The Hermitage [antikvár]

Among the world's collections of rare historical memorials and outstanding art treasures, those of the Hermitage, the largest mnsenm in the Soviet Union, are the most famous. The) comprise more than two and a half million items. The exhibits possessed by the Museum are of exceptional variety. Covering a span of about half a million years, they thus provide an opportunity for tracing the evolution of the artistic progress of mankind, from the initial forms of art to the works of contemporary artists. Excellent paintings, prints and drawings, magnificent sculptures, archaeological complexes of outstanding importance, and individual cultural memorials of unique quality, afford valuable material for enriching our knowledge, and provide a remarkable and inexhaus- tible source of aesthetic pleasure. The present album contains only 60 reproductions of the original paintings possessed by the picture-gallery of the State Hermitage. They are recognized, however, as the most celebrated masterpieces of the Museum. The pictures reproduced were painted in different countries, and are sometimes separated from each other by as much as 300 — 400 years. Thus they differ in the character of the subject matter presented as well as in the manner of execution. However, they reveal with great force the main features of art within their countries and periods of time. They vividly demonstrate the artist's desire to depict the countless riches of the world surrounding him, his constant and passionate aspiration for revealing the inner and outer beauty of man. The paintings reproduced in the album are as different as were the ways of life and the levels of culture of the society of the times they represent. They are all, however, marked by lucidity of conception; they are impressive in form, brilliant in execution, and evoke both admiration and aesthetic pleasure. It is difficult to over-estimate the importance of a careful study of the artistic legacy of the past. Art is a most significant form of social consciousness, and at all times and in all ages it was a weapon of ideological struggle, affording valuable material for the correct understanding of the historic destinies of nations and the peculiarities of their culture. But this does not exhaust the importance of a great artist's work. Noble ideas embodied in paintings still influence people greatly, educate their taste, and enrich their perception of the world. The emotions of any person upon seeing Leonardo da Vinci's Madonna and Child cannot but be aroused by the manifestation of the tender feeling of a mother's love, so dear to all people. When looking at Velazquez's Portrait of Count Olivares depicting a cruel, perfidious and arrogant magnate, we learn to recognize the real qualities of a man's character: the keen perception of the world, inherent in a great painter, has made the human vices come to light in this portrait, and made us hate them. At the same time we feel deep admiration for the brilliant mastery of the painter. The Decembrists and Herzen, as well as Russian men of letters and artists of the second half of the nineteenth century, were deeply moved by Rembrandt's portraits, depicting the hard life of the common people, their sorrows and joys, their feelings and thoughts. Rembrandt's portraits were also admired by K. Marx. And nowadays their great truthful- ness, humanity and perfection of execution still stir the emotions. That is why a syste- matic study of the artistic legacy of the past enriches our knowledge and feelings and sharpens our perception of the beautiful. The reproductions of outstanding Western European paintings at the Hermitage provide a most valuable source for tracing the main stages in the development of the fine arts from the fifteenth to twentieth centuries.