The second day Nastya and I dedicated entirely to exploring the Hermitage. To get there, we had to take the metro (which I LOVE) to the station Pushkinskaya, where to our delight was displayed a statue of the man himself - Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin.
A closeup of the flowers in his hand: ;)
To clear things up for those of us who didn't know (like myself), The Hermitage is the name of the museum that is located in the Winter Palace - the building itself. In it, thousands of works of art are housed and displayed in the hundreds of rooms, which are works of art in themselves.
Upon entering, we decided on one thing for certain: we would not miss the impressionists.
I really lucked out with my travel buddy, Nastya, who currently attends an art institute and is very knowledgeable in this field, because she was like a personal tour guide. She told me such interesting information about the various paintings, artists, sculptures, techniques, art movements, etc. and I was really grateful for that because it made the visit more worth-while and more captivating. It also turned out, very serendipitously I might add, that our interests in the types of artwork we enjoyed really coincided, which was great because neither of us needed to spend time looking at art we didn't enjoy. We moved very fluidly and in-sync: slowly strolling and relishing in the impressionist galleries, briskly passing through the portraits and powerful-family-paintings, and keenly analyzing the Italian artwork.
She was fascinated by Rembrandt and told me many interesting facts about his life. I had never seen this particular painting before, and though portraiture is not a style I hold near and dear, I really enjoyed this one. There are so many emotions mixed in this face - love, care, humor, sincerity, but also authority, honor, dignity, and strictness. This woman looks to me as though she was a mother, and a very good one at that - respected, loved, and feared in the best ways possible.
And I told her that I used to not enjoy looking at statues, but now I imagine them coming to life and talking to me, so it becomes much more interesting to look at them. 
The Winter Palace - every single room is elaborate and ornate. The building itself is a work of art.
And the chandeliers - such a gorgeous array of crystal and gold.
Colorful doric columns.
Or neutral corinthian columns.
All in all, we walked around for five hours straight and loved every minute of it. And when we walked out, we were greeted with another beauteous moment - a Saint Petersburg sunset.
And then, a gorgeous night view of the Winter Palace along the Neva River.
Day two was a success!
No comments:
Post a Comment