{"id":1458,"date":"2016-04-24T03:47:33","date_gmt":"2016-04-24T03:47:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/?p=1458"},"modified":"2016-08-21T01:26:04","modified_gmt":"2016-08-21T01:26:04","slug":"monday-april-18-the-russian-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/?p=1458","title":{"rendered":"Monday, April 18 – The Russian Museum"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was a blustery day of squalls. I Ubered to Double B coffee,\u00a0passing this statue that always starts the William Tell Overture playing in my head. Hi yo Silver, away!
\n<\/a>\"h1<\/p>\n

Fortified with a cup of their smooth brew, I started my walk to the Benois branch of the Russian Museum. Only a ten minute stroll, but by the time I passed the Church on the Spilled Blood, rain was pelting down. Despite rain boots, raincoat and sturdy umbrella, my jeans were going from damp to drenched. It was raining so hard water bounced up from the cobblestones and riccocheted from the surface of the canal. I sloshed onward as far as Caf\u00e9 Berlin where I stopped for an early lunch, in hopes the downpour would ease up.<\/p>\n

I ordered a burger, a sure sign that I\u2019m missing home. It arrived, pretty as a picture, but it was like a burger made by someone who\u2019d read about them and seen photographs, but hadn\u2019t \u00a0actually eaten<\/em> one. The sesame seed bun was as dry and crisp like\u00a0a meringue. The meat, while tasty, had an odd, pebbled texture, and was topped with pesto and pickles. I asked for a cheese burger and they slapped on mozzarella. Fries were great. \"IMG_2844\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Sure enough, the sun came blazing out and I hoofed it to the Russian Museum of Art. A completely different experience from the Hermitage \u2013 less formal, less crowded (praise all the Russian Saints), and more relaxed. The change of pace was welcome. The art wasn\u2019t as spectacular, but more than one piece made it not only worthwhile, but gave me reasons to return. I adored this painting of Phryne. I circled back to it twice, and sat on a bench and absorbed what I could. Similar to the Slav epic in scale (huge) but more celebratory. Thanks, Semiradsky. \"Genrich_Ippolitovich_Semiradsky_-_Roma,_1889-1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As always, I noticed the dogs,\u00a0like this jaunty, backlit fellow.<\/p>\n

\"I<\/a>
Detail of a larger hunting-themed painting. I miss you. Maddy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The grimacing, half concealed faces worked into the design of this wall embellishment fascinated me.\"gold<\/a><\/p>\n

This statue of Catherine and her page had marvelous textural detail. \"queen\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"It<\/a>
It took a lot of self-discipline \u00a0to not stroke this.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And, according to the museum note, this naughty satyr is just being helpful, tying the nymph\u2019s sandals. Riiiight.<\/p>\n

\"Personally,<\/a>
Personally, I think he’s taking it\u00a0off, not tying it\u00a0on. Museum interpretations can be so prissy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My favorite was this painting of a knight at a crossroads by Vasnetsov.\"vasnetsov_a_knight_at_the_crossroads_1882\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I overheard a guide tell\u00a0five military officers that it’s from\u00a0a Russian folktale. The knight must choose his direction. If he goes right, women and marriage. If he turns left, he’ll have wealth and land. If he rides straight ahead, war and death. He chooses the straight ahead path. I couldn\u2019t help but mutter,\u00a0if he picked the right woman he could have marriage, wealth, and all the fighting he wanted. Probably great makeup sex too<\/em>.\u00a0One of the\u00a0military guys\u00a0cracked a smile. They weren’t Americans or\u00a0Russians, or they wouldn’t have had an English speaking guide.<\/p>\n

I stood there and drew a couple of versions. \"sketch\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It reminded me of the painting in the Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Orsay of a defeated cavalry solder riding\u00a0home through\u00a0fields of tulips, lance dragging, head bowed. The way I often feel after a full museum day, dragging my ass home through a field of glorious beauty. So much art, so little time. But I forgot one of the best attributes of this museum.<\/p>\n

\"Refuge<\/a>
Refuge for the weary, and plenty of it.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yay, sofas.<\/p>\n

I had planned to walk through the connected wing of the Benois, but fatigue overruled me. I sensibly walked to my dinner place, and after an excellent risotto, called it a day.\u00a0Tomorrow, return to the Hermitage.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was a blustery day of squalls. I Ubered to Double B coffee,\u00a0passing this statue that always starts the William Tell Overture playing in my head. Hi yo Silver, away! Fortified with a cup of their smooth brew, I started my walk to the Benois branch of the Russian Museum. Only a ten minute stroll, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1463,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[21],"tags":[65,109,188,194,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-1458","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-cafe-berlin","9":"tag-drawing","10":"tag-food","11":"tag-restaurant","12":"tag-russian-museum","13":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/gold-face.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7OBxc-nw","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1458"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1505,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1458\/revisions\/1505"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}