Giacobbe Giusti, Mesolithic

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Mesolithic

Roca dels Moros, Spain, The Dance of Cogul, tracing by Henri Breuil

Giacobbe Giusti, Mesolithic

The Shigir Idol

Giacobbe Giusti, Mesolithic

Reconstruction of a « temporary » house in Ireland; waterside sites offered good food resources.

The Mesolithic This box: view talk edit
↑ Upper Paleolithic
Mesolithic Europe Fosna–Hensbacka culture Komsa culture Maglemosian culture Lepenski Vir culture Kunda culture Narva culture Komornica culture Swiderian culture Epipaleolithic Transylvania Mesolithic Transylvania Tardenoisian Schela Cladovei culture Mesolithic Southeastern Europe Epipaleolithic (Levant) Levantine corridor Natufian Khiamian Caucasus Trialetian Zagros Zarzian culture
↓ Neolithic

In Old World archaeology, Mesolithic(Greek: μέσος, mesos « middle »; λίθος, lithos« stone ») is the period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic is often used synonymously, especially for outside northern Europe, and for the corresponding period in the Levantand Caucasus. The Mesolithic has different time spans in different parts of Eurasia. It refers to the final period of hunter-gatherercultures in Europe and West Asia, between the end of the Last Glacial Maximum and the Neolithic Revolution. In Europe it spans roughly 15,000 to 5,000 BP, in Southwest Asia (the Epipalaeolithic Near East) roughly 20,000 to 8,000 BP. The term is less used of areas further east, and not all beyond Eurasia and North Africa.

The type of culture associated with the Mesolithic varies between areas, but it is associated with a decline in the group hunting of large animals in favour of a broader hunter-gatherer way of life, and the development of more sophisticated and typically smaller lithic tools and weapons than the heavy chipped equivalents typical of the Paleolithic. Depending on the region, some use of pottery and textiles may be found in sites allocated to the Mesolithic, but generally indications of agriculture are taken as marking transition into the Neolithic. The more permanent settlements tend to be close to the sea or inland waters offering a good supply of food. Mesolithic societies are not seen as very complex, and burials are fairly simple; grandiose burial mounds are another mark of the Neolithic.

Terminology

 Three-age_system § Stone_Age_subdivisions

Giacobbe Giusti, Mesolithic

Mesolithic microliths

The terms « Paleolithic » and « Neolithic » were introduced by John Lubbock in his work Pre-historic Times in 1865. The additional « Mesolithic » category was added as an intermediate category by Hodder Westropp in 1866. Westropp’s suggestion was immediately controversial. A British school led by John Evans denied any need for an intermediate: the ages blended together like the colors of a rainbow, he said. A European school led by Louis Laurent Gabriel de Mortillet asserted that there was a gap between the earlier and later.

Edouard Piette claimed to have filled the gap with his naming of the Azilian Culture. Knut Stjerna offered an alternative in the « Epipaleolithic », suggesting a final phase of the Paleolithic rather than an intermediate age in its own right inserted between the Paleolithic and Neolithic.

By the time of Vere Gordon Childe‘s work, The Dawn of Europe (1947), which affirms the Mesolithic, sufficient data had been collected to determine that a transitional period between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic was indeed a useful concept.^[1]However, the terms « Mesolithic » and « Epipalaeolitic » remain in competition, with varying conventions of usage. In the archaeology of Northern Europe, for example for archaeological sites in Great Britain, Germany, Scandinavia, Ukraine, and Russia, the term « Mesolithic » is almost always used. In the archaeology of other areas, the term « Epipaleolithic » may be preferred by most authors, or there may be divergences between authors over which term to use or what meaning to assign to each. In the New World, neither term is used (except provisionally in the Arctic).

« Epipaleolithic » is sometimes also used alongside « Mesolithic » for the final end of the Upper Paleolithic immediately followed by the Mesolithic.^[2] As « Mesolithic » suggests an intermediate period, followed by the Neolithic, some authors prefer the term « Epipaleolithic » for hunter-gatherer cultures who are not succeeded by agricultural traditions, reserving « Mesolithic » for cultures who are clearly succeeded by the Neolithic Revolution, such as the Natufian culture. Other authors use « Mesolithic » as a generic term for post-LGM hunter-gatherer cultures, whether they are transitional towards agriculture or not. In addition, terminology appears to differ between archaeological sub-disciplines, with « Mesolithic » being widely used in European archaeology, while « Epipalaeolithic » is more common in Near Eastern archaeology.

Europe

The Shigir Idol

Two skeletons of women aged between 25 and 35 years, dated between 6740 and 5680 BP, both of whom died a violent death. Found at Téviec, France in 1938.

Further information: Prehistoric_Europe § Mesolithic

The Mesolithic began with the Holocene warm period around 11,660 BP and ended with the introduction of farming, the date of which varied in each geographical region. Regions that experienced greater environmental effects as the last glacial period ended have a much more apparent Mesolithic era, lasting millennia.^[3] In northern Europe, for example, societies were able to live well on rich food supplies from the marshlands created by the warmer climate. Such conditions produced distinctive human behaviors that are preserved in the material record, such as the Maglemosian and Azilian cultures. Such conditions also delayed the coming of the Neolithic until as late as 5000–4000 BCE in northern Europe.

Animated image showing the sequence of engravings on a pendant excavated from the Mesolithic archaeological site of Starr Carr in 2015^[4]

The type of stone toolkit remains one of the most diagnostic features: the Mesolithic used a microlithic technology – composite devices manufactured with Mode V chipped stone tools (microliths), while the Paleolithic had utilized Modes I–IV. In some areas, however, such as Ireland, parts of Portugal, the Isle of Man and the Tyrrhenian Islands, a macrolithic technology was used in the Mesolithic.^[5] In the Neolithic, the microlithic technology was replaced by a macrolithic technology, with an increased use of polished stone tools such as stone axes.

There is some evidence for the beginning of construction at sites with a ritual or astronomical significance, including Stonehenge, with a short row of large post holes aligned east-west, and a possible « lunar calendar » at Warren Field in Scotland, with pits of post holes of varying sizes, thought to reflect the lunar phases. Both are dated to around 8,000 BCE.^[6]

As the « Neolithic package » (including farming, herding, polished stone axes, timber longhouses and pottery) spread into Europe, the Mesolithic way of life was marginalized and eventually disappeared. Mesolithic adaptations such as sedentism, population size and use of plant foods are cited as evidence of the transition to agriculture.^[7] In one sample from the Blätterhöhle in Hagen, it seems that the descendants of Mesolithic people maintained a foraging lifestyle for more than 2000 years after the arrival of farming societies in the area;^[8] such societies may be called « Subneolithic« . In north-Eastern Europe, the hunting and fishing lifestyle continued into the Medieval period in regions less suited to agriculture, and in Scandinavia no Mesolithic period may be accepted, with the locally preferred « Older Stone Age » moving into the « Younger Stone Age ».^[9]

Art

Roca dels Moros, Spain, The Dance of Cogul, tracing by Henri Breuil

Compared to the preceding Upper Paleolithic and the following Neolithic, there is rather less surviving art from the Mesolithic. The Rock art of the Iberian Mediterranean Basin, which probably spreads across from the Upper Paleolithic, is a widespread phenomenon, much less well known than the cave-paintings of the Upper Paleolithic, with which it makes an interesting contrast. The sites are now mostly cliff faces in the open air, and the subjects are now mostly human rather than animal, with large groups of small figures; there are 45 figures at Roca dels Moros. Clothing is shown, and scenes of dancing, fighting, hunting and food-gathering. The figures are much smaller than the animals of Paleolithic art, and depicted much more schematically, though often in energetic poses.^[10] A few small engraved pendants with suspension holes and simple engraved designs are known, some from northern Europe in amber, and one from Starr Carr in Britain in shale.^[11] The Elk’s Head of Huittinen is a rare Mesolithic animal carving in soapstone from Finland.

The rock art in the Urals appears to show similar changes after the Paleolithic, and the wooden Shigir Idol is a rare survival of what may well have been a very common material for sculpture. It is a plank of larch carved with geometric motifs, but topped with a human head. Now in fragments, it would apparently have been over 5 metres tall when made.^[12] The Ain Sakhri Lovers from modern Israel, are a Natufian carving in calcite.

Ceramic Mesolithic

In North-Eastern Europe, Siberia, and certain southern European and North African sites, a « ceramic Mesolithic » can be distinguished between 7000-3850 BCE. Russian archaeologists prefer to describe such pottery-making cultures as Neolithic, even though farming is absent. This pottery-making Mesolithic culture can be found peripheral to the sedentary Neolithic cultures. It created a distinctive type of pottery, with point or knob base and flared rims, manufactured by methods not used by the Neolithic farmers. Though each area of Mesolithic ceramic developed an individual style, common features suggest a single point of origin.^{[13][citation needed]} The earliest manifestation of this type of pottery may be in the region around Lake Baikal in Siberia. It appears in the Elshan or Yelshanka or Samara culture on the Volga in Russia c. 7000 BCE,^[14][15] and from there spread via the Dnieper-Donets culture to the Narva culture of the Eastern Baltic. Spreading westward along the coastline it is found in the Ertebølle culture of Denmark and Ellerbek of Northern Germany, and the related Swifterbant culture of the Low Countries.^[16]

^[17]

Cultures

Geographical range	Periodization	Culture	Temporal range	Notable sites
Southeastern Europe (Greece, Aegean)	Balkan Mesolithic		15,000–7,000 BP	Franchthi, Theopetra[18]
Southeastern Europe(Romania/Serbia)	Balkan Mesolithic	Iron Gates culture	13,000–5,000 BP	Lepenski Vir[19]
Western Europe	Early Mesolithic	Azilian	14,000–10,000 BP
Northern Europe (Norway)		Fosna-Hensbacka culture	12,000–10,500 BP
Northern Europe (Norway)	Early Mesolithic	Komsa culture	12,000–10,000 BP
Central Asia (Middle Urals)			12,000–5,000 BP	Shigir Idol, Vtoraya Beregovaya[20]
Northeastern Europe (Balticsand Russia)	Middle Mesolithic	Kunda culture	10,500–7,000 BP	Lammasmägi, Pulli settlement
Northern Europe		Maglemosian culture	11,000–8,000 BP
Western and Central Europe		Sauveterrian culture	10,500–8,500 BP
Western Europe (Great Britain)	British Mesolithic		11,000–5,500 BP	Star Carr, Howick house, Gough’s Cave, Cramond, Aveline’s Hole
Western Europe (Ireland)	Irish Mesolithic		11,000–5,500 BP	Mount Sandel
Western Europe (Belgium and France)		Tardenoisian culture	10,000–5,000 BP
Eastern Europe (Belarus, Lithuania and Poland)	Late Mesolithic	Neman culture	9,000–5,000 BP
Northern Europe (Scandinavia)		Nøstvet and Lihult cultures	8,200-5,200 BP
Northern Europe (Scandinavia)		Kongemose culture	8,000–7,200 BP
Northern Europe (Scandinavia)	Late Mesolithic	Ertebølle	7,300– 5,900 BP
Western Europe (Netherlands)	Late Mesolithic	Swifterbant	7,300–5,400 BP

Near East

Main article: Epipaleolithic Near East

Further information: Zarzian culture

The first period, known as Mesolithic 1 (Kebarian culture; from 20,000–18,000 BCE until 12,150 BCE), followed the Aurignacian or Levantine Upper Paleolithic periods throughout the Levant. By the end of the Aurignacian, gradual changes took place in stone industries. Small stone tools called microliths and retouched bladelets can be found for the first time. The microliths of this culture period differ greatly from the Aurignacian artifacts. This period is more properly called Epipaleolithic.

By 20,000–18,000 BCE the climate and environment had changed, starting a period of transition. The Levant became more arid and the forest vegetation retreated, to be replaced by steppe. The cool and dry period ended at the beginning of Mesolithic 1. The hunter-gatherers of the Aurignacian would have had to modify their way of living and their pattern of settlement to adapt to the changing conditions. The crystallization of these new patterns resulted in Mesolithic 1. New types of settlements and new stone industries developed.

The inhabitants of a small Mesolithic 1 site in the Levant left little more than their chipped stone tools behind. The industry was of small tools made of bladelets struck off single-platform cores. Besides bladelets, burins and end-scrapers were found. A few bone tools and some ground stone have also been found. These so-called Mesolithic sites of Asia are far less numerous than those of the Neolithic and the archeological remains are very poor. The second period, Mesolithic 2, is also called the Natufian culture. The change from Mesolithic 1 to Natufian culture can be dated more closely. The latest date from a Mesolithic 1 site in the Levant is 12,150 BCE. The earliest date from a Natufian site is 11,140 BCE.^{[citation needed]} This period is characterized by the early rise of agriculture that would later emerge into the Neolithic period. Radiocarbon dating places the Natufian culture between 12,500 and 9500 BCE, just before the end of the Pleistocene.^[21] This period is characterised by the beginning of agriculture.^[22] The earliest known battle occurred during the Mesolithic period at a site in Sudan known as Cemetery 117.

Natufian culture is commonly split into two subperiods: Early Natufian (12,500–10,800 BCE) (Christopher Delage gives c. 13,000–11,500 BP uncalibrated, equivalent to c. 13,700–11,500 BCE)^[23] and Late Natufian (10,800–9500 BCE). The Late Natufian most likely occurred in tandem with the Younger Dryas. The following period is often called the Pre-Pottery Neolithic; in the Levant, unlike elsewhere, « Mesolithic pottery » is not talked of.

Geographical range	Periodization	Culture	Temporal range	Notable sites
North Africa (Morocco)	Late Upper Paleolithic to Early Mesolithic	Iberomaurusian culture	24,000–10,000 BP
Southwest Asia(Caucasus, Iran)	Late Upper Paleolithic to Mesolithic	Zarzian culture	20,000–10,000 BP
Levant	Early Epipaleolithic	Kebaran	19,000–14,500 BP
Caucasus	Epipaleolithic	Trialetian	16,000–8,000 BP
Levant	Late Epipaleolithic	Natufian culture	14,500–11,500 BP
Levant (Israel)	Late Epipaleolithic	Harifian culture(Late Natufian)	10,800–10,000 BP
North Africa		Capsian culture	12,000–8,000 BP

« Mesolithic » outside of Western Eurasia

While Paleolithic and Neolithic have been found useful terms and concepts in the archaeology of China, and can be mostly regarded as happily naturalized, Mesolithic was introduced later, mostly after 1945, and does not appear to be a necessary or useful term in the context of China. Chinese sites that have been regarded as Mesolithic are better considered as « Early Neolithic ».^[24]

In the archaeology of India, the Mesolithic, dated roughly between 12,000 and 8,000 BP, remains a concept in use.^[25]

In the archaeology of the Americas, an Archaic or Meso-Indian period, following the Lithic stage, somewhat equates to the Mesolithic.

Geographical range	Periodization	Culture	Temporal range	Notable sites
North Africa (Morocco)	Late Upper Paleolithic to Early Mesolithic	Iberomaurusian culture	24,000–10,000 BP
North Africa		Capsian culture	12,000–8,000 BP
Central Asia (Middle Urals)			12,000–5,000 BP	Shigir Idol, Vtoraya Beregovaya[26]
East Asia (Japan)	Jōmon cultures		16,000–1,350 BP
East Asia (Korea)	Jeulmun pottery period		10,000–3,500 BP
South Asia (India)	South Asian Stone Age		12,000–4000 BP[27]	Bhimbetka rock shelters

Mesolithic.

• Holocene
• Hunter-gatherer
• Caucasian Hunter-Gatherer
• Western Hunter-Gatherer
• List of Stone Age art
• Younger Dryas
• Mammoth extinction
• History_of_archery#Prehistory

References

1. Jump up^ Linder, F. (1997). Social differentiering i mesolitiska jägar-samlarsamhällen. Uppsala.: Institutionen för arkeologi och antik historia, Uppsala universitet.
2. Jump up^ « final Upper Paleolithic industries occurring at the end of the final glaciation which appear to merge technologically into the Mesolithic » Bahn, Paul, ed. (2002). The Penguin archaeology guide. London: Penguin Books. ISBN0-14-051448-1.
3. Jump up^ Conneller, Chantal; Bayliss, Alex; Milner, Nicky; Taylor, Barry (2016). « The Resettlement of the British Landscape: Towards a chronology of Early Mesolithic lithic assemblage types ». Internet Archaeology. 42. doi:10.11141/ia.42.12.
4. Jump up^ Morgan, C.; Scholma-Mason, N. (2017). « Animated GIFs as Expressive Visual Narratives and Expository Devices in Archaeology ». Internet Archaeology (44). doi:10.11141/ia.44.11.
5. Jump up^ Driscoll, Killian (2006). The early prehistory in the west of Ireland: Investigations into the social archaeology of the Mesolithic, west of the Shannon, Ireland.
6. Jump up^ V. Gaffney; et al. « Time and a Place: A luni-solar ‘time-reckoner’ from 8th millennium BC Scotland ». Internet Archaeology. Retrieved 16 July 2013.
7. Jump up^ Price, Douglas, ed. (2000). Europe’s first farmers. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press. ISBN0521665728.
8. Jump up^ Bollongino, R.; Nehlich, O.; Richards, M. P.; Orschiedt, J.; Thomas, M. G.; Sell, C.; Fajkosova, Z.; Powell, A.; Burger, J. (2013). « 2000 Years of Parallel Societies in Stone Age Central Europe » (PDF). Science. 342 (6157): 479–481. doi:10.1126/science.1245049.
9. Jump up^ Bailey, Geoff and Spikins, Penny, Mesolithic Europe, p. 4, 2008, Cambridge University Press, ISBN0521855039, 9780521855037
10. Jump up^ Sandars, Nancy K., Prehistoric Art in Europe, Penguin (Pelican, now Yale, History of Art), pp. 87-96, 1968 (nb 1st edn.)
11. Jump up^ « 11,000 year old pendant is earliest known Mesolithic art in Britain », University of York
12. Jump up^ Geggel, Laura (25 April 2018). « This Eerie, Human-Like Figure Is Twice As Old As Egypt’s Pyramids ». Live Science. Retrieved 28 April 2018.
13. Jump up^ De Roevers, p.162-163
14. Jump up^ Anthony, D.W. (2007). « Pontic-Caspian Mesolithic and Early Neolithic societies at the time of the Black Sea Flood: a small audience and small effects ». In Yanko-Hombach, V.; Gilbert, A.A.; Panin, N.; Dolukhanov, P. M. The Black Sea Flood Question: changes in coastline, climate and human settlement. pp. 245–370. ISBN978-9402404654.
15. Jump up^ Anthony, David W. (2010). The horse, the wheel, and language : how Bronze-Age riders from the Eurasian steppes shaped the modern world. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. ISBN9780691148182.
16. Jump up^ Gronenborn, Detlef (2007). « Beyond the models: Neolithisation in Central Europe ». Proceedings of the British Academy. 144: 73–98.
17. Jump up^ Detlef Gronenborn, Beyond the models: Neolithisation in Central Europe, Proceedings of the British Academy, vol. 144 (2007), pp. 73-98 (87).
18. Jump up^ Sarah Gibbens, Face of 9,000-Year-Old Teenager Reconstructed, National Geographic, 19 January 2018.
19. Jump up^ Srejovic, Dragoslav (1972). Europe’s First Monumental Sculpture: New Discoveries at Lepenski Vir. ISBN0-500-39009-6.
20. Jump up^ Central Asia does not enter the Neolithic, but transitions from the Mesolithic to the Chalcolithic in the fourth millennium BC (metmuseum.org). The early onset of the Mesolithic in Central Asia and its importance for later European mesolithic cultures was understood only after 2015, with the radiocarbon dating of the Shigor idol to 11,500 years old. N.E. Zaretskaya et al., « Radiocarbon chronology of the Shigir and Gorbunovo archaeological bog sites, Middle Urals, Russia », Proceedings of the 6th International Radiocarbon and Archaeology Symposium, (E Boaretto and N R Rebollo Franco eds.), RADIOCARBON Vol 54, Nr 3–4, 2012, 783–794.
21. Jump up^ Munro, Natalie D. (2003). « Small game, the Younger Dryas, and the transition to agriculture in the southern Levant » (PDF). Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft für Urgeschichte. 12: 47–71.
22. Jump up^ Bar-Yosef, Ofer (1998). « The Natufian Culture in the Levant, Threshold to the Origins of Agriculture » (PDF). Evolutionary Anthropology. 6 (5): 159–177. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1520-6505(1998)6:5<159::AID-EVAN4>3.0.CO;2-7.
23. Jump up^ Delage, Christophe, ed. (2004). The last hunter-gatherers in the Near East. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports 1320. ISBN978-1-84171-389-2.
24. Jump up^ Zhang, Chi, The Mesolithic and the Neolithic in China (PDF), 1999, Documenta Praehistorica. Poročilo o raziskovanju paleolitika, neolotika in eneolitika v Sloveniji. Neolitske študije = Neolithic studies, [Zv.] 26 (1999), pp. 1-13 dLib
25. Jump up^ Sailendra Nath Sen, Ancient Indian History and Civilization, p. 23, 1999, New Age International, ISBN8122411983, 9788122411980
26. Jump up^ Central Asia does not enter the Neolithic, but transitions from the Mesolithic to the Chalcolithic in the fourth millennium BC (metmuseum.org). The early onset of the Mesolithic in Central Asia and its importance for later European mesolithic cultures was understood only after 2015, with the radiocarbon dating of the Shigor idol to 11,500 years old. N.E. Zaretskaya et al., « Radiocarbon chronology of the Shigir and Gorbunovo archaeological bog sites, Middle Urals, Russia », Proceedings of the 6th International Radiocarbon and Archaeology Symposium, (E Boaretto and N R Rebollo Franco eds.), RADIOCARBON Vol 54, Nr 3–4, 2012, 783–794.
27. Jump up^ The term « Mesolithic » is not a useful term for the periodization of the South Asian Stone Age, as certain tribes in the interior of the Indian subcontinent retained a mesolithic culture into the modern period, and there is no consistent usage of the term . The range 12,000–4000 BP is based on the combination of the ranges given by Agrawal et al. (1978) and by Sen (1999), and overlaps with the early Neolithic at Mehrgarh. D. P. Agrawal et al., « Chronology of Indian prehistory from the Mesolithic period to the Iron Age », Journal of Human Evolution Volume 7, Issue 1, January 1978, 37-44: « A total time bracket of c. 6000-2000 B.C. will cover the dated Mesolithic sites, e.g. Langhnaj, Bagor, Bhimbetka, Adamgarh, Lekhahia, etc. » (p. 38) S. N. Sen, Ancient Indian History and Civilization, 1999: « The Mesolithic period roughly ranges between 10,000 and 6,000 B.C. » (p. 23).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesolithic

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Hermitage Museum

Giacobbe Giusti, Hermitage Museum

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Hermitage Museum

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Hermitage Museum

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Hermitage Museum

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Hermitage Museum

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Hermitage Museum

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Hermitage Museum

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Hermitage Museum

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Hermitage Museum

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Hermitage Museum

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Hermitage Museum

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Hermitage Museum

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Hermitage Museum

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Hermitage Museum

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Hermitage Museum

Giacobbe Giusti, Hermitage Museum

Giacobbe Giusti, Hermitage Museum

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Hermitage Museum

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Hermitage Museum

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Hermitage Museum

Giacobbe Giusti, Hermitage Museum

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Hermitage Museum

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Hermitage Museum

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Hermitage Museum

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Hermitage Museum

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Hermitage Museum

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Hermitage Museum

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Hermitage Museum

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Hermitage Museum

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Hermitage Museum

An aerial view of the Winter Palace, Saint Petersburg, Russia. Altitude ~1,000 – 1,200 feet.

Website	hermitagemuseum.org

The State Hermitage Museum(Russian: Госуда́рственный Эрмита́ж, tr.Gosudárstvennyj Ermitáž, IPA: [ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪnɨj ɪrmʲɪˈtaʂ]) is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The largest in the world,^[2][3] it was founded in 1764 when Empress Catherine the Great acquired an impressive collection of paintings from the Berlin merchant Johann Ernst Gotzkowsky. The museum celebrates the anniversary of its founding each year on 7 December, Saint Catherine’s Day.^[4] It has been open to the public since 1852.

Its collections, of which only a small part is on permanent display, comprise over three million items (the numismatic collection accounts for about one third of them),^[5]including the largest collection of paintings in the world. The collections occupy a large complex of six historic buildings along Palace Embankment, including the Winter Palace, a former residence of Russian emperors. Apart from them, the Menshikov Palace, Museum of Porcelain, Storage Facility at Staraya Derevnya and the eastern wing of the General Staff Buildingare also part of the museum. The museum has several exhibition centers abroad. The Hermitage is a federal state property. Since July 1992, the director of the museum has been Mikhail Piotrovsky.^[6]

Of the six buildings in the main museum complex, five—namely the Winter Palace, Small Hermitage, Old Hermitage, New Hermitage and Hermitage Theatre—are open to the public. The entrance ticket for foreign tourists costs more than the fee paid by citizens of Russia and Belarus. However, entrance is free of charge the first Thursday of every month for all visitors, and free daily for students and children. The museum is closed on Mondays. The entrance for individual visitors is located in the Winter Palace, accessible from the Courtyard.

Etymology

A hermitage is the dwelling of a hermit or recluse. The word derives from Old French hermit, ermit « hermit, recluse », from Late Latin eremita, from Greek eremites, literally « people who live alone », which is in turn derived from ἐρημός (erēmos), « desert ». The building was initially given this name because of its exclusivity – in its early days, only a very few people were allowed to visit.

Buildings

Originally, the only building housing the collection was the « Small Hermitage ». Today, the Hermitage Museum encompasses many buildings on the Palace Embankment and its neighbourhoods. Apart from the Small Hermitage, the museum now also includes the « Old Hermitage » (also called « Large Hermitage »), the « New Hermitage », the « Hermitage Theatre« , and the « Winter Palace« , the former main residence of the Russian tsars. In recent years, the Hermitage has expanded to the General Staff Building on the Palace Square facing the Winter Palace, and the Menshikov Palace.

Giacobbe Giusti, Hermitage Museum

The Hermitage Museum complex. From left to right: Hermitage Theatre – Old Hermitage – Small Hermitage – Winter Palace (the « New Hermitage » is situated behind the Old Hermitage).

Collections

The Western European Art collection includes European paintings, sculpture, and applied art from the 13th to the 20th centuries. It is displayed, in about 120 rooms, on the first and second floor of the four main buildings. Drawings and prints are displayed in temporary exhibitions.

Egyptian antiquities

Egyptian Collection of the Hermitage Museum

Egyptian Hall

Since 1940, the Egyptian collection, dating back to 1852 and including the former Castiglione Collection, has occupied a large hall on the ground floor in the eastern part of the Winter Palace. It serves as a passage to the exhibition of Classical Antiquities. A modest collection of the culture of Ancient Mesopotamia, including a number of Assyrian reliefs from Babylon, Dur-Sharrukin and Nimrud, is located in the same part of the building.

Classical antiquities

The collection of Classical Antiquities occupies most of the ground floor of the Old and New Hermitage buildings. The interiors of the ground floor were designed by German architect Leo von Klenze in the Greek revival style in the early 1850s, using painted polished stucco and columns of natural marble and granite. One of the largest and most notable interiors of the first floor is the Hall of Twenty Columns, divided into three parts by two rows of grey monolithic columns of Serdobol granite, intended for the display of Graeco-Etruscan vases. Its floor is made of a modern marble mosaic imitating ancient tradition, while the stucco walls and ceiling are covered in painting.

The Room of the Great Vase in the western wing features the 2.57 m (8.4 ft) high Kolyvan Vase, weighing 19 t (42,000 lb), made of jasper in 1843 and installed before the walls were erected. While the western wing was designed for exhibitions, the rooms on the ground floor in the eastern wing of the New Hermitage, now also hosting exhibitions, were originally intended for libraries. The floor of the Athena Room in the south-eastern corner of the building, one of the original libraries, is decorated with an authentic 4th-century mosaic excavated in an early Christian basilica in Chersonesos in 1854.

The collection of Classical Antiquities feature Greek artifacts from the 3rd millennium – 5th century BC, Ancient Greek pottery, items from the Greek cities of the North PonticGreek colonies, Hellenistic sculpture and jewellery, including engraved gems and cameos, such as the famous Gonzaga Cameo, Italic art from the 9th to 2nd century BC, Roman marble and bronze sculpture and applied art from the 1st century BC – 4th century AD, including copies of Classical and Hellenistic Greek sculptures. One of the highlights of the collection is the Tauride Venus, which, according to latest research, is an original Hellenistic Greek sculpture rather than a Roman copy as it was thought before.^[7] There are, however, only a few pieces of authentic Classical Greek sculpture and sepulchral monuments.

Prehistoric art

On the ground floor in the western wing of the Winter Palace the collections of prehistoric artifacts and the culture and art of the Caucasus are located, as well as the second treasure gallery. The prehistoric artifacts date from the Paleolithic to the Iron Age and were excavated all over Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union and Russian Empire. Among them is a renowned collection of the art and culture of nomadic tribes of the Altaifrom Pazyryk and Bashadar sites, including the world’s oldest surviving knotted-pile carpet and a well-preserved wooden chariot, both from the 4th–3rd centuries BC. The Caucasian exhibition includes a collection of Urartu artifacts from Armenia and Western Armenia. Many of them were excavated at Teishebaini under the supervision of Boris Piotrovsky, former director of the Hermitage Museum.

Jewelry and decorative art

Four small rooms on the ground floor, enclosed in the middle of the New Hermitage between the room displaying Classical Antiquities, comprise the first treasure gallery, featuring western jewellery from the 4th millennium BC to the early 20th century AD. The second treasure gallery, located on the ground floor in the southwest corner of the Winter Palace, features jewellery from the Pontic steppes, Caucasus and Asia, in particular Scythian and Sarmatiangold. Visitors may only visit the treasure galleries as part of a guided tour.

Giacobbe Giusti, Hermitage Museum

The Pavilion Hall

Pavilion Hall, designed by Andrei Stackenschneider in 1858, occupies the first floor of the Northern Pavilion in the Small Hermitage. It features the 18th-century golden Peacock Clock by James Cox and a collection of mosaics. The floor of the hall is adorned with a 19th-century imitation of an ancient Roman mosaic.

Two galleries spanning the west side of the Small Hermitage from the Northern to Southern Pavilion house an exhibition of Western European decorative and applied art from the 12th to 15th century and the fine art of the Low Countries from the 15th and 16th centuries.

Italian Renaissance

The rooms on the first floor of the Old Hermitage were designed by Andrei Stakenschneider in revival styles in between 1851 and 1860, although the design survives only in some of them. They feature works of Italian Renaissance artists, including Giorgione, Titian, Veronese, as well as Benois Madonna and Madonna Litta attributed to Leonardo da Vincior his school.

Giacobbe Giusti, Hermitage Museum

The Small Italian Skylight Room

The Italian Renaissance galleries continues in the eastern wing of the New Hermitage with paintings, sculpture, majolica and tapestryfrom Italy of the 15th–16th centuries, including Conestabile Madonna and Madonna with Beardless St. Josephby Raphael. The gallery known as the Raphael Loggias, designed by Giacomo Quarenghi and painted by Cristopher Unterberger and his workshop in the 1780s as a replication of the loggia in the Apostolic Palace in Rome frescoed by Raphael, runs along the eastern facade.

Italian and Spanish fine art

The first floor of New Hermitage contains three large interior spaces in the center of the museum complex with red walls and lit from above by skylights. These are adorned with 19th-century Russian lapidary works and feature Italian and Spanish canvases of the 16th-18th centuries, including Veronese, Giambattista Pittoni, Tintoretto, Velázquez and Murillo. In the enfilade of smaller rooms alongside the skylight rooms the Italian and Spanish fine art of the 15th-17th centuries, including Michelangelo‘s Crouching Boy and paintings by El Greco.

The museum also houses paintings by Luis Tristán, Francisco de Zurbarán, Alonso Cano, José de Ribera and Goya.

Knights’ Hall

The Knights’ Hall, a large room in the eastern part of the New Hermitage originally designed in the Greek revival style for the display of coins, now hosts a collection of Western European arms and armour from the 15th-17th centuries, part of the Hermitage Arsenal collection. The Hall of Twelve Columns, in the southeast corner of the New Hermitage, is adorned with columns of grey Serdobolgranite and was also designed in the Greek revival style for the display of coins, is now used for temporary exhibitions.

Giacobbe Giusti, Hermitage Museum

The Three Graces by Canova

The Gallery of the History of Ancient Painting adjoins the Knights’ Hall and also flanks the skylight rooms. It was designed by Leo von Klenze in the Greek revival style as a prelude to the museum and features neoclassical marble sculptures by Antonio Canova and his followers. In the middle, the gallery opens to the main staircase of the New Hermitage, which served as the entrance to the museum before the October Revolution of 1917, but is now closed. The upper gallery of the staircase is adorned with twenty grey Serdobol granite columns and feature 19th-century European sculpture and Russian lapidary works.

Dutch Golden Age and Flemish Baroque

The Rubens Room

The rooms and galleries along the southern facade and in the western wing of the New Hermitage are now entirely devoted to Dutch Golden Age and Flemish Baroque paintingof the 17th century, including the large collections of Van Dyck, Rubens and Rembrandt. They also contain several paintings by Jan Brueghel the Elder (Velvet period), Frans Snyders (for example, The Fish Market), Gerard ter Borch, Paulus Potter, Jan van Goyen, Ferdinand Bol and Gerard van Honthorst.

German, Swiss, British and French fine art

The first floor rooms on the southern facade of the Winter Palace are occupied by the collections of German fine art of the 16th century and French fine art of the 15th–18th centuries, including paintings by Poussin, Lorrain, Watteau.

The collections of French decorative and applied art from the 17th–18th centuries and British applied and fine art from the 16th–19th century, including Thomas Gainsboroughand Joshua Reynolds, are on display in nearby rooms facing the courtyard. This area also holds paintings by German artists, including Hans Wertinger, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Barthel Bruyn the Elder, Caspar David Friedrich(Moonrise by the Sea), Anton Mengs, Hans Thoma, Anselm Feuerbach, Franz Stuck (Two Men Fighting Over a Woman) and Heinrich Campendonk as well as paintings by Swiss painters Angelica Kauffman, Alexandre Calame, Arnold Böcklin and Ferdinand Hodler.

Russian art

The richly decorated interiors of the first floor of the Winter Palace on its eastern, northern and western sides are part of the Russian culture collection and host the exhibitions of Russian art from the 11th-19th centuries. Temporary exhibitions are usually held in the Nicholas Hall.

French Neoclassical, Impressionist, and post-Impressionist art

The only portion of the second floor open to the public is in the Winter Palace. French Neoclassical, Impressionist and post-Impressionistart, including works by Renoir, Monet, Van Gogh and Gauguin, is displayed there in the southeastern corner. It also displays paintings by Camille Pissarro (Boulevard Montmartre, Paris), Paul Cézanne(Mount Sainte-Victoire), Alfred Sisley, Henri Morel, and Degas.

Modern, German Romantic and other 19-20th century art

Modern art is displayed in the General Staff Building (Saint Petersburg). It features Matisse, Derain and other fauvists, Picasso, Malevich, Kandinsky, Giacomo Manzù, Giorgio Morandi and Rockwell Kent. A large room is devoted to the German Romantic art of the 19th century, including several paintings by Caspar David Friedrich. The second floor of the Western wing features collections of the Oriental art (from China, India, Mongolia, Tibet, Central Asia, Byzantium and Near East).

Origins: Catherine’s collection

Catherine the Great started her art collection in 1764 by purchasing paintings from Berlin merchant Johann Ernst Gotzkowsky. He assembled the collection for Frederick II of Prussia, who ultimately refused to purchase it. Thus, Gotzkowsky provided 225 or 317 paintings (conflicting accounts list both numbers), mainly Flemish and Dutch, as well as others, including 90 not precisely identified, to the Russian crown.^[8] The collection consisted of Rembrandt(13 paintings), Rubens (11 paintings), Jacob Jordaens (7 paintings), Anthony van Dyck (5 paintings), Paolo Veronese (5 paintings), Frans Hals (3 paintings, including Portrait of a Young Man with a Glove), Raphael (2 paintings), Holbein (2 paintings), Titian (1 painting), Jan Steen (The Idlers), Hendrik Goltzius, Dirck van Baburen, Hendrick van Balen and Gerrit van Honthorst.^[9] Perhaps some of the most famous and notable artworks that were a part of Catherine’s original purchase from Gotzkowsky were Danae, painted by Rembrandt in 1636; Descent from the Cross, painted by Rembrandt in 1624; and Portrait of a Young Man Holding a Glove, painted by Frans Hals in 1650. These paintings remain in the Hermitage collection today.^[10]

Giacobbe Giusti, Hermitage Museum

Empress Catherine II

In 1764, Catherine commissioned Yury Felten to build an extension on the east of the Winter Palace which he completed in 1766. Later it became the Southern Pavilion of the Small Hermitage. In 1767–1769, French architect Jean-Baptiste Vallin de la Mothe built the Northern Pavilion on the Neva embankment. Between 1767 and 1775, the extensions were connected by galleries, where Catherine put her collections.^[11] The entire neoclassical building is now known as the Small Hermitage. During the time of Catherine, the Hermitage was not a public museum and few people were allowed to view its holdings. Jean-Baptiste Vallin de la Mothe also rebuilt rooms in the second story of the south-east corner block that was originally built for Elizabeth and later occupied by Peter III. The largest room in this particular apartment was the Audience Chamber (also called the Throne Hall) which consisted of 227 square meters.^[10]

The Hermitage buildings served as a home and workplace for nearly a thousand people, including the Imperial family. In addition to this, they also served as an extravagant showplace for all kinds of Russian relics and displays of wealth prior to the art collections. Many events were held in these buildings including masquerades for the nobility, grand receptions and ceremonies for state and government officials. The « Hermitage complex » was a creation of Catherine’s that allowed all kinds of festivities to take place in the palace, the theatre and even the museum of the Hermitage. This helped solidify the Hermitage as not only a dwelling place for the Imperial family, but also as an important symbol and memorial to the imperial Russian state. Today, the palace and the museum are one and the same. In Catherine’s day, the Winter Palace served as a central part of what was called the Palace Square. The Palace Square served as St. Petersburg’s nerve center by linking it to all the city’s most important buildings. The presence of the Palace Square was extremely significant to the urban development of St. Petersburg, and while it became less of a nerve center later into the 20th century, its symbolic value was still very much preserved.^[12]

Catherine acquired the best collections offered for sale by the heirs of prominent collectors. In 1769, she purchased Brühl‘s collection, consisting of over 600 paintings and a vast number of prints and drawings, in Saxony. Three years later, she bought Crozat‘s collection of paintings in France with the assistance of Denis Diderot. Next, in 1779, she acquired the collection of 198 paintings that once belonged to Robert Walpole in London followed by a collection of 119 paintings in Paris from Count Baudouin in 1781. Catherine’s favorite items to collect were believed to be engraved gems and cameos. At the inaugural exhibit of the Hermitage, opened by the Prince of Wales in November 2000, there was an entire gallery devoted to representing and displaying Catherine’s favorite items. In this gallery her cameos are displayed along with cabinet made by David Roentgen, which holds her engraved gems. As the symbol of Minerva was frequently used and favored by Catherine to represent her patronage of the arts, a cameo of Catherine as Minerva is also displayed here. This particular cameo was created for her by her daughter-in-law, the Grand Duchess Maria Fyodorovna. This is only a small representation of Catherine’s vast collection of many antique and contemporary engraved gems and cameos.^[13]

Giacobbe Giusti, Hermitage Museum

View of the Palace Embankment by Karl Beggrov, 1826. The Old Hermitage is in the middle of the painting.

The collection soon overgrew the building. In her lifetime, Catherine acquired 4,000 paintings from the old masters, 38,000 books, 10,000 engraved gems, 10,000 drawings, 16,000 coins and medals and a natural history collection filling two galleries,^[14] so in 1771 she commissioned Yury Felten to build another major extension. The neoclassical building was completed in 1787 and has come to be known as the Large Hermitage or Old Hermitage. Catherine also gave the name of the Hermitage to her private theatre, built nearby between 1783 and 1787 by the Italian architect Giacomo Quarenghi.^[15] In London in 1787, Catherine acquired the collection of sculpture that belonged to Lyde Browne, mostly Ancient Roman marbles. Catherine used them to adorn the Catherine Palaceand park in Tsarskoye Selo, but later they became the core of the Classical Antiquities collection of the Hermitage. From 1787 to 1792, Quarenghi designed and built a wing along the Winter Canal with the Raphael Loggias to replicate the loggia in the Apostolic Palace in Rome designed by Donato Bramante and frescoed by Raphael.^[11][16][17] The loggias in Saint Petersburg were adorned with copies of Vatican frescoes painted by Cristopher Unterberger and his workshop in the 1780s.

Catherine succeeded in accomplishing a huge achievement in the art world. She collected thousands of impressive pieces of artwork that were numerous in size and value. In her collection, at least 4,000 paintings came to rival the older and more prestigious museums of Western Europe. Catherine took great pride in her collection, and actively participated in extensive competitive art gathering and collecting that was prevalent in European royal court culture. Through Catherine’s art collection, she gained European acknowledgment and acceptance, and portrayed Russia as an enlightened society, another feat that Catherine took great pride in. Catherine went on to invest much of her identity in being a patron for the arts. She was particularly fond of the popular deity, Minerva, whose characteristics according to classical tradition are symbolic of military prowess, wisdom, and patronage of the arts. Using the title, Catherine the Minerva, she personally created new institutions of literature and culture and also participated in many projects of her own, mostly having to do with play writing. The representation of Catherine alongside Minerva would come to be a known tradition of enlightened patronage in Russia.^[18]

Expansion in the 19th century

Giacobbe Giusti, Hermitage Museum

The Raphael Loggias

Giacobbe Giusti, Hermitage Museum

Portico with atlantes, historical entrance

In 1815, Alexander I of Russiapurchased 38 pictures from the heirs of Joséphine de Beauharnais, most of which had been looted by the French in Kassel during the war. The Hermitage collection of Rembrandts was then considered the largest in the world. Also among Alexander’s purchases from Josephine’s estate were the first four sculptures by the neoclassical Italian sculptor Antonio Canova to enter the Hermitage collection.

Eventually the imperial collections were enriched by Greek and Scythian artifacts excavated within the Russian Empire.

Between 1840 and 1843, Vasily Stasov redesigned the interiors of the Southern Pavilion of the Small Hermitage. In 1838, Nicholas Icommissioned the neoclassical German architect Leo von Klenze to design a building for the public museum. Space for the museum was made next to the Small Hermitage by the demolition of the Shepelev Palace and royal stables. The construction was overseen by the Russian architects Vasily Stasovand Nikolai Yefimov in 1842–1851 and incorporated Quarenghi’s wing with the Raphael Loggias.

In 1851, in Venice the museum acquired the collection of Cristoforo Barbarigo, including five more canvases by Titian. Today, all of the paintings but one (Danaë) by Titian in the Hermitage Museum came to St. Petersburg from the Barbarigo collection.

The New Hermitage was opened to the public on 5 February 1852.^[19] In the same year the Egyptian Collection of the Hermitage Museumemerged, and was particularly enriched by items given by the Duke of Leuchtenberg, Nicholas I’s son-in-law. Meanwhile, in 1851–1860, the interiors of the Old Hermitage were redesigned by Andrei Stackensneider to accommodate the State Assembly, Cabinet of Ministers and state apartments. Stakenschneider created the Pavilion Hall in the Northern Pavilion of the Small Hermitage in 1851–1858.^[11]

Until the 1920s, the museum’s entrance was under the portico supported by five-metre high atlantes of grey Serdobol granite from Finland in the middle of the southern facade of the New Hermitage building.

In 1861, the Hermitage purchased from the Papal government part of the Giampietro Campana collection, which consisted mostly classical antiquities. These included over 500 vases, 200 bronzes and a number of marble statues. The Hermitage acquired Madonna Litta, which was then attributed to Leonardo, in 1865, and Raphael’s Connestabile Madonna in 1870. In 1884 in Paris, Alexander III of Russia acquired the collection of Alexander Basilewski, featuring European medieval and Renaissance artifacts. In 1885, the Arsenal collection of arms and armour, founded by Alexander I of Russia, was transferred from the Catherine Palace in Tsarskoye Seloto the Hermitage. In 1914, Leonardo’s Benois Madonna was added to the collection.

After the October Revolution

Immediately after the Revolution of 1917 the Imperial Hermitage and Winter Palace, former Imperial residence, were proclaimed state museums and eventually merged.

The range of the Hermitage’s exhibits was further expanded when private art collections from several palaces of the Russian Tsars and numerous private mansions were nationalized and redistributed among major Soviet state museums. Particularly notable was the influx of old masters from the Catherine Palace, the Alexander Palace, the Stroganov Palace and the Yusupov Palace as well as from other palaces of Saint Petersburg and suburbs.

In 1922, an important collection of 19th-century European paintings was transferred to the Hermitage from the Academy of Arts. In turn, in 1927 about 500 important paintings were transferred to the Central Museum of old Western art in Moscow at the insistence of the Soviet authorities. In the early 1930s, 70 more paintings were sent there. After 1932, a number of less significant works of art were transferred to new museums all over the Soviet Union.

In 1928, the Soviet government ordered the Hermitage to compile a list of valuable works of art for export. In 1930–1934, over two thousand works of art from the Hermitage collection were clandestinely sold at auctions abroad or directly to foreign officials and businesspeople. The sold items included Raphael‘s Alba Madonna, Titian‘s Venus with a Mirror, and Jan van Eyck‘s Annunciation, among other world known masterpieces by Botticelli, Rembrandt, Van Dyck, and others. In 1931, after a series of negotiations, Andrew W. Mellonacquired 21 works of art from the Hermitage and later donated to form a nucleus of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. (see also Soviet sale of Hermitage paintings).

Giacobbe Giusti, Hermitage Museum

A room in the Winter Palace

Giacobbe Giusti, Hermitage Museum

Soviet ski troops by the portico during the Siege of Leningrad

With the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, before the Siege of Leningrad started, two trains with a considerable part of the collections were evacuated to Sverdlovsk. Two bombs and a number of shells hit the museum buildings during the siege. The museum opened an exhibition in November 1944. In October 1945 the evacuated collections were brought back, and in November 1945 the museum reopened.

In 1948, 316 works of Impressionist, post-Impressionist, and modern artfrom the collection of the Museum of New Western Art in Moscow, originating mostly from the nationalized collections of Sergei Shchukin and Ivan Morozov and disestablished before the war, were transferred to the Hermitage, including works by Matisse and Picasso. Beginning in 1967, a number of works by Matisse were donated to the museum by his muse Lydia Delectorskaya.

In 1981, the restored Menshikov Palace became a new branch of the Hermitage museum, displaying Russian culture of the early 18th century.

On 15 June 1985, a man later judged insane attacked Rembrandt’s painting Danaë, displayed in the museum. He threw sulfuric acid on the canvas and cut it twice with his knife. The restoration of the painting had been accomplished by Hermitage experts by 1997, and Danaë is now on display behind armoured glass.

The Hermitage since 1991

In 1991, it became known that some paintings looted by the Red Army in Germany in 1945 were held in the Hermitage. Only in October 1994 the Hermitage officially announced that it had secretly been holding a major trove of French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings from German private collections. The exhibition « Hidden Treasures Revealed », where 74 of the paintings were displayed for the first time, was opened on 30 March 1995, in the Nicholas Hall of the Winter Palace and lasted a year. Of the paintings, all but one originated from private rather than state German collections, including 56 paintings from the Otto Krebs collection, as well as the collection of Bernhard Koehler and paintings previously belonging to Otto Gerstenberg and his daughter Margarete Scharf, including world-famous Place de la Concorde by Degas, In the Garden by Renoir, White House at Night by Van Gogh, and some other collections.^[20][21][22]Some of the paintings are now on permanent display in several small rooms in the northeastern corner of the Winter Palace on the first floor.^[23][24]

In 1993, the Russian government gave eastern wing of the nearby General Staff Building across the Palace Square to the Hermitage and the new exhibition rooms in 1999. Since 2003, the Great Courtyard of the Winter Palace has been open to the public providing another entrance to the museum. Also in 2003, the Museum of Porcelain opened as a part of the Hermitage on the basis of the Imperial Porcelain Factory.

In December 2004, the museum discovered another looted work of art: Venus disarming Mars by Rubens was once in the collection of the Rheinsberg Palace in Berlin, and was apparently looted by Soviet troops from the Königsberg Castle in East Prussia in 1945. At the time, Mikhail Piotrovsky said the painting would be cleaned and displayed.^[25]

The museum announced in July 2006, that 221 minor items, including jewelry, Orthodox icons, silverware and richly enameled objects, had been stolen. The value of the stolen items was estimated to be approximately $543,000 but by the end of 2006 several of the stolen items were recovered.^[26]

Dependencies

Giacobbe Giusti, Hermitage Museum

Deer golden plaque from Krasnodar, beginning of 6th century BC

In recent years, the Hermitage launched several dependencies abroad and domestically.

Hermitage Amsterdam

Hermitage Amsterdam

The dependency of the Hermitage Museum in Amsterdam is known as the Hermitage Amsterdam, and is located in the former Amstelhofbuilding. It opened on 24 February 2004 in a small building on the Nieuwe Herengracht in Amsterdam, awaiting the closing of the retirement home which still occupied the Amstelhof building until 2007. Between 2007 and 2009, the Amstelhof was renovated and made suitable for the housing of the Amsterdam Hermitage. The Amsterdam Hermitage was opened on 19 June 2009 by President Dmitry Medvedev and Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands.^[27]

Hermitage-Kazan Exhibition Center

The Hermitage dependency in Kazan (Tatarstan, Russia), opened in 2005. It was created with support from President of the Republic of Tatarstan Mintimer Shaimiev and is a subdivision of the Kazan Kremlin State Historical and Architectural Museum-Park. The museum is situated in the Kazan Kremlin in an edifice previously occupied by the Junker School built in the beginning of the 19th century.^[28]

Ermitage Italia, Ferrara

Following the prior experiences in London, Las Vegas, Amsterdam and Kazan, the Hermitage foundation decided to create a further branch in Italy with the launch of a national bid. Several northern Italian cities expressed interest such as Verona, Mantua, Ferrara and Turin. In 2007, the honor was awarded to the city of Ferrara which proposed its Castle Estense as the base. Since then, the new institution called Ermitage Italia started a research and scientific collaboration with the Hermitage foundation.^[29]

Hermitage-Vyborg Center

Hermitage-Vyborg Center

Hermitage-Vyborg Center was opened in June 2010 in Vyborg, Leningrad Oblast.

Hermitage Barcelona

In 2012, the State Hermitage Museum and the Government of Catalonia confirmed their intention of establishing in Barcelona a Hermitage-Barcelona museum center, due to open in 2019.

Hermitage Exhibition Center, Vladivostok

A Hermitage branch is due to open in Vladivostok by 2016, and the regional government has allocated more than Rb17.7 million ($558,000) for preliminary reconstruction work on a mansion in Vladivostok’s historic downtown district to house the satellite.^[30]

Hermitage-Siberia, Omsk

The Hermitage-Siberia is due to open in Omsk in 2016.^[30]

Guggenheim Hermitage Museum, Vilnius

In recent years, there have been proposals to open a Vilnius Guggenheim Hermitage Museum in the capital city of Lithuania. Like the former Las Vegas dependency, the Museum is to combine artworks from the Saint Petersburg Hermitage with works from the New York Guggenheim Museum.^[31]

Former dependencies

The Guggenheim Hermitage Museum in Las Vegas opened on 7 October 2001 and closed on 11 May 2008.^[32] The Hermitage Rooms in London’s Somerset House opened on 25 November 2000.^[33] The exhibition was closed permanently in November 2007 due to poor visitor numbers.^[34]

Volunteer service

Hermitage Volunteer Service

The Hermitage Volunteer Service offers all those interested a unique opportunity to involve themselves in running this world-renowned museum. The program not only aids the Hermitage with its external and internal activities but also serves as an informal link between the museum staff and the public, bringing the specific knowledge of the museum’s experts to the community. Volunteers may also develop projects reflecting their own personal goals and interests: communicate a feeling of responsibility to the youth so as to help them understand the value of tradition and the necessity of its preservation.

Cats

One of the Hermitage cats

A population of cats lives on the museum grounds and serves as an attraction.^[35]

Films

• Russian Ark (2002), the Russian film by Alexander Sokurov, was filmed entirely in the Hermitage Museum, showing the Winter Palace at various stages of its history.
• War and Peace (1966–67), an Oscar-winning Soviet adaptation of the novel by Leo Tolstoy, was partially filmed in the Winter Palace.

Television

‘Culture,’ a Russian national television channel, has been presenting the various art collections of the Hermitage to the general public for years. There are a series of programs that have aired entitled ‘My Hermitage’ that have been particularly successful. All of these programs are organized by the Director of the Hermitage, Professor Mikhail Piotrovsky, and are quite similar to the broadcasts created by Academician Boris Piotrovsky, who is Mikhail’s father. These programs were first broadcast through the Soviet Union’s ‘First’ channel, airing at the height of the museum’s boom. During this time, this channel recorded more than three million visitors every year, mostly from the Soviet Union. Another program created by the Hermitage was called ‘The Treasures of St. Petersburg,’ and was broadcast on the St. Petersburg regional television. This program gave insight into what exhibitions were being displayed at the Hermitage.^[36]

Treasures of St Petersburg & The Hermitage, (2003) a three-part documentary series for Channel 5 in the UK, directed by Graham Addicott and produced by Pille Runk. An Anglo-Estonian co-production by First Freedom Productions and Allfilm. DVD Cat No BDV057

‘Hermitage Revealed’ (2014) is a BBC documentary from Margy Kinmonth. The film tells the story of its journey from imperial palace to state museum, investigating remarkable tales of dedication, devotion, ownership and ultimate sacrifice, showing how the collection came about, how it survived tumultuous revolutionary times and what makes the Hermitage unique today.^[37]

Literature

• To the Hermitage, by Malcolm Bradbury, retells the story of Diderot‘s journey to Russia to meet Catherine the Great in her Hermitage.
• Petersburg, by Andrey Bely, features the Winter Canal near the palace as one of its central locations, but never names the Winter Palace directly.
• Ghostwritten, by David Mitchell, features as one of its protagonists a woman who works for an art counterfeiting ring whilst masquerading a docent in a gallery room on the upper floor of the Large Hermitage.
• The Madonnas of Leningrad, a novel by Debra Dean, features the Hermitage during World War II.
• Sancar Seckiner’s new book Thilda’s House (Thilda’nın Evi), published March 2017, consists of 15 chapters. One of them, chapter XV, highlights writer’s experience at Hermitage Museum by indicating several masterworks of the 15th–19th centuries. ISBN978-605-4160-88-4

Games

• The Hermitage appears in the video games Civilization IV, Civilization V and Civilization VIas a wonder of the world.^[38]
• The Hermitage appears in the first mission of the Soviet campaign in the video game Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3; it is under attack from forces of the Empire of the Rising Sun.

Giacobbe Giusti, Hermitage Museum

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  Ancient Egyptian: Limestone stele of a chief potter (18th century BC)

   

Giacobbe Giusti, Hermitage Museum

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  Ancient Near East: Urartu deity (7th–5th century BC)

   

Giacobbe Giusti, Hermitage Museum

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  Ancient Greek: Red-figure vase(5th century BC)

   

Giacobbe Giusti, Hermitage Museum

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  Ancient Steppes: Pazyryk horseman (3rd century BC)

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  Hellenistic: Gonzaga Cameo (3rd century BC)

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  Ancient Roman: Bust of Lucius Verus (160–170)

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  Indian: statue of Buddha (2nd–3rd century)

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  Gothic: Anjou Legendarium(1330)

   

Giacobbe Giusti, Hermitage Museum

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  Early Renaissance: Madonna Litta by Leonardo da Vinci (c. 1490)

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  High Renaissance: Penitent Magdalene by Titian (1565)

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  Mannerism: Saint Peter and Saint Paul by El Greco (1592)

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  Italian Baroque: The Lute Playerby Caravaggio (1596)

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  Spanish Baroque: The Lunch by Diego Velázquez (1617)

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  Dutch Baroque: Danaë by Rembrandt (1636)

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  Classicism: Tancred and Herminia by Nicolas Poussin(1649)

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  The Sacrifice of Polyxena by Giambattista Pittoni (c.1720s)

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  English: Woman in Blue by Thomas Gainsborough (c. 1770s)

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  Rococo: The Stolen Kiss by Jean-Honoré Fragonard (c. 1780)

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  Neoclassicism: Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss by Antonio Canova (1800–1803)

   

Giacobbe Giusti, Hermitage Museum

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  Romanticism: Portrait of Antonia Zarate by Francisco Goya (1810)

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  Persian: Portrait of Fath Ali Shah(1813–1814)

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  Impressionism: Woman in a Garden by Claude Monet (1867)

   

Giacobbe Giusti, Hermitage Museum

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  Post-Impressionism: White House at Night by Vincent van Gogh (1890)

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  Picasso’s Rose Period: Femme au café (Absinthe Drinker) by Pablo Picasso (1901–02)

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  Proto-Cubism: Dryad, by Pablo Picasso (1908)

   

Giacobbe Giusti, Hermitage Museum

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  Fauvism: The Dance by Henri Matisse (1910)

   

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  Maratha India: A Maratha Armor and Helmet

   

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  Abstract: Composition VI by Wassily Kandinsky (1913)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermitage_Museum

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com