5. Малый Эрмитаж: история создания/The Small Hermitage: the history of creation, 1764-1775

Authors: architects-J.-B. Vallin de la Mothe and Yu.M Velten (1764 - 1775), V.P. Stasov (1840- 1844), A.I. Stakensneider (1850 - 1S5S)

Address: Dvortsovaya naberezhnaya, 34

In 1764 a building of smaller proportions with the facade adorned with the columns and sculptures of Flora and Pomona, was erected adjacent to the Winter Palace and got the name Hermitage (from the French ermite - a recluse, i.e. hermitage - a place of solitude). The tradition to build pavilions called hermitages was widely spread in the Western-Europe an palace and park ensembles of 18^lh cent. Usually such edifices were two-storey with the first floor inhabited by servants and the second by noble men who received delicious meals from the down below with the help of special mechanisms installed deep in the floor. A similar hermitage had already been built in Peterhof, There was also a hermitage (with a lifting table for 16 guests) in a temporary Winter Palace of Elizabeth Petrovna where Catherine was living with a future Peter 111.The Hermitage is regarded to be founded in 1764 when 225 paintings were delivered from Berlin to Catherine II. The Empress was passionately fond of collecting pictures. Since 1768 precious objects of the Western European painting were being sold on a regular basis by diplomat D. Goliisyn, a close friend of Diderot, for 15 years. The first premise to house the growing collection was designed by J.-B. Vallin dc la Molhe in 1767 - 1769 in the northern pavilion at the end of the Hanging Gardens in the Conservatory House. The first dinner took place there in 1769. In 1785 two lifting tables (each for 6 guests) were demolished, and nowadays one can sec the Porphyry Vase on that spot.Soon a growing collection needed additional premises. In 1775 two galleries on the sides of the Hanging Gardens laid out on the roof of the Palace stables were erected. It was possible to enter the art gallery only from the personal apartments of the Empress. Prints, sculptures, carved stones, tapestries, jewel cry as well as paintings (more than 2000 items) were stored in the four personal apartments where as the Empress once said Only the mice and I can admire all this....

In 1856 A. Stakcnshneider designed the Pavilion Hall on the spot where once there had been Catherine's apartments. Nowadays an excellent collection of 18^th – 19^th cent. Italian mosaics is demonstrated there. The famous Peacock Clock (by an English watch-maker J, Cox) acquired by G. Potyomkin in late 1790s is also exhibited there.In the reign of Catherine II every visitor entering the Pavilion Hal! near the portrait of the Empress noticed special Rules to Follow for Even-body Passing the Doorway. Among the ten rules there were those that prescribed leaving titles, hats and swords while entering the Hermitage, being in good mood and not breaking anything, while the last one asked to follow a famous proverb - it went in at une ear and out at the other while leaving the gallery. Those who broke any of those rules had to drink a glass of cold water, to read aloud a page from Odyssey or to Icam by heart some lines from it. If a visitor broke the !()"' rule he was not allowed to come to Catherine's receptions anymore.