I like this picture because I love those green marble walls as a backdrop for the statuary, but also because this gallery was relatively minimalist. After an hour in the Hermitage I was starting to feel as though I'd eaten an entire box of chocolates. And followed it with several pieces of birthday cake. With ice cream. So so much. Sensory overload.
Three million pieces of art are one thing, but then there are the walls. And the ceilings. And the doors. And the floors. And giant vases and bird baths and clocks -- it's one thing for art to be of no use whatsoever, but what's the point of a bird bath a pterodactyl could sit in? I imagine someone presenting Catherine the Great with that green monstrosity on the right (and I mean monstrosity in the nicest possible way) and her thinking, "Christ! Not another six-foot malachite vase!" After a while, you can't even see any of it.
I think next time I visit the Hermitage -- and I do intend to return -- I may hire someone to lead me around so that I can be blindfolded except when I'm directly in front of a painting.
No comments:
Post a Comment