May 30 – Saint Petersburg, Russia. Another day with our own guide, car and driver. Our guide, Olga, called for us at the front desk. Today we are at entirely the other end of the guide spectrum. Olga is a young girl whereas Boris was an older man. Another difference is that Olga is licensed to guide in the Russian Museum. It's in the Mikhaylovsky Palace a Neoclassical residence of Grand Duke Michael Pavlovich. It was built between 1819-25 and designed by Carlo Rossi. It's located on the Square of the Arts in St Petersburg. The small park in the square has a statue of, you guessed it, Pushkin and he doesn't look any happier in this one then he has in any of the others. When Michael died the residence was named after his wife as the Palace of the Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna, and was famous for its many theatrical presentations and balls. Some of the rooms still retain their ornate Italian style.
The State Russian Museum (It was previously called the Russian Museum of His Imperial Majesty Alexander III.) has the largest collection of Russian fine art in St Petersburg. Tsar Nicholas II founded the museum to honor his father, Alexander III. Russian art from the Hermitage, Alexander Palace and the Imperial Academy of the Arts was consolidated under one roof at that time. After the Bolshevik Uprising of 1917 Russian art from many private collections was stolen and relocated here. There are several other buildings that belong to the Russian Museum but the Mikhaylovsky Palace has the art.
Once again our guide, this time Olga, and our driver Tamara, sill in her red Mercedes-Benz van were early to the ship. That's great!! We headed on the familiar route to downtown St. Pete. We arrived at the Square of the Arts and had a look at poor Pushkin. Well you'd probably be a little down too if you had five pigeons sitting on your right arm and one atop your head all doing their best to turn your body white. Things weren't looking so good when we tried to enter the museum. Usually it opens at 10AM but today it's not opening until 1PM. Oops!! Yesterday we were able to make some substitutions in the plan but today that can't happen, Diana really wants to see the Russian Museum. Olga got on the phone to her HQ and Diana and I milled about looking at the area. When Olga got off the phone I proposed that we walk around the area, we are very close to Nevsky Prospekt the main street of the city. When she gets a call back from the manager we would propose that we do other things here and wait for the museum to open at 1PM, visit the museum and return to the ship 2 hours later than planned. She agreed that she would propose the plan and we'll see what happens.
Right across the Plaza of the Arts is one of the nicest hotels in Saint Petersburg, the Hotel Europa. On the side between the hotel and the museum is the Mikhaylovsky Theatre one of the city's prime venues. While in the plaza we happened upon some characters dressed as courtiers. Diana and I asked Olga if she'd take our picture with them and all was arranged. The photo came out very nice. Olga must have some experience or a good eye for composition.
We walked a couple of blocks to the east and turned onto Malaya Sadovaya Street, a pedestrian only street that extends all the way to Nevsky Prospekt, lined with cafes and shops. There are several monuments on the Malaya Sadovaya Street. The most noticeable one is a photographer with an old, tripod mounted large bellows style camera and holding an umbrella over it so he could see the image on the glass plate at the rear. He's accompanied by an bulldog that's hiding under the tripod to stay in the shade of the umbrella. Nevertheless his tongue is hanging out and you can almost see the bronze dog panting. It's in honor of Karl Bulla acknowledged as the father of photojournalism in Russia. He used to live on this street.
The other monument is more subtle and could easily be missed by passersby. On either side of the street just before it intersects with Nevsky Prospekt, up at the second story level are life sized cast-iron statues of two cats one on each side of the street. They are a memorial of an event that took place just after the German siege of St. Pete. Starvation and disease had been a problem in the 3 year long siege that had severely cut off the supply of food. Rats, however, had multiplied to an alarming level and the possibility of disease at an epidemic level was very real. Problem was there were no cats. One of the cities we visited on the way up, Yarosalvl, is very proud of the fact that they rounded up a load of cats and sent them to Saint Petersburg to solve the problem. A cat black market developed in the city and cats were very expensive. It worked extremely well. In no time the rat population had all but disappeared and the potential epidemic was avoided. The people of Saint Petersburg were so grateful that for years the cats were given the run of the city. The cats that had been put into the museums to kill the rats were allowed to run free. Problem was they were damaging the artifacts, sharpening their claws on the king's throne, I mean, really! So in the true spirit of "What have you done for me lately?" the cats were banished. However, Elisey and Vasilisa stand guard on the avenue, looking out toward Nevsky Prospekt, ever vigilant for the appearance of a cast-iron rat.
We decided to explore the Kupetz Eliseevs Food Hall that's now on the first floor of the Elisseeff Emporium, a striking Art Nouveau building right on Nevsky Prospekt. This shop has been restored to the way it looked in the early 1900s. It has over 100 feet of counter space split between 7 areas. Each has its specialty, pastry, wines, liquor, cookies, truffles, other candy, cheese, meat and seafood. The displays are fantastic. If you can't find it here you might not want it. In addition there are 12 movable stands with tapering round shelves; they look sort of like Christmas trees, that I'm told hold over 3,000 varieties of the best goods like tea, imported edibles and some decorative objects. Some of the truffles were called silver pearls and were actually silver in color. I'm not sure what produces that silver coating but it's not only edible it's delicious.
One of the most unusual cases they have is a round table with 6 plastic dome covered round wells built into it. One is in the center and five around the outside. Lit with a blue light each held a different variety of shellfish, either oysters or clams. Fresh and alive I'll bet they're delicious. It's very close to the fanciest food store I've ever seen.
While we were looking around in Kupetz Eliseevs Olga had heard from her manager. They have agreed to let us keep Olga and Tamara for two extra hours for which both will be paid but we will not be charged for their time. That could not have worked out better, two hours of car, driver and guide at no charge so I decided we should celebrate by having lunch. Tamara, unfortunately, has to stay with the car so we invited Olga to eat with us. She seemed hesitant to do it but I convinced her that we would talk shop during lunch so she would be providing guiding services for us. At that she said ok. We selected one of the small cafes on Malaya Sadovaya Street and sat at an outside table. I'm glad Olga came with us because the first thing she told me was that when we knew what we wanted I should press the top of a little unlabeled, rounded square gadget attached to the front of the table. The Russians have a great innovation here. If you've ever been stuck at a table in a European café with no idea who should serve you or when you will be served you will appreciate what this button does. It rings a small gong one stroke and pages the waiter associated that table. A very nice young man showed up quickly and asked what he could get us. Diana ordered a meat strudel and a large mochalatte, I ordered a ham and cheese Panini and a medium latte and Olga just ordered a medium mochalatte. I asked if she didn't want anything to eat and she said no. Wanted to make sure she was not just being polite or maybe she was, in any event she seemed happy and we chatted away about Saint Petersburg (Apparently residents here are as sensitive about St. Pete as the people in San Francisco are about Frisco,) the entire time we were eating. Diana reported that her strudel was good and my sandwich was fine but the coffees were outstanding.
Pretty good deal too. The whole thing was around 800 rubles (about $25). That's less than it would cost at our favorite café in Irvine and definitely less than it would cost in London, Rome or Paris. Nice café on the city's main boulevard on a pedestrian only street. In Irvine the café has cars buzzing by on Irvine Boulevard at 50 mph within 30 feet of the seating area. Here's where the little gizmo on the table really earns its keep. If you've ever waited for a waiter in Europe to bring you your bill you understand. When we had eaten our lunch and finished our coffees I pushed the button and here came the nice young man again. I said I'd like our check he zipped inside and returned quickly with the leather wallet. In fact he brought two. That sneakily little Olga had told him to do separate checks. Well never let it be said that I'm not as sneaky as a young Russian girl. I took quick possession of both and consolidated them into one wallet, slipped in some bills, handed it back to the waiter and we were off. Olga didn't protest and that was exactly what I wanted.
At the intersection with Nevsky Prospekt they've installed a Kugel Ball. You've probably seen one, they're all over the world and a lot in the USA. It's a heavy granite ball set in a small depression of exactly the same slope and diameter as the ball very close to it's bottom. A supply of water is forced up from underneath the ball so that it's actually floating on a very thin layer of water. If you push enough to overcome inertia the ball spins quite easily. Diana and Olga took a shot at spinning the ball and had it going quite briskly
It was still a little before opening at the museum so Olga asked if we wanted to drive over to see the Saint Nicholas Naval Cathedral. It's a bit unique in that when Stalin was closing monasteries, burning churches, sending monks and priests to Siberia and converting churches to museums and other uses he didn't mess with this church. Just like the monastery at Sergiev Posad that was a military pilgrimage location, he was hesitant to irritate the armed services. Consequently the building and grounds are in great shape. Unfortunately that means it's an active church and I won't go in because I'm wearing shorts. I probably could but it's their church and therefore their rules.
Diana and Olga went inside and I walked around the grounds to get a good angle for pictures. The church and free standing bell tower were built on bank of the Kryukov Canal in the middle 1700s. The chief naval architect designed it and it's dedicated to St. Nicholas (the patron saint of sailors) and the Feast of the Epiphany. The grounds were very pleasant and the people greeted me as I walked. A bit unusual for Russia.
My companions emerged from the church and we boarded the van for the ride back to the Russian Museum. Diana has been thinking about this place since we started planning to come here so I'm very glad we were able to rearrange the schedule to get in.
The museum has their collection arranged by age and type. We're going to try to visit the Old Russian Icon, Art of the 18th Century, Art of the First Half of the 19th Century and Art of the Second Half of the 19th Century Galleries. I hope to see the best of the collection in each of these spaces. It would take a long, long time to see it all. We're skipping the Late 19th and Early 20th Century Gallery because neither of us is a fan of that period, especially me. Why, you ask? Well I'll tell you by example. The prized masterpiece of the gallery is Black Square by Kazimir Malevich. The name describes it perfectly, it actually is a square canvas painted entirely black, no shadings, no designs, no hues, just black. I'm sorry but that's just garbage. I wonder who is responsible for this being defined as art. Anything I can do just as well as the artist is not art because I'm a talentless hack and I think they are too. I mean at least Picasso and Dali were trying to show something. It may be ugly but at least you can try to make something out of it or read something into it. They gave you a chance to appreciate it. At least in the fable you got to see a naked emperor, with Black Square you get to see exactly that, nothing.
This is the point where I often bog down in my writing. I want to say so much about the museums and art that I get writer's block. Well, it's not exactly writer's block. It's not that I don't know what to say, it's that I have too much to say and can't decide where to cut it off. I guess we'll just have to see how it goes.
Olga is going to take us chronologically so we are headed to the Icons first. One of the masterpieces in this collection is called Archangel Gabriel with the Golden Hair from 1150. It shows an angel with golden hair, large eyes and a peaceful sweet expression. It's not identified in writing but it's always been identified as Gabriel. The hair was covered in gold leaf. Icons are purposefully stylized and not meant to be physically accurate. This was partly on purpose for theological reasons but the practical side of it is that, for many Biblical figures and the ancient saints, no one really knows what they looked like.
Personal History Note: I appreciate them more than most perhaps due to the 18 months I spend on the Island of Crete. Off duty time there was pretty boring unless it was summer. Unfortunately my year-and-a-half only included one summer as I arrived there at the end of August. After I'd visited all the historical sites on the island, that really only takes about a month I got immersed in local culture including the Greek Orthodox church. Their theology is Eastern just like the Russians. The only distinctives between the two are cultural in nature, language of the liturgy, national saints, etc. As my Greek improved I was able to converse with the priests in the local churches. I found their view of the Gospel and Scriptures very interesting and definitely something to be considered in my own ideas. Again, I often say that my belief system came to me through Judaism, Orthodoxy and the Reformation. What I often omit is that the Eastern Orthodoxy has contributed as much to the protection of the Bible as the Roman Catholic side.
The icons of individuals, saints, angels, prophets, apostles and members of the Holy Family and Trinity are interesting but the type I really love are what I call the Story Telling icons. For example they have a marvelous one here on Saint George. In the center they usually have a large picture of the main subject and around it on the edge are smaller pictures of events in their life. This one is no exception. In the center is St. George with the dragon, the event for which he is revered. Around the edge are 12 other scenes the great majority of which show our hero being tortured in one way or another. St. George was a Roman soldier who became a Christian. When Diocletian was suspicious of his army he asked all his soldiers to make a sacrifice to the Roman gods. George refused and widely proclaimed his Christianity. Diocletian liked George and his father had been one of Diocletian's best soldiers as was George. He tired all manner of ways to get George to recant but he wouldn't. After surviving many attempts to torture him into a renunciation, he was finally beheaded and became a respected martyr of the church. There's another one of Saint Nicholas, but it has many more uplifting and happy scenes on its perimeter.
In the Art of the 18th Century Gallery they have a white marble statue of Catherine II (the Great) and in it I found some of the symbolism I like. I've been pretty stymied by the Russian iconography but this sculpture is in the European style and I get it. It's titled Catherine II the Legislator and was carved in 1789. From the front she is shown standing with the royal scepter in her hand representing the power to rule but she is bareheaded. I thought it was a bit unusual to have the scepter and no crown and the title seemed odd, "the Legislator, until you remember that she was Peter's second wife and had started out as a maid brought to Russia by one of Peter's military commanders as his 'servant'. Peter saw her, fell in love with her, eventually married her and on his death she took the throne. She was not of Royal blood and certainly not a descendant of the royal family and had no legal right to the throne but somehow she took it anyway.
The revelation comes when you walk around the statue to see the reverse side. At the back, totally hidden from the front by her robes and a pedestal and on the floor are the royal crown and orb. To me these are clear messages that she has no right to rule. The orb represents the cosmos or the earth and is the symbol of the divine right to rule as God's representative. The crown traditionally represents legitimacy, that is you came to power in a proper manner and are entitled to it. Catherine II did not have these attributes and therefore in the opinion of the artist was not entitled to be shown with them overtly. Instead he shows them discarded and lying on the floor. Another shot at her is that from the front she is holding her hand out Vanna White style to present a law book. This is a nice symbol for a legislator, however from the back you can see that the scales of justice are lying with the cups upside down and chains tangled, being squashed under the law book. Nicely done. The only item of royal regalia she's holding is the scepter, the symbol of temporal authority and that she does possess because she usurped it. Since this statue was done during her lifetime, I think the artist risked a lot.
Just like when we went to the Art Museum in Bucharest, Romania. There we found some wonderful Romanian impressionists of whom we'd never heard, here in the Russian museum there are some wonderful artists (not impressionists as they had been suppressed by the government) from the 18th and 19th centuries that I don't know either.
Karl Brullov's The Last Day of Pompeii is a striking canvas with fantastic use of light and dark, so called Chiaroscuro. It's a large painting, it's not neoclassical but seems to be proceeding to Romanticism, which I've heard described as realism moderated with a touch of idealism. He has a bit of a sense of humor as he shows himself in the upper left being crushed by a falling building.
Vasily Perov's Monastery Refectory done in 1876 is not only a masterful painting but a great shot at the excesses of the church as it was currently constituted. Henryk Siemiradzki's Phrine at the Festival of Poseidon at the Eleusinia, done in 1889 is a huge canvas that must have taken forever to paint. It includes at least 30 portraits and sections that could have stood as independent paintings. In the bottom left corner there's a woman carrying a Grecian Urn. That urn and the woman are painted as well as many portraits I've seen. Near her is a young girl carrying a chest with toiletries and implements in it that is equally detailed and could stand on its own. These are but a few of the excellent Russian painters exhibited in this museum.
One juxtaposition that I loved and I hope it was not an accident. On one wall of the room they had Konstantin Fiavitsky's Christian Martyrs in Colosseum painted in 1862. Directly across the room they had Vasily Smirnov's Nero's Death. In Christian's painting Christians are shown being herded onto the Coliseum floor to certain death. In Smirnov's, Nero is lying in the street in a pool of blood. This just can't be coincidence.
The Ninth Wave by Ivan Aivazovsky is his most impressive and well-known painting and yet was totally unknown to me. He's a noted marine painter and love to depict stormy seas. It shows the sea after a storm with people floundering and attempting to save themselves on pieces of their broken ship. It's much more colorful than most seascapes. It's been called the most beautiful painting in Russia.
Too soon it was time to hop back in the Benz and head for the ship. We have some events this afternoon and evening so we'll need a little time to clean up.
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