Some of the people from the far north are ghost like as they roam the streets of St Petersburg. This young woman is from Siberia.
Portrait of Young Siberian Woman
Gary Kirkpatrick
Portrait of Vladimir Vladimirovich Kara-Murza, Russian journalist
Twice poisoned journalist and opposition leader Vladimir Vladimirovich Kara-Murza. Story below.
He is a well known opposition activist who has faced life threatening conditions twice over the past several years resulting from apparent attempts to assassinate him by poisoning. Close friend Boris Nemtsov, also an opposition leader, was shot and killed near the Kremlin in 2015.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., called on the Trump administration and new U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to “make Kara-Murza’s cause America’s cause,” to question Russian authorities on the incident and to “ultimately hold Putin accountable if he was targeted by the regime.” Trump has not announced any action and given his unwilling to criticize Putin for anything at all he probably won’t do anything in response.
Portrait of Russian Man with Hat
Portrait of Eastern Russian Woman
The Art Collections of the Hermitage
The Hermitage possesses over 3 million items including some of the finest examples of European art and holds the largest collection of paintings in the world. The art collection was founded in 1764 by Empress Catherine, those purchases coming via an art dealer her country of birth, Germany, and much expanded by her successors. It has been open to the public since 1852. There is comparatively little Russian art- that is to be found at the also excellent albeit much smaller Russian museum. European artists dominate the collection of paintings and sculpture, and much of it is French, Italian and Dutch. The excellent collection of Impressionists is in the General Staff Building
There are tons of portraits in the Winter Palace, the majority of them of high quality. You see more of Catherine the Great than any others, it seems, which isn’t surprising given who founded the museum.
Several that I found of particular interest. This painting was done in the French Rococo style. The woman is wearing a colored silk dress. There are contrasts of colors and strong shadows.
The next painting gets the following write up in the Hermitage site: “Few artists have truly successfully depicted children, but Anthony van Dyck in this portrait of the daughters of Philip, 4th Lord Wharton, produced a genuinely appealing image. It was painted during the late, English period of the artist’s career, and is executed well within the traditions of Western European official portraiture. The girls are shown posing statically against a very roughly indicated, generalised background, with just a hint of a decorative landscape. Dressed and coiffed a la mode, they look like true grown up ladies, the eldest holding herself importantly and with a sense of her own importance, just like a lady at court. The youngest gently holds her sister by the shoulder, frozen in the pose in which she has been stood by the artist. The official majesty of the formal portrait is softened by the little dog, surprised by his mistresses’ immobility, who scratches wonderingly at the eldest girl’s dress with one paw. With its elegant colour scheme, dominated by cold pearly-grey and silver-blue, and the virtuoso skill in conveying the texture of fabrics and jewellery, van Dyck’s painting yet manages to be a very gentle and informal image of two charming girls.” https://www.arthermitage.org/Anthony-van-Dyck/Portrait-of-Elizabeth-and-Philadelphia-Wharton.html
Caravaggio is a master of the light, although this is not the most dramatic of his paintings in this regard. There are three versions of this painting. The version in the Uffizi there is a table-top in front of the player, but in this versions it is marble with a violin and flowers. The notes are so exactly painted that we know who the printer is, the Roman Valerio Dorica.
The collections are in six historic buildings along the Palace Embankment, that is along the River Neva. The Winter Palace is the largest of the buildings and has the most art – all of these photos are from this building. The museum has several exhibition centers abroad, such as the one in Amsterdam.
In the basement there is Siberian and Caucus art- one small example:The Roman and Greek collections, as well as the Egyptian, are also in the basement area.
The museum supplies a good map, but it is still a challenge to navigate at times. It took me a while to wind my way to the cafe area in the Winter Palace. There are only two and for whatever reason they are right next to each other. There are some grand spots elsewhere in the Winter Palace where having a coffee would have been quite luxurious!
I’ll remember the Hermitage rather more for the rooms than the art, which while excellent, is to be found elsewhere as well. One could say the same of the palace, but I found it different enough, and it’s general setting as well, to easily justify the costs and challenges of coming to Russia.
The Golden Palaces of the Hermitage
The State Hermitage Museum is one of the world’s great treasures, both for its palaces and for its magnificent art collection, the world’s largest. In the next post will be about the art.
The exterior of the Winter Palace, a green and white 3 story building, is full of sculptures, vases and Corinthian columns. When you enter are greeted by this magnificent staircase.
The palaces were built for various Russian czars and are the rival of Versailles. This Winter Palace has 1786 doors, 1945 windows, 117 staircases and 1057 lavishly decorated rooms.
You make your way around the Winter Palace with the aid of a well designed map, which helps a great deal but you have to bear in mind that the palaces were not built with tourists in mind, so you can still have a hard time finding what you are looking for if you are not skilled at map reading. I found that the guards could get you pointed in the right direction, despite not speaking much if any English, nor I any Russian beyond vodka and nyet.
These gold leaf columns knock you down with their luster.
There are many wonderful of caryatids, many of them in gold leaf.
The ceilings are magnificent as well.
The photos in this post come from the Winter Palace. There are 6 others open to the public. They are the Old Hermitage, The New Hermitage, the Small Hermitage, the Hermitage Theater, and the most recent additions, the General Staff Building and the
In 1731 Empress Anna Ioannovna commissioned Rastrelli, the court architect, later the famous master of late baroque to build the Winter Palace. He completed it in 1735. Seventeen years later Empress Elizaveta Petrovna hired him to expand the building. However he decided to start over. The new plans were approved in 1754. The building was finished in 1764 under Catherine.
Russian faces: Siberian girl
I’m always fascinated by the countless variations of the human face.
Savior on the Spilled Blood- an amazing church/museum in St Petersburg
Speaking of over the top, is this not the best example?
The garish former church (now a museum) has a steeple that is 81m (265 ft) high. The bell tower on the left has 144 individual mosaic coats of arms representing provinces, cities and towns of the Russian empire that reflected grief over the murder of Czar Alexander II.
Photos of the interior are below the text. The walls and ceilings are covered with mosaic paintings. some 8000 square yards in all, with nary an inch left un-decorated. The interior of the church has multi-colored marble from Italy and colored stone from different regions of Russia including Ural jasper, porphyry, violet gray Altai jasper, dark red, pink and green marble.
The building commemorates the assassination of Czar Alexander II in 1881. It was built from 1883 to 1907 under Nicolas II. There is a canopy erected over the spot of the assassination. Not baroque like so much of St Petersburg, this style has its origins in medieval Russian architecture. It is similar to 17th-century churches in Yaroslav, northeast of Moscow and a World Heritage site, as well as St Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow. The spheres atop the spires stand out against any sky and are as far out as anything you might see at Familia Sagrada, for example, if even more demanding of attention.
The interior mosaics were painted by Vladimir Belyaev, Nikolay Kharlamov, Andrei Ryabushkin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrei_Ryabushkin, Nikolay Koshelev https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolay_Koshelev, Nikolay Shakhovskoy, Alexander Novoskoltsev, and others.
After WWII the cathedral was used by the Maly Opera Theater for storage. There were broken windows, holes in the roof and the cupolas. Restoration began in 1980.
Here’s an interesting use of light:
This is a world treasure and a must visit!
Apraksin Dvor, a working class street market near some very fancy shops in St Petersburg
This is where people with less money go to buy and sell, quite the contrast from the high street just a few minutes away. It is next to some very fancy areas and is slated for massive development, so this folksy shopping will be moved to the city’s edges. The area is about 35 acres of streets and buildings in rough shape.
We bought umbrellas from one of the vendors. He spoke English fairly well and as it turned out he was born in Pakistan. He complained that the Russians are adverse to learning any languages. While we were there a couple came by to ask the price of another umbrella. He attended them briefly and then came back to say they are from one of the stans. How could he tell, Peg asked. From their accent? No, from their appearance. The distinction escaped us.
The goods could be from almost anywhere, except some of the very Russian winter hats with the fur ear flaps and a few other things. There is a wide and fascinating variety of facial features, however, and in a few cases the dress is not typically western. I’ll be looking to get photos as we go along. I’ve seen some that would make very interesting paintings.
