The State Hermitage Museum, in St. Petersburg is a museum of art
and culture and not only does it have UNESCO status but it is the
second-largest art museum in the world. How wonderful that we were able
to visit it.
The Hermitage as it is lovingly referred to by locals, has been
opened to the public since 1852.
It has a very extensive collection of over 3 million works of art:
sculptures, paintings, vases, Egyptian antiquities, jewellery items, coins from
all over the world and a fine collection of armoury.
The museum was founded in 1764 when Catherine the Great bought an
extensive collection of paintings from art museums all over Europe.
These were housed in a building known as the "Small Hermitage".
Today, the Hermitage Museum encompasses many buildings which
are linked via bridge-corridors to form an impressive row of buildings along
the Neva riverside embankment. This row of buildings are so well interconnected
that you can go from one building to the next without even realising it.
The Hermitage Museum has expanded into another two buildings
around the city but we did not visit these. Most of the museums' connections
have been the private collections amassed by the tsars over several centuries.
We entered The Hermitage via an amazing entrance hall with a
ceiling height that extended over two storeys in the former home of
Russian tsars, the Winter Palace". Most of the guided tours begin in
the entrance hall to the Winter Palace, through which the first floor is
accessed via the main staircase of the palace (a dazzling 18th century creation
of marble, granite and gold). This impressive dual-staircase leads off the
entrance hall up to the many upstairs rooms of the palace. This staircase is
has been fashioned out of pure white marble with decorative gold
embellishments. Large alabaster statues of Justice, Wisdom and other virtues
that the Russian Empire sort to emulate stand along the walls of the entrance
hall.
It all looks so grand but this is just a beginning of the year
opulence and extravaganza of the building. Here are some numbers that will
flabbergast you as it did us. The "Winter Palace" alone has
1500 rooms, 1786 door (richly carved or decorated), 1945 windows and 117
staircases. There are sections of the palace which are not open to the public
today but we did see a huge number for rooms and overall and it was
overwhelmingly mind-boggling.
The first floor of the Hermitage has
many rooms that have been assembled exactly as they were when the last Imperial
family lived in the Winter Palace.
The 'Imperial Chapel' in the Winter Palace was built in 1763 in
the lavish Rocco style which was in vogue across Europe at the
time.
This is the larger of two chapels and was used for many of those
are weddings over the years. We were entranced by lavish design of this chapel,
created and personally supervised by the Italian maestro Francisco Rastrelli
who used highly gilded embellishes over the walls and ceiling. Even the
floor is a piece of art in its own right, for the multi-coloured in-laid timber
patterned floor is breathtaking in its complexity. What a tedious task
for the artisans who created this beautiful patterned floor!
Looking up we saw another wonder -a beautifully painted
western-style icon of "Jesus' Ascension into heaven" covers the
central part of the ceiling of the chapel.
The opulent three-tiered iconostasis (partition separating altar
from rest of chapel) built in roccoco style is exceptionally ornamental and is
said to be " splendid rooms in the palace". I think you would have to
agree but there are many other splendid rooms in this wonderful museum
once the Palace of the Emperors of Russia.
Continuing our tour through the Hermitage we entered room after
room which were filled with magnificent furniture or art objects and every room
continued to display the gilded opulence we had been experienced on our initial
entrance into this building. Yet each room had its own special style and
uniquely designed ornate chandeliers, massive windows and inlaid
patterned wooden floors. Parquet patterns which continued to amaze us. Rather
than describing every room I will include a series of photos for you to enjoy
and because words fail me at this time I will only give short descriptions of
each room shown ( a select few of many rooms in this massive museum complex)
The overall impression was one of an outlanddishly, lavish, opulent,
extravagant splendour of a bygone era and
an exhibition of the achievements and creative skills of
artists, artisans, painters, architects and builders.
Look at some of the columns and furniture and objects made from
marble that are in these rooms.
The Throne a Room: less ornate but the gracious white marble columns have gilded Corinthian capitals and the ceiling has a magnificent gilded pattern. The focal point of this room is the throne which sits behind a red velvet roll on a red carpeted platform. Look at the crowd gathered in that room as they were in just about every room we visited.
I other rooms like the blue room once a bedroom, The decor is
softer and gentler even though the decorations are elaborate. Look at the
beautiful parquet flooring in soft brown and white. Please don't be alarmed
that I'm wearing a mask. Remember this is the first day I have left
the ship and nearly 6 days after having a virus. I wore the mask at
the ship's doctor's suggestion to protect me from catching any bugs as there
are many crowds in the museum and my immune system was still a little low.
Parquet flooring is a feature throughout the palace and there are
many beautiful designs created by clever artisans.
I've included one special table in our photographs but there are
many other examples of beautiful furniture in the palace museum. This
particular table has some beautiful carvings around its edges. Underneath it
the base has the carved toes of an eagle, holding the table erected. The glass
covered tabletop has intricate colourful inlay floral designs carved from
precious stones, marble and timber. A unique piece of art.
One I noticed about this beautiful music yes it is that
every door in Paris what a piece of art is its self. Some doors were carved in
timber, others were decorated in fine lace patterns made in marble and
many were covered in bronze mosaics or parquet-patterned timbers or gilded
designs tediously hand painted in pure gold. If you look back at the
photographs in the blood, maybe you'll see some of the door decorations
that I prefer to.
I have included a photograph of an impressive 10 foot high
door that I saw in Hermitage. The whole door was covered in a seperate carvings
of various scenes from the life of Christ. He's had been carefully and
skilfully carved from Redwood and I looked impressive.all
The gold collums in ballroom look elegant. Within this room a huge
pink marble vase or urn stands majestic - the work of a mason with incredible
skills.
The final picture of yet another impressive room in the
Hermitage is decorated with 24 sets of four gold-covered columns, huge
arched windows, a gold covered ballestrade looks down upon glittering
chandeliers and a marble floor. It is very opulent and was sometimes used as a
ballroom. In the centre of the ballroom is another huge carved vase, carved
from pink marble which has been highly polished.
This huge marble vase would have been filled with masses of
beautiful flowers during the time that balls were held and their perfume would
have filled the room.
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