The tour of the Hermitage begins with a passage from the lobby towards the Main Staircase. It was also called the Ambassador Staircase, and later the Jordan Staircase, but in many guidebooks it is still included simply as the Main Staircase. The long gallery through which we move, with semicircular ceiling vaults and rhythmically repeating pylons, with walls and ceiling of a calm white tone, should prepare us to perceive the lush, elegant beauty of a luxuriously decorated main staircase. Just approaching it, we get the first vivid impression: against the background of a niche, framed by columns, sparkling white marble sculpture, the gilded stucco patterns on the wall shine, streams of light pour from above. The beauty of this staircase is revealed gradually. While still on the lower steps, you suddenly feel its enormous size. High above your head (somewhere on the sixth floor level) there is a huge ceiling lamp (a painting on the ceiling by the artist F. Gradizzi) depicting the gods on Mount Olympus.
Here you immediately feel the space, the abundance of air and light. It seems that it penetrates from everywhere - not only from large windows, but also from the side of blank walls, where mirrors reflect its rays, creating the illusion of greater illumination. As you climb the side flights, you admire the sculptures near the windows and mirrors, slender pilasters, and intricate curls of gilded molding patterns. And finally, from the side platforms, like the final chord, an even more majestic sight opens up to the eye: a giant colonnade of ten monolithic gray columns of Serdobol granite supports semicircular ceiling vaults, decorated with molding, gilding and images of caryatid sculptures.
In 1771 - 1787, next to the “Lamot Pavilion” on the Neva embankment, the architect Yu. M. Felten (1730 - 1801) built a building that later received the name “Old Hermitage”. And in the middle of the 19th century, to house the expanding collections, a special museum premises was created - the “New Hermitage”, completed in 1850 by the architect N. E. Efimov (1799 - 1851) under the leadership of V. P. Stasov, according to the design of L. Klenze (1784 - 1864).
This staircase was the main entrance to the New Hermitage building. Its entrance from the street is decorated with granite sculptures of ten Atlanteans, created by Academician A. I. Terebenev (1815 - 1859). The design of the staircase is in the spirit late classicism- using elements of classical art, with its characteristic clarity, symmetry, and the predominance of clear and straight lines.
A wide staircase of sixty-nine white marble steps is bordered on both sides by smooth, unadorned walls covered with an even, shiny layer of yellow stucco. His warm tone contrasts effectively with the cool gray tone of the porphyry monolithic columns rising in two parallel rows high above the walls of the staircase. Daylight, penetrating from the windows on the left and right, sparkles with reflections on the surface of the columns and, hiding part of it. their volume creates the illusion of even greater harmony, lightness and grace. From the lower landing, the scale of the staircase is especially noticeable. Through the wide doors of the second floor you can see the halls and the paintings displayed in them (you should get acquainted with them a little later).
The first visitors to the museum, which opened on February 7, 1852, climbed the Main Staircase of the New Hermitage. At fifty-six exhibition halls there were collections of Italian, Dutch, Flemish and Russian art. However, the museum was not public, intended for a wide range of visitors. Initially, special permission was required to enter the museum. It was given out only to a select few. Even famous Russian artists who needed to work in the halls did not always achieve such permission. The inscriptions on the labels of the paintings in the halls were made on French. The number of visitors to the Hermitage at first was small, later, especially in late XIX- at the beginning of the twentieth century, when free access to the museum was opened, it increased significantly.
Huge increase in museum attendance in Soviet era, the expansion of exhibition spaces at the expense of the halls of the Winter Palace required moving the entrance to the museum to a more spacious Main Staircase of the Winter Palace with extensive vestibules. This also improved the connection between the exhibitions of the department of cultural history and art. ancient world, located on both sides of the Main Staircase of the New Hermitage.
The Soviet staircase, built in the mid-19th century by the architect Stackenschneider, got its name due to the fact that members of the State Council passed through its entrance on their way to meetings chaired by the Tsar. The staircase connects three buildings: through a transition corridor it communicates with the Small Hermitage, on the opposite side - along the embankment line - the Old Hermitage is located, the doors in the center (opposite the windows) lead to the halls of the New Hermitage. Lamp on the stairs - work French artist F. Doyen (XVIII century) - “The virtues represent the Russian youth to Minerva.”
On the landing of the second floor of the Soviet Staircase there is a large malachite vase, made at the Yekaterinburg factory in 1843 using the “Russian mosaic” technique (thin plates of stone, skillfully put together so that a beautiful pattern is formed, are glued to the base using a special mastic). Wonderful works Stone-cutting art created at this Ural factory, as well as at the Peterhof (the oldest in Russia, founded under Peter III) and the Altai Kolyvan factories, adorn many halls and staircases of the Hermitage - the largest treasury of Russian colored stone.
Stone was also widely used in the decoration of the halls themselves. Thus, in the Twenty-Column Hall, the columns were created by masters of the Peterhof Lapidary Factory from gray Serdobol granite. The entire floor in this hall is paved with mosaics made up of several hundred thousand pieces of stone.
Kolyvan vase
One of the most remarkable creations of Russian stone carvers of the past is the famous Kolyvan vase. Created from beautiful Revnev jasper stone, it amazes with its size, beauty of shape and perfection of material processing. The height of the vase is more than two and a half m, the large diameter of the bowl is five m, the small diameter is over three m. Weighing nineteen tons (this is the heaviest vase in the world made of solid stone), it does not look bulky. The thin leg, the elongated oval shape of the bowl, dissected from the sides and bottom by radially diverging “spoons”, the proportionality of the parts give it grace and lightness.
The vase was made from a block of stone, which was processed for two years at the discovery site, and then a thousand workers delivered it fifty miles to the Kolyvan factory, cutting roads through the forests and creating crossings across rivers. The craftsmen of the Kolyvan Lapidary Factory worked directly on the execution of the vase itself, created according to the design of the architect Melnikov, for twelve years, finishing the work by 1843. It was delivered to St. Petersburg with great difficulty, disassembled (the vase consists of five parts, the main one - the bowl - being monolithic). The vase was transported to the Urals on a special cart, which was harnessed from one hundred twenty to one hundred sixty horses. And then along the Chusovaya, Kama, Volga, Sheksna and Mariinskaya systems they were transported on a barge to the unloading point on the Neva embankment. After preliminary strengthening of the foundation, seven hundred and seventy workers installed it in the Hermitage hall, where it is currently located. The Kolyvan vase, one of the most grandiose and amazing works of Russian stone-cutting art in terms of craftsmanship, rightfully occupies an honorable place among the treasures of the Hermitage.
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Books
- Hermitage. Western European drawing
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The Great Hermitage is an architectural monument included in museum complex The State Hermitage, built in 1771-1787 by the architect Yu. M. Felten (born in 19730 in St. Petersburg, died in 1801 there), was a continuation of the palace buildings located on the embankment and was intended to house the palace art collections . In 1792, Giacomo Quarenghi added a building to the Great Hermitage that housed Raphael's loggias.
Lined up with the facades of the Winter Palace and the Small Hermitage, the facade of the Great Hermitage is more laconic and strict. The architect managed to harmoniously fit the new building into the row of existing ones, emphasizing the representativeness of the Northern Pavilion and the plastic expressiveness of the main building of the ensemble - the Winter Palace. The rooms and halls are located in two longitudinal enfilades - towards the embankment and towards the courtyard. In 1805-1807, under the leadership of G. Quarenghi, a new layout of the Front Enfilade of the Great Hermitage was created, the architectural decoration of which was redone in 1851 by A.I. Stackenschneider. In the interiors, gilding, colored stone, valuable types of wood, painting and stucco decoration with crushed patterns are widely used. The doors with a unique decoration using the boule technique attract attention.
Halls of the Great Hermitage
The first floor of the building is occupied by administrative premises and the directorate of the State Hermitage. These premises were once occupied by the State Council, and since 1885 - by the Tsarskoye Selo Arsenal.
Halls Italian painting XIII--XVIII centuries
The halls of the second floor (former living rooms of the Nadvornaya Enfilade and the halls of the Front Enfilade along the Neva) display works by Renaissance masters: Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Giorgione, Titian.
Loggias of Raphael
Erected in 1792 by Giacomo Quarenghi, the gallery with copies of Raphael's frescoes repeats (with some deviations) the famous building of the Papal Palace in the Vatican. Before leaving Italy for Russia, the architect took measurements of the Vatican gallery. Construction work were carried out under the supervision of the stone craftsman G. Luchini. During the construction process, a discrepancy between the size of the new gallery and the size of the paintings arriving from Italy was discovered, which led to the removal of G. Luchini from work.
Theater staircase
Located in the eastern risalit of the Great Hermitage, the staircase was rebuilt in the 1840s by the architect Nikolai Efimov and serves as a passage from the Palace Embankment to the Hermitage Theater, the Raphael Loggia and connects all three floors of the Great Hermitage.
Soviet staircase
Since 1828, the first floor of the Great Hermitage was occupied by the State Council and the Committee of Ministers, for which a new entrance and a new Soviet staircase were built in the western part of the building (architect A. I. Stackenschneider).
The staircase is richly decorated with natural and artificial marble. The lobby is decorated with four monolithic columns made of red Shoksha porphyry.
On the ceiling is a picturesque lampshade by the French artist G. F. Doyen, which was previously located here in the former Oval Hall of Felten.
The Soviet staircase, also located next to the Pavilion Hall of the Small Hermitage, is one of best works Stackenschneider.
The main building of the Hermitage is a former winter residence Russian emperors from 1762 to 1904. The current building is the fifth in a row, built by the Italian architect B. F. Rastrelli in the lush Baroque style with Rococo elements in 1754–1762. However, we also owe today’s splendor of the palace’s interiors to other great architects who created and restored the premises after the fires: Auguste Montferrand, Carlo Rossi, Giacomo Quarenghi, Vasily and Vladimir Stasov, Alexander Bryullov and many others.
It was this building, built in 1764–1775 by Wallen-Delamot and Felten for Catherine II, that was originally called the “Hermitage” (from the French ermitage - “place of solitude.” Here, after the day’s worries, in a narrow circle of close people, the empress loved to retire , play cards, have lunch. The premises of the Small Hermitage also housed paintings and sculptures acquired by Catherine II and which became the basis of the collection of the future museum.
The building was built in 1771–1787 by the architect Felten specifically to house the palace art collections, because even before the completion of the Small Hermitage building, it became clear that the ever-increasing collection of works of art simply would not fit into such a small building. However, in the 19th century the building was reconstructed first by Quarenghi and then by Stackenschneider. Here, in addition to the collections, living quarters were equipped, and the interior decor became more luxurious.
The first building in Russia specifically built for a public art museum. The grand opening to the public took place in 1852, and the sculptures for the exhibition were personally selected by Emperor Nicholas I. By the way, the stunning atlases carrying the transverse beams of the portico appeared for the first time in modern architecture on this building. By the way, do you know exactly how many ancient giants stand near the New Hermitage? Just don't look at the photo.
The building was built in 1783–1787 according to the design of Giacomo Quarenghi and using the foundations of the Winter Palace of Peter I. In addition to performances with famous actors At that time, amateur performances with the participation of the city nobility were also performed here. Balls and masquerades also took place here.
This is the “youngest” building of the Hermitage complex. It was built already at the end of the 19th century. It was, of course, not built from scratch - since 1710 there have been buildings here that constantly changed owners and appearance. And the purpose of the building has changed dramatically more than once: from a high-society palace to an apartment building. A large-scale reconstruction of the building is now being completed, which will make it possible to adapt the interior to the needs of the museum complex.
It is difficult for ordinary visitors to see His Imperial Majesty's garage - it is located in the courtyard of the Hermitage. It was built in 1911 from a material that was innovative at that time - cinder blocks - especially for Nicholas II. Interestingly, the red-brick color exactly repeats the color of the Winter Palace of that time. Nowadays, the garage is still used for its intended purpose.