travelswithalice

May 11, 2015

At the Hermitage, Part 1

Sergei walked us in a wide circle through the museum complex, talking us through events relating to the rooms and the objects in them, the characters populating the stories behind them, the protagonists of Tzarist Russia, their triumphs, their scandals, their secret loves. He showed us where historic moments were memorialized, where dramatic events happened.

The clock on the mantel is permanently stopped at 2:10, marking the moment when Bolsheviks broke into this room and rounded up the entire membership of the Provisional Government who had been meeting that fateful day of October 26, 1917.

The various rooms, doorways, staircases, corridors... they all have stories to tell.

There are two things that set this museum experience apart: the manner in which the art is presented and the venue itself. The accessibility, the immediacy of the art, the way it is presented almost casually, intimately; this to me is unprecedented. I couldn't have stood closer to a Leonardo, studying his brushwork, trying to find a trace of eyebrows on the Madonna's face, if I had the painting hanging in my own living room.

The very rooms that house the art are themselves extraordinary. I wandered from room to room as in a daze, barely glancing at the ridiculous wealth of art objects on display, spending an inordinate amount of time inspecting ceilings, doors, floors. The hi-octane gilding of Russian Baroque, the mosaic work in glass, stone, and malachite, the opulent parquetry underfoot...

I also kept looking out at views of this lovely city framed by the museum windows

At the start of our tour I asked Sergei why it's called Hermitage. He said he preferred to answer me later. Towards the end, having completely circled the much-extended building, he pointed to a small garden now being restored, just off the Pavilion Hall, the one that houses the fabulous clockwork peacock.