So, the State Hermitage Museum, the history of which has been considered previously, was opened for public viewing by Emperor Nicholas I. Since that time, the museum's collection were enriched considerably.
Today you can see the art of Central Asia, the ancient states of Ancient Egypt and the East, the monuments of different cultures on the territory of ancient Siberia.Also in the two galleries presented a rich collection of jewelry.
On the second floor visitors will enjoy not only a gorgeous collection of weapons, but also paintings by Western European masters.There are works of Flanders, Dutch, Italian, English, German, Spanish and French artists.
There is also a modern gallery.Hermitage she took part of the premises on the third floor.In these rooms the tourists will be able to see not only paintings of Western authors nineteenth and twentieth century.There is also presented art and culture of the Byzantine Empire, the countries of Central Asia and the Far East.
Buildings
In St. Petersburg, the Hermitage building up a holistic architectural composition.It includes five major facilities, two service and four separate rooms.
core ensemble built up on the Palace Square of the northern capital.Here are the Winter Palace, Small, Large and New Hermitage and the Hermitage Theatre.
since Soviet times given to the Winter Palace Museum to host the exhibition.This house was once the imperial The most important building in the Russian state.It was built in the mid-eighteenth century by the famous architect Rastrelli.Before the abdication of Nicholas II, it was the main winter residence of the ruling Romanov dynasty.
But the main halls of the Hermitage are not located here.Most of the items are exhibited in three special buildings - Big, Small and New Hermitage.
first Felten was built in the late eighteenth century.It is located on the waterfront and was intended to show the art collections.
Small Hermitage consists of a hanging garden, as well as two pavilions - North and South.He built a little earlier, and the Greater is the link between the classical Hermitage Museum and Winter Palace in the Baroque style.
New Hermitage built in the Greek Revival.It was created specifically to house the art collection "for public inspection."
also houses the Hermitage include a garage and a spare cinder block home of the Winter Palace.These buildings are considered ancillary and service.
Outside Palace Square are at the disposal of the museum Storage Facility "Old Village", the Eastern Wing of the General Staff, Menshikov Palace and the Museum of Porcelain Factory.
Theatre
history and architecture of the buildings of the Hermitage often borrows ideas from various Western European masters.I was no exception and the theater.
him in the late eighteenth century, designed and built the Italian Giacomo Quarenghi.Interior and internal composition have been created under the influence of the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza.Thus, in St. Petersburg repeated the ideas of the Andrea Palladio.
The lobby is still noticeable, "History of the Hermitage".Visitors will be able to see firsthand the rafters and wooden beams of the late eighteenth century.
very same theater building built on the site of the first Winter Palace of Emperor Peter I times.From the old house preserved only the foundation.
noteworthy that line the seafront is Hermitage bridge that connects the two islands of Admiralty, and leads from the theater to the Old Hermitage.
New Hermitage
history and architecture of the Hermitage fully reflect the haste with which the Empress Catherine the Great took up the realization of the idea under the influence of Western European fashion.At the end of the eighteenth century, it became popular among the noble estates to collect art collection.
Empress bought the first batch of paintings and ordered to construct a building that is today known as the Small Hermitage.But even before the completion of the work it became clear that the room is too small and unable to accommodate all the new items.So seven years later we began to build the Great Hermitage.
Half a century building began to deteriorate, as happened in 1837 and the fire did make an emergency start of the new construction.Thus, Nicholas I in Munich brings the architect Klenze, who began designing the New Hermitage.St. Petersburg was for him the realization of failed ideas.
The room reflects the architect's plan, which did not find response in Athens.The whole building was partly resemble Pinakothek, Glyptothek, Pantehnion and royal residence in Greece.
In 1852, the opening of new halls.Exhibits for them personally chose the emperor himself.
Exhibits
Next we'll look at the exhibits of the Hermitage.In the halls of the museum presents the development of art from the era of primitive society to the present day.Particularly interesting collection of material from archaeological collections.
These include the Venus figurines from Kostenok, Scythian gold, items from the burial mound Pazyryk, plates with petroglyphs and other masterpieces of the cultures of the Great Steppe.
should also touch the exhibits of ancient halls.There are more than a hundred thousand items.You will be able to see more than fifteen thousand painted vases, about ten thousand of the most valuable ancient gems, as well as one hundred and twenty Roman portraits.
Ancient Hermitage exhibits are complemented by a stunning collection of terracotta statuettes from Tanagra in Boeotia.
Numismatic collection of more than one million coins.Here are ancient and Eastern, Russian and Western European patterns.Besides it contains about seventy five thousand commemorative medals, fifty thousand badges, medals, stamps and other items.
However, the most famous is undoubtedly the collection of paintings by artists who belong to different periods and styles.
Here are Western writers from the thirteenth to the twentieth century.If we consider them separately by country, it is possible to distinguish several eras.
Italian masters from the thirteenth to the eighteenth century: Giorgione and Titian, da Vinci and Raphael, Caravaggio, Tiepolo and others.Dutch painting expressed in the paintings of Robert Campin, van Leyden, van der Weyden, etc.There is also a Flemish Rubens and Snyders, Jordaens and Van Dyck.
Spanish collection is the largest in the world, except in museums in Spain.Here you can enjoy the works of El Greco, Ribera de Diego Velazquez, Morales and others.
Englishmen exhibited paintings Kneller, Dobson, Reynolds, Lawrence, and so on. D. From the French - Gellee, Mignard, Delacroix, Renoir, Monet, Degas and others.
With all the variety collection has a lot of gaps.For example, the surrealists and some other areas are practically not represented in the Hermitage.
Orchestra
But St. Petersburg is famous not only mind-boggling collection of the Hermitage.Popular is the famous orchestra.
This unexpected Russian-Lithuanian project was created at the turn of epochs.In 1989, when glasnost and perestroika raised "iron curtain" and the Soviet Union was collapsing, Saulius Sondeckis creates an orchestra called "St. Petersburg Camerata."
core group were students of urban conservatory, who taught the Lithuanian.
The following year, the director of the Hermitage, Boris Piotrovsky, inviting them to play under the patronage of this institution.Subsequently, for a while, "Camerata" signed a recording contract with the company «Sony Classical».
And in 1994, after a series of talks group returns under the patronage of the museum and gets the final name of "The State Hermitage Orchestra."
In 1997 created Hermitage Music Academy, which is based on this collective.Today, the orchestra gives concerts in the Hermitage Theatre and other historic halls.
And its permanent head received in 2009 the Order of Merit, as an outstanding figure of culture and the strengthening of relations between the two countries.
famous Hermitage cats
Cats Hermitage - is inimitable urban legend and a stunning fact.Today, the museum is home to about seventy animals.They have all the documents, including veterinary cards and passports.In addition, the cat is officially listed as a "highly qualified to clean the basements of the museum from the rats."
Thus, the collection of the Hermitage contains completely safe from the invasion of rodents.Only a few times was such that the rats have produced the palace.
first cat in the Winter Palace brought Tsar Peter the Great from a trip to Western Europe.Later, Elizabeth during a trip to Kazan noticed the absence of rodents in the city because of the large number of cats-rat-catchers.Special decree of the largest individuals were moved to St. Petersburg.
later Catherine the Great in the room shared by animals and outbuildings.The first includes only Russian blue cats.
second time bred rats was during the siege of Leningrad during World War II.But after the end of the city brought two carloads of cats, of which the best defined in a museum.
Today, the Hermitage cats are sterilized.They have their own private space to sleep and bowls.Museum staff they affectionately called "ermikami."And the territory of the attractions are signs calling to be cautious.They are placed as a necessary measure, since many animals are killed by cars during various repairs.
Affiliates
You are mistaken if you think that there is one Hermitage.St. Petersburg has several branches of the museum throughout the world.
first attempts to create divisions were at the beginning of the twenty-first century.Opened showrooms in London and Las Vegas, but after seven years, they were closed.
More successful was the cooperation with Italy.The first exposition here appeared in 2006 in the castle of Este.This building is considered a hallmark of the city of Ferrara.Also considered options Verona and Mantua.
But the most famous foreign department is Hermitage Amsterdam, in Amsterdam.It was opened in 2004, and later to create complete compositions was reconstructed a whole street and the building Amstelhof.
The Russian Federation has branches in Kazan and Vyborg planned in Omsk in 2016.
Thus, in this article we'll explore the fascinating Museum of the Russian Federation.Hermitage - this is not just a place where exhibits masterpieces, and a piece of culture with its history and characteristics.
Good luck to you, dear readers.Bright and colorful impressions you travel!
