This would be Rembrandt’s interpretation of the biblical story of the Prodigal Son. There are six people in the portrait, and their faces are all painted so show varying intensities of light. It is thought that brighter faces imply that those people have more understanding and compassion for the down-and-out man in the lower left than those with the darker faces. One person (the sixth) is painted in such dark a light that he is barely visible in this shot.

2) The Peacock Clock

In my opinion, it’s the most interesting curio in the Hermitage, in what was once one of Catherine the Great’s private galleries. It is in perfect working order, but it only “chimes” once a week, I believe. But of course it doesn’t actually chime. When it was operating on an hourly basis, the peacock would (hourly) spread its wings and move its head. It is an incredibly impressive piece given that it has no electric components and was made over 200 years ago by English jeweler and goldsmith James Cox. The time is told at the base of the clock by a little rotating toadstool.

3) The “Just for Show” Throne Room

While this looks like (and indeed is) a throne room, it was never used as one. At all. To show the excesses of Russian aristocracy, we find in the Hermitage a throne room that was only built for display and had no functional purpose. Peter the Great is pictured in the portrait above the throne.

4)  The REAL Throne Room

Here we have the actual throne of the Russian Tsars, and this picture doesn’t show the magnificent expanse of the room behind where I took the picture. This throne, like all symbols of imperial Russia, as well as the tapestry and drapes, were to be destroyed in the wake of the 1917 revolution. They were never destroyed, because they were hidden away at an undisclosed location where the revolutionaries would never find it. Only after the fall of the USSR was the throne room restored as it appears in this picture.