Hermitage Museum of St. Petersburg

Rating:
Summary: Bad camera angles render all paintings distorted
Review: All paintings (overalls and closeups) are shot from oblique angles not perpendicular to the painting surface. This results in distorted images. This is done consistently throughout the 2 DVDs as if on purpose to frustate anyone serious about studying paintings.

Rating:
Summary: At this moment, July 2002, the best museum DVD
Review: The masterpieces presented and the tour of the extensive
galleries, with a first rate presentation, as the DVD medium
can provide.
A must for any art lover.

Rating:
Summary: Getting Close to Ideal!
Review: This disc demonstrates one thing that DVD can do very, very well. While the narrator drifts through a series of images of patingings, sculptures, etc., you are free to PAUSE wherever you wish. This is a wonderful way to view an art program, and the TV screen is a lovely way to look at artistic materials (with its inner glow, it shows off the images). A TV tour is NOT the same as a museum, but few of us actually live in St. Petersburg, and a program such as this can be a worthy substitute.

The materials are loosely grouped by nationality and by period (high renaissance is one 1/2 hour program, Spanish masterpieces another, etc., etc., etc.). Menu access is easy.

In short, this is a fine presentation of a fantastic museum collection, and highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: An Art lover's Companion
Review: Two video disks packed with 8 hours of viewing magnificent works of art and coupled with historical comments. This set of DVDs is a wonderful reference companion for the art history major and a treasure for the artist and the art connoiseur. It is my most valued DVD.

Portrayed are masterpieces that were hidden from the eyes of Westerners for centuries. The precious disks reveal beautiful video images of art specimens never published in our Western art history books. The video allows the viewer to pause and zoom throughout the entire presentation, although the camera scan of the images and the selected angle shots are perfect without using this unique feature.

Disk one commences with an interesting historical presentation of Russia in the Age of Peter the Great followed with episodes of art and art history through the 14th century. Disk two commences with an exciting description of the museum's architecture followed with episodes and chapters of art and history from the 15th century to the 20th century.

The educational content in this film is beyond any documentary film of art I have seen, the historical implication is outstanding, it is a delightful tour of the world's great art collections.