The Hermitage impressed me when I visited a few years ago, in the way that it was stuffed full of art and other objects, seeming to be almost overflowing, but in a way that conveyed not excess but abundance, not ostentation but luxury. This exhibition is specifically about the parts of the collection - and the palace complex itself - associated with Catherine the Great, who reigned from 1762 to 1796, meaning that the art is a mix of Old Masters and at-the-time contemporary which either way falls well outside the compass of my own tastes in art.
Still, as ever, a few pieces seemed invested with something of the numinous (perhaps particularly likely given the striking facility with light that characterises many of those really old oil paintings) or stood out for some other reason, and whether that was adventitious to whatever specific state of mind and perceptual frame that I brought to it today doesn't much matter.
Bellotto - "View of the Zwinger in Dresden" (1752)
Capriolo - "Portrait of a young man" (1512)
Titian - "Portrait of a young woman" (c 1536) - oddly contemporary seeming
Murillo - "The Rest on the Flight into Egypt" (c 1655-70)
Still, as ever, a few pieces seemed invested with something of the numinous (perhaps particularly likely given the striking facility with light that characterises many of those really old oil paintings) or stood out for some other reason, and whether that was adventitious to whatever specific state of mind and perceptual frame that I brought to it today doesn't much matter.
Capriolo - "Portrait of a young man" (1512)
Murillo - "The Rest on the Flight into Egypt" (c 1655-70)
