Informations about the History and beginnings of ART MUSEUMS?

Question

any thing would be useful thank you

Answer 1

Watson thinks too highly of my abilities. Unfortunately this answer is going to be long and vast and I can not fit all of my answer on here, however I have tried to simplify things and gave you a general timeline to the history of the first collections of art.
It has been documented that in the first organized cultures and civilizations have collected and stored their art.

MUSEUM - The Origins and Developement of Museums Historically.
It is originally from the Greek word " Mouseion"- Shrine of the Muses. A Place of Inspiration,Enlightenment,and Philosophic discussion.
Perhaps, the world's oldest Museum. The building E-Gig-Par was given by King Nabondicus to his high priestess, his daughter Bel-Shalti-Nannar (sister of the Belshazzar involved in the 'Writing on the Wall' episode -see the Book of Daniel).
The room next to the School room had objects which were centuries old - a boundary stone from 1400BC. a fragment of a statue of King Dunga dating to 2280BC, and other similar objects. All this in a room dating to the sixth century BC!

The most informative object was a clay drum shaped object
which had 3 columns of writing in Ancient Summerian but one column in late Semitic which contained the following text:

'These, are copies from bricks found in the ruins of Ur, the work of Bur-Sin, King of Ur, which while searching for the ground-plan (of the Temple) the Governor of Ur found, and I saw and wrote out for the marvel of beholders'
http://www.chr.org.uk/museums/museuminde...
The great library of alexandria was a museum, although it was what what we would call a school of arts and sciences, it was called a museum, that is a 'house of muses' by the people at the time. It was founded around 290BC and it was called a museum.

Aristotle created a Natural History Collection at his school at the temple of the Lycian Apollo. The Lyceum was one of the early uses of a reference collection for scholarly research.
At the Pinakothekai on the Acropolis were displays of Old Masters, conserved in special frames.
Ptolomy Sotor created a Museum in the Alexandrian Library and Botanical and Zoological Gardens.

In the 12th Century the Bishop of Winchester brought back antiquities collections from Room

Ancient Rome's influence upon the culture, law, technology, arts, language, religion, government, military, and architecture of civilizations that followed,continues to this day.
The Musei Capitolini is the oldest museum in the world, founded in 1471 when Pope Sixus IV donated a number of bronze statues to the City of Rome. It was enriched by subsequent Popes and opened to the public by Pope Clement XII in 1734. The Museum is housed in two of the three Palazzo (palace) buildings comprising the Piazza del Campidoglio designed by Michelangelo in the 1530's to crown the Capitoline (Capitol) Hill.
http://www.pbs.org/empires/romans/specia...
In the medieval period the main collecting was done by the Church.
Churches developed into glorious, holy displays.
There were clusters of Chapels dedicated to various Saints, bedecked with art, filled with relics. They created a rich environment with many different story lines.
The Capitoline Museums (Italian Musei Capitolini) are a group of art and archeological museums in Piazza del Campidoglio, on top of the famous Capitoline Hill in Rome, Italy. The museums are contained in three palazzi surrounding a central trapezoidal piazza in a plan conceived by Michelangelo Buonarroti in 1536 and executed over a period of over 400 years. The history of the museums can be traced to 1471, when Pope Sixtus IV donated a collection of important ancient bronzes to the people of Rome and located them on Capitoline Hill. Since then, the museums' collection has grown to include a large number of ancient Roman statues, inscriptions, and other artifacts; a collection of medieval and Renaissance art; and collections of jewels, coins, and other items. The museums are owned and operated by the municipality of Rome.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/capitoline_...
Gothic Art was designed for story-telling and religious reflection.
Churchmen led guided tours around the relics.
Erasmus on Relics - the first Tour Guides

The Aristocratic Collection with the Renaissance & Reformation the aristocrat replaced the Church as patron of the arts.
The Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence is the first systematic, organized exhibit in the world. It is called Uffizi because the building originally contained the offices of the magistrates of the Medici government. The foundation and development of the collections at the Uffizi are inextricably connected to the fortunes of the Medici family, the lords and dukes of Florence.
In 1560, Duke Cosimo I (1519-1574) commissioned his favorite architect Vasari to build a palace along side the Arno river. Twenty years later it was finished: it consisted of two wings, connected by a third wing running alongside the river. The spacious rectangular courtyard, contained in the three wings, is flanked by niches with statues of illustrious Tuscans. From the courtyard, through an arch, one can have a spectacular view of Piazza della Signoria and Palazzo Vecchio.
http://www.floria-publications.com/italy...
In Britain early collectors included: the Duke of Arundel who collected classical marbles.
The Duke of Buckingham had a great collection in York House. He employed a Curator (Balthazar Gerber) and John Tradescant as collector of curios from abroad.
King Charles I collected Titians, Caravaggios, Reubens etc.
http://www.chr.org.uk/museums/mousion.ht...
John Tradescant (1570 - 1638) - John Tradescant's Ark - England's 1st Museum
Elias Ashmole (1617-1692) - Elias Ashmole 'befriended' the Tradescants, and on their death inherited the Ark and its collection.
He took it to Oxford and established the world's first public museum opened in 1683.

Displays of Curiosities became all the rage. In Chelsea the Bun House was covered with objects. Don Saltero's Coffee-house was desribed by Richard Steele in the Tatler in 1709.

Sir Hans Sloane and the British Museum
The greatest of the 18th Century Collector's was Sir Hans Sloane - Physician and inventor of Milk Chocolate.
He collected a stupendous collection in Chelsea in King Henry VIII's manor house.
He offered it to the Nation for £20,000 and the Government paid for it by the last public lottery until modern times.
It opened in Bloomsbury in 1753 as the world's first secular national museum.

(The rest of my answer is on this page);
http://ca.f883.mail.yahoo.com/ym/ShowLetter?MsgId=8982_4620302_93094_1972_8135_0_947_29812_2053959006&Idx=0&YY=43869&y5beta=yes&y5beta=yes&inc=25&order=down&sort=date&pos=0&view=a&head=b&box=Inbox
Hope this helped you understand the history better.

Answer 2

The English "museum" comes from the Latin word, and is pluralized as "museums" (or, rarely, "musea"). It is originally from the Greek mouseion, which denotes a place or temple dedicated to the Muses (the patron divinities in Greek mythology of the arts), and hence a building set apart for study and the arts, especially the institute for philosophy and research at the Library established at Alexandria by Ptolemy I Soter c280 BCE This was considered by many to be the first museum/library.

Early museums began as the private collections of wealthy individuals, families or institutions of art and rare or curious natural objects and artifacts. These were often displayed in so-called wonder rooms or cabinets of curiosities. Public access was often possible for the "respectable," especially to private art collections, but at the whim of the owner and his staff.

The first publicly owned museum in Europe was the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. While initially conceived as a a palace for the offices of Florentian magistrates (hence the name), it later evolved into a display place for many of the paintings and sculpture collected by the Medici family or commissioned by them. After the house of Medici was extinguished, the art treasures remained in Florence, forming the first modern museums. The gallery had been open to visitors by request since the sixteenth century, and in 1765 it was officially opened to the public. The first museum to open to the public was The British Museum in London, which opened free to the public in 1759.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum

Answer 3

The first truly public museum was the Louvre Museum in Paris, opened in 1793 during the French Revolution.

Answer 4

The person who can answer this for you is 'Soundproof.' She can give you details and links. What I will do is 'star' this question for you so she will see it. However, she may not come into Yahoo Answers tonight. So be a little patient. She will see the 'star' when she does come on.