Letter from the Director of the Hermitage
The Body and Soul of the Hermitage

It goes without saying that for a subject such as "body" the Hermitage provides an inexhaustible source of material. The Hermitage has a physical presence which fits into a certain landscape. This is an architectural space highlighted by groups of outdoor sculptures - the figures atop the roof of the Winter Palace, the solemn monuments to artists on the facades of the New Hermitage and the festive statues on the Arch of the General Staff building. They connect the inner world of the museum with the surrounding world and engage it in a lively dialogue to which the birds often make their own contribution. As the archival photos published in this issue show, athletes also join in this dialogue: we see them graphically recorded by the Winter Palace, the Imperial Guards' Offices, on Millionnaya Street near the stone Atlases of the New Hermitage.

Strictly speaking, the "body" is the entire Hermitage complex as delimited by the windows of the museum, the Neva, the square. The architecture has captured the various ages of this body - the young and merry Winter Palace, the mature and serious New Hermitage, and the General Staff building which has reached advanced age and has developed a belly. All of this taken together may be called the "body" of the Hermitage. The exhibits are its blood, while Russian history is its soul.

Every physical object has both attractive and less attractive parts. That is also true of the Hermitage and of its magazine. Such a state of affairs is normal, and therefore we do not object if we are occasionally criticized. The reader can appreciate our openness in several of the reviews published here. Birth marks can only make a beautiful body more appealing.

Mikhail Piotrovsky
Director of the State Hermitage

Table of Contents:

From the Editor-in-Chief

Events

100th Anniversary of Shostakovich in the Mariinsky Theatre
Tretyakov Gallery's Anniversary
Porcelain Coats of Arms
Spring of the millions
Everything works to the market's advantage
New Acquisitions
Delicate work

Body

Ilya Utekhin
Mirror and Pain
The body as an instrument used by culture

Mikhail Piotrovsky
Beauty without body
The Islamic Recipe

Yulia Yakovleva
A balletic body
Ballet cannot tolerate a human body

Yan Levchenko
Putting on flesh
Without thinking about the body, the Revolution strived to discover it

Irina Uvarova
Useful advice
Doll's formula: "small body + dress." This does not prevent writing her love letters, fearing her and worshiping her

Body: exhibitions

Kira Dolinina
Hogarth, Hockney and Stravinsky

Dmitry Ozerkov
The education of Cupid

Body: remarks

Yan Levchenko
The erotic nature of work

Philippe Fedchin
Monumental body

Vadim Bass
What little boys were made of

Roman Grigoriev
Man in a uniform

Oleg Kovalev
Invalids of the Reich

Vadim Bass
An engaging magic

Photo Session

Yevgeni Mokhorev
Cold warm

Yuri Molodkovets
Packaging

Iconography

Arkady Ippolitov
Aphrodite
The image of Aphrodite expresses most completely and passionately man's absorption in the dialogue with his body. Which Aphrodites and Venuses you can find in the Hermitage and where they are.

Conversations

Alexei Tarkhanov
Knight of the tower
Norman Foster has brought his exhibition to Russia at just the time when some projects for him have arisen. Hermitage Magazine used this opportunity to chat with him.

.doc

books
exhibitions
polemic

Friends of the Hermitage

Forecast

Announcements of forthcoming exhibitions at Russian and foreign museums

My Hermitage

Eric Van Egeraat

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

Hermitage Magazine, Summer 2006, No. 3