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Article: Rubens and his age.(Peter Paul Rubens, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- The Magazine Antiques
- Article date:
- July 1, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Brant Publications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg is one of the largest museums in the world. It houses some three million objects in an astonishing variety of mediums, collected in large part by the insatiably acquisitive Empress Catherine II (the Great; r. 1762-1796). Catherine purchased large collections en bloc, commissioned single objects, and received an enormous quantity of diplomatic and personal gifts. She formed a remarkable collection of cameos and jewelry, which she installed in the second floor of her apartments in the Winter Palace, where, as she confessed, "only the mice and I enjoy it all."
Because of the breadth of the museum's collections, it is ...