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The Origin Of The Museum

The Origin Of The Museum image
Parent Issue
Day
22
Month
August
Year
1888
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

VT7IIE Art Museum Is comparatlvely a 1 modern Institution. TlieG reek and the Roman feit no need of colleeting aud arranging objects to cultívate the tasto ana Sstruct the eye. Beauty was their religies; the temple and statues whlch k at wlth the interest of the 6tudent or the artist were their churches and gods. The atmosphere of the brautiful surrouuded their lives in the climato aud scenery of Itnly aud Greeee. In tne songa of peets, the games ol athletes, or the deeds of warriors alilie theyfouud food for their aitialic nature. Over these beautiful and 6miling landt passcd alilie the savage hordes of the North and the stern asceticisin of the early Christian church. The beauty of Greeee, the grandeur oí Romo ciumbled and feil before the brute force of the one and the religious fervor of the other. It was only for a time. C'enturies rolled away. The great awakening of the modern worlrt was at hand and Cosmo dl Medici In nis gardens at Florence, collecting works of art for tbe young artists of his day to study, Is the originator of the art museum. Florence was the eradle of the new birth of modern art, and who shall 6ay how muchtlie genius, even of Michael Angelo, was indebted to his early studies in the Medici gardens. Froin the soil of Greeee and Italy eince that day 20,000 statues have been exhumed to adorn the museums of Kurope. Such enonnous collcctions as that of the Vatican wcre commeuced only in the 6xteeuth century. The galleriesof the Louvre, with their seemiugly interminable walls, did not receive a picture until 00 ycars ago, and it is less than a century since it was made a public galleiy; while the Britieh museum, the largest in the world, was couunenced in So our new civilization necd not be discouraged. With littlemore than a hundred years of national life behind us, we have alrcudy awakened to the necessity of beauty. In that brief space we have civilized a continent, and uow we turn awhile frorn the stern Btruggle for the useful and the material, and l'cel that we have curned the right to a new inheritance. It is truc we cannot dig up froin our soil a buried Venus or Apollo, that beneath our lields and gardens repose no marble gods or fallen temples; hut fruin the mines and forests of our own state alone come the means for such an art museum as America has not yet seen! It is not material wealth whieh is wantfng. Money can be raised in profusión for polilical or commercial needs, and without dilh'culty for religión or charity, but as a community we do not yet fc-el the imjiortauce of art. In the popular estímate art is still the amusement of the rich, who6e fancy it is to adorn their houses with pictures aud staiues or curios and bric-a-brac. That a man should give tbousands of dollars for a few square feet of painted cauvas is often, to his brother iiiiliiimain-, a source of berious cntieisin. But this will uot last. The American, like his Engiish brother, is outwardly the most practical of men, but deep down in his nature the ideal still livcs. The proof is in his lauguage, aud so íur the evidence has beou mainly in his pcietry. Now, however, new inliuunces are at wolk which are opening our ejes to a world of art aluiost as uuknown to us as was our continent to the dreamiug (juiiuese. The lirst is tbe incessantst reamof travel froui the uew world to tue old. No matter how shallow or superiicial or uueducated a largo uuinbur uiay be, they caunot r lui Li ab they went. Onu cannot walk througU the halls of the Vaticau, the galleries of Louvre or under the dome of St. Feter's and the arcües of Weatminater without a wider mental visión. Theu among the thousands wUo go for fasbion or amusement are always a small nuiubcr whO6e trained miuds are specially given to the study of ut. This is an enormous and ever-increasing factor iu our national educaticn. Let us think for a moment how our travelcrs chiofly learn. Is it not in museums and galleries? Had it never occurred to Cosmo di Medici, or Julius II., or Francis I. to begin art collections, European travel would have been comparatively useless, while it is doubtful lf one of those men, king, prince or pope, had the command of money which many Americans possess. Little by little each generation added to the work. In England, which is richt;r, a single century has suffleed for the National Gallery, South Kensington, the British Museum and others less noted. Tnink what one alone offers to the visitor- the sphinxes of Egypt, the sculptures of Assyria, the statues of Greeee and Rome, the missals of the middle ages, the paintings of the renaissance, gems, vases, manuscript in emlless profusión. One conld be well and thoroughly educated in the history of art under the murky skies of London. This is the more instructive to us becausc few of these thlngs were produced in England or by Englishmen. They are almost without excoption the work of other ages and races and religions, but the Englishman has made money and other nations have made beauty, and the raoney has purchased the beauty it could not créate. Let us do likewise. I spoke, however, just now of another influence, which perhaps in our latitude is more powerful than tho ajsthetie. The knowledge and cultivation of art do more than reflne the taste, and elévate the soul. Art has a commercial valué. Peoplo may sneer at your sentiment, and laugh at your enthusiasm, but the multiplication table and the rule of three are eutitled to respect. Now nothing stimulates the industrial arts like museums and art schools. Every employer of labor knows that skillcd industry commands the highest wages, and those industries into whlcb. art enters employ the Wghe6t skill. Englr.nd is a proof of the rapid progress iu artlitlc industry caused by the South Ken6ington museum and its attendant schools. For many years France had led the markets of Europe iu all branches of industry depending upon art processes, but the eyes of England were opened by her lirst great exhibition. In this eomparison of the world's work Great Britain was, with one exception, at the foot of the list in all art industries, and the one exception was Uie United States. Eleven years later, at the second great exhibition in 18C2, Frcuch manufacturera were alarmed and astonishcd at Engiish progress. Their ancient6Upremacy threatened to slip froin thera; they sent a commission to England to a6ccrtain the rise of this dangerous rivalry, a rivalry be it remembcicil r.vkoued in pounds and :nl the answer to the riddle was Scuth Kensington and its training schools It is probable that the costj great as i! was, of this establishment bas been paid mauy times over in the new aveuues opened to killed labor. Already in America- noticeably in Boston - i tuis reeult obtaLncd. ThousaniJi of i dollars formerly sent to Paria for designs ' are now paid to pupils of the Boston Art school. Let us hope in a few years more to sce this Influence among ourselves. The Detroit museum is but the gcrm o] what it wül be, but in the germ are all iuturc possibilities of life and growth. In a few years the que6tion will be not how to flll it, but how it shall hold its acrumulating treasures. Our love for it, and our pride in it, will not be 6atisfied until it 6hall be worthy of the name. One fact it is perhaps wel! to recall. Ol all the uses to which money can be put the service of art is probably the most lastlng. When we and our remotest descendants are crumbled in the grave, the work of the painter, the sculptor and the architect lives on in eerene aua miling beauty to charm new races and nations. When those oíd Greeks placed their statues on the pediment of the Parthenon, they little thought that their work, the u_'li broken and mutilated, would, after 2000 yeari, be among the treasures of an unknown nation. Julius II. wl,en he kindly patronized Michael Angelo and Raphael, did not reaüze that they would confer his title to future fame. Franeis I. little dreamed, in nis pleasure and power and splendor, that he would be beet remembered as the patrón of art. Most of the uses oí wealth are evanescent; families die out, food and clothes, houses and grounds last but a few years, but the fflorious works of human genius are almost imniortal. They teach and charm countless generations. Stand before one of Raphacl's madonnas and remember that the hand which painted it bas lain nearly four centuries in the Pantheon, yet it looks as l} he might ycsterday have laid aside his brush. Look at the lofty beauty of the Venus of Milo, and thiuk that Ehe waa a goddess 2000 years ago. Qaze upon the chaneeless features of Kamescs, and remember that Moses may have even tbat statue 1 Even the fragüe vases of the Etru.scan tombs have outlived the race that made them. Which is best, to heap up a few more thousands for the temporary pride or pleasure of a short life, or to collect treasures of imperishable beauty which shall make our own and many future generations happier and wiser?

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Ann Arbor Courier
Old News