Day 4 in Saint Petersburg, a full day at the Hermitage, one of the world's greatest museums.
Queen
Cleopatra VII
Isis and Osiris
We entered via the Ancient Egyptian collection. This is truly amazing. They may not have the largest collection of these antiquities, but each one they have on display is of far higher quality than any I have seen before — except, perhaps, for that rather tatty lump of rock in the British Museum, the Rosetta Stone. But what they have is in truly amazing condition, with many of the wall carvings bearing substantial amounts of the original coloured paints.
The famed Peacock Clock
A magnificent Lapis Lazulu Urn
Then, after transitioning through some of the stunning architecture and decoration of the palace itself, we spent considerable time in the presence of the Italian Masters, and then the Spanish Masters.
Giordano's 'Battle of Titian's 'Danaë' (1554)
the Lapiths and the Centaurs' (1682)
Max Ernst. Mur et soleil (1970)
We happened upon a temporary exhibition of the works of the German Max Ernst, a postmodernist and influential in the Dada and Surrealist movements.
Then we investigated the Netherlandish and Flemish Masters, and the French, and the British, before we made our way through the rooms of the palace displaying the way it might have looked in its heyday.
Gainsborough.
Portrait of a Lady in Blue
David Teniers the Younger.
Shepherd
David Teniers the Younger.
Shepherdess
You must remember that this was the Winter Palace of the Tsars, and that in October 1917 it was supposedly stormed by the revolutionaries. There are conflicting versions of this event, but one of the most probable is that a small group of the Red Guard entered the building, 'captured' some government officials who had already surrendered, and took advantage of the situation and with sheer bloody-mindedness, ransacked the building. But whatever the real story, the effect was the same — the building was ransacked, and many irreplaceable treasures were either destroyed or looted! It has taken many years to bring those parts of the building and their contents back to something resembling what used to be there. But the main collections, started by Catherine the Great, are still there to be enjoyed by all. And the Russians have done such brilliant work in conservation and restoration that they are possibly as bright and as fresh as when they were first created.
But instead of me going on about the Hermitage, its history, and its collections, I might just as well refer you to the Wikipedia article, which is quite good, and better than anything I am likely to write!
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