Page:EB1911 - Volume 19.djvu/79

 The Ryks Museum at Amsterdam, containing the national collections of Holland, is a modern building in which a series of historical rooms are furnished to show at a glance the artistic progress of the Dutch at any given period. Nine rooms are also devoted to the chronological display of ecclesiastical art. Besides the famous paintings, this

museum (the sole drawback of which is the number of rooms which have no top light) contains a library, many engravings, a comprehensive exhibit of armour, costume, metal-Work, and a department of maritime craftsmanship. Arnhem and Haarlem have municipal collections. At Leiden the university maintains a scholarly collection of antiquities. The Hague and Rotterdam have also museums, but everything in Holland is subordinated to the development of the great central depository at Amsterdam, to which examples are sent from all parts of the country. In Belgium the chief museum, that of ancient industrial art, is at Brussels. It contains many pieces of medieval church furniture and decoration, but in this respect differs only in size from the civic museums of Ghent and Luxemburg and the Archbishop’s Museum at Utrecht. In Brussels, however, there is a good show of Frankish and Carolingian objects. The city of Antwerp maintains the Musée Plantin, a printing establishment which has survived almost intact, and presents one of the most charming and instructive museums in the world. As a whole, the museums of Belgium are disappointing, though, per contra, the churches are of enhanced interest, not having been pillaged for the benefit of museums.

New museums are being founded in Russia every year. Kharkoff and Odessa (the university) have already large collections, and in the most remote parts of Siberia it is curious to find carefully chosen collections. Krasnoyarsk has 12,000 specimens, a storehouse of Buriat art. Irkutsk the capital, Tobolsk, Tomsk (university), Khabarovsk, and

Yakutsk have now museums. In these Russian art naturally predominates. It is only at Moscow and St Petersburg that Western art is found. The Hermitage Palace in the latter city contains a selection of medieval objects of fabulous value, there being no less than forty early ivories. But from a national point of view these collections are insignificant when compared with the gold and silver objects illustrating the primitive arts and ornament of Scythia, Crimea and Caucasia, the high standard attained proving an advanced stage of manual skill. At Moscow (historical museum) the stone and metal relics are scarcely less interesting. There is also a museum of industrial art, the specimens of which are not of unusual value, but being analogous to the Kunstgewerbe movement in Germany, it exercises a wholesome influence upon the designers who study in its schools.

American museums are not committed to traditional systems, and scientific treatment is allowed its fullest scope. They exist in great numbers, and though in some cases their exhibits are chiefly ethnographic, a far wider range of art objects is rapidly being secured. The National Museum at Washington, a branch of the (q.v.),

while notable for its American historical and ethnological exhibits, has the National Gallery of Art. The Metropolitan Museum of Art (held by trustees for the benefit of the city of New York) has in the Cesnola collection the most complete series of Cypriot art objects. It has also departments of coins, Greek sculpture and general examples of European and American art. The Museum of Fine Arts at Boston is very comprehensive, and has a remarkable collection of ceramics, together with good reproductions of antique art. There are museums at St Louis, Chicago, Pittsburg, Brooklyn, Cincinnati, Buffalo and Washington, as well as Montreal in Canada; and the universities of Harvard, Chicago, Pennsylvania and Yale have important collections.

The Swiss National Museum is situated at Zürich, and though of medium size (50 rooms), it is a model of arrangement and organization. Besides the special feature of rooms illustrating the historical progress of art, its collection of stained glass is important. Basel also (historical museum) is but little inferior in contents or system to the Zürich establishment. Geneva has three collections. Lausanne holds the museum of the canton, and Bern has a municipal collection. All these institutions are well supported financially, and are much appreciated by the Swiss public. The art museums of Stockholm, Christiania and Copenhagen rank high for their intrinsic excellence, but still more for their scientific and didactic value. Stockholm has three museums: that of the Royal Palace, a collection of costume and armour; the Northern Museum, a large collection of domestic art; the National Museum, containing the prehistoric collections, gold ornaments, &c., classified in a brilliant manner. The National Museum of Denmark at Copenhagen is in this respect even more famous, being probably the second national collection in the world. The arrangement of this collection leaves little to be desired, and it is to be regretted that some British collections, in themselves of immense value, cannot be shown, as at Copenhagen, in a manner which would display their great merits to the fullest degree. There is also at Copenhagen a remarkable collection of antique busts (Gamle Glyptotek), and the Thorwaldsen Museum connected with the sculptor of that name. Norse antiquities are at Christiania (the university) and Bergen. Athens has three museums, all devoted to Greek art: that of the Acropolis, that of the Archaeological Society (vases and terra-cotta) and the National Museum of Antiquities. The state owns all discoveries and these are accumulated at the capital, so that local museums scarcely exist. The collections, which rapidly increase, are of great importance, though as yet they cannot vie with the aggregate in other European countries. The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities (Cairo), founded by Mariette Bey at Bulak, afterwards removed to the Giza palace and developed by Maspero, is housed in a large building erected in 1902, well classified, and liberally supported with money and fresh acquisitions. Minor museums exist at Carthage and Tunis. At Constantinople the Turkish Museum contains some good classical sculpture and a great deal of rubbish. The Museo del Prado and the Archaeological Museum at Madrid are the chief Spanish collections, containing numerous classical objects and many specimens of Moorish and early Spanish art. In Spain museums are badly kept, and their contents are of indifferent value. The museums of the chief provinces are situated at Barcelona, Valencia, Granada and Seville. Cadiz and Cordova have also sadly neglected civic collections. The National Museum of Portugal at Lisbon requires no special comment. The progress of Japan is noticeable in its museums as in its industrial enterprise. The National Museum (Weno Park, Tōkyō) is large and well arranged in a new building of Western architecture. Kiōtō and Nara have excellent museums, exclusively of Oriental art, and two or three other towns have smaller establishments, including commercial museums. There are several museums in India, the chief one being at Calcutta, devoted to Indian antiquities.

MUSEUMS OF SCIENCE. The ideal museum should cover the whole field of human knowledge. It should teach the truths of all the sciences, including anthropology. the science which deals with man and all his works in every age. All the