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State Hermitage Museum, located on in, along the Neva embankment, is one of the world's largest art and cultural-historical museums, annually receiving hundreds of thousands of guests from different countries. This unique museum complex includes several buildings, including the famous Winter Palace. In total, there are about three million works of art and monuments of world culture, the oldest of which date back to stone age. The greatest masterpieces of past eras, brought here from different parts of the world, daily bring a lot of pleasure to connoisseurs of beauty, who look with interest at paintings, sculptures and other museum historical values.

The history of the emergence of the Hermitage dates back to 1764, when Empress Catherine II opened her own private collection of works of art based on paintings transferred to her from Berlin as a repayment of indemnity after the Seven Years' War. Over time, the collection increased, being housed in secluded apartments of the palace, later called the Hermitage. The museum was opened to the general public in 1852 and even then its attendance exceeded 50 thousand people a year. In the 19th century, works by Russian painters began to arrive here regularly, and purchases from domestic collectors and gifts from true lovers of beauty were important sources of funds replenishment.

Today the Hermitage boasts a significant number of paintings belonging to world masterpieces, including works by Leonardo da Vinci, Correggio, Rembrandt, Dürer, Pierro della Francesca, Ducci, Giotto and other brilliant masters. Many unique paintings were irretrievably lost in the late 20s and early 30s of the last century, when the Soviet government considered it necessary to arrange a sale cultural heritage in order to obtain foreign currency for carrying out the industrialization process in the country. In addition to world art, the museum halls exhibit collections of numismatics and ancient antiquities, including Greek gold items and fabrics, wooden sarcophagi, monuments and sculptures. Much attention is paid to the Middle Ages, including the cold and firearms, knightly armor, models of historical buildings.

In total, the museum complex includes 5 buildings: the Winter Palace, the Small, Large and New Hermitages, as well as the Hermitage Theater, designed by the architect Quarenghi. The main entrance is on the side Palace Square. In summer and on weekends, the number of visitors increases dramatically, so in order not to queue for tickets, it is better to approach the opening itself. Citizens of Russia are advised to have a passport with them in order not to pay for a ticket at the same rate as foreigners. Photo and video shooting are made for an additional fee.

The Hermitage arose as a private collection of Empress Catherine II, but over time, when the number of masterpieces increased, it became a museum in the full sense of the word. Portal "ZagraNitsa" remembered 10 significant exhibits that are worth seeing while walking through the halls famous museum

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Mummy

Petersburg is the world record holder for the number of mummified corpses. So, the most famous mummy is the body of the ancient Egyptian priest Pa-di-ista. This exhibit is located in the Egyptian Hall, under a case made of special glass, since air should not be allowed to enter under the dome.

A legend is connected with the mummy: one of the caretakers of the hall told that a few days before the new moon, in the spring of 2004, a muscle began to twitch on the left shoulder of Pa-di-ista. A couple of days later, a growth the size of a walnut appeared in that place, which began to “move” up and down the arm. A week later, everything stopped - the tumor disappeared by itself. True or false - you decide.

Pa di east is not the only mummified dead in the Hermitage. In total, at least five of them are stored in the storerooms.

Photo: asergeev.com 2

"Madonna Benois"

This beautiful painting belongs to early work Leonardo da Vinci: it was painted in the 1460s-1470s. Despite many guesses and legends about the origin of the Madonna with a Flower, the story of how she got to Russia is simple: Maria Benois, nee Sapozhnikova, inherited the painting from her father.

This work became one of the key works of the master and a model for the painters of that time: da Vinci painted a masterpiece with oil paints - and other artists began to use them following his example.

Photo: hellopiter.ru

"Madonna Litta"

Next to the Benois Madonna, the Hermitage houses the Litta Madonna, which the museum bought in the 1860s from the Italian Litta family. It is believed that the author of the painting is also Leonardo da Vinci: the museum has a sketch of a female head. But some art historians doubt the authorship of the great artist. There is an assumption that one of his students painted part of the picture.

Photo: rukodelie.devichnik.ru 4

Watch "Peacock"

This amazingly beautiful mechanical contraption was invented by James Cox and Friedrich Urey. It came to Russia thanks to Potemkin: he bought the watch as a gift to Catherine II. Unfortunately, the empress's favorite never found out if she liked the gift, as he died before the watch was delivered.

At first, the clock was exhibited in the Tauride Palace, and then moved to the Winter Palace, where it is still kept. The famous Kulibin repaired them twice (some of the parts were damaged during transportation). But in general unique watch have survived to this day unchanged: this is the only known large mechanical device of the 18th century that has not yet failed.

Photo: dic.academic.ru 5

"Danae" by Rembrandt

Rembrandt painted the picture from two women at once: the first prototype of the heroine was his wife, Saskia van Uylenbürch, and the second was the mistress Gertier Dirks, with whom the artist contacted after the death of his wife. The picture depicts that moment. ancient Greek myth when Zeus made his way to Danae in the form of golden rain.

In Russia, "Danae" came in 1772, when Catherine II bought her. Two hundred years later, the most famous act of museum vandalism happened to this painting: the Lithuanian Bronyus Maigis doused it with sulfuric acid and damaged it twice with a knife. As Maygis admitted later, this action was completely politically motivated.

Despite the fact that 27% of the canvas was damaged, the painting was completely restored. Since 1997, it has been in the hall of painting of Holland and Flanders, under armored glass.

Photo: muzei-mira.com 6

The Return of the Prodigal Son by Rembrandt

The artist worked on this work for a very long time: the first sketches appeared in the 1630-1640s, and it was ready only by 1660. But such colossal efforts were worth it, because the picture became one of the most famous in the work of the master.

Photo: hermitageline.ru 7

"Lady in Blue" Gainsborough

It is believed that the author painted a portrait of Elizabeth Beaufort, daughter of Admiral Boscawen. The work has become the artist's business card, it is rightfully called one of the best portraits of the Baroque era: sophisticated beauty, soft transitions of halftones, grace and grace - all this is present in the picture. It came to the Hermitage from the Jägermeister Khitrovo in 1912. On the this moment this is the only work of Gainsborough in Russian museums.

Photo: hermitagemuseum.org 8

"Dance" by Matisse

Sergei Shchukin, who ordered this painting for his Moscow mansion, was for a long time called a “collector of all sorts of rubbish” and a person who was not versed in art. The author himself - Henri Matisse - was also not spared by the public and critics. Now "Dance" is considered one of the greatest works modernism.

Photo: lenta.ru 9

"Eternal Spring" Rodin

The sculpture was part of the "Gates of Hell" composition and for a long time was located at the main doors of the French Museum of Decorative and Applied Arts. Rodin decided to repeat part of his work, doing it in the same style. Part of the marble block for the sculpture was deliberately left untreated by the author in order to make the composition more natural.

Photo: wikipedia.org

"Composition VI" by Kandinsky

One of the main Russian avant-garde artists of the early 20th century, whose canvases hang in best museums of the world are exhibited in the Winter Palace, emphasizing its significance for the history of world modernism. There is a whole hall in the Hermitage, dedicated to creativity Kandinsky. The main canvas is "Composition VI": bright, painted in sweeping strokes, perfectly reflecting the turbulent beginning of the 20th century.

Photo: tsargrad.tv

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State Hermitage- the pride of Russia, the country's largest cultural and historical museum, occupying 6 historical buildings, chief among which is the majestic Winter Palace . Today, the Hermitage has collected almost 3 million exhibits: paintings, drawings, sculptures, objects of applied art, a collection of numismatics and archaeological sites.

And the Hermitage began in 1764 as a private collection of Catherine the Great, who bought a collection of 220 paintings and placed them in remote apartments of the palace, called the Hermitage, which means “place of solitude” in French. The museum opened for visitors in 1852, and even then it accumulated the richest collections of works of art. Today, guests of the Hermitage can admire such masterpieces as Madonna and Child (Benois Madonna) by Leonardo da Vinci, Saint Sebastian by Titian, Holy Family by Raphael, Return of the Prodigal Son by Rembrandt, Apostles Peter and Paul by El Greco. A visit to the Hermitage is, of course, an obligatory item on the program of a visit to St. Petersburg.

Main Ensemble of the Hermitage

Opening hours: Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday - from 10:30 to 18:00, Wednesday, Friday - from 10:30 to 21:00, day off - Monday.

How to get there: by metro to st. "Admiralteyskaya", "Nevsky Prospekt", "Gostiny Dvor".

The ticket price for adults to the Main Complex and all other branches is 700 RUB, to one of the branches - 300 RUB. For children, students, pensioners of the Russian Federation admission is free. On December 7 and the first Thursday of each month, admission is free for everyone. Prices on the page are for October 2018.

The largest in Russia and one of the world's largest art and cultural-historical museums first appeared in 1764 as a private collection of Catherine II. The museum was opened to the public in 1852 in the building of the New Hermitage specially built for this purpose. Today, the main exhibition part occupies five buildings located along the Neva embankment.

The beginning of the story

The history of the State Hermitage collection officially begins with the reign of Catherine II. But her great predecessor, Peter I, also contributed. During his reign, many exhibits appeared in the private imperial collection, which are now in the Hermitage. For example, the famous Scythian gold» - precious jewelry in the form of animals stored in the Golden Storeroom. They were bought by Prince Gagarin for the Siberian collection of Peter.

Until the Catherine era, there were almost no additions to the imperial collection, or they happened by chance. A striking example is the collection of "Mughal gold". In the middle of the 18th century, the Shah of Iran conquered the Mughal Empire, which was located on the territory of India. With the embassy, ​​he sent Tsarina Anna Ioannovna gold jewelry and other jewelry, literally showered with diamonds, rubies, sapphires. They were brought to Petersburg on elephants. However, the gifts were already received by Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, who ascended the throne as a result of a palace coup. Elephants have been disturbing the inhabitants of St. Petersburg for a long time, periodically escaping from enclosures. And the gifts were accepted and safely forgotten; they were transferred to the Hermitage collection after the revolution. At the end of the 20th century, it turned out that there were almost no Mughal treasures left in Iran, and the most big collection jewels of their era is located in Russia.

Hermitage in tsarist times

One of the most important periods in the history of the museum is undoubtedly associated with the name of Catherine II, who is rightfully called its founder. To the Winter Palace, on her instructions, an extension was made, which was called the Hermitage. Here they gave dinners for the circle of close associates. The guests discussed politics and art. In this part of the palace there was a special set of rules, such as: “leave all ranks outside the doors”, “argue without vehemence”, etc. private collection painting of Catherine II, it began with the acquisition of the collection of the merchant I. E. Gotskovsky, which included works by Dutch artists. During the reign of Catherine II, the collection was replenished with paintings by Titian, Rubens, Raphael and other great masters, the only sculpture in Russia by Michelangelo "Crouching Boy" was bought. Throughout Europe, the Empress's emissaries purchased dozens and even hundreds of paintings for her, often simply buying up already formed collections. In addition to many paintings, the Hermitage now has more than 10,000 coins and medals, more than 10,000 drawings, countless engravings, stones and books.

Paul I, alien to the views of his mother and having a strong dislike for her, nevertheless, continued to collect art, mainly Italian. However, he ordered to put the letter "P" on all the paintings in the collection. Thus, scientists were able to determine exactly which canvases arrived at the Hermitage before early XIX century.

The reform carried out by Count Dmitry Buturlin is connected with the reign of Alexander I. The collection was divided into several parts, with each of them a custodian appeared. In the era of Alexander I, the Hermitage collection was replenished with Spanish and English paintings. But the most valuable acquisitions are associated with the central episode of his reign - the war of 1812. Like many representatives French nobility, Countess Beauharnais, the former wife of Napoleon Bonaparte, was concerned about maintaining privileges after the victory of the Russian army. She decided to make a gift to Alexander I, who refused to accept it for a long time, but Josephine insisted. Thus, the famous “Gonzaga Cameo” ended up in the Hermitage collection.

Nicholas I, keen on military affairs, left behind 600 paintings depicting battle scenes. During his reign, in 1826, the famous Military Gallery of 1812 was created. The emperor himself was fond of painting and often allowed himself to inscribe images of soldiers on the canvases of masters of battle painting. Under him, some exhibits from the collection were given away or destroyed. However, thanks to him, the New Hermitage appeared, the ensemble of existing buildings was reconstructed.

And in 1852, the museum was first opened to visitors under the name "Imperial Hermitage". For the next half century, his collection was replenished with varying degrees of intensity. One of the famous acquisitions of that time was the Benois Madonna by Leonardo da Vinci, bought in 1914.

The Hermitage in the 20th century

The history of the Hermitage in the 20th century is more reminiscent of an action-packed detective story, among the heroes of which are museum staff, the Soviet authorities and Russian army. During the revolutionary period, the Hermitage collection surprisingly did not suffer. Serious leaks from it began in the first years of Soviet power.

First, in the 1920s, the collections of the museums of the Union republics were replenished at the expense of the royal collection. The Hermitage partially compensated for these losses with proceeds from nationalized private collections. But in general, the pre-war years of its history will pass under the auspices of maneuvering between the strict requirements of the authorities to open storerooms in order to sell exhibits to the west, and the sincere desire of employees to preserve the most valuable. However, Titian’s Venus in front of a Mirror, Raphael’s Saint George and Alba Madonna, Tiepolo’s Feast of Cleopatra and many other masterpieces of French and Italian painting. The confrontation between the Soviet agency Antikvariat, which was engaged in the sale of valuables, and the employees of the Hermitage vividly illustrates the episode with the department of the East, which was headed by Joseph Orbeli. A commission from the Antikvariat agency came to the Hermitage to collect Sasanian silver for sale. Its representatives could not get inside. It is said that Orbeli threatened to swallow the key and bury the collection of the Oriental Department for a long time behind the heavy doors of the museum. A scandal erupted. Director of the Hermitage Boris Legrand and Joseph Orbeli went on a gamble. They wrote a letter to Stalin, who eventually supported them. The letter from the leader became the defense of the museum. All attempts by "Antiques" to confiscate a thing, not even related to the Department of the East, did not lead to anything. Any exhibit that was planned to be withdrawn unexpectedly ended up in storage in the East Department.

Thanks to the employees of the Hermitage, during the periods of the largest “sales” from the Hermitage collection, it lost a minimum number of the most valuable exhibits. But the price for this was very high. Over the years, more than fifty museum employees were repressed.

During the Great Patriotic War the collection was evacuated to the Urals, but the museum buildings were significantly damaged. The list of building materials needed for restoration testifies to the damage that was done to them. It included 100 tons of cement, more than 60 tons of gypsum, 30 kilometers of fabrics and more.

After the end of the war, work in the Hermitage began with a vengeance. The museum had to accept trophy works of art, taken out in huge quantities from Germany. As you know, Hitler was going to open a museum, collecting all the best that he managed to capture in Europe. At the time of the capture of Berlin by Soviet troops, the museum was preparing to open. Quite by accident, its future director was captured, who told about the location of the storerooms. Works of art were exported from Germany by wagons.

Pearls of the European collection

Diptych by Robert Campin, Benois Madonna by Leonardo da Vinci, Judith by Giorgione, Female portrait» Correggio, «St. Sebastian Titian", Caravaggio's "Lute Player", Rembrandt's "The Return of the Prodigal Son", "Lady in Blue Gainsborough".

Over the following years, something returned to European collections. But much remains on the territory of Russia to this day. Today, the Hermitage exhibits trophy paintings by Manet, Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec and others. However, it is likely that the contents of some of the reserves are still not known to either the general public or the scientific community. Disputes around trophy works are still ongoing.

Today the Hermitage is also a major research center.

The complex of buildings of the Hermitage Museum

Winter Palace

The residence of Russian emperors, designed by Bartolomeo Rastrelli. Work on its construction began in the era of the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna and completed under Peter III in 1762.

Small Hermitage

Castle. Built under Catherine II by Yu. M. Felten and J. B. Vallin-Delamot.

Big Hermitage

The palace, built by Yu. M. Felten in 1787 to store the replenished collection of Catherine II.

Hermitage Theater

It was built by the decree of Catherine II by the architect Giacomo Quarnegi for performances and masquerades.

New Hermitage

The building was built under Nicholas I by the architect Leo von Klenze specifically to demonstrate the exhibits of the imperial collection.

Per last years in famous museums world appeared special exhibition halls associated with the Hermitage. Its new branches were opened: the Museum of Porcelain and the Museum of the Guards in the building of the General Staff.

To retell the entire history of the Hermitage is like recounting the history of Russia, this museum is such an important phenomenon in the life of the country. Being directly connected with many events in Russian history, the Hermitage has always remained home. No matter what happens, there is always someone living here. And everyone left behind something of their own.

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Someone calculated that it would take eight years to walk around the entire Hermitage, devoting just 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 theatre.

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 begins with the Jordan Staircase, or, as it is also commonly called, the Ambassador Staircase (it was along 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 perfectly 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 suggests that the swans were related to the wagon in which they were supposed to take the souls of the dead to the afterlife (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 talk 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 digress a bit by switching to a small room of French art of the 15th-17th centuries, where the ceramics of Saint-Porcher and Bernard Palissy are displayed. 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 on the molds with metal matrices (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 Oriental countries. In several exhibition halls Far East and Central Asia” placed partly lost, partly restored with the help of computer technology wall frescoes dating back hundreds of years. 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, some of the frescoes from the collection were moved to the Staraya Derevnya conservation and storage center, 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 of the 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, visited Moscow contemporary art, for which 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, 3rd 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 along the gallery with applied arts Medieval left. 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 of paintings located 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. In the Hermitage there are two paintings of his indisputable authorship - Benois Madonna and Litta Madonna. And this is a huge treasure! An outstanding artist, humanist, inventor, architect, scientist, writer, in a word, a genius - Leonardo da Vinci is the cornerstone of all art of the European Renaissance. It was he who started the tradition 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

Main staircase The New Hermitage rises from the historical 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 pass by this hall, The Prodigal Son is one of the last and most famous paintings Rembrandt is marked 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 you can only see it well with your head up, or a little from afar - from the site 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 with "Danae" by Titian - 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 true 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.