ANTİK DÜNYANIN KEHANET MERKEZİ: DIDYMA Zamanın ... - MÜZE

enedik’i andıran kanalları, tarih kokan genişcadde ve meydanları, büyülü beyaz geceleri ileanılıyor St Petersburg. Ancak, St Petersburg’uönemli kılan, zenginleştiren, dünyanın dörtbir yanından sanatseverleri kendine çekenbir başka özelliği de Hermitage Müzesi’ne ev sahipliği yapıyorolması.Çariçe II. Katerina tarafından kurulan Hermitage Müzesi, dünyanınen büyük ve en önemli müzelerinden biri. Adını, Fransızca ‘hermit’sözcüğünden almış. Hermitage, ‘inziva yeri’ anlamına geliyor.Her ne kadar çapkınlıklarıyla anılsa da II.Katerina aynı zamandadindar bir kadın. Sarayda onun da bir ibadet yeri var. Zamanzaman kendisine ait bu bölüme çekilip, kitapları ve sevdiği sanateserleri arasında tefekküre dalıyor. O anlarda, nasıl bir mirashazırladığını hiç hayal etmiş miydi kimbilir, ‘inziva yeri’ dünyanınen muhteşem müzelerinden birine dönüşüyor. Büyük Katerinadiye anılan Çariçe, bu şöhretine uygun bir ‘hazine’ yaratıyor.St. Petersburg is a magic city with its white nights, its historicalsquares and large boulevards, called Venice of the north owing to itscanals. Yet the most salient feature of the city is certainly its HermitageMuseum attracting art enthusiasts from all over the world.The Hermitage Museum founded by Czarina Catherine II, also knownas Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia, is one of the world’slargest and most significant museums. Its name originates from theFrench word hermite (monk living in seclusion), hermitage meaningplace of retreat. Although reputed for her love affairs, the Empresswas also a religious person retreating at times into her private sanctuaryin the palace where she meditated surrounded by her favouritebooks and works of art, her personal collection. Did she everimagine what sort of legacy she was preparing through this privatecollection? Catherine the Great’s retreat was destined to becomeeventually one of the world’s most magnificent museums of art, atreasure commensurate with Catherine’s predicate of greatness.When the King cancelled his order!The origin of the Hermitage goes actually back to a whim of thePrussian King who asked a Berlin merchant, Johann Ernest Gotzkowsky,to collect paintings for him, but later cancelled his order.Gotzkowsky, having meanwhile put together a large collection of225 paintings from different parts of Europe, sent a message to theEmpress of Russia known as patron of the arts. Catherine’s swiftreaction was to purchase Gotzkowsky’s whole collection.In the aftermath of this prelude, purchase of paintings from abroadcontinued uninterrupted. Art experts at the service of the Empresspurchased paintings particularly from France, Holland and Italy;among other, from heirs of famous European art collectors. Under26