№ 729-733. 150th anniversary of the New Hermitage

Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617) was a Holland painter and a chaser. He went to Italy in 1590 where he started his individual style of mannerism.

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) was a Flemish painter. He worked in Antwerp and Italy. Rubense's painting is characterized by a free brush-work, expressive modelling and fineness of tones.

The Gonzaga Cameo is a rare example of glyptics. It was created in Alexandria in the 3d century A.C. It features the divinized Egypt governors Ptolemy II Philadelph and his wife Arsinia. In 1814 Josefina de Beauharnais, the first wife of Napoleon I, presented Alexander I with the cameo in gratitude for preserving her incoms and place. In the autumn of 1814 the emperor passed the cameo to Hermitage.

A round helmet with a crest and without a vizard, the so-called Burgonet, is a masterpiece of Italian small-arms art of the Renaissance. The helmet was made in the small-arms shop of Negroli, Milanese armourers. The helmet belonged to the governor of Urbino Duke Gvidobaldo II Rovere-Montefeltro (1514-1574). The Duke is wearing the helmet on the portret from the miniature collection of the archduke Ferdinand Tyrolean.

New Hermitage is one of the five buildings of the basic ensemble of an architectural complex of the Hermitage in St.Petersburg. New Hermitage opened in 1852 was the first public museum in Russia. The margins of the block feature the interior of the hall the Small Italian Gleam. (the 1840's).