State Hermitage (1) history. Three tours of the Hermitage on the museum's unofficial birthday

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 British museum in London and the Louvre in Paris. The materials concentrated in the Hermitage are distinguished by great versatility.

"In the same line cultural property here are the canvases of brilliant painters and a unique fragment of ancient fabric, monumental sculpture and filigree fine 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 objects European art, today it is rightfully one of the largest art museums peace.

The Hermitage is an amazing 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 of such a 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 time. 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. The "core" of the Hermitage is the Winter Palace, designed by the architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli in 1762.

The museum fund of the 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 prodigal son» Rembrandt, Gainsborough's Lady in Blue.

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 younger 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 Hermitage was founded in 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 has more than 15 thousand items of Russian, Western European and Eastern weapons and provides a comprehensive picture of the development of weapons art since 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 Near 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 human lifestyle Ancient Russia recreate 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).

– Jewel Gallery - on permanent display 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 first quarter of the eighteenth 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 the cultural heritage of mankind, but also develops the diverse areas of its 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 an 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.

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, this is 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, including about 600 paintings by Titian, 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, art of Western and 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 cultural heritage Between the museums of Leningrad and Moscow, parts of the Moscow collections of Sergei Shchukin and Ivan Morozov joined the Hermitage. Now the chronological framework of the collection has expanded significantly thanks to the works of the Impressionists, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Matisse, Picasso and other artists of new directions.

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 staff of the Hermitage continued to scientific work and even arrange lectures on art history. 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.

Immediately after the fall of the Iron Curtain, the Hermitage was the first Russian museum to announce that its storerooms held "trophy" works of the Impressionists and Neo-Impressionists, which had been considered lost since the end of the war.

In post-Soviet times, 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.

There are more than three million exhibits in the Hermitage, and it will take years to stop at each of them even for a minute. Therefore, visitors choose something their favorite. One of the most favorite exhibits is the Peacock clock. Caretakers in the halls say that young visitors often make a reservation: when asking how to get to the Pavilion Hall, they call it Peacock Hall.

Science and life // Illustrations

Science and life // Illustrations

Science and life // Illustrations

Science and life // Illustrations

Science and life // Illustrations

Science and life // Illustrations

Science and life // Illustrations

Science and life // Illustrations

Science and life // Illustrations

Science and life // Illustrations

Science and life // Illustrations

Science and life // Illustrations

Science and life // Illustrations

Science and life // Illustrations

Today, next to the Peacock's cage, there is a large monitor on which a video continuously scrolls showing the mechanism in operation. First, the sightseers look at the Peacock itself, take pictures against its background, try to find the watch face, and then look at the monitor for a long time and with interest and write down on Cell phones screen video.

The Peacock is opened for the public once a week, on Wednesdays, at 19:00 (on this day the Hermitage is open until 21:00). Winding the clock is necessary not only to entertain visitors, but above all to control the performance of the mechanisms.

The Peacock watch was made in the 18th century. At that time in Europe, in particular in England, the chinoiserie style (in Russian - Chinese) was extremely popular and Chinese goods were in fashion: silk, porcelain, colored varnishes. Every year they were equipped with caravans of ships, which, having circled Europe, Africa, India, sailed to the Chinese port of Canton (today it is Guangzhou) - the only one accessible to Europeans at that time.

Trade with China was not easy. He considered himself the “center of the universe” and demonstrated to Europe his complete independence and self-sufficiency - he did not need English cloth, metal products, or any other European goods. As a result, the ships going "for three seas" were filled mainly with ballast and they had to pay not with goods, but with pure silver. It was unprofitable for the Europeans.

This continued until the Chinese emperor saw a European mechanical clock with music. They made the strongest impression on him. This has never happened before. In China, clocks were called “self-ringing bells”, since the most striking thing was not the prosaic ability to measure time (the Chinese time system was different from the European one), but “mechanical life” - an amazing, paradoxical, hitherto unseen manifestation of the properties of the living in the inanimate.

And what the emperor likes is vital for all courtiers. In England, they urgently set up the production of luxurious toy watches, clockwork musical and animated automata, designed to amaze the imagination with a combination of "oriental splendor with western genius." And the firm of James Cox, who is credited with the authorship of the Hermitage Peacock, is one of the main suppliers of this unusual product. Of course, the organization of such a business is a costly, troublesome and risky business. After all, profits, no matter how great, had to wait at least two years, plus the vicissitudes of long journeys and the unpredictability of the buyer's reaction. James Cox, as the head of the company, was engaged in gaining loans, hiring craftsmen, developing designs, organizing production, negotiating with merchants and carriers, and forming batches of goods. He saw off the ships with his unusual goods. And waited.

The period of successful trade in "self-ringing bells" did not last long, about 20 years (and for Cox - even shorter, from 1766 to 1772). The market was saturated, and the ships began to return with unsold watches. In 1778 Cox went bankrupt. By this time, the collection of the Chinese emperor amounted to about five thousand amazing mechanisms, which had practically no direct analogues. Subsequently, as a result of the turbulent events of Chinese history (wars, popular uprisings, foreign occupation), most of this collection perished, and some of its exhibits returned to Europe as war trophies. But even today in Beijing, in the museums of the Forbidden City, in the imperial collection there are about two thousand clocks and musical mechanisms.

Several hours of work by James Cox have been preserved in the Hermitage collection. Among them are two desktop ones with musical mechanisms (in the pictures on the left). Quite characteristic of Cox are multi-figured, multi-tiered and multi-scale compositions, in which the clock itself is by no means assigned the main role. Rather, these are sparkling, slightly gaudy interior decorations, expensive and elegant toys for adults and at the same time a status symbol (“look what I have”). The combination of catchy appearance, complex animation and musical accompaniment It was supposed to amaze the viewer, to evoke in him a childlike feeling of a miracle. For example, in a watch with a rhinoceros, when music is playing, bouquets in the corners rotate at the same time, rays with snakes on an eight-pointed star and a disk with rhinestones circles around the dial.

Actually, the Peacock watch also has the same functions - it is a mechanical curiosity, a precious curiosity, a giant toy that impresses guests unexpected performance, during which life-size motionless figures of metal birds come to life.

We can say that it is precisely the scale of our "Peacock" that stands out: it is the largest of the surviving automata of the 18th century and at the same time the best preserved among the large ones.

Although there are no direct indications of the authorship of James Cox in the archives, there are descriptions of two remarkably similar objects. These are the mechanical "Peacocks" mentioned in the catalogs of the exhibition that Cox organized in Dublin in 1774. The descriptions are verbose, but very interesting:

“Number six. PEACOCK. In size, it fully corresponds to the original, from which it was copied with maximum accuracy. Made of copper, richly gilded, gilded different colors. All feathers are made separately, have the appropriate relief and gradually decrease from tail to head. The plume is remarkably molded and carefully finished; the same can be said about the head, chest and wings. Their feathers are attached to mechanical elements that are connected by one common drive located in the bird's body.

A peacock stands on an oak stump made of copper... The bark of the tree is carefully worked out and richly gilded... Above is a snake six feet long, made with incomprehensible beauty, and each scale of it is wonderfully minted; the snake is gilded and, looking like massive gold, [moves] in the most natural way, so that its head passes between the legs of the Peacock and aims at the breast of the bird. This snake is connected to the mechanism in the body of the Peacock, which not only raises and spreads the feathers, but raises them absolutely realistically, down to the smallest feather, and with the greatest uniformity, at the same time the wings properly come to life. The head and neck also move in several directions, and the beak opens and closes in such a natural way that it cannot but be admired.

The movements of the snake cause the Peacock to fold its tail, feathers and neck with amazing precision; everything is so carefully balanced and balanced that not only the figure of a bird is preserved, but also the tail feathers, unusually graceful and long, retain their shape in any position, do not bend or cling to each other throughout the entire ascent. The craftsman who created this miracle... designed all the parts so skillfully that not a single screw is visible on the surface. The legs of the Peacock are made of steel and gold, no thicker than it should be in proportion to the body of the bird, and reliably support the heavy mechanism.

The tree on which the Peacock stands ... has three branches, forged from copper with the utmost naturalism and in different places, as it were, cut off or broken off. Three large branches above are divided into fifty small ones, with beautiful openwork greenery and golden acorns. The ground on which the oak stands is richly gilded copper, oval in shape, measuring about six feet in length. Above the ground is a pumpkin whip strewn with leaves, shoots ... and fruits copied from nature; on the one hand - an oak bough, cast from brass and gilded; the color of the leaves corresponds to fallen, withered and dried branches. On this side of the earth's surface, as if climbing out of it, right under the Peacock - big snake bronzed copper; she stretched out in a straight line and looks up towards the snake on the tree, and her tail is visible from the other side and rests on the oak branches. The surface of the earth is also decorated with cast bronze reptiles. Outside, it is surrounded by stones and moss, made of cast brass, not only gilded, but also studded with ruby ​​\u200b\u200bstones; this outer border is polished and gilded, and between it and the main unit is a wonderful frame Green colour... The described object stands on an octagonal platform of red morocco, under a majestic quadrangular pavilion supported by white and gold columns.

On each side [of the pavilion] are openwork panels of leaves; white with gold racks and crossbars of panels are richly decorated, and around the perimeter everything is surrounded by a solid blue curtain, fringe and tassels hang from each rack in scalloped form, embracing the object and presenting it to the viewer. A luxurious cornice runs from pillar to pillar, supporting a magnificent dome that covers everything completely and corresponds in luxury and constructive arrangement to the rest of the pavilion. At the top are gilded roses, and in the center of the dome is a large antique urn, beautifully carved and richly gilded ... "

"Number eight (pair to number 6). So carefully executed that every movement ... and every detail of this magnificent work is perfectly mirrored to the first [peacock] and together form a pair, in accordance with Chinese tastes.

Like the Hermitage Peacock, the Dublin ones moved their heads and wings, spread their tail; on the surface of the base, surrounded by a cast bronze ring with large rhinestones, just like ours, there were branches, leaves and pumpkins, and the trunk had three large branches and a lot of small branches with leaves and acorns. However, the very base of the Dublin "Peacocks" is not round, but oval; the clock, the rooster and the owl were missing, and instead of them there were two snakes attacking the Peacock.

It can be assumed that one of the Dublin "Peacocks" ended up in St. Petersburg (after significant modernization). Another "Peacock" was held at an auction in 1792 in London (with a declared value of 2000?), where the remains of Cox's goods from warehouses in Canton were sold. It had the following description:

“Lot 29. Magnificent Peacock, made by Mr. Urey, who, in order to obtain the maximum likeness, bought and kept such a bird ... The tail of the Peacock is so skillfully designed that it rises and spreads out in the most natural way; The peacock stands on an oak tree, also copied from nature; everything is richly gilded."

Note that the "Peacock" is already alone here, without a pair, and nothing is said about snakes either.

Mr. Urey is the same Frederick Urey, to whom Catherine II, on the recommendation of Prince Potemkin, paid 11 thousand rubles in 1781 "for watches brought from England." The same figure was voiced in 1792 when compiling the furniture register of the Horse Guards House (Tauride Palace) after the death of Potemkin: “Oak bronze work, covered with birds, having a mechanical movement, the price is 11 thousand rubles.” This amount is equivalent to 1800?, that is, close to the cost of the "Peacock" in Canton.

It is noteworthy that in the London insurance statement for 1780, Frederick Ury is not called a watchmaker, but "the manufacturer of watch machines", that is, mechanisms for automatic machines. This explains the fact that it was he, the man who was thoroughly familiar with the device of the clock, who brought them to St. Petersburg. Most likely, for better preservation, the watch was brought disassembled. So, who, if not the author, was supposed to assemble them here, set them up and demonstrate the work to the customer!

Probably, James Cox, as the head of the firm, carried out the overall direction and financing of the project, perhaps the general idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe product, but not the design and manufacture.

Although it is believed that Potemkin bought a watch for the Empress (and for her money), the Peacock did not leave the prince's palace until his death. Perhaps because without qualified supervision, such complex devices quickly become unusable, which means that there is nothing left to give - and Kulibin wrote in the same 1792: “... this machine was disassembled in different places for several years ... on many small parts... In the Hermitage itself, the situation repeated itself: during the 20th century alone, the Peacock was repaired several times, and only when the Watch Laboratory was established in the museum in 1994 did the situation stabilize and the Peacock began to work without interruption. Here, as in medicine, prevention is better than cure.

A study of other works signed by Cox allows us to conclude that the use of components and parts made earlier in a new product was normal practice. It is the same with the Peacock: looking closely at its components, it is easy to see that both the Rooster, the Owl, and the clock mechanism are structurally completely autonomous and, before the “reunion” with the Peacock, most likely were independent exhibits. Yes, today they consistently interact with each other: at the end of each hour, the clock mechanism starts the “Owl” mechanism, the one after a minute and a half - the “Peacock” mechanism, and the last one - the “Rooster” mechanism. This connection is carried out through a system of long additional levers. But, in principle, each of the mechanisms can be removed (and it will be fully functional), and the rest can be connected into a single system. By the way, even today each of the birds can be launched independently - there are corresponding mushroom handles on the surface of the "earth".

It can be assumed that the "Owl", "Rooster" and clockwork were added at the request of the new customer, Potemkin, to one of the Dublin "Peacocks" (probably already devoid of snakes, like its Cantonese twin) to obtain the most impressive spectacle. In addition, the clock mechanism, on the one hand, every fifteen minutes announced the room with a melodic chime of bells, on the other hand, it provided automatic start of the bird movement mechanisms, which looked even more spectacular.

Here it is appropriate to note that the Peacock clock mechanism, despite the unusual layout and rotary dial, in terms of kinematics and device, fully corresponds to the traditional English table clock mechanism with chimes and music, besides, the very popular melody for chiming the quarters is Whittington chimes. Such mechanisms have, almost without exception, an eight-day winding (that is, a week plus a spare day). But the mechanisms of the movement of birds, which must work every hour, like a cuckoo in wall clock, the spring factory is enough for about 8-10 cycles. That is, initially their continuous work was not supposed (and who will admire them, for example, at night?), But this was enough, say, for a party. They worked it out - and they stand until the next opportunity, so it will be more whole: the loads in bird mechanisms are very large. In addition, unlike watches, the designs of which have been improved over the centuries, these complex automata almost every time were a “ride into the unknown”, with inevitable “childhood illnesses” in such a situation - minor flaws that sharply reduced the viability of the system. Therefore, the episodic nature of their work significantly reduced, or rather, delayed the likelihood of a breakdown.

Another thing is the watch: like no other mechanism, it must run around the clock, week after week, year after year. And some - and century after century.

The fact that it was a European (read - Potemkin) who ordered the Peacock's modifications is once again convinced by the European symbolism of the added birds: the owl is a satellite of Minerva / Athena, the rooster is a symbol of Christ. And in China they would never accept a revived owl, an owl for them is a bad sign, a symbol of death.

In addition to birds (in order to accommodate their "underground" mechanisms, it was apparently necessary to round the base) three squirrels were added to the composition of the watch. One of them, the largest, under the “Owl” cage, holds a gilded acorn in her hands and is a source of constant questions: “What, the squirrel broke? Why doesn't he chew nuts? And by itself, the thought creeps into my head that the chamber junker Pushkin saw the Peacock in the Winter Palace and the squirrel gnawing nuts appeared in The Tale of Tsar Saltan after the poet met the famous clock.

The white and gold pavilion of the Dublin "Peacock" apparently did not come to St. Petersburg. Instead, in 1851, the local firm Nicholas & Plinke was ordered a glazed case made of gilded wood - the one that we see today. And the round drum, covered with crimson velvet, and the octagonal stand under the gilded case were made already in Soviet times. And more recently, around 1998-2000, internal lighting and a microphone appeared in front of the "Rooster".

The clock mechanism of the Peacock clock works constantly, and the figures of birds come into motion only once, on Wednesday: their automatic start is disabled to preserve the ancient mechanisms. And every time the eyes of young visitors to the Hermitage, who have come to the Pavilion Hall in advance, burn with delight - after all, in our time there are fewer and fewer virtual miracles of “honest and pure mechanics”.

To illustrate the article, photographs by M.P. Guryev, P.S. Demi-
dova, Yu.A. Molodkovets, S.V. Suetova, V.S. Those-
rebenin, L.G. Heifetz.

© State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, 2014.

Description

During the year, the Hermitage is visited by 3 million people. The main influx of visitors is from May to September, at this time 200-300 people enter the museum in 20 minutes

The museum's collection includes more than 3 million 106 thousand exhibits. Of these, there are about 17 thousand paintings, 623 thousand graphic works, about 13 thousand sculptures, over 357 thousand works of applied art, 751 thousand archaeological objects of art, and more than 1 million 122 thousand numismatic monuments. , rare books - about 350, weapons - 14 thousand, etc. In the photo: Small Spanish gap

The modern Hermitage is a complex of five buildings located on Palace Embankment and Millionnaya Street: the Winter Palace, the Big (Old) Hermitage, the Small Hermitage, the New Hermitage, and the Hermitage Theatre. In addition, the museum's collections are housed in the General Staff Building on Palace Square and in the Menshikov Palace on University Embankment. In the photo: The main staircase of the New Hermitage

The Rembrandt Hall in the Hermitage exhibits 24 canvases by the famous Dutchman. One of the most famous paintings the artist is written in 1636-1647. "Danae". In 1985, she was seriously injured - one of the visitors, later recognized as crazy, doused the painting with acid and slashed it with a knife. Rembrandt's painting took 12 years to restore

The museum has 180 thousand items representing the art of the East, including paintings, sculptures, applied arts, jewelry, writing samples, etc. The exhibits are presented in 50 halls. On the photo: Jordan stairs of the State Hermitage

The collection of ancient antiquities includes over 170 thousand items, including collections of painted vases, carved stones, antique sculpture, archaeological sites of the Northern Black Sea region, jewelry, etc. In the photo: children on an excursion near the sculpture of Jupiter, after which the Hermitage hall was named

To protect exhibits from rodents, cats have been living in the basements of the Hermitage since the time of Catherine II. More than 50 cats, cats and kittens are constantly employed in the museum. They live freely in the spacious cellars of the Hermitage, but animals are not allowed into the exhibition halls.

The collection of European art includes about 600 thousand items and covers the period from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century. The collection includes more than 7 thousand paintings, 2 thousand sculptures, 40 thousand drawings, 500 thousand engravings

The collection of exhibits of ancient and early medieval cultures in the Hermitage has almost 2 million items and is one of the best and largest in Russia

Soviet ladder. It got its name from the State Council, which in the XIX century. was located on the first floor. Especially for him, a new entrance and a new staircase were arranged in the western part of the building (architect A. I. Stackenschneider)

The total area of ​​the premises (buildings) of the State Hermitage is 233,345 sq. m. m. Of these, the exposition and exhibition area occupies 66 thousand 842 square meters. m. In the photo: Sculptures of the Atlanteans on the portico of the Small Hermitage

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 that 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 purchased a collection of 317 valuable paintings for 183,000 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 of 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, between winter palace and the Small Hermitage built a special garage.

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 of 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.