The Hermitage museum.
Yet another egregiously opulent building across the parking lot from the Hermitage museum.
Click the picture to see a larger version.
Lots of parking. Few cars.
There is more art on display at The Hermitage than you could see in a week.
Our guide rushed us through in about three hours. It's possible that we may have missed a few things...
They framed their painted ceilings with gold leaf, presumably to make it worth the trouble of looking up.
Those Russians really like to cover things with gold.
When it comes to adorning rooms, nothing exceeds like excess.
There was something about the angel of death in this picture that I really liked.
It reminded me of the angel of death in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.
This painting had a quality that really caught my eye for some reason. I think the quality may not have
endured the process of reducing the image to 640 by 480 pixels. Maybe you had to be there.
Or maybe it just reminds me of Prince Of Persia...
This is the same piece from two different angles. There was something about this bit of sculpture that
I quite liked. I think I particularly liked the fact that it wasn't gilded.
One of the things I really appreciated about The Hermitage as opposed to some place like the Uffizi:
a lot less religious art...
and a lot more naked ladies
And the occassional naked guy. Nothing particularly special about these pieces except that they exhibit
some degree of artistic ability. An element that escaped my detection in Picasso's later works.
I'm not sure what kind of instruments this guy is playing but I assumed he was some kind of
Russian Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Try saying that three times fast...
A statue to Peter The Great. At different times the city has been named after different Peters.
In Russia, they're all about their Peters.