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01:02Hermitage is a French word meaning a retreat, a place of seclusion.
01:12Yet, for more than 200 years, people all over the world have associated it with St. Petersburg.
01:20The Hermitage is the largest museum in Russia and one of the world's most famous treasure houses.
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01:35The Hermitage buildings are the centerpiece of the magnificent architecture of Palace Square in the heart of St. Petersburg.
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01:50The striking and luxurious winter palace was built in 1762 to the design of the leading architect of the Russian
02:00Baroque style, Bartolomeo Rastrelli.
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02:13For 150 years, this building was the principal formal residence of the Russian monarchs.
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03:05High-ranking visitors from abroad would ascend the ambassadorial staircase to the Winter Palace's formal rooms for audiences with the
03:14Russian emperors.
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04:05In the 19th century, this came to be known as the Jordan Staircase, in connection with
04:12an important Christian festival, the Baptism of Our Lord.
04:18Members of the imperial family would traditionally descend this staircase on their way to the
04:24River Neva for the ceremony of the consecration of the water.
04:29The hole made in the ice was symbolically called Jordan, after the river in which Christ was
04:36baptized.
04:37Two formal suites of rooms lead away from the upper landing of the staircase.
04:44The Peter the Great room, or small throne room, is dedicated to the first Russian emperor,
04:51the founder of St. Petersburg.
04:55In this room, the Russian monarchs traditionally accepted New Year greetings from foreign ambassadors.
05:04A throne from the reign of Emperor Paul I stands in a niche in the center of the room.
05:11Above the throne hangs a portrait of Peter the Great by the Italian painter Giacoppo Amicorni.
05:17The emperor is depicted on the seashore alongside Minerva, the goddess of wisdom and protectress
05:24of military leaders.
05:32The armorial hall is one of the largest rooms in the palace.
05:38It is so named because of the depictions of the coats of arms of the Russian regions that
05:44adorn the massive gilded chandeliers.
06:04The armorial hall was used for official receptions in honor of representatives of the regional
06:10nobility.
06:14On religious festivals, members of the imperial family would process through this room to the
06:20great church of the Winter Palace.
06:39the celebrated war gallery occupies a place of honor in the Winter Palace, glorifying the
06:47victory of Russian forces in the Patriotic War of 1812.
06:52The 336 portraits on the gallery's walls represent the flower of the Russian army in the 19th century.
07:02Generals and other high-ranking officers who took part in battles.
07:23The St. George Room or Great Throne Room adjoins the Winter Palace's great formal suite of rooms.
07:30The Imperial throne stands under a scarlet canopy in the middle of the room.
07:38The emblem of the Russian Empire, embroidered in silver thread, hangs above the throne.
07:55Empress Anna commissioned the carved and gilded throne in 1731 from the English master Nicholas Clausen.
08:05The parkette flooring, which is made from 16 rare types of wood, imitates the composition of the ceiling's gilded decor.
08:42The
08:49The ante-room opens the Winter Palace's Neva suite.
08:55A rotunda with eight Malachite columns stands in the middle of the room.
09:00This was a sumptuous gift to the imperial court from Anatoly Demidov, who owned mines in the Urals.
09:09It was made by the celebrated French master Pierre-Philippe D'Aumir.
09:17The Winter Palace's Concert Hall hosted concerts for members of the imperial family and a close circle of guests.
09:30The room now contains the silver tomb of Alexander Nevsky, the patron saint of St. Petersburg.
09:41The Holy Prince's relics are preserved in the Cathedral of the Alexander Nevsky Monastery.
09:48In the 18th century, Empress Elizabeth commissioned a silver shrine for the relics.
09:54The tomb was made at the St. Petersburg Mint, using a ton and a half of pure silver.
10:06It was transferred to the state hermitage in 1922.
10:29The small hermitage was built next to the Winter Palace by order of Catherine II.
10:36The small hermitage was built next to the Winter Palace by order of Catherine II.
10:40a small hermitage.
10:42Made in England in the 18th century, the clock's complex mechanism is still in working order.
11:18It's a great place!
11:19A small hermitage was built, but it won't be done by the success of the river.
11:25All right.
12:09The peacock clock recalls the reign of Catherine the Great.
12:13It was her passion for art that formed the basis for the future museum.
12:19The enlightened empress began to collect valuable works of art with her characteristic fervor.
12:26Her successors on the Russian throne followed in her footsteps.
12:30The rapidly growing collections were housed in the pavilions of the Winter Palace
12:34and in the great and new hermitages which were built especially to accommodate them.
12:40Their sumptuous interiors share all of the grandeur of the formal rooms of the palace.
12:47The museum's collection now boasts around three million pieces
12:52made throughout different periods in history.
13:20The night's room is particularly popular with visitors of Boulogne.
13:25It features jousting, hunting and ceremonial weapons from the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries
13:35made by great masters in Germany, Italy, Spain and France.
13:40the young people from the early ages of the city Martins have a while.
14:10The dermatitis Tr Things
14:10The three largest halls in the new Hermitage, lit from above by large windows, are known as the Skylight Rooms.
14:18They feature displays of Italian and Spanish art from the 16th to 18th centuries.
14:25In The Lute Player, the brilliant artist Caravaggio masterfully conveyed the materiality of the surrounding world.
14:36The rooms featuring Italian painting include works by famous artists such as Tintoretto, Tiepolo and Veronese.
14:52The centrepiece of the great Italian Skylight Room is the sculpture Death of Adonis.
15:02Giuseppe Mazzuola captured in marble the last moments in the life of young Adonis, the goddess Venus' beloved, who was
15:11torn to pieces by a wild boar while hunting.
15:29The Hermitage collection of Spanish painting numbers over 160 canvases, the largest collection outside Spain.
15:39It includes works by El Greco, Ribera, Zurbaran and Murillo.
15:45One of the best portraits in the Hermitage collection is from the brush of the great Diego Velázquez.
15:51It depicts the Duke of Olivares.
15:56The End
16:38The gallery of the history of ancient painting is located near the skylight rooms.
16:44The gallery's interior was conceived as the anteroom of the new hermitage's picture gallery.
17:07The gallery's interior was designed to use the heritage of a brick wall in the skylight.
17:08The gallery's interior is designed to match theurar ai.
17:09A picture of a brick wall in the skylight.
17:30the walls are covered in painting executed in the encaustic technique the themes come
17:37from ancient Greek myths and writings by ancient authors the gallery houses a collection of 18th
17:51and 19th century Western European sculpture the neoclassical sculptures emphasize the
17:57unbreakable connection between time and tradition
18:38the gallery also features several works by antonio carnival
18:51a statue of heave the goddess of youth according to legend it was she that filled the cups of the
18:58gods on Olympus with nectar the state hermitage boasts the world's largest collection of Dutch
19:14art from the 17th century a period that came to be known as the Dutch Golden Age the Dutch
19:21artists creative energy was truly inexhaustible the small country was home to more than 2,000 painters
19:28these paintings served both as the principal adornments in Dutch homes and as collector's items
19:39paintings of scenes from ordinary life were especially popular in the Netherlands
19:53the artists were called little Dutch masters on account of the small size of their canvases but
20:00in the history of art they have long been known and appreciated as great Dutch masters the display of
20:10little Dutch masters is in the tent-shaped room in the new hermitage so-called because of its painted gable
20:40in the 17th century Netherlands art was divided into two schools the fleming
20:47English and the Dutch whose historical and cultural development took different paths
21:09the still-life genre is represented in the display by the monumental canvases of Franz
21:16Snaders who turned every still-life painting into a hymn to the richness and abundance of nature
21:25so
21:53The leading Flemish painter was indisputable.
21:57Peter Paul Rubens. His contemporaries called him the king of artists and the artist of kings. The hermitage collection includes
22:07more than 40 works by Rubens.
22:17Rubens lived at the height of the Baroque style, which Rubens himself had a hand in creating. His work is
22:25an affirmation of the value of human existence and a glorification of the powerful forces of nature.
23:02The leading Flemish painter was indisputable.
23:04His works encompass all types of painting, from the delicate lyricism of his portraits
23:10and landscapes to his heroic, monumental canvases such as the Descent from the Cross.
23:42A separate room is set aside for the work of the great Dutch painter Rembrandt.
23:48One of his best-known paintings in the Hermitage collection is Danae, based on an ancient Greek myth.
24:11Flora is one of Rembrandt's earliest known works.
24:15The artist depicted his young wife Saskia in the vestments of the mysterious goddess of
24:21flowers and of spring.
24:23One can discern both doubt and also a timid expectation of happiness on the face of this
24:29charming, tender young girl.
24:59So,
25:28this is the name of the St. Louis L.
25:43The return of the prodigal son, painted in the last years of Rembrandt's life, marked
25:48the peak of the artist's career.
25:52The poverty-stricken artist who had lost his close family and whose work was incomprehensible
25:58to his contemporaries, based the painting on the well-known parable from the Gospels,
26:03and produced a work about the great power of all-forgiving love.
26:30The Hermitage's jewellery collection runs to several thousand items of gold, silver,
26:37and precious stones.
26:39The best pieces are on display in the special treasure gallery.
26:47Eighteenth-century jewellery is represented chiefly by precious objects that belonged to
26:53the Russian imperial family.
26:57Catherine the Great created a special diamond room for her countless treasures.
27:34A watch on a chatelin, a short chain, would have been worn on the belt of a fashionable aristocrat
27:41in the eighteenth century.
27:46Studied with diamonds, sapphires, and rubies, these watches were equipped with miniature keys,
27:52and seals.
28:00This gilded silver reliquary, in the form of a deacon, decorated with precious stones,
28:07is a unique example of medieval art.
28:10It was made in France in the twelfth century.
28:27The mitre from the Great Church of the Winter Palace is a rare example of Russian jewellery art.
28:34This priest's headdress is studded with diamonds, garnets, and amethysts.
28:46The archaeological part of the collection features precious items from ancient burials.
28:56This golden diadem was found in a female Sarmatian burial, dating from the first century AD.
29:06It is decorated with garnets, as well as figures of deer and a woman's head carved from amethyst.
29:15Thanks to the skill of the ancient Greek jewellers, we can discern the outward appearance
29:21of the legendary warlike Sarmatians and Scythians.
29:29These splendid gold and silver adornments, made in the animalistic style characteristic of nomadic art,
29:37also come from an ancient Scythian burial.
29:40The Scythians ruled the steppes of the northern Black Sea coast from the 7th to the 4th century BC.
29:55This golden representation of a Kostroma deer, made in the 7th century BC, is famous the world
30:02over.
30:02The golden deer has indeed become one of the symbols of the Hermitage.
30:26A special place in the Hermitage collection is reserved for Peter I's Siberian collection,
30:32which marked the birth of Russian archaeology.
30:36Peter the Great forbade the robbing of ancient burial mounds, ordering that the finds be collected
30:43and sent to the museum.
30:49On this famous 4th century BC silver amphora for wine, we see Scythians performing a sacrificial rite.
30:59The amphora was found in the Chertomlik burial mound, and dates from the 4th century BC.
31:29On this famous 5th century BC.
31:35The mael
31:48The rooms in the new hermitage that house the collection of antique sculpture are decorated
31:53in an austere and restrained manner, removing anything that may distract one from contemplation
32:00of the ancient statues.
32:45One of the first ancient works of art to arrive in Russia was the statue of Aphrodite, or the
32:52tauride Venus.
32:53It is a Roman copy of a Greek original from the 3rd century B.C. It was acquired by Peter
33:00I in the early 18th century.
33:17The collection of Greek sculpture in the museum, represented mainly by Roman replicas, enables
33:24us to trace the development of ancient Greek sculpture from the archaic period to the splendor
33:31of the Hellenistic age.
33:51The museum is justly proud of its collection of Roman portrait sculpture. Among the masterpieces
33:58we find the world-famous Syrian woman from the mid-2nd century B.C.
34:14The monumental figure of Jupiter is the largest ancient statue in Russia. The statue of the
34:20supreme Roman god is around 3.5 metres in height and dates from the 1st century A.D.
34:2718th century B.C.
34:36This formal portrait of Octavian Augustus shows the first Roman emperor as a young man, full
34:43of strength and greatness.
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35:19This bronze bust of a Roman dates from the late Republic.
35:35The architecture of the 20-columned hall, where Italian vases and Etruscan pieces are displayed,
35:41is reminiscent of an ancient Greek temple.
35:47Massive columns of sodebol granite divide the hall into three sections.
36:36The Colyvane Vase
36:38holds a special place among the numerous items made from Russian coloured stone at the Hermitage.
36:54This gigantic bowl was cut from six blocks of jasper.
36:59It measures over two and a half metres in height with its pedestal.
37:04The diameter is nearly five metres at its widest point.
37:30Despite its massive size, this vase is striking for the lightness and elegance of its form,
37:36and the splendid working of the stone.
37:42The bowl was made in the 19th century at the Colyvane stone cutting factory.
37:56The Colyvane Stone
37:57The Colyvane Stone
38:05The Colyvane Stone
38:25In founding her hermitage and gradually filling it with treasures from all over the world,
38:31Catherine the Great hoped to create a place in the very center of the capital,
38:35where she could rest from affairs of state and enjoy works of art.
38:45With the passage of time, these unique collections have become the heritage of millions.
39:08The museum has suffered a great deal during the period of its existence.
39:13Fires, revolutions, wars, the fall of the monarchy and the tragic siege of Leningrad.
39:34The hermitage is a living symbol of Russian history and culture.
39:42These buildings and rooms hold the priceless historical memories of events and people from bygone years.
39:51Here, among the silent witnesses to the grandeur and fragility of human civilizations,
39:59every visitor has the chance to become a hermit for a while,
40:04and if only for a few moments, experience the mystery of all-conquering beauty.
40:39Music by Kevin MacLeod
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