The heritage of the Hermitage

• Source: Global Times
• [09:56 September 07 2010]
• Comments

A portrait of Empress Catherine the Great.

By Li Yuting

It is said that if one spent one minute before each exhibit in the State Hermitage Museum, in St Petersburg, Russia, it would take eight years non-stop to see the nearly 3 million works of art there. Shanghai is being offered a tiny but rich glimpse of this treasure trove in the exhibition entitled The Star of the North: Catherine the Great and the Golden Age of the Russian Empire.

The Shanghai Museum now displays 290 specially selected exhibits from the collections at the Winter Palace in St Petersburg, now the State Hermitage Museum.

The exhibits showcase Russian and European masterpieces from the 18th and 19th centuries and include works by Rubens, the English gem carver Charles Brown, the Italian Rococo painter Pittoni, the Flemish artist Frans Snyders and Paolo Veronese.

The major part of the exhibition belongs to Catherine the Great but there are gems from the reigns of the czars, Peter the Great, the Empress Elizabeth and Alexander I.

Here visitors can see walking sticks and court attire used by Peter the Great, and a panorama of his then newly established city.

Architectural sketches and rare household items used by Queen Elizabeth feature in one of the sections of the exhibition and, from the time of Alexander I, four watercolors, A Panoramic View of St Petersburg from the Tower of the Kunstkammer, depict the beauty of the city in the early 19th century.

One of the major pieces in the entire exhibition is Guglielmi's painting Apotheosis of Empress Catherine the Great.

"These rare exhibits help us know more about the lifestyle and society of that period of time in Russia," said Shen Yi, who is completing a degree in museum studies.

"The exhibits from the other emperors help illustrate the artistic achievements in the time of Catherine the Great," said Zhang Zhongmou, one of the curators at the Shanghai Museum.

The story of the legendary Catherine the Great who started life as a German princess and became the Czarina who ruled for 34 years is not new but not everyone knows about her contribution to the world of art.