History of the St. Petersburg

The Hermitage’s magnificent collection of European porcelain comprises several thousand items. The main part, eighteenth century porcelain, is displayed in room 271, the former church of the Winter Palace, decorated by Stasov after the fire of 1837 in the style of Rastrelli.

A large part of the exhibition is devoted to the German Renaissance. In the first room there is an interesting collection of painted wooden sculptures, for example, Virgin and Child and St George the Victorious by unknown masters of the late fifteenth century and Virgin and Child by Tilman Riemenschneider.

In the seventeenth century Holland, which had established as a result of the revolution the most progressive contemporary social system, the bourgeois republic, experienced a great upsurge of cultural activity, which manifested itself also in great successes in the sphere of painting.

The most prominent figure in the Flemish art of the seventeenth century was Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), a many-sided artist of great talent, the creator of celebrated paintings, and the teacher of the leading Flemish artists. The Hermitage collection comprises twenty-two paintings and nineteen sketches of Rubens, and there are some excellent drawings of his in the section devoted to this branch of art.

In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the Netherlands, like Italy an advanced European country, experienced the Renaissance.

The Hermitage collection of Spanish painting is one of the richest and most significant in the world. Among the sixteenth century paintings two works by Luis de Morales (1509-1586), Mater Dolorosa and Virgin and Child, attract considerable attention.

The exhibition of Italian art occupies over thirty rooms. All the important Italian schools of art are represented by works of the most eminent exponents of painting and sculpture, and also by items of applied art.

The fine collection of fifteenth to seventeenth century Western European weapons in the Hermitage comprises several thousand items. The exhibition is divided into two sections: along the wall opposite the windows and in the centre of the room are different pieces of arms which illustrate the evolution of weaponry; beside the windows on display boards and in horizontal cases are concentrated the examples of weaponry, made in France, Italy, Spain and Germany, most perfect from the point of view of artistic decoration.

The exhibition presents relics of art dating back to feudal times from different Western European countries. In the Hermitage there are some excellent, and in many cases unique examples of Romanesque and Gothic styles, made by craftsmen whose names are now unknown.

The collections in the department of Western European art, the oldest in the Hermitage, are notable for their exceptional richness. They include paintings, sculptures, drawings, and engravings, various items of applied art, coins and medals from different countries.