The main palace of the Russian Empire. Three excursions around the Hermitage on the museum’s unofficial birthday

10.04.2019

The largest and most significant art, cultural and historical museum in Russia and the world State Hermitage Museum celebrates today 165 years since it was opened to the public.

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

This meeting was housed in a special palace outbuilding - the Small Hermitage (from the French ermitage - a place of solitude, cell, hermitage, retreat). In 1852, the Imperial Hermitage was formed and opened to the public.

In 1769, in Dresden, the Hermitage acquired a rich collection of the Saxon minister Count Brühl, 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 took place in 1772 and 1779. During this period, it became clear that there was not enough space and the architect Felten was building the building of the Great Hermitage. The posthumous inventory of Catherine's property in 1796 lists 3,996 paintings.

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

To mid-19th centuries, only a select few could visit the Hermitage. Thus, A.S. Pushkin was able to obtain a pass only thanks to the recommendation of V. Zhukovsky, who served as a mentor to the emperor’s son. At that time the museum had the richest collections of monuments of ancient Eastern, ancient Egyptian, ancient and medieval cultures, Western and Eastern Europe, archaeological and artistic monuments Asia, Russian culture of the 8th-19th centuries.

By 1880, museum attendance reached 50,000 people a year.

In the 19th century, the Hermitage began to systematically receive works by Russian painters. In 1895, some of the works of Russian artists were transferred to the Russian Museum. Materials are transferred to the museum archaeological excavations, which significantly enriched his department. By the beginning of the 20th century, the museum already stored 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 life of the museum.

After the fall of imperial power, the Hermitage underwent significant transformations. The museum was significantly enriched by 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 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 chronological framework the collections expanded significantly with works by the Impressionists, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Matisse, Picasso and other artists of new movements.

Irreversible 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 by Van Eyck, the best works of Raphael, Botticelli, Hals and a number of other old masters.

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

At the beginning of 1957, the third floor of the Winter Palace 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 museums announced that his storerooms contain “trophy” works of impressionists and neo-impressionists, which were considered lost since the end of the war.

In post Soviet era The Hermitage began to make efforts to fill the gaps in its collection of 20th-century art. The International Foundation for Friends of the Hermitage was organized. In 2002, the exhibition was replenished with one of the versions of Malevich’s “Black Square”. In 2006, the Hermitage 20/21 Project was launched, aimed at displaying and purchasing contemporary art.

Interesting facts

Cats work in the Hermitage. In the 18th century, when rats began to damage the walls of the Winter Palace, Empress Elizabeth Petrovna issued a “Decree on the expulsion of cats to the court,” according to which selected hunters were to be sent to her. And Catherine II granted cats an official status: “guards art galleries».

The museum is guarded by about 70 cats: they are called “freelance employees”, each is issued their own passport, and they are allowed to move around the entire territory of the museum, except for the halls. American Mary Ann Allyn, 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 USA was spent on caring for the animals.

There was a garage in the Hermitage. Emperor Nicholas II was very fond of cars: he bought his first car in 1905, and by 1911 there were already about 50 different brands in the imperial car fleet. There was a car wash, a gas station and own system steam heating so that cars are not damaged by corrosion. In 1917, during the looting of the Hermitage, the entire vehicle fleet of Nicholas II disappeared.

It will take 11 years to explore the Hermitage. The Hermitage today 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 cover 24 kilometers. And if you spend about a minute with each person, it will take 11 years to go through all the halls: and this is provided that the visitor will visit the museum every day for eight, or even ten hours.

What about Peacock?

In 1777, Prince Grigory Potemkin decided to once again surprise Empress Catherine. His choice fell on the work of the English mechanic James Cox. Why exactly on him is unknown. Perhaps the Russian count saw amazing things in the advertising catalogs that the master published. However, it is not entirely clear whether Cox personally carried out the order for the Russian prince or whether Friedrich Yuri helped him. The gift had to be disassembled - otherwise it simply would not have been delivered to Russia. They took it apart, but they couldn’t put it back together - some of the parts turned out to be either broken or lost. The spectacular gift would have been gathering dust if in 1791 Potemkin had not instructed Ivan Kulibin to “revive the birds.” And the master top class did the impossible: the clock began to tick, and the intricate mechanism began to move. As soon as the clock starts ringing, the owl in the cage “comes to life”. As the bells ring, the cage begins to rotate. Then the peacock “wakes up”: its tail rises and begins to unfurl, the bird bows, draws in and throws back its head, and opens its beak. At the moment when the tail fully opens, the peacock turns 180 degrees so that the audience sees its ... butt. Then the feathers are lowered and the peacock takes its original position. Find out about the real reason Such impartial behavior of a peacock is impossible today. According to one version, Kulibin failed to ensure that the bird made a full rotation. Another legend claims that the master deliberately forced the bird to perform a similar “fouette,” thereby demonstrating his attitude towards the royal court, for which the “bird” was intended.

Homer's Tomb

In the Jupiter Hall you can find another unsolved mystery of the Hermitage - the “tomb of Homer”. It was taken either from the island of Andros or from the island of Chios during the First Archipelago Expedition of Count Orlov-Chesmensky. The first owner of the tomb was the “initiator of extraordinary affairs” Count Alexander Stroganov, who wrote: “In the first Turkish war In 1770, the Russian officer Domashnev, who commanded our landing on one of the islands of the Archipelago, brought this sarcophagus to Russia and gave it to me. When I saw this monument, I could not help but exclaim: “Isn’t this a monument to Homer?” The phrase began to pass from mouth to mouth, only, it seemed, without a questioning intonation. Soon, Stroganov's authority as a collector grew incredibly. Of course, because he possessed an item that adventurers from all over the world had been chasing for centuries. However, the “tomb of Homer” is another beautiful legend, like Atlantis or the gold of Troy. Having studied the bas-reliefs, scientists confidently stated that the ancient tomb was created in the 2nd century AD, which means that the person who owned the sarcophagus missed Homer by nine hundred years. But another mystery of the tomb remains unsolved: the completely different style of the back and front walls of the sarcophagus. How, where and when these walls connected is unclear.

Bloodthirsty goddess

In the Egyptian hall you can find one of the oldest Egyptian monuments in Russia - a statue of the goddess of war and retribution, the angry Mut-Sokhmet. According to the myth, the bloodthirsty goddess decided to destroy the human race. The gods decided to save the people: they poured red-tinted beer in front of the goddess, which Mut-Sokhmet mistook for human blood. She drank and calmed down. However, the legend of the Hermitage assures that the danger to people still remains. Allegedly, every year on the full moon a reddish puddle appears on the goddess’s lap. According to another version, the goddess’s feet become covered with a strange reddish wet coating whenever Russia faces another trouble, misfortune, or catastrophe. Last time the raid was allegedly discovered in 1991. Is there any truth to the legend? And how can you explain the strange “bloody” raid? Answers to these questions have not yet been found.

The Mystery of the Golden Mask

The Hermitage collections contain only three antique gold posthumous masks. One of them is a mask from the tomb of Rhescuporis. In 1837, archaeologists discovered a mound in the vicinity of Kerch; inside they found a stone sarcophagus with a female skeleton, which supposedly belonged to none other than the queen: the whole body was strewn with gold plaques, there was a golden wreath on the head, the face was hidden by a golden mask. Around the sarcophagus was found large number valuable items, including a silver dish with the name of King Rheskuporidas, ruler of the Bosporan kingdom, embossed. Scientists assumed that his wife was buried in the sarcophagus, but later doubted it. It is still a hypothesis that golden mask hid the face of the Bosporan queen, has not been confirmed or refuted.

Bowing Peter

An aura of mystery surrounds the so-called “ wax person» Peter, on which domestic and European masters worked after the death of the emperor. Many visitors claimed that they saw with their own eyes how the wax Peter stood up, bowed, and then pointed to the door, apparently hinting that it was “time and honor for the guests to know.” In the 20th century, during restoration, hinges were discovered inside the figure, which made it possible to seat and position the figure of Peter in a chair. However, no mechanism was discovered that would allow the king to move independently. Some found the evidence unconvincing, others did not want to lose another beautiful legend. Be that as it may, even today there are many who claim that they were in the hall with a “familiar caretaker” at the very moment when the figure “came to life.”

"Icon of the Godless Time"

One of the most scandalous masterpieces, Malevich's Black Square from 1932, can also be found in the Hermitage. The author himself interpreted the idea as infinity, generalized into a single sign, calling the “Black Square” an icon of a new, godless time. Disputes about ideological content The canvases have been under construction for a long time, but from the moment the painting was exhibited in the Hermitage, attention was again and again drawn to its “destructive” energy: some visitors next to it lost consciousness, others, on the contrary, became frantically excited. Is the world's masterpiece truly endowed with mystical power, or this another attempt“add fuel to the fire”? These questions are easy to answer, you just have to visit the Hermitage.

State Hermitage in St. Petersburg - one of the largest art and cultural-historical museums in the world, the exhibition of which is located in more than 350 halls of five interconnected buildings on the Neva Palace Embankment: Winter Palace (1754-1762, architect F.B. Rastrelli) , Small Hermitage (1764-1767, architect.

J.-B. Wallen-Delamot), the Great Hermitage (1771-1787, architect Yu.M. Felten), the New Hermitage (1839-1852, architect L. von Klenze), the Hermitage Theater (1783-1787, architect G. Quarenghi). The State Hermitage also includes the Menshikov Palace (1710-1720, architect J.-M. Fontana, I.-G. Shedel), the eastern wing of the General Staff building (architect K.I. Rossi) and the Repository. The Hermitage collection includes about 3 million exhibits: 16,783 works of painting, 621,274 graphic works, 12,556 sculptures, 298,775 works applied arts, 734,400 archaeological monuments, 1,125,323 numismatic monuments, 144,185 other exhibits.

The foundation date of the museum is 1764, when Empress Catherine II acquired a collection of 225 paintings from the Berlin merchant I.E. Gotzkowski, originally collected for the Prussian king Frederick II. The Seven Years' War (1756-1763), which brought defeat to Prussia, forced the monarch to abandon this expensive purchase. Therefore, Gotzkovsky, who had financial obligations to the Russian government, offered Catherine II to purchase the paintings to offset his debt. The Empress agreed, appreciating the opportunity to strike a blow to the pride of the Prussian king. A collection that included paintings by Flemish, Dutch and Italian artists XVII and laid the foundation for the future Imperial Hermitage.

In 1765 - 1766, at the request of Empress Catherine II, the architect Felten erected a two-story building next to the Winter Palace, and in 1767 - 1769 on the banks of the Neva a pavilion for secluded relaxation with a state hall, several living rooms and a greenhouse was built (architect J.-B. Wallen-Delamot). These two buildings (North and South), connected by a hanging garden located on the second floor level, were called the Small Hermitage (from the French ermitage - a place of solitude). Large private collections were purchased abroad for the palace: G. Bruhl (1769), A. Crozat (1770), R. Walpole (1771), the libraries of Voltaire and Diderot.

In 1771 - 1787, by order of Empress Catherine II, the building of the Greater Hermitage was built next to the Small Hermitage (architect Yu.M. Felten). In 1792 Giacomo Quarenghi added Great Hermitage the building that houses Raphael's Loggias is a close-to-original repetition of the famous gallery of the Papal Palace in the Vatican. A transition gallery connected the new building with the Northern Pavilion of the Small Hermitage, and an arch across the Winter Canal connected the theater.

In the 19th century, the Hermitage continued to acquire exhibits and collections: from the Malmaison Palace in Paris, the Barbarigo Palace in Venice, etc. In 1825, an exhibition of Russian artists was opened. In 1852 the Hermitage was opened to visitors. After October Revolution already October 30, 1917 people's commissar education in the Soviet government A.V. Lunacharsky announced the Winter Palace and the Hermitage state museums. During this period, the museum's collection both increased - due to nationalized private collections - and decreased - some masterpieces were sold abroad in the 1920s and 1930s. During the Great Patriotic War, a significant part of the collection was taken to Sverdlovsk and returned to Leningrad in 1945.

Hermitage today

The Hermitage has 8 scientific departments: (West, East, history of Russian culture, ancient art, etc.), archive, scientific library, restoration workshops, scientific and technical expertise, etc.).

The Hermitage conducts art exhibitions, organizes scientific conferences, publishes catalogues, albums, guidebooks, organizes archaeological expeditions, etc. In 1999, an electronic guide to the museum's halls was opened. More than 2.5 million people visit the museum every year.

Official name of the museum

Federal Cultural Institution "State Hermitage", State Hermitage (Russia, 190000, St. Petersburg, Dvortsovaya embankment, 34)
Director: Mikhail Borisovich Piotrovsky

Memorable dates of the Hermitage

On December 7 (November 24, old style), the day of St. Catherine the Great Martyr, the Hermitage celebrates its birthday.
December 8 - International Day of Friends of the Hermitage

Others continued to expand the collections of Catherine II Russian emperors. But a tragic event occurred in the history of the Hermitage, which almost destroyed all its treasures: on December 17, 1837, a fire broke out in the Winter Palace. The flames were already spreading to the Hermitage buildings. The roof and walls of the Small Hermitage were watered, and the passages, windows and doors facing the Winter Palace were hastily covered with bricks.

The fire raged for three days, in the end only a stone skeleton remained of the Winter Palace, but the rest of the palace buildings survived. Just over a year later, the Winter Palace was completely restored and its halls once again sparkled with their former splendor. It was at this time that the construction of the New Hermitage began. It was decided to decorate its facades with statues of poets and scientists from different times, and the mighty Atlases made of gray granite, created by the sculptor A.I. Terebenev, and to this day they hold the balcony on their shoulders.

The new Hermitage was conceived as a museum accessible not only to the court nobility, but also to ordinary visitors. Therefore, it included paintings from other buildings of the Hermitage and works specially selected from the imperial palaces in the countryside, as well as Scythian and Greek cultural monuments found in the south of Russia during archaeological excavations.

The official opening of the public museum, which took place on February 5, 1852, was unusually magnificent. A performance was given at the Hermitage Theater, and a luxurious dinner was held right in the museum halls. Of course, the first guests of the museum were far from ordinary people. And in the future I issued passes to the Hermitage based on recommendations influential people a special office at the Ministry of the Imperial Household. Visitors were required to come to the museum in tailcoats or ceremonial military uniforms.

Free access to the Hermitage was opened only in 1863, under Emperor Alexander II.

By 1914, the museum was already visited by 180 thousand people a year. Well, these days the count runs into millions. Nowadays, lovers of beauty are attracted to the Hermitage not only by its rich collection Western European art, one of the best in the world, but also incomparable state rooms of the Winter Palace, decorated with marble, gilding, gems - Bolshoi, Malachite, Field Marshal, Petrovsky, St. George...

The famous Military Gallery, built in 1826, adjoins the St. George Hall.

On its walls are more than 300 portraits of generals who participated in the Patriotic War of 1812.

Fortunately, during the fire of 1837, these paintings, like other palace valuables, were removed from the fire.

It is impossible to get around the Hermitage in one day. After all, every visitor, in addition to the paintings, certainly tries to see the Raphael Loggia built under Catherine II - a copy of the famous gallery in the Vatican, painted by the great Italian artist Raphael. The Knight's Hall, where samples are collected, is also particularly famous. medieval weapons and armor. The Golden Storeroom of the Hermitage contains unique items from jewelers of the 16th–19th centuries, as well as gold objects found by archaeologists in Scythian burial mounds and at the site of ancient Greek colonies in the Black Sea region.

07.03.2018

The State Hermitage is an art museum located in St. Petersburg.

One of the largest and most visited in the world. His collection began with paintings collected by Catherine the Great, and then increased thousands of times. Now the museum occupies not only 5 buildings on the Neva Palace Embankment, but also several more historical buildings of the city. What facts from the history of creation and modern life Can the Hermitage be considered the most interesting?

The word “Hermitage” is of French origin and means “place of solitude”, “cell”. This was the name of the wing of the palace where Catherine II kept her small collection.
Also called “hermitages” were small entertainment events organized by the empress in this building, for which it received the name of the Small Hermitage.
The modern museum (the main complex on Palace Embankment) also includes: the Winter Palace, the Great and the New Hermitage.
The Great Hermitage (sometimes called the Old) was specially built in 1771-1787 to house the palace collections, when they could no longer fit in the halls of the Small.
The New Hermitage (1842-1851) became the very first building in Russia specifically built for a public museum.
In 1852, the paintings became available for viewing to everyone, whereas previously only a select few could visit the galleries, with special permission.
According to the design, the giant granite statues of Atlanteans on the porch (portico) at the entrance to the New Hermitage were not supposed to support the vault; this role was assigned to beams that were simply connected to the statues. However, due to the settlement of the main part of the building and the deformation of the portico, the load also falls on the Atlases.
The first cracks on the bodies of the Atlanteans were noticed in 1909; their cause is considered to be unreliable soils at the base of the building and, as a consequence, movement and subsidence. In 2010, a full examination of the statues was carried out by the most modern methods, but the project to save them from further destruction has not yet been approved.
Collecting paintings in the 18th century and later was a fashionable hobby for imperial houses, and the list of exhibits often reflected their personal tastes and fashion. For example, Catherine II preferred the works of Flemish, Dutch, French and Italian masters.
Replenishment of the collection occurred not so much through single acquisitions, but in “large batches”, when an entire collection of some famous European connoisseur of painting was acquired.
In addition to paintings, sculptures, carved stones and even libraries were purchased for the museum.
After the death of Catherine, the most active successors of her work were Alexander I and Nicholas I, who supplemented the collection with many valuable exhibits.
In the 20th century, the largest revenues to the museum's funds occurred as a result of the nationalization of property after the revolution.
During the Great Patriotic War, the building served as a bomb shelter, and the exhibits were evacuated beyond the Urals.
Post-war trophies from Berlin were exhibited in the Hermitage only until 1958, after which they were returned to the GDR.
The Hermitage collection has not always been replenished; there have been losses throughout history. In the early 30s. 48 masterpieces of world significance and several hundred others valuable exhibits were sold abroad to replenish the state treasury.
The Diamond Room - a collection of imperial regalia and jewelry collected since the reign of Peter I - was also taken from the Hermitage, but not to another country, but to the Diamond Fund of the Moscow Kremlin. It became the basis for the creation of this museum.
The most important works of art exhibited in the Hermitage are: “ Madonna Benoit"and "Madonna Litta" by Leonardo da Vinci, "Danae" and "Return prodigal son"Rembrandt, "Penitent Mary Magdalene" by Titian, "Lady in Blue" by Gainsborough, "Portrait of the Actress Jeanne Samary" by Renoir, "Lady in the Garden" by Monet, etc.
In addition to paintings in the Hermitage you can see famous sculptures(“Eternal Spring” by Rodin), the legendary gold “Peacock” watch, presented to Catherine II by Potemkin and still working, the Egyptian mummy of a priest and much more.
In total, the Hermitage collection contains more than 1 million exhibits of applied and fine arts, not counting weapons, archaeological, numismatic and other items.
The museum has its own official hotel with luxurious interiors and an online store that sells not only souvenirs and reproductions, but also original decorative items, jewelry, etc.

Modern Hermitage - large cultural center, where research work is also carried out.

The museum has partners all over the world, holds traveling exhibitions, plans to create a restoration and storage center and a Museum of Heraldry in historical building Exchanges on the spit of Vasilyevsky Island.

On February 17, 1852, the Hermitage solemnly opened its doors to the public - now more than three million people from all over the world visit it every year. Let's tell you a few interesting facts about one of the most popular museums on the planet!

THERE ARE CATS OFFICIALLY WORKING IN THE HERMITAGE

Back in the 18th century, when rats began to damage the walls of the Winter Palace, Empress Elizabeth Petrovna issued a “Decree on the expulsion of cats to the court,” according to which selected hunters were to be sent to her. And Catherine II granted cats an official status: “guards of art galleries.” Today, the museum is guarded by about 70 cats: they are called “freelance employees”; each is issued their own passport and allowed to move around the entire territory of the museum, except for the halls. These “guards” are a real legend of the Hermitage: they are sent gifts from different countries around the world, articles are written about them and films are made.

American Mary Anne 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 USA was spent on caring for the animals.

EVEN PUSHKIN COULD NOT GET INTO THE HERMITAGE

The Hermitage arose as a private collection of Catherine II - after she acquired a collection of 255 works by Dutch and Flemish artists. The paintings were placed in quiet apartments of the palace, hence the name Hermitage (from French - a place of solitude, a cell, a hermit's shelter). The collection gradually grew, but until the middle of the 19th century, the museum was a place for the elite: it could only be visited with a special pass. Even Alexander Pushkin had to seek patronage for this: the poet Zhukovsky, the teacher of the royal children, helped. The grandson of Catherine II, Emperor Nicholas I, allowed Pushkin to visit the Voltaire Library - the famous collection of books by the philosopher, reading which (let alone making extracts) was strictly forbidden. Nicholas I himself, by the way, also loved to walk around the museum alone and even forbade the servants to contact him at this time. household issues. However, it was he who made the museum public in 1852, and by 1880 the Hermitage was already visited by about 50,000 people a year.

DURING THE WAR, THE HERMITAGE WAS A BOMB SHELTER

On June 22, 1941, immediately after the start of the Great Patriotic War, museum exhibits began to be evacuated: Leonardo Da Vinci, Raphael, Titian, Rembrandt - works of great artists were packed around the clock, museum employees even slept in the halls. The main part of the collection - about two million exhibits - was taken away; the rest were looked after by employees already during the bombing. In the basements of the Hermitage, they organized 12 bomb shelters: they blocked up the windows with bricks, hung iron doors, and put together trestle beds. Not only museum workers lived here, but also teachers of the Academy of Sciences, artists (they recorded the atmosphere of the blockade in their drawings), and their families. Here, under the dark arches, there was a hospital with 100 beds. And the museum staff, in between shelling, continued to conduct scientific work: scientist Boris Piotrovsky, for many years who headed the Hermitage, wrote his book about ancient city Karmir-Blure.

THERE ARE SECRET MASTERPIECES IN THE HERMITAGE STORAGES

Of course, stories about the “bottomless repositories” of the Hermitage have no relation to reality, but from time to time the public is actually presented with paintings that no one knew about the existence (sometimes even the museum staff themselves). So, for example, in the 60s a picture of the famous Dutch artist Hendrik Goltzius's "Bacchus, Ceres, Venus and Cupid" was literally found by a Dutch art critic. He was drinking tea in the back room with museum staff and saw that there was some kind of leaf lying under the cabinet. It turned out to be a canvas purchased by Catherine II back in 1772 - the find was sent for restoration and returned to the museum display. They say that since then, every employee has been looking around very carefully in the hope of finding a masterpiece. However, sometimes everyone knows about “secret” paintings in storage facilities, but they are opened to the public many years later: in 1995, for example, at the exhibition “ Unknown masterpieces"presented 74 works by impressionists and post-impressionists - Renoir, Manet, Pissarro, Monet, Degas, Van Gogh - all paintings were taken from Germany back in 1945 and have since been kept under lock and key.

YOU SEE EXHIBITS ALIVE WITHIN THE WALLS OF THE HERMITAGE

Legends about the Hermitage are a whole layer in St. Petersburg mythology: they tell about ghosts walking through the halls, about exhibits coming to life and mystical incidents. One of the most famous such stories is about Peter I bowing. According to rumors, wax figure The emperor stands up, bows and points the visitors to the door. Interestingly, there are actually hinges inside the doll that allow you to put it in and out of a chair - this gives a lot of room for imagination. And for those who like scarier stories, there is a story about one of the exhibits in the hall Ancient Egypt- a sculpture of the lion-headed goddess Sakhmet, who was extremely bloodthirsty and wanted to wipe out the entire human race from the earth. Once a year, supposedly on the full moon, a reddish puddle appears on the knees of the goddess Sakhmet, similar to a pool of blood. Only the servants notice it, and by the time the first visitor appears, the “blood” has dried up.

A COMPLETE INSPECTION OF THE HERMITAGE TAKES 11 YEARS

The Hermitage today 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 cover 24 kilometers. And if you spend about a minute with each person, it will take 11 years to go through all the halls: and this is provided that the visitor will visit the museum every day for eight, or even ten hours.

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

Science and life // Illustrations

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

“Peacock” is open to the public once a week, on Wednesdays, at 19.00 (on this day the Hermitage is open until 21.00). Winding a watch is necessary not only to entertain visitors, but primarily to monitor the performance of the mechanisms.

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

Trading 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, ships traveling “across the three seas” were filled mainly with ballast and had to be paid not in goods, but in pure silver. This was not beneficial for the Europeans.

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

And what pleases the emperor is vitally necessary for all the courtiers. In England, they urgently launched the production of luxurious toy watches, wind-up musical and animated machines, designed to amaze the imagination with a combination of “oriental splendor and western genius.” And the company 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 similar business- it’s 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 travel and the unpredictability of the buyer's reaction. James Cox, as the head of the company, was engaged in obtaining loans, hiring craftsmen, developing designs, organizing production, negotiating with merchants and carriers, and forming shipments of goods. He saw off ships with his unusual goods. And I 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 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 that had practically no direct analogues. Subsequently, as a result of turbulent events Chinese history(wars, popular uprisings, foreign occupation), most of this collection was lost, 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 watches and musical mechanisms.

Several hours of work by James Cox have been preserved in the Hermitage collection. Among them are two tabletop ones with musical mechanisms (in the pictures on the left). Very characteristic of Cox are multi-figured, multi-tiered and multi-scale compositions, in which the clock itself is by no means given main role. Rather, these are sparkling, slightly tacky 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 and evoke in him a childish sense of wonder. For example, in a watch with a rhinoceros, when music plays, bouquets in the corners, rays with snakes on an eight-pointed star rotate simultaneously, and a disk with rhinestones spins around the dial.

Actually, the Peacock watch performs the same functions - it is a mechanical curiosity, a precious curiosity, a giant toy that amazes guests with an unexpected performance, during which motionless life-size 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 surviving automaton of the 18th century and at the same time the best preserved among the large ones.

Although the archives do not directly indicate the authorship of James Cox, there are still descriptions of two surprisingly 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. The size is completely consistent with the original, from which it was copied with maximum accuracy. Made of copper, richly gilded, gilded in different colors. All feathers are made separately, have a corresponding relief and gradually become smaller from the tail to the head. The plume is wonderfully 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.

The peacock stands on an oak stump made of copper... The bark of the tree is carefully worked and richly gilded... On top is a snake six feet long, made with incomprehensible charm, and every scale of it is wonderfully chiselled; 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 chest of the bird. This snake is connected with a mechanism located in the body of the Peacock, which does not simply raise and spread the feathers, but raises them absolutely realistically, down to the smallest feather, and with the greatest regularity, at the same time the wings also come to life properly. The head and neck also move in several directions, the beak opens and closes so naturally that it cannot but cause admiration.

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 the 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 rise. The master who created this miracle... designed all the parts so skillfully that not a single screw is visible on the surface. The Peacock's legs are made of steel and gold, no thicker than the proportion to the bird's body, 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 if cut or broken off. The three large branches above are divided into fifty small ones, with beautiful lacy greenery and golden acorns. The ground on which the oak stands is of richly gilded copper, oval in shape, measuring about six feet in length. On top of the ground is a pumpkin vine, strewn with leaves, shoots... and fruits copied from nature; on one side there is an oak branch cast from brass and gilded; The color of the leaves corresponds to fallen, withered and dried branches. On this side of the surface of the earth, as if crawling out of it, right under the Peacock - big snake bronzed copper; it is stretched out in a straight line and looks up, towards the snake on the tree, and its tail is visible on the other side and rests on the branches of the oak tree. The surface of the earth is also decorated with reptiles made of cast bronze. Outside, it is surrounded by stones and moss, made of cast brass, not only gilded, but also studded with ruby-colored stones; this outer border is polished and gilded, and between it and the main unit is a wonderful frame green... 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] there are openwork panels made of leaves; The white and gold pillars and crossbars of the panels are richly decorated, and the whole is surrounded by a solid blue curtain, fringe and tassels hanging in scallops from each pillar, enveloping the object and presenting it to the viewer. From rack to rack there is a luxurious cornice, supporting a magnificent dome, covering the whole completely and corresponding in luxury and structural 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 it magnificent work completely mirror 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 mass of small branches with leaves and acorns. However, the very base of the Dublin Peacocks is not round, but oval; the clock, rooster and owl were missing, and instead 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. A magnificent Peacock, made by Mr. Urey, who, in order to obtain the greatest likeness, bought and kept such a bird... The tail of the Peacock is so skillfully constructed that it rises and spreads in the most natural manner; A peacock stands on an oak tree, also copied from life; everything is richly gilded.”

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

Mr. Ury is the same Frederick Ury to whom Catherine II, on the recommendation of Prince Potemkin, paid 11 thousand rubles in 1781 “for a watch brought from England.” The same figure was mentioned in 1792 when compiling a register of furniture at the Horse Guards House (Tavrichesky Palace) after the death of Potemkin: “Oak of bronze work, covered with birds, having mechanical movement, price 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 report for 1780, Frederick Ury is not called a watchmaker, but a “manufacturer of watch machines,” that is, mechanisms for automatic machines. This explains the fact that it was he, a man who was thoroughly familiar with the structure of the clock, who brought it to St. Petersburg. Most likely, for better preservation, the watch was brought disassembled. This means who, if not the author, should have assembled them here, configured them and demonstrated the work to the customer!

It is likely that James Cox, as the head of the company, provided general management and financing of the project, possibly - general plan products, but not design and manufacturing.

Although it is believed that Potemkin bought the watch for the empress (and with 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 there is nothing left to give - and Kulibin wrote in the same 1792: “... this machine was in different places for several years, disassembled... for 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 Clock Laboratory was created in the museum in 1994, the situation stabilized and the Peacock began to work smoothly. Here, as in medicine, prevention is more advisable than treatment.

A study of other works signed by Cox allows us to conclude that the use of previously manufactured components and parts in a new product was normal practice. So it is with the “Peacock”: examining its components close up, it is not difficult to see that both the “Rooster” and the “Owl”, and the clock mechanism are structurally completely autonomous and, before the “reunion” with the “Peacock”, most likely represented independent exhibits. Yes, today they consistently interact with each other: the clock mechanism at the end of each hour launches the “Owl” mechanism, the one after a minute and a half launches the “Peacock” mechanism, and the last one launches 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 operational), and the remaining ones can be linked into a single system. By the way, even today each of the birds can be launched independently - on the surface of the “ground” there are corresponding mushroom handles.

It can be assumed that the Owl, Rooster and clock mechanism were added at the request of the new customer, Potemkin, to one of the Dublin Peacocks (probably already deprived of snakes, like its Cantonese twin) to obtain a more impressive spectacle. In addition, the clock mechanism, on the one hand, filled the room with the melodious ringing of bells every fifteen minutes, and on the other, ensured the automatic start of the bird movement mechanisms, which looked even more impressive.

It is appropriate to note here that the Peacock clock mechanism, despite the unusual layout and rotary dial, in kinematics and structure fully corresponds to the traditional English table clock mechanism with chimes and music, moreover, the very popular melody for chiming the quarters is used - Whittington chimes. Such movements have, almost without exception, an eight-day winding time (that is, a week plus a spare day). But the movement mechanisms of birds, which must operate every hour, like a cuckoo in wall clock, the spring winding lasts for about 8-10 cycles. That is, initially their continuous operation was not intended (and who would admire them, for example, at night?), but this was enough, say, for a party. They’ve worked it out - and they stand until the next opportunity; they’ll be more safe: the loads in the bird’s mechanisms are very large. Moreover, unlike watches, the designs of which have been improved over the centuries, these complex automatic machines were almost every time a “ride into the unknown,” with “childhood illnesses” inevitable 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 failure.

Another thing is the clock: 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 modifications to the Peacock is once again confirmed by the European symbolism of the added birds: the owl is the satellite of Minerva/Athena, the rooster is the symbol of Christ. But in China they would never accept a revived owl; for them an owl is a bad sign, a symbol of death.

In addition to the birds (to accommodate their “underground” mechanisms, it was apparently necessary to round the base), three squirrels were added to the composition of the clock. One of them, the largest, under the Owl’s cage, holds a gilded acorn in her hands and is a source of constant questions: “Is the squirrel broken? Why doesn’t he bite nuts?” And the thought naturally creeps into my head that the chamberlain Pushkin saw the “Peacock” in the Winter Palace and the squirrel gnawing nuts appeared in “The Tale of Tsar Saltan” after the poet became acquainted with the famous clock.

The white and gold pavilion of the Dublin "Peacock" apparently did not come to St. Petersburg. Instead, in 1851, a glazed case made of gilded wood was ordered from the local company “Nicholas and Plinke” - the one we see today. And the round drum, covered with crimson velvet, and the octagonal stand under a gilded case were made already in Soviet times. And quite 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 bird figures move only once, on Wednesday: their automatic start is disabled in order to preserve the ancient mechanisms. And every time the eyes of young visitors to the Hermitage, who came to the Pavilion Hall in advance, glow with delight - after all, in our time there are fewer and fewer virtual miracles of “honest and pure mechanics”.

To illustrate the article, photographs of M.P. Guryev, P.S. were used. Demi-
Dova, Yu.A. Molodkovets, S.V. Suetova, V.S. Those-
Rebenina, L.G. Heifetz.

It will take at least eight years to examine more than three million exhibits in the Hermitage. We offer a targeted excursion to get acquainted with the main secrets of the museum.

What about Peacock?

In 1777, Prince Grigory Potemkin decided to once again surprise Empress Catherine. His choice fell on the work of the English mechanic James Cox. Why exactly on him is unknown. Perhaps the Russian count saw amazing things in the advertising catalogs that the master published. However, it is not entirely clear whether Cox personally carried out the order for the Russian prince or whether Friedrich Yuri helped him. The gift had to be disassembled - otherwise it simply would not have been delivered to Russia. They took it apart, but they couldn’t put it back together - some of the parts turned out to be either broken or lost. The spectacular gift would have been gathering dust if in 1791 Potemkin had not instructed Ivan Kulibin to “revive the birds.” And the master of the highest class did the impossible: the clock started ticking, and the intricate mechanism began to move. As soon as the clock starts ringing, the owl in the cage “comes to life”. As the bells ring, the cage begins to rotate. Then the peacock “wakes up”: its tail rises and begins to unfurl, the bird bows, draws in and throws back its head, and opens its beak. At the moment when the tail fully opens, the peacock turns 180 degrees so that the audience sees its ... butt. Then the feathers are lowered and the peacock takes its original position. It is impossible today to find out the true reason for such impartial behavior of the peacock. According to one version, Kulibin failed to ensure that the bird made a full rotation. Another legend claims that the master deliberately forced the bird to perform a similar “fouette,” thereby demonstrating his attitude towards the royal court, for which the “bird” was intended.

Homer's Tomb

In the Jupiter Hall you can find another unsolved mystery of the Hermitage - the “tomb of Homer”. It was taken either from the island of Andros or from the island of Chios during the First Archipelago Expedition of Count Orlov-Chesmensky. The first owner of the tomb was the “initiator of extraordinary affairs” Count Alexander Stroganov, who wrote: “In the first Turkish war of 1770, the Russian officer Domashnev, who commanded our landing on one of the islands of the Archipelago, brought this sarcophagus to Russia and gave it to me. When I saw this monument, I could not help but exclaim: “Isn’t this a monument to Homer?” The phrase began to pass from mouth to mouth, only, it seemed, without a questioning intonation. Soon, Stroganov's authority as a collector grew incredibly. Of course, because he possessed an item that adventurers from all over the world had been chasing for centuries. However, the “tomb of Homer” is another beautiful legend, like Atlantis or the gold of Troy. Having studied the bas-reliefs, scientists confidently stated that the ancient tomb was created in the 2nd century AD, which means that the person who owned the sarcophagus missed Homer by nine hundred years. But another mystery of the tomb remains unsolved: the completely different style of the back and front walls of the sarcophagus. How, where and when these walls connected is unclear.

Bloodthirsty goddess

In the Egyptian hall you can find one of the oldest Egyptian monuments in Russia - a statue of the goddess of war and retribution, the angry Mut-Sokhmet. According to the myth, the bloodthirsty goddess decided to destroy the human race. The gods decided to save the people: they poured red-tinted beer in front of the goddess, which Mut-Sokhmet mistook for human blood. She drank and calmed down. However, the legend of the Hermitage assures that the danger to people still remains. Allegedly, every year on the full moon a reddish puddle appears on the goddess’s lap. According to another version, the goddess’s feet become covered with a strange reddish wet coating whenever Russia faces another trouble, misfortune, or catastrophe. The last time a raid was allegedly discovered was in 1991. Is there any truth to the legend? And how can you explain the strange “bloody” raid? Answers to these questions have not yet been found.

The Mystery of the Golden Mask

The Hermitage collections contain only three antique gold posthumous masks. One of them is a mask from the tomb of Rhescuporis. In 1837, archaeologists discovered a mound in the vicinity of Kerch; inside they found a stone sarcophagus with a female skeleton, which supposedly belonged to none other than the queen: the whole body was strewn with gold plaques, there was a golden wreath on the head, the face was hidden by a golden mask. A large number of valuable things were found around the sarcophagus, including a silver dish with the name of King Rhescuporides, ruler of the Bosporan kingdom, engraved. Scientists assumed that his wife was buried in the sarcophagus, but later doubted it. Until now, the hypothesis that the golden mask hid the face of the Bosporan queen has not been confirmed or refuted.

Bowing Peter

An aura of mystery surrounds the so-called “wax persona” of Peter, on which domestic and European craftsmen worked after the death of the emperor. Many visitors claimed that they saw with their own eyes how the wax Peter stood up, bowed, and then pointed to the door, apparently hinting that it was “time and honor for the guests to know.” In the 20th century, during restoration, hinges were discovered inside the figure, which made it possible to seat and position the figure of Peter in a chair. However, no mechanism was discovered that would allow the king to move independently. Some found the evidence unconvincing, others did not want to lose another beautiful legend. Be that as it may, even today there are many who claim that they were in the hall with a “familiar caretaker” at the very moment when the figure “came to life.”

Unique earrings

In the Siberian collection of Peter I you can find Feodosian earrings made using the ancient Greek granulation technique. Their main decoration is a microscopic multi-figure composition illustrating Athenian competitions. The smallest grains with which one of the parts of the decoration is strewn can only be seen with the help of a magnifying glass. With strong magnification, tiny grains are revealed, which are connected in fours and lined up in rows - it was this finishing that gave the Feodosia earrings worldwide fame. The world's best jewelers tried to create copies of Feodosia jewelry, but the task turned out to be impossible. Neither the soldering method nor the composition of the solder used by the ancient masters could be determined.

"Icon of the Godless Time"

One of the most scandalous masterpieces, Malevich's Black Square from 1932, can also be found in the Hermitage. The author himself interpreted the idea as infinity, generalized into a single sign, calling the “Black Square” an icon of a new, godless time. Disputes about the ideological content of the painting have been going on for a long time, but from the moment the painting was exhibited in the Hermitage, attention has been drawn again and again to its “destructive” energy: some visitors near it lost consciousness, others, on the contrary, became frantically excited. Is this world masterpiece really endowed with mystical powers, or is this just another attempt to “add fuel to the fire”? These questions are easy to answer, you just have to visit the Hermitage.