Page:The museum, (Jackson, Marget Talbot, 1917).djvu/43

Rh CORRIDORS There is hardly a more pernicious fault in a museum building than the provision of corridors which are so wide that it seems a waste not to use them for exhibition purposes and yet which are so narrow that any exhibits crowd oppressively upon the visitor. In this respect the plan of the Bavarian National Museum in Munich is excellent. Here one passes from room to room without the intervention of corridors, and the temptation to go on and see just a little more is enhanced by the variety in the shape of the rooms and by the material displayed. On the other hand nothing is so wearisome as the long gallery in the Louvre, where one passes some of the most remarkable paintings the world has ever known but is too wearied by the oppression of their nearness and the interminable length of the space that must be covered to be able to enjoy them. Again, take for example the long galleries in the Vatican. Who is there who has ever visited them that does not recall the words of Hare, who describes the Galleria Lapidaria as being 2131 feet long? Corridors should provide the possibility of getting from one part of the building to another without traversing a long series of rooms. The plan of the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin, which we