{"id":1508,"date":"2016-04-26T05:45:50","date_gmt":"2016-04-26T05:45:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/?p=1508"},"modified":"2016-08-14T15:22:05","modified_gmt":"2016-08-14T15:22:05","slug":"wednesday-april-20-hermitage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/?p=1508","title":{"rendered":"Wednesday, April 20, Hermitage"},"content":{"rendered":"

I bee-lined for the post office in the depths of the Hermitage. Found it by being humble enough to stop frequently for guidance from the babushkas. Mailed a clutch of illustrated postcards, then wandered around the subterranean level, to see what I could see. \u00a0Came across the desiccated corpse of a Siberian man with extensive tattoos. The Hermitage helpfully supplied detailed drawing of the patterns.\u00a0I took photos to pass along to my daughter Emily;\u00a0musician, artist and, when the spirit moves her,\u00a0tattooist.\u00a0\"tat1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A few rooms away, above a swatch of\u00a0preserved skin, was this schematic drawing.<\/p>\n

\"I<\/a>
I wonder about the significance of the images and their placement.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I got caught up in imagining the people who used the everyday implements; particularly a room lined with the iron pots. Nothing dainty, these were\u00a0hefty cauldrons\u00a0worthy of Turtle Soup,\u00a0the main course at Kempf family reunions.\u00a0I promise you that for every pot, there was a vigorously used paddle. \"one<\/a><\/p>\n

There were cases of arms, armor, and equestrian gear. If warhorses were the engines,\u00a0these saddles were the luxury chassis,\u00a0interior and rims.<\/p>\n

\"Aston<\/a>
Aston Martin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Maybach<\/a>
Maybach<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That\u00a0afternoon I walked the Italian halls of the New Hermitage, a purpose-built space for the display of large canvases. I loved this still life of an oriental carpet. Someday I’ll take a serious run at one\u00a0myself.\"rug\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When I realized the enormous stone vase blocking my view was made of Lapis Lazuli, I nearly swooned.<\/p>\n

\"look<\/a>
That gorgeous blue is even more impressive in person.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s the blue of the Dutch skies and Italian Virgins robes. It was one of the most expense colors to buy, and there’s\u00a0enough here to\u00a0paint the ceiling with. Later I was told that these gargantuan pieces are veneered, not solid, but I don\u2019t know that for a fact. It\u2019s still a massive chunk\u00a0of glorious blue.<\/p>\n

\"Note<\/a>
Note the person standing next to it for scale.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I stayed long enough into the evening hour for the hordes to diminish, and got to spend a few precious minutes alone with The Conestabile Madonna. And that’s why I came. Everything from here on out, is gravy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I bee-lined for the post office in the depths of the Hermitage. Found it by being humble enough to stop frequently for guidance from the babushkas. Mailed a clutch of illustrated postcards, then wandered around the subterranean level, to see what I could see. \u00a0Came across the desiccated corpse of a Siberian man with extensive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1519,"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":[32,100,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-1508","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-hermitage","9":"tag-saddles","10":"tag-tattoo","11":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/raphael-and-me.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7OBxc-ok","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1508","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=1508"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1549,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1508\/revisions\/1549"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}