Музеи мира - World museums
World Museums
The British Museum (Great Britain)
London is a city rich in museums. There's museums full of toys, furniture,
wax people, antique furniture, in fact, something for practically every
taste. It's hard to see them all, even if you're here for a very long time,
so picking which museums to see can sometimes be quite difficult. Still for
most visitors, The British Museum always ranks as one of London's most
popular.
The British Museum had it's origins back in 1753 when the government was
given various collections by a famous physician, Sir Hans Soane. The
museum's collections have grown through the years and the present building
was erected in the early 1830s. Until last year, the British Museum shared
it's location with The British Library, which among other important tasks,
houses a copy of every book published in Britain since 1911 (required by
law!), and the buildings of the former Library are in the process of being
converted into a new visitor's centre for the Museum. The Museum is one of
the few quality tourist sites in London that is also still free to the
public. This may change in the very near future though, and any donations
are gratefully accepted as you enter.
The Louvre (France)
The Louvre is situated between the rue de Rivoli and the Seine. It is the
most important public building in Paris and one of the largest and most
magnificent palaces in the world,the construction of which extended over
three centuries. However, its great architectural and historical interest
is sometimes overshadowed by the popularity of the art-collection which it
contains. It became a national art gallery and museum since 1793.
Probably one of the most important painting that it contains is the
Mona Lisa. Over four century old, it still fascinates hundreds of visitors.
As Michelet wrote: "This canvas attracts me, calls me, invades me, absorbs
me. I go to it in spite of myself, like a bird to a snake".
The National Gallery of art (USA)
The National Gallery of Art was created in 1937 for the people of the
United States of America by a joint resolution of Congress, accepting the
gift of financier and art collector Andrew W. Mellon. During the 1920s, Mr.
Mellon began collecting with the intention of forming a gallery of art for
the nation in Washington. In 1937, the year of his death, he promised his
collection to the United States. Funds for the construction of the West
Building were provided by The A. W. Mellon Educational and Charitable
Trust. On March 17, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt accepted the
completed building and the collections on behalf of the people of the
United States of America.
The paintings and works of sculpture given by Andrew Mellon have formed a
nucleus of high quality around which the collections have grown. Mr.
Mellon's hope that the newly created National Gallery would attract gifts
from other collectors was soon realized in the form of major donations of
art from Samuel H. Kress, Rush H. Kress, Joseph Widener, Chester Dale,
Ailsa Mellon Bruce, Lessing J. Rosenwald, and Edgar William and Bernice
Chrysler Garbisch as well as individual gifts from hundreds of other
donors.
The Gallery's East Building, located on land set aside in the original
Congressional resolution, was opened in 1978. It accommodates the Gallery's
growing collections and expanded exhibition schedule and houses an advanced
research center, administrative offices, a great library, and a burgeoning
collection of drawings and prints. The building was accepted for the nation
on June 1, 1978, by President Jimmy Carter. Funds for construction were
given by Paul Mellon and the late Ailsa Mellon Bruce, the son and daughter
of the founder, and by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
The Collectors Committee, an advisory group of private citizens, has made
it possible to acquire paintings and sculpture of the twentieth century.
Key works of art have also come to the Gallery through the Patrons'
Permanent Fund. In addition, members of the Circle of the National Gallery
of Art have provided funds for many special programs and projects.
The Vasa Museum (Sweden)
The Vasa Museum is Scandinavia's most visited museum, located in Stockholm,
capital of Sweden.
The Museum was inaugurated in 1990. In the large shiphall stands the
warship Vasa - the only remaining, intact 17th century ship in the world.
The lower rig has been rebuilt, complete with masts, stays and shrouds.
Just like the Vasa would have looked like when set for winter in harbour.
The wreck, salvaged in 1961, is now once again a complete ship.
Surrounding the ship are several permanent exhibitions, cinemas, a shop and
a restaurant.
The Hunterian Museum (Scotland)
The Hunterian Museum was built on the grounds of the University of Glasgow
which lay then on Glasgow's High Street. Opened to the public in 1807, it
is thus the oldest public museum in Scotland. In 1870 the Museum was
transferred, along with the rest of the University, to its present home at
Gilmorehill in the western suburbs of the city.
The collections have grown enormously since Hunter's time. At first they
were all housed together, but gradually sections were dispersed to
appropriate University teaching departments. In 1980 the art collection was
transferred to a purpose-built Art Gallery.
The Archaeological museum at Olympia (Greece)
One of the most important archaeological museums in Greece. It hosts in its
collection artefacts from the sanctuary of Olympian Zeus, in Olympia, where
the ancient Olympic Games were born and hosted.
The new museum was constructed in 1975, and eventually opened in 1982, re-
exhibiting its treasures. The architect of the museum was Patrocolos
Karadinos.
Museo Del Prado (Spain)
The Prado Museum is a neo-Classical building by the Architect Juan de
Villanueva, the construction of which began in the year 1785. It was
conceived of as a museum and natural history room forming part of a
building complex dedicated to the study of science, as planned under the
reign of Charles III and within the scope of the urban reform that took
place on the Paseo del Prado (previously named Salon del Prado), which also
embellished with various monumental fountains (Cybele, Apollo and Neptune).
It was established in 1819 as the "Royal Museum of Painting and Sculpture"
by King Ferdinand VII, with pieces from the royal collections amassed by
earlier Spanish Monarchs, his forebears. At the end of the 19th century,
the Museum -by then national in scope- received works from another museums,
then called the Trinity, that were of a ecclesiastic nature and which had
been expropriated under laws governing the depreciation of ecclesiastic
assets. From the time of the creation and merger of the two museums many
other works of art have been added to the Prado through donations, legacies
and acquisitions.
Only a tenth of the museum's artistic holdings are actually on display in
its two buildings, the Villanueva building and the Casуn del Buen Retiro.
The remainder is held in other places, museums, institutions and Government
buildings or in storage at specially conditioned sites within the two
museum buildings.
The large museum collections fundamentally include paintings. However,
there is a valuable collection of sculptures, drawings, furniture, luxury
art, coins and medallions that cannot be permanently displayed due to the
lack of space.
The painting collection (12th to 20th century) is displayed as followed: up
to the 18th century and Goyas work is in the Villanueva building, and the
19th and 20th centuries' work in the nearby Casуn del Buen Retiro.
The fundamental painting collections belong to the Spanish schools -the
best represented- and the Italian and Flemish schools. The French, Dutch
and German schools, through numerically less represented, are not unworthy
of mention vis-a-vis their quality. Two halls are expressly reserved for
sculpture, but sculptural pieces are scattered throughout the different
halls in both museum buildings. All decorative art is on display in what is
known as the Dauphin's Treasure.
Uffizi Gallery (Italy)
The construction of the Uffizi palace began in 1560, when the Duke Cosimo I
dei Medici decided to build a special seat for the offices (hence the name
"uffizi") of the thirteen magistracies, that is for the administrative
center of the Florentine State. Cosimo I commissioned the project of the
building to Giorgio Vasari, painter and architect at the Medici court, who
realized one of the most famous architectural masterwork of Florentine
Mannerism. Stretching from the Signoria Palace to the river Arno the
costruction posed difficult technical problems since the foundations were
quite over the river; Vasari had to include into the building the ancient
church of San Pier Scheraggio and the ancient Zecca (near the Orcagna
Loggias). When in 1574 Vasari and Cosimo I died, the Uffizi were not yet
completed: Francesco I, son of Cosimo I, succeeded his father, Bernardo
Buontalenti succeeded Vasari in supervision of construction; in 1581 the
building was terminated. Some years before at the first floor the offices
of the thirteen magistracies had been installed: everyone of these had a
beautiful entrance door in the portico at the ground floor. A man of
peculiar intelligence, Francesco I (1541-1587) had a profound interest for
science, alchemy and art; in 1581 he decided to give a nearly private
arrangement to the second floor of the Uffizi. In the west wing he set
laboratories where specialized artisans worked jewels and precious stones,
perfumes were distilled, new medecines were experimented; in the east wing
