Hermitage museum

The Hermitage Museum (in Russian Эрмитаж, ermitazh, from the French ermitage, «hermitage», «hermit's refuge») in Saint Petersburg, Russia, is one of the largest art galleries and antiquities museums in the world. The museum's collection occupies a complex made up of six buildings located on the banks of the Neva River, the most important of which is the Winter Palace, the official residence of the former tsars. The rest of the architectural complex is made up of five buildings, among which are the Menshikov Palace, the General Staff Building and an open storage facility. The museum was formed with the private collection that the tsars were acquiring for several centuries, and it was not until 1917 when it was declared a State Museum.

Its collection, made up of more than three million pieces, ranges from Roman and Greek antiquities, to Western European paintings and sculptures, Oriental art, archaeological pieces, Russian art, jewelry and weapons. His art gallery is considered one of the most complete in the world. The museum is one of the largest in the world.

Address

View of the Winter Palace from the General Staff Building.

• Main Complex of the Museum — Главный музейный комплекс (Glavniy Museiniy Kompleks)

5 Palace Square — Дворцовая пл., 2 (Dvortsovaia Ploschad', 2(dbá))

• Palacio de Invierno de Pedro I — Zимний дворец Петра I (Zimniy Dvoréts Petra Pérvogo)

Dvortsovaya Naberezhnaya, 32 — Дворцовая наб., 32 (..., (Tridtsat' dvá))

• Palacio Menshikov — Devorец Mеншикова (Mobile)Dvórets Menshikova)

Universitetskaya Naberezhnaya, 15 — Университетская наб., 15 (Universitetskaya naberezhnaia, 2(Piatnatsat'))

• Porcelain Museum — Másей фарфора (Muzei Farfóra)

Prospekt Obukhovskoi Oborony, 151 Пр. Obuhovsky Oborony, 151

History

The history of the Hermitage Museum is closely related to that of the Winter Palace. When Empress Catherine the Great rose to power through a coup in Russia, one of the first things she did with herself was take up residence for herself in the newly built Winter Palace.

In 1764, Catherine bought a collection of 225 Dutch and Flemish paintings in Berlin from Johann Ernest Gotzkowski. It was then that she began to decorate the palace with all kinds of works of art that she was acquiring from Western Europe. The dining room alone was adorned with 92 paintings. Russian diplomats in Europe were in charge of buying all kinds of objects, paintings, jewelry, books, documents, to take to the Winter Palace.

18th century

Mary of a girlZurbarán.

Three thanks.Canova.

During the second half of this century, Catherine dedicated herself, in addition to building the architectural complex that forms the current Hermitage, to increasing her collection significantly. She bought every collection for sale that she could find. In 1769 she bought her collection from Count Heinrich von Brühl, with works by Rubens and Rembrandt. In 1772 she bought that of Baron Pierre Crozat. This included works by Rafael, Rubens or van Dyck among others. In 1779 she acquired the collection of Robert Walpole, considered the first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, which included works by Murillo, Rembrandt, Rubens and van Dyck. In 1781 he bought the Count of Baudouin's collection, which included 119 works by Flemish, Dutch and French artists, and in 1787, the sculpture collection of John Lyde-Brown, director of the Bank of the United Kingdom, which contained 300 sculptures, including where there were several Roman sculptures, a Greek and Renaissance sculptures. In addition, Catalina was interested in antiquities, and she commissioned various works to be brought to her from Rome.

In a letter sent by Catherine to Fréderic-Melchior Grimm, she recounted that apart from paintings by artists such as Raphael Sanzio, her collection included 38,000 books, more than 10,000 sculptures, and more than 10,000 drawings and engravings. It was around this time that the largest collections in the museum's history were purchased. All these works were Catherine's private collection. In no case can it be considered a museum, since it was not open to the public. She thus achieved the largest private collection in Europe.

19th century

Madonna LittaLeonardo.

Young man with hatTitian.

Portrait of the young kniaz Nikolái Yusúpov by the Italian Vincenzo Petrocelli, 1851.

Monet: Woman in the garden.

Tsar Alexander I of Russia, when he entered Paris with his troops in 1815, made one of the largest purchases for the Hermitage collection: the private collection of Empress Josephine, which contained paintings and sculptures. Upon his death, Alejandro bought 38 more paintings from his heirs, some by Rubens and Rembrandt, and four sculptures by Antonio Canova. In 1837, there was a huge fire in the Winter Palace that destroyed much of its interiors, and to prevent the fire from spreading to the Little Hermitage, all connections between the two palaces were dismantled.

During this century several important collections were purchased. In 1850, the collection of the Palace of Cristoforo Barbarigo was acquired, where the painter Titian had died. This collection included five paintings by Titian himself, which joined the other three that the collection already contained. In 1865, the famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci, the Madonna Litta, was purchased from Count Litta, along with three other paintings, for 100,000 francs. In 1870, the Hermitage bought Raphael's masterpiece The Virgin and Child for 310,000 francs, which the Italian government tried to buy to prevent it from leaving the country, but could not match the high price.

Emperor Nicholas I of Russia decided in 1852 to turn the Hermitage into an Imperial Museum, seeing that the state museum system was beginning to take hold in Europe. He ordered the construction of an entrance for the public and ordered the decoration of the museum so that it could be open to the public, including the construction of new rooms to be able to deposit the objects and paintings, decoration and interiors that have remained intact to the present day. The inauguration was on February 5, 1852, with which the palace was opened for the upper classes, above all.

During this century, the museum's archaeological collections were first and foremost increased. In 1861, the Hermitage bought the collection of the Marquis de Cavelli, Gianpietro Campana. This amateur archaeologist was the director of the Banco Monte di Pie in Rome and used bank funds to purchase antiquities from him. When he was sentenced to 20 years in prison, the State put his entire collection up for auction, which was divided between the Hermitage and the Napoleon III Museum in Paris (now the Louvre). The collection acquired by the Hermitage included more than 500 Greek vases, 200 bronzes and marble sculptures, while the Parisian museum acquired mostly paintings.

In 1886 they acquired the collection of Aleksandr Basilevski, which included all kinds of medieval pieces, ivory, enamel, and all kinds of objects, which the museum bought for 6 million francs. In addition, in 1885, the Imperial collection of arms was transferred to the museum.

20th century

Farmhouses in AuversVan Gogh.

In 1904, the Winter Palace ceased to be an imperial residence. Since the beginning of the First World War in 1914, the museum has been a hospital, and the collections have been transferred to Moscow for safety. They did not return until 1924. The administration of the museum and the staff working there changed a lot since 1917, after the Russian Revolution, and from then on non-aristocrats were allowed to work there. After a time closed to the public, it was reopened shortly after. The director of the museum, in anticipation of what could happen in the assault on the Winter Palace, protected the works, which were not damaged on that night of October 25, 1917, when the Provisional Government was arrested. Five days later, the Hermitage Museum was declared a State Museum, with free admission for the first five years. In addition, a cultural center was created in the museum and non-permanent exhibitions began to be brought in from other places.

After the 1917 revolution

Parau, parauGauguin.

NinfaBartolini.

During this century, the museum suffered significant losses. During the 1920s, 500 works were transferred to the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, so that art would not be so centralized in Saint Petersburg. In the 1930s, another 70 works were transferred, including paintings by Rubens, Rembrandt and Titian. However, the Hermitage also obtained important assets; During these same decades, the assets that were in the palaces of the Russian aristocracy began to be nationalized, and most of these went to the Hermitage. All kinds of works of art were received from the imperial palaces, archaeological objects from ancient Egypt, documents, coins, art from the Byzantine era... It was at this time that, as its heritage increased considerably, it went from being an art museum, to be a museum of universal art and culture.

In the mid-1930s, a series of sales of paintings abroad took place, resulting in a great loss to the museum. The objective of these sales, according to the official position, was the financing of the state itself. According to dissenting voices, these sales cannot be justified from any point of view. More than 2,800 paintings were sold, including 250 major works and 50 masterpieces. Some pieces that were not sold returned to the museum. Many of these pieces ended up in the National Gallery in Washington. From 1932 until the end of World War II, minor works left the museum to be sold or distributed among the different Soviet republics.

World War II

Combat tiger and buffaloRousseau.

Somerset House in London, which hosts exhibitions of pieces by the Hermitage.

With the invasion of German troops to the USSR on June 22, 1941, and its rapid advance towards Leningrad, the evacuation of Heritage's works began. It was the greatest evacuation of works of art since the one that occurred during the Spanish Civil War in the Prado Museum. Thousands of volunteers dedicated themselves to packing more than one million works, to transfer them by train to Sverdlovsk, in the Urals. Two trains were able to reach their destination, but when they were preparing the third, the siege began to the city for the Germans, which lasted 900 days, and that produced the death of two million inhabitants of the city. Meanwhile, the conservatives who stayed were dedicated to saving and bringing to the museum all the assets they found in other palaces, and to protect the museum from cold and snow and air attacks. In addition, it served as a refuge against German air incursions, and up to 12,000 people lived there until the first evacuations, in 1942. The works transferred to Sverdlovsk arrived well and there was created a new section of the museum to keep the objects and paintings. Nothing was damaged or lost.

After the end of World War II, the museum reopened its doors to the public, with the evacuated works that were again placed in its place of origin. In addition, the museum had to be restored due to all the damage it had suffered during the Nazi siege, a restoration that took several years. In 1948, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Moscow donated 320 works of art of the century XIX XX , among which were renewal works, Matisse, Picasso, Monet, Van Gogh or Gauguin.

The Red Army, on his return from Berlin, brought numerous works of art that ended in the Hermitage, especially of impressionist and post -impressionist works of private collections. One of the most important cases was that of the Altar of Zeus of Pergamo, which was taken from the Pergamum Museum in Berlin as War Botín, and that was exposed in the Hermitage until 1959. The Museum and the Soviet army received many criticisms for this Theft of works, but the government alleged that they were like a minimal satisfaction for destruction by the Nazi army of Russian works of incalculable value, such as the palaces of Peterhof and Tsarskoye Selo. In addition, the Russian government has prohibited by law the return of the works in case it is demonstrated that the owners financially financed Nazi Germany.

Current

The Hermitage Museum is expanding continuously, and is currently collaborating in various projects abroad, such as the Guggenheim Hermitage exhibition complexes in the city of Las Vegas, USA. UU., The recent inauguration of the museum Hermitage Amsterdam, in Amsterdam, Holland, or the heritage rooms at the Somerset House, in London, the United Kingdom.

In addition, the Russian Ark Duration, without cuts (sequence plan). The film participated in the 2002 Cannes Festival.

On June 17, 2016 it was announced that the Hermitage of Barcelona will open its doors in 2019 in the port of the city.

Museum's architectural complex

Main step of the Winter Palace.

Staff Building.

The Winter Palace (зимний дворец) is the main building of the museum. It was built between 1754 and 1762 by order of Empress Isabel. The design was the work of the Italian architect Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli. He finished being built after Isabel's death. It was the official residence of the Tsars of Russia until the fall of the monarchy after the Russian revolution, in 1917, and inside some of the most important events in Russia's history.

Catalina II ordered the architect Vallin de la Mothe to build a small palace, located next to the winter palace, which he called little Hermitage (малый эрмитаж), and that among other things, he had hanging gardens. This section of the museum was built between 1765 and 1769. It contains two side exhibition halls, and serves as a link between the winter palace and the rest of the palaces that form the museum.

Soon the palace was filled with objects, so Catalina ordered the architects Velten and Quarenghi the construction of another building, subsequently known as the old heritage (старый эрмитаж), built between 1771 and 1787. This part of the museum is connected With the rest of the buildings that come below through an arc that raffles one of the channels that flow into the neva, the winter channel.

The Hermitage Theater (эрмитажный театр) was ordered to build by Catalina La Grande between 1783 and 1787. It was built by the architect Giacomo Quarenghi. It is located on the other side of the winter channel. At present, theatrical works continue to be represented within the programming of the museum.

The new Hermitage (новый эрмитаж) was the first building built in Russia specifically to contain art. It was built between 1841 and 1842 by the German architect Leo Von Klenze. It is where the main entrance of the museum is located, which consists of a great porch with some Atlanteans. It is found after the rest of the buildings, on the other side of the channel.

The Meshikov Palace (меншиковский дворец), was the residence of the governor of St. Petersburg and friend of Tsar Pedro I of Russia. Its construction dates from 1710, and was designed by the architect Giovanni Mario Fontana. Its construction ended in 1721. It was considered the most luxurious palace in the city.

The Building of the General Staff (здание гавного штаба) was built between 1820 and 1827. By half of this palace, there is an arc that has a bronze sculpture of a car guided by 6 horses, which gives way to The Palacio Square. The Museum's Eastern Wing was initially the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Economy, although they now belong to the Museum.

Collection

The museum collection covers many different themes. Includes: prehistoric, numismatic art, furniture, paintings and sculptures of all times, or weapons. It houses one of the world's biggest galls. Another important section is that dedicated to Western art.

Prehistoric art

The museum has many of the prehistoric objects found in deposits in Russia, being the prehistoric venus, some of the most important, found in several Siberian deposits, although they also have all kinds of paleolithic lithic industry. In addition, various petroglyphs and neolithic figurines of Russian deposits, brooches, axes and dozens of bronze age objects, from the calcolytic cultures of the Caucasus are exhibited. Within the latter group, the objects found in the maikop mourning, whose trousseau is one of the richest and most important of the middle Calcolithic of the Kurganes culture, are especially important. It contains gold figurines, copper and bronze vessels, brooches, etc. All kinds of objects, ceramic and mud of the Mediterranean and excavations carried out in Ukraine and the Balkans are also present in the collection. His collection of objects of the Escita culture is one of the most important in the world, highlighting various finely worked gold objects.

In summary, tens of thousands of prehistoric objects are guarded, which cover from the lower Paleolithic to the second or first millennium before Christ, possessing the museum much of the objects found in Russian deposits and in countries of the former union union Soviet

Ancient Greece and Rome

contains 106,000 objects of Greece and Rome, and the archaeological excavations that took place during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries on the coast of the Black Sea where the cities of Ninfea, Panticapea, Quersoneso and Teodosia were located. They go from the century xv a. C. until [[century IV IV d. C.]] Its collection contains, among other things, 15,000 Greek and Roman vessels, sarcophagi, gold jewels, carved gems and more than 200 marble busts of the Roman era.

Western painting

LunchVelázquez.

BéGauguin.

Portrait of lady in blueCézanne.

Dead nature with applesPaul Cézanne.

It is one of the largest collections of paintings in the world. Contains Italian painting from the 13th century to the XIX, with works by Fra Angelico, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Titian and Caravaggio. Some of the most important works are The Benois Madonna and the Madonna Litta, by Leonardo, the Virgin with Child or The Holy Family by Raphael, many works from the late period of Titian, the Judith by Giorgione, The Virgin and Child by Fra Angelico and works by Caravaggio, Canaletto, Tintoretto, Veronese and Tiepolo. Another strength of the pictorial collection is Spanish painting, one of the most important collections outside of Spain, with authors such as El Greco, Zurbarán, José de Ribera, Juan Bautista Maíno or Murillo. In addition, it exhibits Lunch and Portrait of the Count of Olivares by Velázquez or the Portrait of Antonia Zárate by Goya.

It has more than 500 works of Flemish painting, including 30 paintings by Rubens and works by Anthony van Dyck or Frans Snyders. It also contains 25 works by Rembrandt, one of the largest collections in the world, and by other Dutch painters, such as Jacob Ruysdael, Frans Hals, Jan Steen or Pieter de Hooch. He has a large collection of German painting, by painters such as Lucas Cranach the Elder, Ambrosius Holbein and Anton Raphael Mengs. The Hermitage also has a collection of 450 English paintings, making it quite rare for English paintings to be exhibited outside British museums. It also contains an important collection of French painting from between the 15th and 18th centuries, the second largest in the world after that of the Louvre museum in Paris, with authors such as Claude Lorrain, Nicolas Poussin or Antoine Watteau.

Contains a collection of Impressionist and Expressionist painting, mainly French and German, of more than 1000 works. It includes seven works by Monet, six by Renoir, two by Camille Pissarro, and several drawings by Degas. It has dozens of major works by Cézanne, Paul Gauguin and van Gogh, 32 paintings by Matisse and 31 by Picasso. In addition, it shows a very important collection of paintings by the French symbolists, and many paintings from the German schools in Munich, Berlin and Düsseldorf, as well as Russian painters, among which Kandinsky stands out. In 2002, thanks to private patronage, the museum incorporated one of the versions of the iconic Black Square by Kazimir Malevich.

Western Sculpture

Michelangelo: Kid down.

The sculpture collection is one of the most important in Europe. It includes works of Italian Sculpture, including 15 works by Antonio Canova, a sculptor from the 18th and 19th centuries, including Cupid and Psyche, Penitent Magdalene or Hebe, and his successors, such as Lorenzo Bartolini. It does not have sculptures by Bernini, but it does have several of his molds and his models that were used for the construction of several of his great sculptures. In addition, he treasures the only sculpture by Michelangelo in Russia, Crouching Boy or Crouching Boy , which was originally intended for the Medici pantheon. It also contains sculptures by other Renaissance authors and from the 18th and 19th centuries, as well as sculptures by French authors such as Étienne-Maurice Falconet, Antoine Houdon, François Girardon. There are also five sculptures by Rodin, including two plaster pieces, one as a model for his Bronze Age and another is a portrait of the Japanese actress Hanako, and three marble pieces, Eternal Spring, Romeo and Juliet and The Poet and the Muse. Also seven sculptures by Matisse, of the 70 that he made in his entire life. It also has an important collection of German Renaissance sculptures.

Decorative arts

The museum preserves a vast collection of movable art. From metal objects, jewelry, glassware, furniture, porcelain, tapestries or tableware, reliquaries, doorknobs or metal censers. The porcelain collection is very important, with more than 20,000 pieces, coming mainly from the Russian royal family and the aristocracy of Saint Petersburg. Most are French, English and German manufactures, but there are also Spanish, Italian or Swedish pieces. It includes a collection of art deco pieces.

Within the furniture, there are more than 1000 pieces made in Italy, France and Germany, especially the dressers, cabinets, armchairs, thrones or trunks, from periods that vary between the 15th and 19th centuries, many of them originals from the Winter Palace, and others requisitioned from the city's palaces. The museum also contains a collection of tapestries that covers five centuries, from the XV to the XX. In addition, it has a collection of more than 6,000 costumes, especially ecclesiastical dresses, and more than 1,500 pieces of lace. The jewelry collection is quite extensive, including necklaces and earrings, perfume bottles, watches, tiaras, bracelets, rings, and art nouveau objects.

Arsenal

Includes 15,000 pieces of weapons and armor from Western Europe and Russia, from the Middle Ages to the 20th century. The collection of Russian arms and armor comes from the personal collection of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia. Those from Western Europe come from countries like Spain, France, Germany or the United Kingdom. It also has an extensive collection of oriental weapons, from Iran, India or Turkey. Among the weapons, you can find firearms, swords, spears, shields, knives, and a long etcetera.

Oriental art

The museum contains more than 190,000 objects from the Orient, from Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, Iran, India and Turkey. The objects are very varied. It has an extensive collection of petroglyphs and Mesopotamian tablets, from the Third millennium BC. It has objects from all periods of Ancient Egypt, such as stelae, sculptures, vessels, papyri, reliefs or jewels. It contains 120,000 objects from the Byzantine Empire, the second largest collection in the world, which includes all kinds of iconography, coins, mosaics, vessels, diptychs and triptychs. It contains a collection of objects from the Sassanid Empire, in Iran, with a large number of complete silverware, coins and precious stones that were found set in rings. In total, more than 1000 objects.

In addition, it contains a large number of works of Islamic art from between the 7th and 19th centuries from countries such as Egypt, Syria, Turkey and Iran. For example, it has 700 bronze pieces, 500 ceramics and 450 paintings from Iran; pottery, glassware, and bronze and silver objects from Egypt; silver plates and crystal objects from Syria; and carpets and silks and velvets or tableware from Türkiye.

From India, it has a collection of sculptures from the II to the XII, paintings, bronze and ivory objects, and different fabrics, especially silk. It has artifacts from China ranging from the 2nd millennium BC to the 19th century BC AD, including some 5,000 pieces., among porcelain, paintings, works in semiprecious stones, silver, wood or fabrics. In addition, there are 8,000 pieces from Japan, mainly various enamels, sculptures, porcelain, costumes and fabrics, and more than 1,000 Netsukes.

In addition, its oriental jewelry collection contains more than 3,000 objects, including all kinds of gold or silver jewelry, from rings to anklets, encrusted with precious stones, such as diamonds, emeralds or rubies, or semi precious stones. Its collection of Indian jewelry from the XVII century is unique in the world.

Russian culture

The collection of pieces of Russian culture includes more than 350,000 objects, from the X to the XX. There are all kinds of objects. There are religious images and objects from all periods, such as crosses, reliquaries, chalices, or books. There is also a large collection of medieval paintings and pottery from this era. Pictures, sculptures, more than 300 costumes, ornaments, books or maps that belonged to Pedro I of Russia. There are also personal objects, paintings, sculptures, porcelain, tableware, furniture, costumes, jewelry and a long etcetera from the time of the reign of Anna Ivanovna and Elizabeth Petrovna. There is also a huge amount of paintings, sculptures, tableware, furniture, porcelain, jewelry and costumes from the time of Catherine II of Russia. You can find all kinds of objects and works of art from the time of Alexander I until the end of the time of the tsars, with Nicholas II.

Numismatics

It is the museum's largest collection, and one of the most important collections in the world. The coins cover all eras, from Antiquity to the 20th century and from many different geographical areas. It contains a collection of 64,000 Greek coins, out of a total of 120,000 from Antiquity, including Rome, or Egypt. It has 360,000 coins from Western Europe, mostly from the 17th and 18th centuries, 220,000 from the Middle and Far East, and 300,000 from Russia. In addition, it has a badge and medal collection of more than 80,000 items and 2,000 stamps.

The Hermitage architectural complex on the banks of the Neva River, from left to right the Hermitage Theatre, the arch on the Winter Channel, the Grand Hermitage, the Small Hermitage and the Winter Palace.

Directors of the Hermitage