St Petersburg Part 4 - More of the Hermitage Museum

Two of the prize possessions of the Hermitage Museum were its two simply beautiful paintings by Leonardo da Vinci. They were quite small, and of course, there was a very long queue of people wishing to photograph them. We were allowed to photograph anything in the museum, provided we did not use flash as this would damage the work. There were those who took no notice of this . . . and quite blatantly did what they wanted regardless. 

I was surprised there were not more staff around to watch them, but it is a vast museum with just so many rooms, and we only saw some of it. 

Nevertheless, they are very careful with security. You are not permitted to take in a backpack or a bottle of water. Apparently a few years ago a clearly disturbed man stood in front of one of the larger paintings, pulled out a knife from his backpack and cut the painting into shreds. He then took out what appeared to be a bottle of water but in fact was a bottle of acid and poured it over the already ruined painting. Remarkably, it has been restored and now hangs back up in one of the galleries.

The photos I have selected for this post are of some of the paintings I saw, as well as one of the most intricate, brilliant mechanical clock. We were treated to a videoclip of what it does and how it works, as it is only is set in motion occasionally.

The most beautiful golden peacock. Many incredible actions take place in this scene when set in motion.

Sometimes my photos are at odd angles, because that was the only way I could avoid having people in them.  Unfortunately I usually did not have chance to find out the name of the artist of this painting.

The Leonardo da Vinci painting of the Madonna and Child, the child looking wiser for its years than other children.

The gorgeous ceiling of one lovely gallery of artworks (seen in the next photo).

There were many magnificent paintings in this gallery.

Another simply lovely, poignant painting.

More of this impressive gallery.

I gather this was a painting of early St Petersburg.

The most skilfully produced long table, actually made from small pieces of a copper mineral.

An incredible, powerful painting. 

Just beautiful! 

This was not by a well-known artist but is unique for the lovely smile of delight that the boy who was asked to pose gave when he saw the dog. 

Another memorable painting. 

I think the artist of this painting of the Prodigal Son was Rembrandt.

Close-up of the father and the prodigal son in the previous image.