Christina Birmpilopoulou
Archaeologist – Museologist
MSc in Museum Studies
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
In my turn, I would also like to welcome you in today’s lectures. My name is Christina Birmpilopoulou, I am an archaeologist – museologist, and we will talk about the historical progress of the European Museum, as well as its multiple role which it plays in our days. Shall we begin?
The notion of the Museum inextricably intertwined with the natural need of man to gather ancient artifacts.
However, from the moment a collection is formed, its occupant primarily desires to display it to his fellow man, seeking the admiration, the approval or the social recognition. Here exactly lies the birth of the Museum.
At this point, we should note that in the ancient Greek world, the term “Museum” referred to a residence dedicated to the arts, in which activities relevant to music, poetry or philosophy took place. Indeed, these spaces were named as “Museums” since they were considered under the protection of the 9 Muses, goddesses – protectors of the arts and the sciences.
Certainly, a milestone for the history of the Museum is considered the founding of the Museum of Alexandria, around 290 B. C., by Ptolemy the First, known by the designation "savior". It was a center of research and study, dedicated to the 9 Muses, and it consisted, together with the Library of Alexandria, the largest cultural center of the Hellenistic world.
The next significant station is Rome, which was flooded with artifacts that had arrived there as a war loot. The Romans used to exhibit these spoils at the “forum” (marketplaces), public gardens, baths and temples.
However, although the term “Museum” comes from the classic past, in the broad sense it is a modern institution, founding around the mid-15th century in the cities and the royal courts of Renaissance Italy∙ where we meet the term “galleria” (gallery), a long and narrow room, lit from the sides, filled with art paintings and sculpture, as well as the term “gabinetto” (cabinet), a usually square room filled with taxidermy, herbal samples, miniatures and varied peculiar objects. Both terms reflected private collections, for the knowledge and pleasure of the higher class.
During the 16st century, we meet the first scientific collections, as well as the first recorded use of the term “Museum” in order to describe the private collection of Lorenzo de Medici, commonly known as Lorenzo the Magnificent. He was an avid collector of ancient manuscripts and a great protector of the arts. Besides the founding of the academy of sculpture in the garden of St. Marcus, the Cathedral of Venice, he generously helped all brilliant artists that coincided with his reign, from Botticelli and Verrocchio, to Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.
Essentially, the private collections of the 17th and the 18th centuries consisted of various peculiar natural or artificial objects, described as “cabinet of curiosities” (in English), “cabinet des curiosités” (in French), “Wunderkammer” (wonder – room) or “Kunstkammer” (art – room) (in German).
Modern terminology would categorize the objects included as belonging to natural history (sometimes faced), geology, ethnography, archaeology, religious or historical relics, works of art (including cabinet paintings) and antiquities. Thus, the cabinet of curiosities was regarded as a microcosm or theater of the world, which conveyed symbolically the patron’s control of the world through its indoor, microscopic reproduction.
However, the Enlightenment deserves credit for the start of a methodological sorted collection. The establishment of public museums had reached the time, namely the cultural institution that appeals to a wider audience.
The first major museums that have been established with this philosophy were the British Museum and the Louvre. The British Museum was first housed in Montagu House, a 17th century mansion, in 1759, in Bloomsbury, on the site of today’s building.
From the beginning, it granted free admission to all “studious and curious persons”. The origins of the British Museum lie in the will of the physician, naturalist and collector, Sir Hans Sloane (1660 – 1753). The founding collections largely consisted of books, manuscripts and natural specimens with some antiquities (including coins and medals, prints and drawings), as well as ethnographic material.
In 1823, the gift to the nation by George IV of his father’s library (the King’s Library) prompted the construction of today’s quadrangular building designed by Sir Robert Smirke (1750 – 1867).
With the exception of the two World Wars, the Museum has remained open ever since, gradually increasing its opening hours and moving from an attendance of 5.000 per year to today’s 6 million.
Shortly afterwards, in 1793, the first visitors were admitted to the Louvre. It is located in the center of Paris, on the riverside of the Seine and, until the French Revolution, it was the king’s palace and before that, simply a fortress.
Remarkable is the fact that it was the first museum which organized and explained the painting collections of the French royal family and aristocrats in schools. Indeed, each painting is accompanied by a brief explanatory text about the artist and the content of his work. The Louvre, born of the French Revolution, was a true public museum. The public was allowed without any restrictions and entrance was free, with artists given priority over the general public.
We note, then, that at this time the Museum had acquired dual orientation: firstly becoming channel of public education and cultural development∙ and on the other hand, serving undeniably personal political ambitions.
Characteristic of the early 19th century was the realization of the role of the museum as the guardian of national traditions and national identity. Representative examples are the cases of Spain, Germany, Russia and Greece, since their antiquities were the main symbols of national identity and pride.
So the Prado (1819), meaning meadow, formed the largest national art collection of Spain. It was housed in a neoclassical mansion, designed and constructed by Juan de Vilianoueva, under orders of King Charles III. After the dethronement of Isabella B, in 1868, it nationalized.
In the Museums neighborhood (Das Kunstareal), in Munich, stands the complex of two classic buildings designed by Leo von Klenze: the Sculpture Gallery, named Glyptothek, and behind it the State Collections of Antiques. The Glyptothek (1830) was the first museum built in the area, at desire of Ludwig I of Bavaria, to house the collection of Greek and Roman sculptures he had in his possession. Noteworthy is the fact that some statues were placed freely in space, so that the visitor can traverses around them, admiring them from all sides.
The new Hermitage (1852), also designed by Leo von Klenze, was the first museum in Russia, open to visitors. Etymologically, is a French paraphrase of the Greek word «ερημητήριο», meaning country house for relaxation. It is housed in a complex of six buildings, the old Winter Palace, on the riverside of the Neva in St. Petersburg.
Let me talk a little more in detail about the primary destination of Greek museum, those years: it sought primarily to store antiques∙ and secondarily, it aims to disseminate the archaeological knowledge, and -by extension- to cultivate the taste of aesthetic beauty.
The national consciousness of the Greeks relied fully on a direct link to classical antiquity. Proof of this bond are antiquities, which they have already enjoyed an enormous prestige in Europe, even from the Renaissance. Within this ideological framework, the "National Museum" of Aegina is founded, in 1829, by the decree of I. Kapodistrias. It was housed together with other intellectual institutions in the Aegina’s Orphanage building.
With the transfer of the capital from Nafplio to Athens in 1834, “Thiseio”, the temple of Hephaestus, is defined as the “Main Archaeological Museum” by a royal decree of King Otto A΄, in which most of the antiquities from Aegina were carried in.
But since the number of antiquities is growing, both from the excavations and the construction of new buildings in the capital, it made it imperative to build a large museum building. So, after the donation of the area by the national benefactress Helen Tositsa, the construction of the "National Archaeological Museum" began in 1889, designed by Ernst Ziller. The term "national" not only refers to the geographical origin and significance of the collections, but also to its mission as the guardian of ancient heritage.
Contrary to the other European Museums, Greek Museums were free to every member of the society since their founding. However, their collections were organized by chronological (Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic, Roman period) or / and typological criteria (vases, statues, miniatures, figurines), in a purely encyclopedic look, adopting the European classicist tradition of Vinkelman, the father of archeology and founder of Neoclassicism.
Finally, the 20th century is mainly characterized by the evolution of the older types of museums, as well as by the development of new ones, in which the remains of the more recent past are displayed, such as folklore, open-air, industrial, themed, sciences and natural history museums.
The creator of the first folklore museum was Swedish educator Arthur Hazelius, who, in 1891, founded the Skansen, outside Stockholm, which ultimately is considered as an open-air museum and zoo. The main objective was to create not just an exhibition, but an integrated environment which depicted vividly the way of life in the different parts of Sweden before the industrial era.
Exactly because the 19th century was a period of great change throughout Europe, since its rural way of life was rapidly giving way to an industrialized society, many people feared that the country’s many traditional customs and occupations may be lost to history. Thus, after an extensive traveling, Hazelius bought around 150 houses from all over the country and had them shipped piece by piece to the museum, where they were rebuilt to provide a unique picture of traditional Sweden, a full replica of an average 19th century town, in which craftsmen (e.g. bakers, tanners, shoemakers) in traditional dress demonstrate their skills in period surroundings.
Certainly, the world famous open-air museum is Beamish (1970), the first regional open-air museum in England, telling the story of the people of North East England. The museum’s guiding principle is to preserve an example of everyday life in urban and rural England at the climax of industrialization in the early 20th century. On its 300 acres (1.2 km²) estate, it utilizes a mixture of translocated, original and replica buildings∙ a huge collection of artifacts, working vehicles and equipment as well as livestock and costumed interpreters. It is a significant educational resource and helps to preserve some traditional north-English country and rare livestock breeds.
The difference with the Skansen is that its initiator, F. Atkinson, adopted a policy of “unselective collecting”, meaning “you offer it to us and we will collect it”. The people of the region responded with donations of all kinds ranging from small everyday objects to steam engines and even shops.
Parallel, the modern museum community focuses on the preservation of industrial tools and machinery, but also highlights the fact of their replacement by more technologically advanced models. As we are seeing in the case of Museum of Industrial Olive Oil Production in Lesvos, Greece, housed in the old community’s oil press (2000 – 2006). This museum seeks to highlight the industrial heritage, both in the sector of oil and in the wider field of technology, but also to integrate it into the architectural, social and cultural context of it. Thus, the extant historical equipment has been restored, while it is highlighted exemplary through its "ostentatious" operation, as the machines put into use, supplemented with digital material∙ offering visitors a full picture of processing stages olives, until the alteration of the fruit into the oil.
On the other hand, museums of science acquire a more active role in European museum community, while the natural history museums multiply rapidly. As representative examples, the Memorial Museum of Astronautics in Russia and the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Spain can be mentioned.
The Memorial Museum of Astronautics is a museum in the northest part of Moscow, dedicated to space exploration. It contains a wide variety of space-related exhibits and models which explore the history of flight, astronomy, space technology and space in the arts. It is a favorite of students worldwide and a primary tourist attraction of the city.
On the other hand, the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Madrid has been one of the most emblematic institutions of the Spanish National Research Council through the last three centuries. It promotes the fullest possible knowledge about the diversity of the natural world, and works to improve the way society views science and the wealth of our natural heritage.
Of course, a key component of all, without exception, the above types of museum is the definition of “Museum” by the International Council of Museums (ICOM), in 1990:…
In our century, however, what is the role of the museum in the globalized society? What unique characteristics adopts? And what challenges does it face? (3 ερωτήματα)
Museums need to redefine their place in the public space, as well as to ensure that they are open to everyone.
We have to wonder how a museum will be able to succeed stability, but also versatility∙ to act independently, as well as to develops cooperation∙ to be trust worthy, but also to provides entertainment∙ its themes to be intertemporal, as well as timeliness∙ to be able to design carefully, but to do so with vision∙ finally, to transmit knowledge with imagination. These are key questions that the entire European museum community is required to answer nowadays.
Essentially, in our time, the great challenge for Museums is to enable the use of collections and objects which were in storage for a long time, as well as to approach and re-interpret the already exposed objects, in a process of continuous reassessment of informative museum material.
Motivation can be done in various ways, some of which you can see on the slide, such as...
We should not forget that the active utilization of collections is connected intimately with the active participation by the public. In this context, the idea of a "dynamic collection" is promoted, meaning a collection that evolves and adapts to the current needs of the public and the modern museological standards.
In summary, the European Museum, through its historical path, is an active organization that constantly redefines its role in human society.
Thus, from the holy temple of the Muses in ancient times and the cabinet of curiosities in Renaissance, it evolved into an archive protector of the national identity, in the 19th century, to become a major cultural institution nowadays.
In our century, a criterion for the selection of museum objects is not only their "artistic" value or the actual aesthetic pleasure of their beholder, but mainly their value as information carriers, as multilevel evidence of human culture, through which the average visitor not only acquires knowledge, but mainly obtains multiple experiences, as we can see on the SLIDE.
Therefore, the Museums are the way we connect our past with our present and our future. Thus, they have always satisfied a very important human need: to create a permanent record of how people have lived, and what they have achieved, across what we have come to recognize in an interdependent world. In short, they can show how events and beliefs from the past shape people’s experience of the present.
For this, as traditional or modern a museum building can be, what we always have to bear in mind is the quote by...
Here you can see a list of important references I have used.
References
- Alexander E., 1979: Museums in Motion. An introduction to the History and Function of Museums
- Bazin G., 1979: The Louvre
- Caygill M., 1981: The Story of the British Museum
- Findlen P., 1989: The Museum: its classical etymology and renaissance genealogy
- Gazi A., 1993: Archaeological Museums in Greece 1829 – 1909. The Display of Archaeology
- Hooper – Greenhill E., 1992: Museums and the Shaping of Knowledge
- Hudson K., 1987: Museums of Influence
- Lewis G., 1992: Museums and their precursors: a brief world survey
- Pearce S., 1992: Museums, Objects and Collections. A Cultural Study
- Schulz E., 1990: Notes on the history of collecting and of museums
Thank you very much for your continued concern and I wish you to get the most from this European program. I am at your disposal for any clarification. Good afternoon.
© 2013, Christina Birmpilopoulou
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This speech contains material protected under International and European Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized use of this material is prohibited. No part of this speech may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author.
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