A letter from the Director of the Hermitage
"Judge for yourselves"

The Hermitage Magazine exists for three years now thanks to the generosity of Michael Maltsov, to the enterprising nature of its first editor Geraldine Norman and to the selfless contributions of many of our colleagues. However, any publication built on sponsorship and enthusiasm has its limits. Therefore we decided to change the style and character of the magazine and to make it more open to the general public. Our new partner is the well-known publisher Derk Sauer and Independent Media Sanoma Magazines. The Dutch ties, which are traditional for the Hermitage, have thus expanded.

The change has not been a simple task. We want to preserve the museum spirit and its international nature.. One has to remember that the word "Hermitage" means the Museum for some people, whereas for others it is an amusement center in Moscow. The magazine is not only published in two languages. It is addressed to lovers of art and to devotees of the Hermitage around the world. You will judge for yourselves whether we have succeeded in this task.

There is in this magazine an intriguing element. Our new editor-in-chief says she does not like large museums. She promises to get at the small charms of a large museum which are inaccessible to a visitor rushing through the museum halls. You will judge for yourselves whether this has worked.

The key word in this issue is EMPIRE. Empires give birth to universal museums and their supranational ideology. The lives of empires, their transformations and death are reflected in these museums and are "remembered" for centuries. This is one of the main tales which the Hermitage suggests to people. You will judge for yourselves whether this point of view is obvious from the magazine’s pages.

Our exhibitions are full of thematic approaches and discoveries that are not at once obvious. The exhibition on the culture of Austria-Hungary leads to reflections on our own "silver age" in Russia. The exhibition on Alexander I tells us about patricide and a mysterious departure. The Hermitage’s participation in the exhibition Russia! in New York added to the spiral of "icons" of Russian art a horizontal narrative about Russian art collecting as the context for artistic creativity. The comparisons are very instructive. Judge for yourselves.

The cover of this issue features a well known Hermitage sculpture, the bust of Emperor Philip the Arabian as seen from an unexpected angle. We hope that the perspective on the Hermitage which we are offering will be recognizable. The Hermitage’s experience justifies looking at the artistic world through its prism. It seems to us this is very interesting. Whether or not this is so - you will judge for yourselves.

Director of the State Hermitage Mikhail Piotrovsky

Contents of the magazine:

A message from the editor-in-chief

Events

"The Large Hermitage" in Amsterdam
Russian digest
A conceptual product
The Kremlin in Las Vegas
Porcelain boom
New acquisitions (monuments from the age of Alexander)
Mstislav Dobuzhinsky. At the Drouot Montaigne auction.
A south-easterly direction

Empire

Arkady Ippolitov
Dea Roma
An image of the main imperial city in world history: real Rome and mythological Rome as seen by Piranesi, Fellini and Greenway

Richard Wortman
The theater of power
Coronations, weddings, funerals - for members of imperial families these are hardly just personal matters.
The scenarios of power in the Russian Empire - the symbolism and pragmatic side of rituals

Alexander Stepanov
A paper city
Dostoevsky believed that Imperial Petersburg was streets consisting of yellow buildings with white columns. But the city became imperial much earlier than when construction like this appeared. It was born in the mind of Peter the Great and his architects.

Julia Yakovleva
Ballet imperial
The love for ballet was common among almost all of Russia’s rulers from the late 18th century onwards.
Classical ballet as a form of self-presentation of power

Imperial exhibitions

Viktor Faibisovich
Alexander I

Sergei Khodnev
Vienna and Budapest

John Man
The Golden Horde

Photo session

Vladimir Kuprianov
Hermitage staircases
How many staircases are there in the Hermitage buildings? This is something that most likely is known only by the most senior officials in the museum. Photographer Vladimir Kuprianov saw about thirty and composed his photo stories about them.

Iconography

Arkady Ippolitov
Eagles
Eagles are the fauna most often seen in the Hermitage. They are everywhere: on the walls, the ceilings, on textiles, paintings, desks, chandeliers and cups. Here is the history of one iconographic motif.

Portrait

Anna Tolstova
Against the background of Matisse
Lydia Delektorskaya was the personal assistant of Henri Matisse for more than 20 years. When she was hired, she did not know who he was. After his death, there was no one more devoted to the artist’s memory.

Featured Collection

The house STAR built
Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber’s collection: one of the best known collections of Victorian paintings in the world. Geraldine Norman meets the composer.

Conversations

Art Moscow:

Childhood is over
The Hermitage Central House of Artists invited gallery owners, artists and curators for whom the year gone by was a turning point to participate in a Round Table discussion.

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books, exhibitions, cinema, theater, music

Friends of the Hermitage

News about the societies of Hermitage Friends

Upcoming Events

Announcements of future Moscow and St Petersburg exhibitions

My Hermitage

Andrei Bilzho

Contact Information:
Contact person: Maria Berntseva
Director of Marketing
E-mail: berntseva@sptimes.ru
Telephone: +7 812 325 60 80

The Awards Ceremony