The Hermitage is the main museum in Russia and one of the largest in the world. State Hermitage(1)history

The most important museum in Russia - the Hermitage - is over 250 years old. This is the largest museum in our country. We have collected the most Interesting Facts which are probably unknown to many.

Once even Pushkin could not get into the Hermitage

The Hermitage appeared as a private collection of Catherine the Great: the Empress acquired a collection of 317 valuable paintings for 183 thousand thalers. The canvases were placed in the secluded halls of the palace, by the way, hence the name: from the French "hermitage" means a place of solitude, a hermit's shelter. This collection was gradually replenished with new copies, but not everyone could visit the halls. So, Alexander Pushkin managed to see the collection only after the requests of Vasily Zhukovsky, whose influence at court was quite strong.

The Hermitage was opened for visitors by Nicholas I in 1852, and by 1880 the museum was visited annually by 50,000 people. The emperor himself liked to walk around the museum all alone: ​​at that moment it was forbidden to contact him on domestic issues.

Cats work in the Hermitage

For the first time, cats appeared in the Winter Palace under Elizabeth Petrovna: she issued a "Decree on the deportation of cats to the court." This happened after the palace began to be attacked by rats that spoiled the walls. Well, Catherine II gave animals an official status - “guards art galleries».

Today, about 70 cats live in the museum, and they are often referred to as "freelancers". They have their own passport, and they can walk everywhere except exhibition halls. And cats are a real legend of the museum, they are sent gifts, films are made about them (as the Hermitage workers joke, more often than about Rembrandt) and articles are written. And the American Mary Ann Ellin, who visited the museum with her granddaughter, even wrote a children's book dedicated to the Hermitage cats.

There are unknown masterpieces in the Hermitage

The Hermitage often presents to the public previously unknown works by artists. And sometimes they are so unknown that even the employees themselves do not know about their presence within the walls of the museum. So, in the 1960s, the picture Dutch artist quite by accident found a Dutch art critic. Museum staff invited him to drink tea in the back room, and under the cupboard he saw a leaf. When they got the find, it turned out to be the painting “Bacchus, Ceres, Venus and Cupid”, written by Hendrik Goltzius. And the canvas was acquired by Catherine II back in 1772. The painting was sent for restoration, after which it took its place of honor in the exposition. They say that now every museum employee dreams of finding a masterpiece and carefully examines all corners of the Hermitage.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Hermitage had a collection of cars

Few people know, but Nicholas II collected cars. He bought his first car in 1905, and six years later there were about 50 brands. For this, a special garage was built between the Winter Palace and the Small Hermitage.

There were Mercedes, Delaunay-Belleville, Rolls-Royce, Brasier, Peugeot, Renault cars, as well as Russian Russo-Balt and Lessner cars. The garage had everything you needed: a car wash, a gas station, and even a whole steam heating system (to avoid corrosion). Unfortunately, the Bolsheviks also liked cars, and when the Hermitage was plundered in 1917, the entire collection of Nicholas II disappeared without a trace.

Ghosts seen in the Hermitage

Mystic stories about the Hermitage, its ghosts and revived exhibits - this is a whole layer of the mythology of St. Petersburg, deserving a separate story. But the most famous of them is the legend of Peter I. They say that wax figure the emperor gets up, bows to the visitors and points to the door. By the way, the doll really has hinges that allow you to put it in a chair or put it, apparently, from here the legs of the legend grow.

But there are even scarier stories: for example, about the Egyptian goddess Sekhmet with a lion's head. Her sculpture stands in the hall ancient egypt. According to myths, the goddess of war and the scorching sun Sekhmet was very bloodthirsty. It is said that sometimes on a full moon, a pool of blood appears on the lap of the sculpture, which later disappears.

It takes 11 years to see all the exhibits of the Hermitage

The Hermitage is not only one of the most popular museums in Russia, but also in the world. Every year it is visited by more than 5 million people, and the number of exhibits has long exceeded three million. The collections are housed in five buildings, and it takes 24 kilometers to even walk past all the exhibits. Well, if you stand near each work of art for at least a minute, then it will take 11 years. And this is provided that you need to spend in the museum every day for 8-10 hours.

There are 293 days left before the official celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Hermitage, but you can start celebrating the anniversary of the largest museum in the country and the main cultural symbol of St. Petersburg today - on the unofficial birthday of the museum. It was on February 17, 1852 (162 years ago) that the Hermitage became a real "public museum" - on this day its doors were opened to everyone for the first time. Prior to that, for 88 years, he remained a private collection royal family, and all the paintings and sculptures were securely hidden from prying eyes.

The best way to congratulate your favorite museum with significant date- walk through its halls. For the anniversary of the Hermitage, the editors of the site have collected the most interesting exhibits and divided them into three programs for independent excursions: for an hour, for three hours and for the whole day.

Express: Hermitage in an hour

It is impossible to go around all the halls of the modern Hermitage in an hour, even if you run without looking around and without stopping at the paintings and sculptures. However, sometimes museum visitors set themselves such a task - most often they are guests northern capital who need to go to Peterhof in a couple of days, and visit the theater, and ride a boat along the Neva.

Having limited yourself to one hour, you will have to deny yourself the pleasure of a leisurely walk. To make it easier to navigate the corridors and halls, you can download the official application of the museum to your smartphone - so you can move freely without a tour group.

If you have very little time, it is best to choose a few of the most striking exhibits and get the best route using one of the information and reference kiosks - the machine will choose the shortest path between the selected points and give you a printed map with text navigation. Here are the most popular exhibits of the museum.

"Madonna Litta"

"Madonna Litta" is a picture that tourists from all over the world come to see. Photo: www.russianlook.com

One of two paintings by Leonardo da Vinci in the Hermitage. Exhibited in the da Vinci room on the second floor. "Madonna and Child (Madonna Litta)" was written in 1490-1491 in Milan. One of the masterpieces of the Renaissance. The painting came to the Hermitage in 1865 from the collection of Duke Antonio Litta in Milan. Preparatory drawing to the Hermitage canvas is stored in the Louvre.

"Madonna Benois"

The Benois Madonna is also known as the Madonna of the Flower. Photo: www.russianlook.com

The second masterpiece of Leonardo in the Hermitage collection. The painting “Madonna with a Flower” entered the collection from the Benois family, which is why its common name is connected. Written in 1478, it became one of the young da Vinci's first independent works. In one of the neighboring rooms you can admire the famous "Danaë" by Titian.

"Return prodigal son»

Rembrandt often used biblical and mythological stories. Photo: www.russianlook.com

The painting is kept in the Rembrandt Room along with 23 other paintings by the great Dutch master. The canvas dates from 1668-1669 and tells about the gospel parable. The artist used this plot more than once, and painted the Hermitage painting shortly before his death. Also in this room on the second floor of the Winter Palace you can see his other paintings: Flora (1634), Danae (1636), Abraham's Sacrifice (1635) and Descent from the Cross (1634).

"Bacchus"

"Bacchus" is one of the paintings, thanks to which the expression "Rubensian forms" appeared. Photo: Creative Commons

The masters of Flanders coexist with the Dutch painter, and one of the most famous is Peter Paul Rubens. The Hermitage collection contains 22 paintings and 19 sketches made by the artist. The familiar "Bacchus" dates from 1638-1640 and entered the museum in 1772 from the collection of Pierre Crozat in Paris. With "Bacchus" nearby, you will see the paintings "Union of Earth and Water" (1618), "Perseus and Andromeda" (early 1620s) and "Stone Carriers" (circa 1620).

Three hours and three million

There is another option - to choose the most interesting collection and focus on it. As a rule, after the da Vinci and Rembrandt halls, the most interested people are at the entrance to the Hermitage Treasure Gallery. True, you can get there only with an excursion group.

The Jewels Gallery was named so during the reign of Catherine the Great. It consists of the Gold and Diamond pantries.

Golden Pantry includes about one and a half thousand gold objects from Eurasia, the Ancient Black Sea region and the East, made from the 7th century BC. BC. by the 19th century AD Here are the most interesting ones:

Shield plaque in the form of a deer figure (circa 600 BC)

Animal motifs are characteristic of Scythian art. Photo credit: creaitve commons / sailko

Belongs to the collection "Gold of the Scythians". Found in the village of Kostroma during excavations of the Kostroma barrow. The collection is based on finds from the mounds of the Kuban region, the Dnieper region, and the Crimea. Another pearl of the collection, included in all history textbooks, is a golden comb with the image of fighting warriors (late 5th - early 4th centuries BC), found in the Solokha mound in the Dnieper region.

Also in the "Golden Pantry" you can see the masterpieces of the Hunnic jewelry art of the times of the Great Migration of Peoples (decorations of clothes and headdress, decoration of horse equipment), luxurious utensils, vessels, weapons of the East.

The second part of the gallery - "Diamond Pantry" - is dedicated to the development of jewelry. Here are jewelry from Byzantium, Kievan Rus and medieval Europe created with III millennium BC. until the beginning of the 20th century. In particular, items created by European jewelers in the 16th-17th centuries and 18th-19th centuries, and, finally, the work of St. Petersburg jewelers - items from the everyday life of the imperial family. The collection of the pantry contains monuments of church art, diplomatic gifts to the Russian court, products of the legendary firm of Carl Faberge.

Bouquet of flowers (1740), master Jeremiah Pozier. Jasper, agate, tiger's eye, flint, almadine, beryl, turquoise, coral, opal, corundum, aquamarine, topaz, amethyst, diamonds, diamonds, brilliants, rubies, sapphires, emeralds. Mentioned among the things of Catherine II.

A precious bouquet was pinned to a corset. Photo credit: Creative commons / shakko

Day in the Winter

Spending the whole day in the Hermitage is a fairly common practice among tourists traveling outside the group and ready to freely manage their time. Petersburgers are less likely to be so generous with their time, but the 250th anniversary of a great museum can be an additional incentive to dedicate a whole day to your favorite works of art.

You can start from the first floor - Egyptian gods, sarcophagi and vases, the history of the Ancient World and the mummy of a Scythian leader are waiting for you there.

The Egyptian Hall is one of the schoolchildren's favorite places on excursions. Photo: Creative commons / Thomas Ault

Then you can climb the Jordan Stairs to the Field Marshal's Hall and turn into the Romanovs' portrait gallery. Next - the Malachite Hall, the library of Nicholas II and the exposition "Russian interior of the XIX - early XX centuries."

In the southeastern part of the second floor, after examining the White Hall, you can go upstairs to see the works of Western European artists of the 19th-20th centuries and separately - about 250 canvases french impressionists. Here you will find seven paintings by Claude Monet - from "Lady in the Garden" (1867) to "Waterloo Bridge" (1903), two Parisian views of Pissarro, three landscapes by Sisley, pastels by Degas. Here - Cezanne and Gauguin, Van Gogh and 37 paintings by Henri Matisse, including "Dance" and "Music" (both 1910). Nearby - 31 paintings by Picasso, from the early "Absinthe Drinker" (1901) to "Woman with a Fan" (1908).

The Hermitage presents 37 paintings by Henri Matisse. Photo: Creative Commons

After that, you can again go down to the second floor and walk through the royal halls for ceremonial receptions - the Armorial Hall, the 1812 Gallery and the St. George's Hall. Then you can visit the Small Hermitage and at the end of the day, when the flow of visitors from the most popular halls subsides, reach the legendary Titian, da Vinci, Raphael and Rembrandt. In parting, you can go down to the halls of Greek and Roman art.

The Hermitage was robbed of its own: museum "werewolves" carried away works of art worth more than 130 million rubles

Sergey Andreev
Photo by Zamir Usmanov, Andrey Kulgun

The buzzword "werewolf" took on another meaning last week. The grandiose theft of 221 exhibits from the funds of the main museum of the country is blamed not on criminals from the street, but on the museum employees themselves. The director of the Hermitage, Mikhail Piotrovsky, stunned by the incident, said that the principle of “the presumption of innocence of museum employees” no longer applies. If earlier it was believed that a museum worker under no circumstances could harm his own repository, now the opposite is being asserted. Almost all the missing exhibits are monuments of jewelry and icon art of the 15th-19th centuries. In the hands of thieves were 107 icons, 10 reliquary crosses, 8 silver chalices, Easter eggs workshop of Carl Faberge, silverware, desktop figurines of animals made of precious materials, cigarette cases made of silver and gold, watches studded precious stones, photo frames, a powder box that belonged to one of the Russian empresses, and her mirror in a silver frame.

The ill-fated vault has already been repeatedly examined by high-ranking officials of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate of St. Petersburg, including representatives of the ninth, so-called "antique" department, as well as specialists from Moscow. So far, neither one nor the other has been able to achieve any results. Alexander Khozhainov, head of the Hermitage museum security service, said that the main goal of the search group was to try to at least accurately determine the date of the theft. Most of missing exhibits were exhibited extremely rarely. For example, some of the missing items in last time exhibited in 2000. At the same time, among the stolen rarities there are those that the Hermitage employees saw and held in their hands 30 or more years ago. Neither Khozhainov nor Mikhail Piotrovsky rule out that the items could have been stolen more than once. The crime could drag on for decades.

But that's not all that is striking in this story. It turns out that the museum workers themselves learned that the most valuable exhibits had gone to no one knows where else ... last autumn. The custodian responsible for the missing exhibits died at the workplace. Both the employees of the Hermitage press service and the head of the museum security service refused to give the name of the deceased curator, referring to the secrecy of the investigation. Find it out and find out what's on this moment the deceased is the main suspect in the theft, managed only by police officers who wished to remain incognito.

In total, 46-year-old Larisa Alekseevna Zavadskaya worked in the Hermitage for about 30 years. For the last 15 years, she has been a senior researcher at the Department of the History of Russian Culture - the custodian of the jewelry fund. She also collaborated with the FSB for a long time. In mid-October last year, Zavadskaya, the person who was the last to hold the missing exhibits in her hands and personally cataloged them, died right at her workplace. At the end of the day, Larisa Alekseevna began to get ready to go home, called her husband, and said that she was leaving in 15 minutes. Then the woman sat down at the computer and after a few moments buried herself in the keyboard. According to the paramedics, she died instantly. official reason death - a blood clot in the heart.

By a strange coincidence, it was during these October days that the issue of transferring the exhibits of the Russian department of the Hermitage to other, younger curators was decided. If the museum management had no complaints about Larisa Zavadskaya, then the age of her partner (76 years old) was embarrassing. Then it turned out that some items in the collection are missing. The scale of the loss became known only after the death of Larisa Zavadskaya, but even here the museum management was in no hurry to sound the alarm. “The fact that an exhibit is not on the shelf does not mean that it has disappeared,” Mikhail Piotrovsky explained to reporters. - A unit of storage can end up in another fund, because we have more than three million exhibits, to restorers or to a photo lab. Only at the end of the total inventory did we draw up an appropriate act and report where to go.” Only three people, including the late Zavadskaya, had access to the funds where the missing exhibits were kept.

“This is a stab in the back of the Hermitage and the entire museum community,” laments Mikhail Piotrovsky. “And evidence of the deep imperfection of the storage system, built on the presumption of innocence of museum workers.”

The maximum salary of a museum curator is 15,000 rubles. Any of the employees who hardly fit even into the concept of the “middle class” could provide for themselves, and at the same time for their grandchildren, a comfortable old age by pocketing any, even the smallest little thing. It will not be difficult to take it out of the Hermitage. Museum employees are not only not searched, but they are not even forced to pass through a metal detector frame.

The grandiose theft came as a shock to everyone, the museum management thought about new means of ensuring security, up to applying isotope labels to the exhibits. Law enforcement officers are struggling with the question of where the rarities could have gone. Versions are varied - from export abroad (the list and photos of the stolen valuables were transferred to Interpol) to the one according to which all the things were hidden by a thief in the Hermitage itself and will be taken out after the noise subsides.

The problem of embezzlement from the funds of the museum is complex and multifaceted. Only high-profile cases become public knowledge: in 2001, in the same Hermitage, thieves who have not been found so far in the middle of the day were cut out of the frame and carried away the painting “Pool in the Harem” by Jean Leon Gerome. You can steal from the storerooms of the museum with almost impunity. Curious in this respect is the history of the inspection of the Hermitage by the Accounts Chamber in March 2000. The auditors demanded that the museum workers present 50 exhibits, according to the documents stored in the funds. The list was compiled randomly. The commissions were able to demonstrate only 3 exhibits, 19 more were found after the end of the check. Where the rest went, no one could tell. The same check revealed that in 2000, 220 thousand exhibits were not assigned to financially responsible persons at all. And 200 units of storage were listed for laid-off or deceased employees.

P.S. Last week, two exhibits from the stolen collection were found. The discovery of the icon "Cathedral of All Saints" by the Central Internal Affairs Directorate of St. Petersburg reported dryly: the image was found in a garbage can near the house 21 on Ryleeva Street. Anonymous allegedly informed about this by "02". unofficial version is as follows: as soon as the list of the missing was announced, a collector with the "Cathedral of All Saints" in his hands appeared in the "antique" department of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate (by a strange coincidence, it is next to the house 21 on Ryleeva Street). The Petersburger said that he had purchased the icon from a private person as early as 2001. The second exhibit - a church bowl - was found last Friday in Moscow from a well-known antiquarian, who voluntarily handed it over to the authorities.

Dossier "Spark"

The State Hermitage Museum today is more than 3 million exhibits, half of which fall under the category of "especially valuable". Of these, 300 thousand - "Russian collection", 600 thousand - a collection of Western European art, 1500 - a jewelry gallery, over a million - the numismatics department, etc. Taking into account the rejection of the principle of the presumption of innocence of museum employees, almost all persons related to the "Russian" department of the Hermitage are under suspicion. By the way, the department of the history of Russian culture is the youngest department of the museum, it was founded in April 1941. At the moment, it has 34 employees, of which two are doctors of science and 13 are candidates. The exposition developed by the department occupies 50 halls.

Mikhail Piotrovsky is the first major failure of the 61-year-old director of the Hermitage in 14 years of his leadership of the museum. Piotrovsky - doctor historical sciences, the largest orientalist, one of the most favored by Putin cultural figures. Piotrovsky is the chairman of the Presidential Council of Culture, for some time he even headed the board of directors of ORT, the president of the World Club of Petersburgers.

The largest and most significant art and cultural-historical museum of Russia and the world, the State Hermitage is celebrating today the 165th anniversary of its opening to the public.

The history of the museum began in 1764 with a collection of works of art acquired by Empress Catherine II. According to various sources, these are 317 or 225 valuable paintings. Among them were paintings mainly of the Dutch-Flemish school of the first half of the 17th century. Today, at least 96 of them have been preserved in the Hermitage.

This collection was housed in a special palace wing - the Small Hermitage (from the French ermitage - a place of solitude, a cell, a hermit's shelter, seclusion). In 1852, the Imperial Hermitage was formed and opened to the public.

In 1769, a rich collection of about 600 paintings by the Saxon minister Count Brühl was acquired in Dresden for the Hermitage, numbering about 600 paintings, including Titian’s landscape “Flight into Egypt”, views of Dresden and Pirna by Bellotto, etc.

Large and important additions to the collection were in 1772 and 1779. During this period, it became clear that the premises were not enough and the architect Felten was building a building the Great Hermitage. In the posthumous inventory of Catherine's property in 1796, 3996 paintings are listed.

During the reign of Alexander I and Nicholas I, not only collections were purchased, but also individual works artists whose works were not in the Hermitage. Nicholas I realized the idea of ​​turning the Hermitage into a public museum on February 17, 1852.

Before mid-nineteenth For centuries, only a select few could visit the Hermitage. So, A. S. Pushkin was able to get a pass only thanks to the recommendation of V. Zhukovsky, who served as a mentor to the son of the emperor. Then the museum had the richest collections of monuments of ancient Eastern, ancient Egyptian, ancient and medieval cultures, the arts of Western and of Eastern Europe, archaeological and artistic monuments of Asia, Russian culture of the VIII-XIX centuries.

Already by 1880, the attendance of the museum reached 50,000 people a year.

In the 19th century, works by Russian painters began to systematically enter the Hermitage. In 1895, part of the works of Russian artists were transferred to the Russian Museum. The materials of archaeological excavations are transferred to the museum, which significantly enriched its department. By the beginning of the 20th century, the museum already had thousands of paintings, and then new works of art appeared in its collection. So the Hermitage became the center of Russian art history and came new era museum life.

After the fall of imperial power, the Hermitage underwent significant transformations. The museum was significantly enriched by the nationalized private collections and the collection of the Academy of Arts. From the main collection of the Winter Palace, the museum received many interior items, as well as the Mughal treasures presented by Nadir Shah.

As a result of the closure of the Museum of New Western Art in 1948 and another redistribution of cultural heritage between the museums of Leningrad and Moscow, parts of the Moscow collections of Sergei Shchukin and Ivan Morozov joined the Hermitage. Now chronological framework the collections expanded significantly thanks to the works of the Impressionists, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Matisse, Picasso and other artists of the new trends.

Irreparable damage to the collection was caused by sales in 1929-34, as a result of which 48 masterpieces left Russia forever. The Hermitage lost the only work of Van Eyck, the best works of Raphael, Botticelli, Hals and a number of other old masters.

During the Great Patriotic War the main part of the Hermitage collection (more than two million items) was evacuated to the Urals. The basements of the buildings of the Hermitage turned into bomb shelters, and as a museum it did not work. However, the Hermitage staff continued to scientific work and even arrange lectures on art criticism. Not a single exhibit was lost during the war, and only a small part of them needed to be restored.

In early 1957, the third floor of the Winter Palace was opened to visitors, where works from the Museum of New Western Art were exhibited.

Right after the fall iron curtain» The Hermitage was the first Russian museum to announce that its storerooms contain “trophy” works of the Impressionists and Neo-Impressionists, which were considered lost since the end of the war.

In post Soviet time The Hermitage began to make efforts to fill in the gaps in the collection of art of the 20th century. The International Foundation for Friends of the Hermitage was organized. In 2002, the exposition was replenished with one of the versions of Malevich's Black Square. In 2006, the Hermitage Project 20/21 was launched, aimed at showing and acquiring contemporary art.

Interesting Facts

Cats work in the Hermitage. In the XVIII century, when the walls of the Winter Palace began to spoil the rats, Empress Elizaveta Petrovna issued a "Decree on the deportation of cats to the court", according to which she was to be sent selected hunters. And Catherine II granted cats an official status: "guards of art galleries."

The museum guards about 70 cats: they are called "freelancers", each has its own passport, they are allowed to move around the entire territory of the museum, except for the halls. The American Mary Ann Ellin, who once visited the Hermitage with her granddaughter, even published a children's book dedicated to the Hermitage cats - part of the proceeds from sales of the book in the United States was spent on caring for the animals.

The Hermitage had a garage. Emperor Nicholas II was very fond of cars: he bought his first car in 1905, and by 1911 there were already about 50 cars in the imperial fleet. different brands. It had a car wash, a gas station, and its own steam heating system to keep the cars from rusting. In 1917, during the looting of the Hermitage, the entire car park of Nicholas II disappeared.

It will take 11 years to visit the Hermitage. Today the Hermitage is one of the most popular museums in the world and the largest in Russia. It contains more than three million exhibits, which are presented in five huge buildings. In order to even pass by all the works of art, you need to overcome 24 kilometers. And if everyone spends about a minute, it will take 11 years to go through all the halls: and this is provided that the visitor visits the museum every day for eight or even ten hours.

I look at the museum stands ...
How time plays with memory!
Only legends live forever
And the truth - all die.

A. Schweik

In the center of St. Petersburg, on the embankment of the Neva River, opposite the Peter and Paul Fortress, is the largest museum in Russia - the Hermitage. Its collections contain about three million exhibits - paintings, sculptures, graphics, objects applied arts, coins, orders and signs, samples of weapons, archaeological sites and other valuables created by many peoples of the world from ancient times to the present day.

In terms of the scale and significance of the collections, only the British Museum in London and the Louvre in Paris can be put on a par with the Hermitage. The materials concentrated in the Hermitage are distinguished by great versatility.

"In the same row cultural property here are the canvases of brilliant painters and a unique fragment of ancient fabric, monumental sculpture and filigree thin jewelry, neolithic rock art and graphic sheets, monuments of antiquity and modernity.

On December 7, 2014, the State Hermitage Museum turned 250 years old. Founded by the Russian Empress Catherine II as a private collection of European art, today it is rightfully one of the largest art museums peace.

Hermitage is wonderful world full of wonders. The museum's collections have always attracted, and continue to attract, thousands of people, different ages and professions, countries and peoples, generations and worldviews. And everyone can find there what is necessary for his soul. A truly rare unity: collections so high level, the beauty of the architectural frame, the significance of historical associations - all this attracts people, making up a bright, unique feature of today's Hermitage.

The museum began with a collection of paintings by Dutch and Flemish artists, acquired by Catherine II in 1764 from the Berlin merchant I. Gotskovsky. At first, the paintings were placed in the quiet apartments of the Winter Palace, which received the name "hermitage" (translated from French - "a place of solitude").

Unknown Italian (?) artist, after a drawing by M. I. Makhaev. View of the Winter Palace. 1750s

Then the collection began to be actively replenished, including through gifts to Russian autocrats from foreign rulers. At the same time, each Russian emperor brought something of his own to the Hermitage collection. So, keen on military affairs, Nicholas I left behind 600 paintings depicting battle scenes. During his reign, in 1826, the famous military gallery 1812.

The museum was first opened to the public in 1852, when the opening of the New Hermitage, one of the five bound friend with other buildings on the Palace Embankment, designed by the Bavarian architect Leo von Klenze (1784-1864).

Main entrance from Palace Square through the arches of the Winter Palace. evening view

By that time, the Hermitage already had the richest collections of monuments of ancient Eastern, ancient Egyptian, ancient and medieval cultures, the art of Western and Eastern Europe, Asia, and Russian culture of the 8th-19th centuries. To early XIX For centuries, thousands of paintings have been stored in the museum.

The fate of the Hermitage is inseparable from the history of Russia. The Hermitage faced many trials in the 20th century. However, his priceless collections suffered not so much during the years of revolutions and wars as from the "sale" of exhibits abroad in Soviet times. Museum staff did their best to prevent this, for which many of them were repressed.

The modern State Hermitage occupies six majestic buildings located along the Neva embankment in the very center of St. Petersburg. "Core" of the Hermitage - Winter Palace, designed by the architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli in 1762.

Museum fund State Hermitage has more than three million exhibits. Among the pearls of his collection are "Diptych" by Robert Campin, "Madonna Benois" by Leonardo da Vinci, "Judith" by Giorgione, " Female portrait» Correggio, «Danae» and «St. Sebastian" by Titian, "The Lute Player" by Caravaggio, "The Return of the Prodigal Son" by Rembrandt, "The Lady in Blue" by Gainsborough.

For 22 years now the State Hermitage has been headed by an outstanding art critic, Professor Mikhail Borisovich Piotrovsky. Under his leadership, the Hermitage developed a new development concept. The museum actively uses digital technologies, attracting a young audience.

Branches of the Hermitage are opened in Russia and abroad. The museum is already represented in Amsterdam (Netherlands), in Russia - in Kazan and Vyborg, where exhibitions and temporary expositions are regularly held. Branches are being prepared for opening in Omsk, Kaliningrad, Vladivostok and Barcelona (Spain).

Bartolini-Fiducia in Dio

Nymph with a Scorpion
Thus, skilfully combining tradition and modernity in its work, the State Hermitage has invariably been a huge success with art lovers of all ages and nationalities. And the upcoming anniversary will further emphasize the Hermitage's leading status in the Russian museum community.

For two and a half centuries, the State Hermitage Museum has collected one of the largest collections of works of art and monuments of world culture, from the Stone Age to our century. Today, with the help modern technologies the museum creates its digital self-portrait, which can be seen around the world.

The founding date of the Hermitage is considered to be 1764, when Empress Catherine II acquired large collection Western European painting.

Hermitage collections:

— primitive culture- the collection of monuments of ancient and early medieval cultures has almost 2 million items and is one of the first-class and largest in Russia. It is made up of archaeological sites discovered on the territory of Russia from the 18th century to the present, belonging to the epochs from the Paleolithic to the Iron Age, from the period of the formation of man to early state formations.

Mazzuoli-Death of Adonis

- Culture and art ancient world- the collection of ancient antiquities in the Hermitage has over 106,000 monuments representing culture and art Ancient Greece, ancient rome, ancient colonies of the Northern Black Sea region. The earliest of them date back to the 3rd millennium BC, the latest date back to the 4th century. AD Far beyond the borders of Russia, the richest collection of Greek and Italian painted vases is known, which includes 15,000 copies, cultural monuments of Etruria. The first-class collection of antique gems (carved stones) - intaglios and cameos - includes about 10,000 monuments and is unparalleled in the world.

— Western European art - among the artistic treasures of the Hermitage, the collection of Western European art, numbering about 600,000 exhibits, is one of the best in the world. Permanent exhibitions occupy 120 halls of the museum and are located in 4 buildings. The collection reflects all stages of the development of Western European art from the Middle Ages to our time. The collection contains works outstanding artists England, Germany, Holland, Spain, Italy, Flanders, France and other countries Western Europe. Along with paintings and sculptures, it houses a variety of works of applied art, drawings and engravings. The latter, according to international rules, are exhibited only at temporary exhibitions.

– Arsenal - the collection of the Hermitage Arsenal contains more than 15 thousand items of Russian, Western European and Eastern weapons and gives a comprehensive picture of the development of weapons art from the era early medieval until the beginning of the 20th century. In terms of the number and breadth of the selection of exhibits, it is the largest in Russia and one of the best in the world.

- Culture and art of the East - about 180 thousand exhibits, including works of painting, sculpture, applied art, including jewelry, objects of worship and everyday life of ancient peoples, samples of writing - give a vivid idea of ​​the richest cultural heritage of the East since the emergence of ancient civilizations to the present day. Expositions occupying more than 50 halls introduce the collections of monuments of culture and art of Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Central Asia, Caucasus, Byzantium, countries of the Middle and Far East, India.

- Russian culture - the collection of the Russian Department of the Hermitage, numbering over 300 thousand exhibits, reflects the thousand-year history of Russia. Spiritual world and the way of life of a person of Ancient Russia are recreated by icons and works artistic craft. The era of grandiose transformations appears before us in the monuments of the time of Peter the Great.

- Numismatics - in terms of the number of storage units, the funds of the numismatics department make up more than a third of the museum's materials. The numismatic collection of the Hermitage has long earned the reputation of being one of the largest in our country.

The main part of the numismatic collection consists of coins: antique (about 120,000), eastern (over 220,000), Russian (about 300,000) and western (about 360,000). The numismatic collection also includes commemorative medals (about 75,000), orders, decorations and medals, badges (about 50,000) and various sphragistic materials (seals, prints).

— Gallery of jewels - at the permanent exhibition “Golden Pantry. (Eurasia, the Ancient Black Sea Region, the East)” presents about one and a half thousand gold items (from the 7th century BC to the 19th century) from the most valuable collection of the museum, which received the name of the Jewel Gallery under Catherine the Great.

- Palace of Peter I - permanent exhibition The Winter Palace of Peter I opened in the Hermitage in 1992. It introduces the unique architectural and memorial monument of the first quarter of the 18th century.

silver sarcophagus for the relics of Alexander Nevsky

- Menshikov Palace - the main exposition: "Culture of Russia in the first third of the 18th century." The palace of Prince Alexander Danilovich Menshikov, the first governor of St. Petersburg, was founded on Vasilyevsky Island in 1710.

— Main Headquarters- in 1993, the eastern wing of the General Staff Building was transferred to the State Hermitage Museum, which housed some of the museum's expositions.

— Halls of the Hermitage in Somerset House (London, Great Britain) - constantly changing expositions, for example, “French Drawings and Paintings from the Hermitage Collection: from Poussin to Picasso”: 75 drawings and 8 paintings - masterpieces of French masters of the 16th-20th centuries. from the collection State Museum Hermitage.

The State Hermitage Museum not only preserves and studies cultural heritage mankind, but also develops the diverse directions of his artistic creativity.

The Hermitage is not just a museum, it is the very history, the very beauty and the very grandeur of Art in its entire historical and universal scale. “A museum is not a mechanical sum of inventory numbers, it is something like epic poem to which many generations have had a hand.

Somov A. I.,—. Imperial Hermitage // encyclopedic Dictionary Brockhaus and Efron: in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg, 1890-1907.
Varshavsky S., Julius Isaakovich |.

Hermitage, 1764-1939: Essays from the history of the State Hermitage / Ed. acad. I. A. Orbeli; Rep. ed. P. Ya. Kann; Artist A. A. Ushin. - L .: State. Publishing House "Art", 1939. - 252 p.