50 Million Serfs, 1 World-Class Art Collector - Russian art (pre-1917)

I know very little about fine arts, so the next two entries should be taken with a grain of salt. I just enjoy them, that's all.
One of the main things we looked forward to in Russia was visiting its many art galleries. Catherine the Great (above) assembled thousands of exceptional paintings and sculptures, which are now viewable by the public at the Ermitage Museum. The Ermitage itself is a work of art: its main wing is in the tsarist-era Winter Palace. (The film Russian Ark gives a good view of it, for those who can't go there in person.) Under Communism, high-quality public art was a central government policy, so a nationwide network of galleries and museums was created along with statues and monuments.

Until 1917, Russian art remained essentially medieval: Byzantine ikons (religious paintings) and stiff portraits of the nobility. In the second half of the 19th century, there were counterculture democratic and Europeanist movements which introduced new art forms. I'll leave that as an introduction to the next entry because it was not the mainstream.

We didn't take any pictures in the galleries because a photograph rarely does a painting justice. (These ones are from the Internet, just for illustration.)

Ikons typically look like this:
They are painted in a flat and unornamented style, with gold leaf for halos and other accents. Symbolism is more important than realism or emotional appeal. This reflects the Russian Orthodox attitude to divinity: God can only be appreciated instinctively or symbolically. There is no notion of a human, personal, or loving God. As an agnostic, I can't appreciate ikons the way a Christian would--I know little about theology or doctrine, and I have no emotional connection to the pantheon of saints. I saw much fewer ikons than I expected, so perhaps they have fallen out of favour with Russians as well. To be honest, the main place I saw them was in the hands of uniquely Russian panhandlers: elderly women with an ikon and a metal dish who continuously prayed for charity.

The secular tsarist art did not impress me much either. I saw three or four portraits which were genuinely moving, but they were drops in an ocean of pampered and complacent aristocrats. Here is a typical one of Alexander I (who fought Napoleon).
Without further ado, I'll move ahead to 1917, when things get interesting.