LECTURE: DCPGDIPMUS.102.

1
FROM 3RD CENTURY BCE TILL BEGINNING OF 19TH CENTURY CE

SUBHRAJIT BANERJEE
Museums are basically the repositories of heritage invented for
nurturing them and to pass on the same generations after
generation.
In Prague, on 24 August 2022, the Extraordinary General Assembly of ICOM has approved the proposal for the new
museum definition with 92,41% (For: 487, Against: 23, Abstention: 17). Following the adoption, the new ICOM museum
definition is:
“A museum is a not-for-profit, permanent institution in the service
of society that researches, collects, conserves, interprets and
exhibits tangible and intangible heritage. Open to the public,
accessible and inclusive, museums foster diversity and
sustainability. They operate and communicate ethically,
professionally and with the participation of communities, offering
varied experiences for education, enjoyment, reflection and
knowledge sharing.”
The term Museum is being derived from the ancient Greek term
‘mouseion’. Which were basically the temples devoted to the
virgin daughters of the eminent Greek God Zeus renowned as
the Muses. In a wholesome there were 9 muses, and each one of
them were god or goddesses of various humanistic expressions.
The Muses are:

1.Calliope (Poetry), 2.Euterpe (Lyrics), 3.Thalia (Comedy),

4.Melpomene (Tragedy), 5.Terpsichore (Dance), 6.Erato (Love),
7.Polyhymnia (Religious Hymn), 8.Urania (Astronomy) and 9.Clio
(History)
 The association of “museum” with the
systematic collection and study of evidence
began in the mid-340 BCE while Aristotle was
travelling to the island of Lesbos. Aristotle, in
this journey was accompanied by his student
Theophrastus. Theophrastus began collecting,
studying, and classifying botanical specimens;
and gradually formulated a methodical
procedure of study which later on was effective
to study society as well as nature within the
1.1.AIMG.1 – Picture of Aristotle (Graphic)
context of their own existence.
Aristotle’s method of systematic
study found popularity in the
Lyceum. In ancient Greece, a Lyceum
was a community of scholars and
students organized to systematically
study biology and history, among
other subjects. The Lyceum
contained a mouseion, and during
this period only the term mouseion 1.1.AIMG.2 – Aristotle’s Lyceum

came to be associated with scholarly

investigations.
1.1.AIMG.3 – Picture of the Lyceum (Excavated at Athens)
 Ptolemy I Soter began building
Alexandria in c.331 BCE, he
invited Theophrastus to join his
court and advise him while
building this new capital.
Theophrastus declined the offer
and Ptolemy I Soter turned to
Demetrius Phalereus, a former
1.1.AIMG.4 – Picture of Ptolemy I Soter (On his coin) governor of Athens who was
familiar with Theophrastus’s
Lyceum. Demetrius Phalereus
apparently inspired the emperor
to establish the Mouseion in
Alexandria during 280 BCE.
The Mouseion of Alexandria is the renowned most
institution of classical knowledge and one of the
popular institutions among contemporary scholars.
Basically in this mouseion the scholarly studies were
pursued in two different divisions; i.e.,
1. A community of resident scholars and their activity
centers; named as the mouseion.
2. A collection of texts, the acquisition, editing,
cataloguing and – in some instances – translation into
Greek of which formed a share of the scholars’ work;
which formed up a Library.
1.1.AIMG.5 – Picture of Alexandria Mouseion and Library
  The Roman empire absorbed the assimilation of Greek statuary
and other precious objects into their visual culture and daily life.
 To maintain such heritage existing administrative offices were
enlarged for the care of public statuaries, usually through the
designated officers; i.e., aediles, censors, and later curators.
 It was ultimately a debate over the use of Greek statues by the
Roman Generals displaying their power and wealth to challenge
the central authorities of Rome and the Senate.
 Augustus resolved the debate by letting declared that Greek art
should hereon be considered public property (res publica) and
that it should only be used in the service of the states.
 The existence of the prolonged heritage sense in Roman life
reveals a general sensitivity to the spaces as well as ownership
rights of res publica.

1.1.AIMG.6 – Picture of Augustus Cesar

 When Emperor Constantine and his successors decided to
establish a ‘New Rome’ in Byzantium by replicating Roman
architectural grandeur, then the display of Greek Pegan Deity
sculptures in the public spaces of the Byzantine empire
contradicted with the anti-pegan policy of this proclaimed
Christian state.
 The display of the Lausos Collection in Constantinople thus
served as a strong example to the imperial Byzantium policy of
mediating between a continuing admiration for its Greco-
Roman past and Christianity’s anti-pegan doctrine.
 The public display of symbolic or precious objects, whether for
reasons of state policy or personal prestige, was now on
acquiring a significant rhetorical power in its own right during
the middle age.
 The retrieval of classical learning that shaped so much of Renaissance culture
reinstated interest in Aristotle’s writings and methods. In the 1400s CE this
fashion began as a widespread effort to translate Aristotelian texts directly
from the Greek and popularizing them through the new medium of printing.
This development evolved by the 1500s CE into ambitious enactments of
Aristotelian methodology of knowledge system.
 By the late 1500s CE, due to the renaissance and reincarnation of the
Aristotelian knowledge system; more or less systematic personal
arrangements in tidy cabinets, cases, drawers, and other specialized
furnishings, often in specially designated rooms in the homes and workplaces
of amateurs and scholars occurred throughout the Europe. This fashion
became very popular and helped to learn various genres of discourses.
 A variety of words was formulated to characterize these collections, their
settings, the scholarly ambitions of their creators, and the kinds of objects
collected; i.e., Pandechion, Studiolo, Gabinetto, or Wunderkammer, Galleria,
Kunstkammer, or Kunstschrank. However “Musaeum” soon became the most
widely accepted and broadly applied term for characterizing the physical
manifestations of this activity, whether spaces filled with objects or books filled
with descriptions because the term was associated with Aristotle.
  During renaissance these collections tended their focus to gather specimens
from nature (naturalia), as well as human-made objects (artificialia). Mainly
such a new development indicated different purposes of collecting and
differing genres of cataloguing.
 When Aldrovandi’s collection of naturalia became a widely known destination
for visitors from Italy and across Europe, it evolved from a private project to a
semi-public gathering place for the scholars, curious, and the famous
personalities of the contemporary time. The earliest documentation of
Aldrovandi’s museum confirms its location in a room adjacent to Aldrovandi’s
studio or study.
 The association of collections with affairs of state became functional in new
ways during the Renaissance; which was much more different and persuasive
in comparison with the classical antiquity period.
 The rewards of having the studiolo in the boundary zone between private
interests and public responsibilities led Francesco I to transform the loggia
above the Uffizi, which was then literally the administrative “offices” of the
1.1.AIMG.7 – Picture of Rudolf II Duchy of Tuscany; into a suite of galleries at Florence, Italy.
 The diplomatic uses of Emperor Rudolf II’s collection toward the end of the
sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries are particularly well documented.
1.1.AIMG.8 – Picture of the Uffizi Gallery
 The Naturalist and professor at the University of Bologna, Ulisse Aldrovandi
(mentioned earlier), recorded the names and occupations of nearly 1600 visitors
between CE 1566 and 1605. Though there were certainly many more because he
listed only those whose nobility or reputation warranted documentation, but this list
immensely help us to understand the involvement of public with the institution of
musaeum.
 In mid-1700s CE England, the realization of the musaeum as a more wholly public
institution, whether defined by accessibility or ownership, was developed from the
“crisis of authority” and advent of the social idealism which were the outcrops of the
contemporary era.
 Tradescant, an English Royalist; like Aldrovandi, led visitors through the collection
and apparently welcomed anyone wishing to see its contents, including children,
beginning as early as CE 1649 and continuing until his death in 1662 CE. He charged
an admission fee of 6 pence, beginning about 1649, which coincides with Charles I’s
execution and, no doubt, Tradescant’s unemployment due to the dissolve of the
Royalists in England.
 The uses and disposition of John Tradescant’s collection reflects the Bologna model,
which was colored by the shifting political and economic circumstances of England in
the years following the English revolution. Also this time the sense of museum as an
institution with a particular expenditure originated due to the addition of admission
fee.
 THE ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM
 Tradescant bequeathed the collection to Ashmole, a man of
modest origins who rose to a high level of British society,
power, and wealth as a solicitor, treasury official, and adviser
to the king. Also an antiquarian, astrologer, and founding
member of the Royal Society of London.
 In CE 1675 Ashmole expressed interest in donating his
collection, including the Tradescant holdings, to his Alma
Mater, Oxford University.
 In CE 1677, the university proposed erecting a building with
a ‘laboratory’ to house it; the cornerstone was laid in 1679,
and it opened in 1683 CE.
 Though owned by Oxford University and supervised by a
University Board of Visitors, the Ashmolean Museum was
intended to be fully accessible to the public from the outset
1.1.AIMG.9 – Picture of the Ashmole
and its operating funds.
1.1.AIMG.10 – A contemporary picture of the Ashmolean Museum
1.1.AIMG.11 – The Naturalia exhibits of the Ashmolean Museum
 THE BRITISH MUSEUM
 By Act of the British parliament, the British Museum was established in
1753 to function as a public repository of objects and texts that would be
maintained by the English government and overseen by a government
appointed Board of Trustees.
 The museum’s yearly operating funds were drawn from the interest
accumulated by the unused balance of lottery income, a very modest
sum that began to be supplemented by the parliament in CE 1762.
 The museum was initially open every day except Saturdays and Sundays,
Christmas day, the week after Easter, Whitsunday, Good Friday, ‘and all
days . . . Specifically appointed for Thanksgivings or Feasts.’
 Despite the trustees’ best intentions, however, entry was controlled by a
ticket application process that could drag on for two or three days, and
they were capped at ten per each hour of admission. Basically this
restriction was formulated as the guide service of the Museum was
1.1.AIMG.12 – Picture of Solane
unable to cater more than 10 people in one run.
1.1.AIMG.13 – A contemporary picture of the British Museum, London.
1.1.AIMG.14 – A contemporary Architectural Plan of the British Museum, London. (Graphic)
 The Museum Fridericianum in Kassel
 The period of CE 1700s onwards was marked by a gradual
opening of royal collections throughout the European
continent.
 One of such royal collections, like that of Landgrave
Frederick II, went similar with the British Museum and
combined the assemblage of natural history specimens and
statuary with a library for the purpose of scholarly studies
and research work.
 The Museum Fridericianum in Kassel, which opened in 1779
1.1.AIMG.15 – Picture of Frederick II
CE, was available to visitors four days a week, for an hour in
midmorning and one in mid-afternoon.
1.1.AIMG.16 – A contemporary picture of the Museum Fridericianum in Kassel.
 The demands of art academies in France generated a lot of public attention
towards the visual culture and expanded a big market for the same. In
particular, painting competitions, such as the salons in Paris begin in CE
1737; and later on the Royal Academy exhibitions begin in 1768. These were
widely attended and reported, later with illustrations in contemporary print
media.
 The need to create a National Art Museum for France originated with a
display of paintings selected from King Louis XV’s collections in a suite of
rooms in the Luxembourg Palace. Luxembourg Gallery was opened in CE
1750 for two days a week.
 The Luxembourg Gallery was closed in 1779 CE to provide quarters for
members of the royal family. So to shift the collection and to establish a larger
cum extensive display plans were already underway to built an institution in
the Grand Gallery of the Louvre Palace.
 Whereas, in CE 1789 the French Revolutionaries confiscated church property
and subsequently the properties of monarchy, émigrés, and the royal
academies; including their collections of painting and statuary.
  The actual outburst of these revolutionary acts was realized in
August 1793 CE; when a selection of the confiscated treasures
was displayed for all to see in the Grand Gallery of the Louvre
Palace, newly renamed as the Muséum Français.
 This opening was held to commemorate the Festival of National
Unity, a triumphal celebration of the first anniversary of the fall
of the monarchy and the successes of the revolutionaries.
 The transformation of the formerly restricted Louvre into a
truly public space in which the treasures of the people were
now accessible for the people only, signified the revolution’s
accomplishments in a manner that few other acts could did
the same.
 Now the power of the museum to express original meanings
and to substitute them with new aesthetic and art historical
significances resulted as a fresh role for the paintings in
1.1.AIMG.17 – A picture of public visiting Louvre after France’s republican future.
the French Revolution.
1.1.AIMG.16 – A contemporary picture of the The Louvre Museum, Paris.
 This growing sense offered the possibility of making Louvre Europe’s artistic crown
and rendered its symbolism as France’s cultural and military supremacy.
 It also influenced many lesser works for which there was no longer room in the
museum. So the government responded in 1801 by establishing fifteen other public
museums among its départements to receive the surplus art. The museums of
Bordeaux and Marseille (1804), Lyon (1806), and Rouen and Caen (1809) soon
emerged. These were mostly housed in existing heritage buildings which were later
replaced with purpose-built museums.
 The French authorities’ appetite for centralized administration, along with the
confiscation of church, royal, and noble property in conquered lands, enabled the
establishment of central museums modeled after the Louvre in regions occupied by
Napoleon: the Galleria dell’Accademia (1807), Venice; the Pinacoteca di Brera (1809),
Milan; the Rijksmuseum’s predecessor (1808), Amsterdam; and the Museo del Prado
(1809), Madrid.
 While the French were eventually forced to retreat, they left behind a durable model
for the public museum in Europe which, despite the political differences between
many countries, continue today as symbols and containers for national reservoirs,
such as the Rijksmuseum for the Netherlands and the Prado for Spain.
 Abt, J. (2006). The origins of the public museum. In Macdonald, S.
(eds.) A companion to museum studies. Oxford: BLACKWELL
PUBLISHING.
 Daniel, G. E. (1950). A hundred years of archaeology. London:
Duckworth.
 Gupta, S. P. & M. Srivastava. (2010). Modern Museum Management.
New Delhi: Indraprastha Museum of Art and Archaeology.