In a memoir, the museum’s longtime director takes the reader on a private tour of this global treasure. Holding one of the largest collections of Western art in the world, the Hermitage is also a product of Russia and its dramatic history. Founded by Empress Catherine the Great in 1764, the stunning Winter Palace was built to house her growing collection of Old Masters and to serve as a home for the imperial family. Tsars came and went over the years, artworks were acquired and sold, buildings were burned down in terrible fires, and still the collections grew. After the violent upheavals of the Russian Revolution in 1917, the palaces and collections were opened to the public. Now, in an unprecedented collection of illuminating essays, Piotrovsky explores the cultural history of a collection as rich in adventure as art. From fascinating intrigues to revelatory scholarship on the collection’s incredible art and artifacts, My Hermitage is a profound and captivating story of art’s timelessness and how it brings people together.
This exclusive volume - Hermitage, a Palace and a Museum - with dimensions of 48 x 40 cm, contains 200 pages, with approximately 15,000 words of text and an additional 102 colour plates. The volume was printed in Germany, in a state of the art offset printing facility with special Japanese inks. The large format 8 x 10 inch photographic plates by Ahmet Ertug were processed in the leading London photographic laboratories, in order to capture their best colour fidelity. The digital darkroom work and colour separation for the volume has been carried out using PrimeScan 16 bit drum scanners, Eizo high end monitors and specially calibrated proofing systems. The technical team, which has many years of collaboration with Ahmet Ertug, has devoted many hours to each image, and has utilised leading-edge technology in order to emphasise the full range of colour captured on each original film. The paper used in the volume is 250 gsm Scheufelen Phoenixmotion Xantur, an exceptional German paper with FSC Qualification (the mark of responsible forestry). The volume was hand-bound in Italy by master binder Ruggero Rigoldi. It is bound in an exceptional red silk and presented in a slipcase. A limited edition of 100 copies is also available, bound with exclusive hand-embossed leather and presented in a leather box. The Introduction is by the Director of The State Hermitage Museum, Mikhail Piotrovsky. An essay by Michael Forsyth and Marion Harney describes the outstanding architecture of the Hermitage. A contribution by Geraldine Norman illustrates the highlights of the Hermitage Museum collection. The clarity of the photography by Ahmet Ertug displays the outstanding qualities of the Hermitage, making this book a collector's item."--Publisher's website
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