The Hermitage

Today we went to the Hermitage, which is both an art museum and a palace.  The palace is certainly a monument to the wealth and extravagance of the Tsars; endless rooms, decorated with every possible inch covered in carvings, gilt, tapestries, paintings, marble, wood, and whatever else they could find.  It is interesting to imagine how people actually lived there, and the little signs tell you that this is where the leaders of the provisional government met just before they were all arrested.

The art museum is equal to, if not better than the Louvre and the Met.  Catherine the Great and her heirs seem to have bought up every single available art collection in Europe.  Or if they could't buy it, they would copy it, as in the copy of the Raphael Loggia in the Vatican.    They had Italian painters copy everything in the original gallery, and recreated the entire thing in the palace.  Here it is:

I loved the room full of Rembrandts.

My favorite part was the third floor, with the rooms of Matisse, Gaugin, Cezanne, Picasso. etc.  (All confiscated by the state from private individuals after the revolution.)   For some reason, virtually no one was in these galleries when I was there.   For example, the famous Matisse "Dance", all to myself.

And here is a question;  opposite the Dance painting is the painting "Music".  Why are all the people in "Music" not touching each other and looking rather grim?

We also took a boat ride through the canals to rest our feet, and then visited St. Isaac's Cathedral.    Splendor in marble, malachite, lazulite and gold.

Dinner at a restaurant featuring food from Uzbekistan and Japan.   We went Uzbeki:   dumplings, fermented cheese, etc.  Not that good, really.