Crown Molding

One more shot from the interior of Catherine's palace would be the excellent crown molding in one of the decorated dining rooms. Between strips of gilt-covered shaped molding, probably of wood or plaster, a painted strip. Amidst the overkill mentioned in prior posts, it looked classy and attractive to me.

Stepping outside into a bright sunny Saturday morning, another view of the exterior of the palace. While the grounds do not feature anywhere nearly the fountains of Peterhof, there are some interesting sights to see in the next post or two.

Dining Rooms

The various rooms set up to show the tables as set for dining parties were again sumptuous. By this point, the gilt color did not add to the beauty of the scene, but the tables were well set and attractive.

In particular, the Christmas table was festive and classy. I guess the dark green balanced the dominant color well!

Delft

As I left the gold room, I could not resist the chance to use the giant mirror next to the exit door for a Gold-Room Self-Portrait.

As we moved on, we entered a series of dining rooms and drawing rooms, each one dominated by a Delft stove. The giant wood-burning stoves were specially made and ordered to be shipped in at great cost to add to the gilt in impressing people. I knew of Delft as pottery, interesting and beautiful but on a much smaller scale.

When the guide gave the background to the stoves, it sounded remarkable. The stoves were made without doors, no way to put the wood into the stove or burn it. The stoves are giant counterfeits. I need say no more, as I wrote about it in the semi-dark of that evening White Night. The poem I wrote:

DELFT

Catherine the Great, perhaps self-nicknamed so long ago, filled palaces
With collections of various artworks, sculpture, tapestries: everything
She apparently fancied. As gilted as Peterhof, her Winter Castle features
Delft stoves, hand fired in the Netherlands and shipped to her orders,
Floor-to-ceiling heating devices that are valuable collectors’ items.
Most though not all of these wood stoves were made without doors,
No way to add wood, no way to light a fire, no way to use the stove.
In a palace full of gilt, perhaps the greatest symbol of bloated excess
Might be the fanciest stoves of all, placed there just to impress.

Gilt

In both Peterhof and the Winter Palace, there are rooms that are designed to impress, and they do in one way or another. Gilt is what catches the eye, liquid gold painted onto the walls and decor, a nineteenth-century evidence of the ability to show off for other wealthy people. It is a difficult thing to enjoy, at least for me.

A poem I wrote during the evening between the two showy palaces would seem to fit here:

GILTY AS CHARGED

Taking an American through the Czar’s Peterhof Palace is a stretch.
Our bus dumps us out, an international lot with several Yanks, to the
Star Spangled Banner being well played by a trio that looked oompah.
They stroll us past a dozen tents of booksellers, toy sellers, merchants
Lining us up in the small garden to be worked by the street sellers again.
“Are these Russian Nesting Dolls made in China?” is heard over and over
Again, until the Cossack nature comes out in the form of argument.
Entry to the Palace is slow, checking coats and seeing several stores,
Then we enter to the gallery of gilt, which really should be guilt.
After the Soviet system fell, where were these new Russians left?
They honor no statues of the Soviet Empire, they hark back to the royals,
Their museums bring in dollars to see the excess that caused the problem.
Enough gilt in the hallway and ballroom to give an American a headache.
I paid my fee, I accepted my headache, gilty as charged.
Best wishes to Helen, our guide, and all Russians seeking success, freedom.

Inside the Palace

Inside the Winter Palace, as much as was the case at Peterhof, one finds awesome color everywhere. After your first entrance, you are wound through some passages until you are sent up the grand red staircase as you enter the sumptuous rooms above.

The ability to hear your guides is enhanced in some of these huge museums by the use of headphones, which allow each guest to hear his or her specific guide. As long as a person stays in range of the transmitter, there is a lot to learn and a lot to see. The next post will be in the gold, gilt room at Catherine's Winter Palace.

Second Day in Russia

It had been my thought on our first night in Russia to grab a great sunset photo or two to celebrate and demonstrate the famed White Nights. That went by the boards as the clock turned past midnight light enough to read a newspaper outdoors. No sunset pictures were taken, so we got some sleep and headed for the Winter Palace of Catherine the Great.

This stop did allow interior photos, so after we went through the ornate gates and walked by the brightly-painted exterior, we headed inside. And in coming posts, we will see many sights of a kind of beauty. But it is a tough kind of beauty to appreciate, as it is gilt-covered excess in many ways. Look in on the next post for the details.

A poem about the White Nights:

WHITE NIGHTS

Sunset does come, eventually, in summer in St. Petersburg. A big deal,
Cloud strips accenting the deep oranges and red stretching across the sky,
Starting well past ten, saying good evening to strollers in parks and on streets.
The big production sees the sun disappear around eleven, but it is not final:
At midnight one could read the newspaper outside without eye strain.
Before long, the dusky twilight allows stores to turn on their neon,
Just a touch of light in an otherwise light-enough street, until around one
When it starts working on daylight again. Sunsets are quick on deserts,
Most of which are near the Equator, but White Nights belie the darkness
Nearer the poles, with people loving it until the bill comes due in January.