Art is all around us. It's in the architecture of every building, in the curvature of every smile. It's in every song and every laugh and every shout for joy.
In St. Petersburg this holds even more true than most places (save Fayetteville, of course). Yesterday, July the 5th, we visited St. Isaac's Cathedral and today we visited the Hermitage.
St. Isaac's Cathedral is one of the largest in the world. At their peak the main dome reachs over 100 meters high. Our tour guide, who had the voice of an angel on dramamine, explained to us the rich history of the museum and the many mosaics made of rare glass. There are also over 100 columns within and surrounding the giant church, the second-largest Orthodox Church in the world.
We went up to the top of the building and saw what could most accurately be described as one of the most beautiful views in Europe. It is difficult to even conceive of words that could convey how spectacularly beautiful the city is, the Hermitage and Palaces and even government buildings with the hammer and sickle still etched into them. Check Facebook or the Internet but remember that no picture does justice to seeing the landscape with your own eyes, feeling that cool Russian breeze blowing through your hair as you quickly try to snap pictures while tourists rush past you.
Today, July 6, we went to the Hermitage, one of the largest and oldest museums in the world. It is composed of six buildings and the collection is said to have over 3 million pieces of art. A guide told us that if you took one minute to look at every single piece of art in the Hermitage it would take nearly 8 years straight to see it all.
I'm not going to go into every detail but I will discuss my favorite piece I saw today: "Daedalus and Icarus" by Charles Lebrun You can see it here: http://www.arthermitage.org/Charles-Lebrun/Daedalus-and-Icarus.
The story of Icarus is one of my favorite from Greek Mythology. For me, the painting conveys all that art should convey: emotion. In this case the emotion is sadness at the loss of one's own son to one's own creation; the loss of that which is most important to you in such a way that is too easy to blame yourself. The way the shadow falls on Daedalus's face as he cradles his dying son . . . It's so amazing. I could go on all day.
But I won't. I'm drowning in art, the kind of art where everything you see conveys a feeling. It's like my eyes are trying to overwhelm my heart and I am just absolutely loving it.
-Alex Barrio
