St. Pete: Day 6 (The Winter Palace)

Thursday was a fun day for our group. It's our third and last Russian class of the week, and electives haven't started yet. Manus and Renee traded up classes to 3^rd level, and Jesica and Kelsey have come up to two, which means we're now all AIFS students. One thing about Nina is that she's almost fluent in English, but some of her thoughts don't quiet translate. Today, I think she meant to say that she felt bad for Bruce because he was sick, instead she told him “I regret you.” We all laughed, and Bruce said “That's OK, my parents do, too.” I love this class.

We all gathered at the end of the hall at 14:00 to take a trip to the Hermitage. Let me tell you a little about the Hermitage: It's the second largest art museum in the world, behind the Louvre. The Winter Palace, as it is also known, was the home of Katherine the Great who chose not to venture out much in the Winter. Because of this hermit-esque characteristic, the palace became known as the Hermitage. The palace is made up of 5 connected buildings. I heard something from Mr. White that was something like “If you wanted to see all of the pieces on display in the Winter Palace, each for 20 seconds, you'd need to spend 8 hours a day, 6 days a week, for 5 years. Also, only 10% of the collection is on display at any time.” I may have butchered that last stat in its retelling, but the point remains: this jank is big.
We arrived to the Palace in the bus and got out in a huge square, surrounded on all sides by extravagant buildings. We stood in a soviet bread-line for about 20 minutes to get into the museum, where I paid 100 rubles to get a photo license (so you guys better appreciate these pics). The palace its self is breath-taking. Huge marble staircases, Golden thrones, extravagant inlaid wood floors (with up to 16 types of rare wood), and intricate crystal chandeliers adorn the Czaress's palace. One room, the grand throne room has an elaborate painted ceiling which is reflected exactly onto the floor with inlaid wood, except without the orthodox churches symbols, so that they wouldn't be walked on.
The art was amazing. The Hermitage has works from Rembrandt, Matisse, Titian, Van Gogh and all the Ninja Turtles. And, as I've already said, the palace itself is a piece of art. I don't know if my words are going to help much at this point, so here's some photos for you to review (understand that a lot of areas in the museum are non-flash only, so many photos are dark or blurred).

<-- The Alexander Column sits in the middle of Palace Square.
--> The gigantic facade of the Hermitage



<-- MaryMichelle, Yvette, and Keith walking through courtyard into the Palace.
--> Many of the staircases in the Hermitage are built in the Baroque style, with an interesting mix of Painting and Sculpture. The walls are covered with ornate sculptural details, and the ceiling is painted to look like a continuation of the walls.

<--The grand throne room, you can see that the molding matches the inlay on the floor.
-->Check this jank out. Each vaulted ceiling surface in this
hallway reflects a story from the Bible.





<--Much of the Hermitage's collection consists of applied arts. In fact, most of what is in storage is applied art that there is no room to display.

-->On the right is Litta Madonna, one of two painting in the Hermitage's collection by Leonardo Da Vinci. *Insert any applicable Dan Brown joke here*


<--This statue is called Crouching Boy, I think. It is the only Michelangelo piece in the Museum, and it is not finished. I offered to finish it for him, but the guard did not find this funny.



--> It might look like it from the photo, but I did not use flash on this painting by Rembrandt. My camera was on 'high sensitivity mode'. You can see an Angel stopping Abraham from killing Isaac.


<-- This is a huge painting by Matisse. My favorite part is that it appeared in the background of some of his still lifes.


-->I dunno who made this jank, but it was probably my favorite. A cropped version is now the background on my laptop.