|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 
To the Founder of St Petersburg This weighty catalogue was compiled by a group of research staff from the State Hermitage and is devoted to one of the most important exhibitions of 2003, the year of the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg. "St. Petersburg is the Son of Moscow" an article written by Hermitage director M. B. Piotrovsky, holder of a doctorate in history, opens the edition. He defines the basic idea of the exhibition in the following terms: "The 300 years of St.Petersburg's history show that the Petrine revolution was a natural continuation of Russian history of the previous ages. The Hermitage... tries to reproduce the atmosphere of the great age of Peter I, showing that with all the uniqueness of that almost mythical creator of the time, the period itself was but part of the long and amazing history of Russia, which started long before and continues to amaze us to this day." Articles in the catalogue tell us about the personality of emperor Peter I as a reformer, politician and military leader; about the collection of memorabilia, the Cabinet of Peter the Great, the library and the archive that contains documents with the tsar's autograph. Peter I is represented as a collector of fine arts and the founder of mineralogical, biological, archaeological, and numismatic collections as well as the founder of museums as an institution in Russia. An article entitled "The Audicious Dare" is dedicated to the first years of constructing the new capital of Russia on the Neva's banks at the outlet to the Baltic Sea, which became one of the most beautiful cities in the world by the beginning of the 19th century. The catalogue presents about 2300 of the items on display in the exhibition, many of which are published here for the first time. The catalogue is 440 pages long and has over 600 color illustrations. |
|
|||||
|
Copyright © 2011 State Hermitage Museum |
