The Louvre was originally built as a fortress in 1190, but was it reconstructed in the 16th century to serve as a royal palace, then during the French Revolution, the National Assembly decreed that the Louvre should be used as a museum to display the nation's masterpieces. The museum itself actually opened to the public on August 10th, 1793 with an exhibition of 537 paintings, the majority of the works being royal and confiscated church property. Since then it has continued to expand over the years collecting rare and priceless art and masterpieces from all throughout time and from all over the world. Today the Louvre is the most visited and one of the most diverse museums in the world. Containing more than with 70,000 pieces of art spread across more than 650,000 square feet of gallery space it hold the title as the largest museum in the world. However, not many people know the history of the museum itself. The wonders, the sights, and the feel of the museum are unlike anything ever felt before. The Louvre is located at the heart of the city of Paris, France, on the right-bank of the Seine. King Philip II (Philip Augustus) designed it to prevent invasions from …show more content…
The Louvre Museum has eight departments showcasing arts and artifacts from the pre-historic times to the 19th century. Theses eight departments consists of Egyptian antiquities, eastern antiquities, Islamic art, sculptures, Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities, decorative arts, painting, and prints and drawings. Each of these departments holds very famous art work including Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, Winged Victory of Samothrace, Oedipus and the Sphinx, The Raft of the Medusa, Milon de Crotone, Louis XIV and the Death of the Virgin. There are many works from artists such as Da Vinci, Rubens, Titian, David, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Poussin and
If the above mentioned paintings do not sound intriguing, the Frick’s remarkable holdings also include works by David, Goya, Renoir, Bruegel, and Velasquez. However, its collection is not limited to paintings only as significant sculptures like Bernini’s “Head of an Angel” from 1655 and Clodion’s ”Zephyrus and Flora” from 1799 can be found there as well. Along with these sculptures, an extensive collection of Italian bronzes and eighteenth century furniture combine to create a museum which although is small in size compared to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, makes up for it with an extensive collection of carefully selected pieces from some of the world’s most renowned artists.
The museums Asian art collection, preferably from China and Korea, are exhibited in the Pavilion for Japanese Art (Basch and Poole 541), whereas the Latin American art collection: comprising pre-Columbian magnum opuses to works by Diego Rivera, Clemento Orozco, Frida Kahlo, and such like, are exhibited in the Latin American Art galleries (Compton 165). In addition to its American, Latin American and Asian artworks, the museum has also some of the renowned Islamic and African art collections. The Latin American collection harbors pre-Columbian and Spanish art galleries and other recent and contemporary works of art. But despite its predominance in the LACMA museum, these pieces of art may not rival the Arabian or Islamic art in beauty and magnificence.
The St. Louis Art Museum is one of the United States most renowned art museums that is located in our very own St. Louis. It has over 30,000 pieces of exquisite art that I had the privilege to witness. While there, I mainly examined the art pieces that were modern art, since that is of what I have a good working knowledge. There is a wide range of art that I also got to witness including the sculptures and the museum itself. In the past year, they have recently installed a new sector of their establishment that has done nothing less than enhance the entire museum’s overall beauty. The St. Louis Art Museum, there are many beautiful works, but there were three special projects that caught my eye while I was there. The Contemporary art periods, Modern art periods, the American art periods, and the museum itself.
The exhibit that I viewed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art was one about European Art between the years 1100-1500. This was a series of paintings, sculptures, architecture, and tapestry of the Medieval and Early Renaissance as well as objects from the Middle East. This exhibit was an important part of the history of the Philadelphia Museum of Art because for the first time, Italian, Spanish, and Northern European paintings from the John G. Johnson collection were shown. It gave me a good idea of what the paintings were like in these four centuries and reflected ideas of both the east and the west.
During my second time visiting the museum, I looked at paintings from the 15th and 19th centuries. Two of the art works that I choose is “The Story of Joseph” from the Renaissance period and “The Marketplace” from the modern art period. Both of these paintings were from different time periods but they were also very similar in content and style.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art came about as an idea from Jon Jay in Paris, France in 1866 with the idea of “national institution gallery of art” within the United States. Once this idea was proposed, it was immediately moved forward with his return to the United States. With the help of the Union League Club in NY they began to acquire civic leaders, businessmen, artists, and collectors who aided in the creation of the museum. For over 140 years, the visitors who go here have received everything the mission of the institution states.
The “superstar” museum gained this status by considering every important detail during its establishment and initial phases of conversion from royal palace to museum (Gombault, 2002). As the purpose of the building changed, each room addressed new functions with new requirements. Although the function of the Louvre is different from the building’s original intention, the building is still appears dignified and important enough to display priceless artifacts and painting (Steffensen-Bruce, 1998). This consideration was applied in designing the Met. The Met looked towards the South Kensington Museum (Victoria and Albert) and the “ideal role model” due to its extensive collections and international reputation (Heckscher, 1995). The Met found itself in a similar situation to the South Kensington, because it did not have a building or a collection to start with (Heckscher, 1995). When designing museums, architects strived to create monuments that “prepare and educate the mind of the visitor (Steffensen-Bruce, 1998).” Education is an essential function of a museum. Acquiring, preserving, and properly displaying materials, permits a museum to fulfill this duty (Steffensen-Bruce, 1998). For instance, lighting is a factor that affects the manner in which artwork is viewed and can be properly appreciated. When determining the proper lighting for the Louvre, Comte d’Angiviller, strongly believed that natural, overhead lighting was the most effective solution (McClellan, 1994, p. 72). The same determination impacted the decision to add skylights at the Met. During the initial phase, architects Vaux and Mould, added skylights to the upper floor, and windows to the lower floor that provided a natural light solution (Heckscher, 1995). Additionally, glass-roofed courtyards provided “unimpeded light” for displaying
The facility was smaller than expected by many on the tour group. However, the tour guide had a very nice explanation to each of the artworks. By visiting the museum to gain the aesthetic experience it has open many people point of views to how they can express his or her self through art.
In 1870, the Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded by a group of businessmen and artists who wanted a place to present and educate the public to a variety of art. This museum houses paintings, sculptures, costumes, musical instruments, and antique weaponry. The works range from classical antiquity through the European masters to modern art. The Frick Collection was opened to the public in 1935, transforming Henry Frick’s mansion into a gallery showcasing his extensive collection of European paintings, drawings, manuscripts and sculptures. Both museums have similar mission statements, with the Frick Museum’s directive to preserve Henry Frick’s collection of art and showcasing it publicly, and the Met’s objective to encourage and develop the education of the fine arts.
The museum is very big and a lot of time is needed to get the most out of it.
They have a much wider range of items on display and many come from people who have something they think the museum would like. Not all of the displays are from far away; many are from people very near to the museum. The displays are more interactive and are not all behind glass. Some of the displays are regularly updated and they are more interactive. New museology is the modernisation of museums.
The Mona Lisa by Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci is one of the most visited, written about, sung about, and talked about paintings of all time. In the following pages I will give a detailed description of the painting, the historical context surrounding it’s inception, and an in-depth comparison between Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and Vincent van Gogh’s Self Portrait.
His artworks are by far the most popular pieces of art that are in museums to this day. Recently a popular painting “Salvator Mundi”, painted between 1490-1500, has been placed up for auction and it is estimated that the painting will sell for at least $100 million. This is just one of 16 surviving paintings that have made it through the years, and it’s not even the most popular one. The Mona Lisa is the most popular painting by anyone to this very day. It was painted in the year 1503 and is famous for multiple reasons.
Museum is a place for people to collect data, to explore the history, to learn and get engaged with the information provided. Museum is also documenting the artifacts and provides vast of collection works from various field such as artistic, scientific, historical and cultural that available for public viewing through exhibits. Alexander and Alexander (2008) stated that museum is a non-profit permanent institution in the service of society and development which are open to the public which acquires conserves researches, communicates and exhibits for the purpose of study, education and enjoyment, material evidence of people and their environment. On the other hand, museum also provides information in the environment where people
While visiting the Norton Museum, there were two works of art that were very interesting. The first work of art is a sculpture by Pablo Picasso called, Head of a Woman (Fernande). It was made in 1909 when he was in Paris. When he made this sculpture he was in the cubism period. Picasso sculpted this sculpture of bronze.