The Hermitage Amsterdam ~ A Satellite Branch of The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg ~ Toured By AKN Editor

Written by Edward Minscoff Friday, 29 April 2011 20:47

The Hermitage Amsterdam is a satellite branch of one of the largest and most renowned museums in the world, the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. In June 2009, the museum opened in its current location on the Amstel River with much fanfare and an official visit by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev.The building in which Hermitage Amsterdam is currently housed was for 324 years a home for the elderly. The entirely renovated new space, a 17th-century former home for the elderly, spans 10 times the size of the museum's original Amsterdam home (the former building now houses Hermitage for Children educational center). In 1988 Ernst Veen was awarded a prize for economic development in Amsterdam, the IJ Prize, and the money that came with it was used to fund a feasibility study for a Hermitage branch in Amsterdam. The results of this study proved favourable so the Stichting Hermitage aan de Amstel was founded. Because of the future destination of the Amstelhof as Hermitage Amsterdam museum the Reformed Congregation transferred the property to the City of Amsterdam in 1999. In the space of two years, between June 2007 and June 2009, a metamorphosis took place on the River Amstel: Amstelhof nursing home was transformed into a modern museum: Hermitage Amsterdam. Various architects were involved in this comprehensive building project: Hans van Heeswijk for the building itself, Merkx+Girod for the interior and Michael van Gessel for the garden. It is a modern museum interior which meets current standards with regard to climate control and public facilities. On the ground floor there is a museum shop and a café flanking the entrance. The first and second floors each have three exhibition galleries with a total floor space of 500 square metres. In the attic there will be a large educational studio for children. As a branch of a museum whose collection comprises more than three million objects -- including artworks from Rembrandt, da Vinci and Matisse, as well as thousands of items from the Russian aristocracy -- the Hermitage Amsterdam has a palatial treasure chest from which to choose for its rotating exhibitions. The state-of-the-art interior, inner courtyard garden and old chapel of the meticulously renovated Amstelhof space make for an even more rewarding visit. Website at : www.hermitage.nl/en/

There are two permanent presentations, one about Netherlands–Russia relations and the other about the history of the building Amstelhof. In the rest of the museum is a temporary exhibitions. The Hermitage Museum of Saint Petersburg has one of the finest collections of French painting from the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. This remarkable part of the collection comprises hundreds of masterpieces by artists regarded as pioneers of Modernism, including Matisse, Van Dongen, De Vlaminck, Derain and Picasso. The exhibition places the concept of Modernism in a historical perspective and looks at how artists took part in this revolutionary movement. This collection originated with the renowned Russian collectors Morozov and Shchukin. For the first time highlights of this ‘modern’ collection of French art from the Hermitage was seen in the Netherlands, in an exhibition unequalled among Dutch museums. In the future a second exhibition will go into the origins of this modern art on the basis of a rich selection from the famous Impressionists in the Hermitage. The guest curator is Henk van Os, University Professor at the University of Amsterdam and chairman of the Specialists Council of the Hermitage Amsterdam. Currently on view "The immortal Alexander the Great The Myth, The Truth, His Journey, His Legacy" until 18 March 2011. No ruler in antiquity appeals to the imagination as much as Alexander the Great (356 BC – 323 BC, king from 336 BC). From his youth he inspired the people around him. During his campaigns in the East, Alexander went in search of the origins of Dionysus, who, according to the ancient Greeks, came from the exotic East, possibly India. Alexander followed in Dionysus’s footsteps and reached many countries: Egypt, Syria, Bactria, Persia, India and Mongolia. Everywhere he founded new capitals and named them all Alexandria. He left behind a legacy of Greek culture in the form of Hellenism. His fame lived on, long after antiquity. He was an example to many European, Russian and Islamic rulers. Paintings, tapestries and decorative art depicted Alexander’s life and history. The exhibition covers all these aspects, with objects from classical antiquity to the modern age, of Western and non-Western origins.

Splendour and Glory ~ Art of the Russian Orthodox Church on exhibition 19 March – 16 September 2011
Splendour and Glory will suffuse the Hermitage Amsterdam with the spiritual ambiance of ten centuries of exceptional Russian art. For six months over 300 religious artefacts will represent the ancient mystical and artistic traditions of the Russian Orthodox Church.Themes in the exhibition include the Byzantine origins and traditions of the Orthodox Church, religious feast days, of which Easter is the most important, and the tsars and their 'personal' church. Paintings, fragments of frescoes, robes and gold and silver attributes associated with church ritual highlight aspects of these themes. An impressive iconostasis, extraordinary fourteenth-century frescos from Pskov and many magnificent icons from famous Russian collections will be on display for the first time.The exhibition also includes scale models and photographs of churches and monasteries in traditional religious centres such as Novgorod and Pskov. The tremendous artistic wealth of the Russian Orthodox Church is further emphasised by splendid examples of Russia's religious heritage from the period from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century, when Moscow was the centre of church and art. These riches are also evident in church art from St Petersburg, religious heart of Russia and seat of the tsars, from the city's foundation in the early eighteenth century until 1917.