The State Hermitage Museum

Among the world's greatest museums of art, the Hermitage State Museum in St.Petersburg in the most outstanding. It is also the largest museum in Russia.

The museum traditionally bears the old name of "The Hermitage" attached to it in the 1760s and meaning a hermit's dwelling or a solitary place. The name is due to the fact that the Hermitage was founded as a palace museum for the nearest of the near to the court. A number of objects were acquired in different countries by Peter I. However the foundation of the Hermitage dates back to 1764, when a collection of 225 pictures was bought by {Catherine II from a Prussian merchant. Over 300 rooms of the Winter Palace are open to the public today and contain a rich collection numbering about 2,500,000 items. Fabulous treasures are gathered in the museum.

The collections of the Hermitage, among other things, tell of the culture and art of the tribes which once inhabited the territo­ry of the present - day Russia, as well as of the foreign countries of the Orient, China, India, ancient Egypt, Assyria and Babylonia.

The history of the Russian people is dealt with the expositions of "Peter I's Galleries" and the halls devoted to Russian culture.

The Art of Western Europe is represented by classical sculpture, the masterpieces of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Titian, Rubens, Rembrandt and other great masters.

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The museum also includes a marvellous collection of applied art: tapestries, furniture, porcelain, metalwork, arms, bronzes andjewellery.

The remarkable museum is housed in buildings which testify tothe flourishing of Russian architecture in the I8th-I9th centuries. They are the Winter Palace, built in 1754-1764, the best work of the famous architect V.V.Rastrelli, the Minor Hermitage, built in 17б4-17б7.Ьу De la Motte and the Old Hermitage built in 1775-1784.

(из книги "Manuel IOth Grade English Oriented School", авт. Meshavkina T.I., Shadrina M.P.)

Notes and Commentary:

1. for the nearest of the near to the court - для самых приближенных ко двору

2. … is dealt with the expositions... - (зд.)... представлена выставкой (показом)...

3. among other things - между прочим

Active Vocabulary:

to be due to - обусловливаться

to acquire [s'fcwai'aj - приобретать

to contain - содержать в себе

treasure - сокровище

a tribe - племя

to inhabit - населять

the Orient ['0: riant] - Восток, страны Востока

devoted to - посвященный

tapestry ['taepisti] - гобелэн

furniture - мебель

porcelain - фарфор

arms - оружие!

jewellery ['d^u.-slri] - ювелирные изделия to testify to - свидетельствовать о

to flourish L'flArif]- процветать

Answer the Questions:

1. What does the name "the Hermitage" mean?

2. Which of the Russian Tsars began collecting the objects?

3. What did the foundation of the Hermitage start with and when?

4. What do the collections of the Hermitage tell us of?

5. What art is represented¹- in this museum?

6. How many buildings does the Hermitage occupy?

7. What do these buildings testify to?

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