Old Masters, Hunters, 17C Comic Strip, and Reclining Nudes in St Petersburg.
August 20th 2016 Our second day in the State Hermitage.
One of our favourite outings, back home in the North East of England, is a trip to Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle, Co Durham. There is a stunning automaton silver swan on the ground floor........It still swims daily on a sea of silver. James Cox collaborated with John Joseph Merlin in 1773 to create the machine. Here in the Hermitage, Catherine ll's golden
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Founded in the 12th century, the Principality of Muscovy, was able to emerge from over 200 years of Mongol domination (13th-15th centuries) and to gradually conquer and absorb surrounding principalities. In the early 17th century, a new Romanov Dynas... ... read more 
