Novità!
The Hermitage Museum Saint Petersburg, officially State Hermitage Museum, but more simply Hermitage is one of the most important art collections in the world.
Located in Russia in Saint Petersburg on the Palace Embankment. The Hermitage building until 1917 was part of the imperial palace which for two centuries hosted the families of the Romanov tsars until the beginning of the October Revolution.
However, the name Hermitage does not refer to a single building, but to the architectural complex that includes various constructions built between the 18th and 19th centuries.
Among these are the Winter Palace of 1762 designed by Bartolomeo Rastrelli, the Small and the Large Hermitage, also called the Old Hermitage of the following decade. Finally, the Hermitage Theatre and the New Hermitage built in 1851.
Catherine the Great was the true creator of the museum. Next to the Winter Palace, to escape the hustle and bustle of the court, in 1764 the tsarina had a small refuge built and gave it the name Petit Hermitage
Today the Hermitage collection is one of the most visited art museums in the world.
The Hermitage Museum contains more than three million works.
However, the enormous spaces and gigantic halls of the palaces of Saint Petersburg allow the exhibition of “only” sixty thousand pieces.
The monumental expansion of the collection is due to the contribution of Catherine the Great, a ruler who loved and supported art. In fact, the tsarina alone purchased more than 2,000 paintings.
The museum exhibits works by numerous authors, including Paul Cézanne and Leonardo da Vinci. In addition, its halls feature paintings by Raphael, Caravaggio, Henri Matisse, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh. Finally, sculptures by Antonio Canova and Edgar Degas.
