Venetian Renaissance Rooms Open after Restoration

On 27 May, 2003, the Venetian Renaissance rooms opened after restoration. This gift for the Jubilee of St. Petersburg was prepared by the Hermitage jointly with a major financial institution of Italy, Banco Intesa (Milan), which sponsored the repairs.

The suite of halls was rebuilt by architect A.I. Stackenschneider in the middle of the 19th century. The new exhibition combines palace interiors with modern museum grounds. All the engineering networks have been upgraded, including alarm and lighting systems. The exhibition has also been modified. The masterpieces of the Hermitage collection, the works by Giorgione, Sebastiano del Piombo, Lorenzo Lotto, Titian and Veronese, have returned to their usual places. However, though the previous scheme of display has been preserved, the gallery has been substantially expanded and enriched by paintings which previously were showed only in temporary exhibitions. Special note should be taken of the paintings which have only recently been restored in the Hermitage studios. Some of them have already been showed abroad at the exhibitions of Robert Walpole’s collection in the United Kingdom, Venetian painting of the 16th century in Italy and Spain and Italian Renaissance in Japan. Now these works have taken their place in the Hermitage exhibition. Among them should be mentioned The Holy Family with St. Justina by Lorenzo Lotto, Portrait of Francesco Bassano by Domenico Tintoretto, Holy Meeting by Bonifazio Veronese, Allegory by Paris Bordon, St. George by Tintoretto and Adoration of the Magi by Jacopo and Francesco Bassano.

The exhibition focuses on the evolution of genres in Venetian religious and secular painting, including portraiture, allegories and landscape scenes.

In the Italian Renaissance rooms, going parallel to the Venetian Renaissance Gallery, which have also been recently restored, a new system of lighting designed by the Dutch designer Jova Kis-Jovak has been installed on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg. The system is a gift from the Wilhelmina E. Jansen Fonds (The Netherlands)

Opening ceremony

At the concert

The Venetian Renaissance rooms after restoration