Museum Of Decorative Arts Research Articles

Virchow and Troy.

The Trojan war occupies an important place in Greek mythology. Homer describes this in detail in his epic works of "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey." The ancient town of Troy is located south of the Dardanelles Strait in Turkey. Until the late nineteenth century, scientists thought that the Trojan War was a legend. German businessman and amateur archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann (1822-1890) began excavations in Troy. The Turkish Empire (Ottoman Empire) granted excavation permission in 1871 on the condition that the artifacts discovered would be preserved and exhibited. Schliemann found "the treasure of the Trojan king Priam" in 1873. He smuggled the treasure to Athens. In 1874, the Ottoman government discovered this and went after the treasure. They sued Schliemann in Athens. According to archaeologists, the treasure dates back to 2600-2400 BC. The horde that Schliemann found could not have belonged to the Trojan King Priam. It was during this time that Schliemann met Rudolf Virchow (1821-1902). Virchow was interested in anthropology and prehistory. The Turkish state granted Schliemann new permission to conduct excavations. Virchow stayed in Troy for a month in 1879 as an excavation site physician. He provided health care services to the excavation workers and local people and made observations. Virchow came to Troy once again in March 1890 to attend the second Trojan conference organized by Schliemann. Virchow was also an influential politician in Berlin. He was a member of the Berlin City Council. Thanks to the relations established with Chancellor Bismarck and Kaiser Wilhelm, Virchow ensured that the Treasure of Priam would be permanently transferred to Berlin from London (it is currently at the Victoria and Albert Museum), where it was temporarily exhibited. Trojan treasures were exhibited in the Ethnological Museum (Völkerkundemuseum) and in the Martin-Gropius Bau (formerly Kunstgewerbemuseum -The Decorative Arts Museum) until 1945. After the Soviet Army entered Berlin following the Second World War, the treasure was lost. It was discovered in 1994 that the treasure was at the Pushkin Museum.

Medieval Islamic Glass Weights and Tokens in the Collection of the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague

Medieval Islamic Glass Weights and Tokens in the Collection of the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague

Od výstav ke sbírce. Výstavy Uměleckoprůmyslového musea v Praze v letech 1905-1939 a vznik fotografické sbírky

Od výstav ke sbírce. Výstavy Uměleckoprůmyslového musea v Praze v letech 1905-1939 a vznik fotografické sbírky

David Johnston, fondateur de la manufacture de Bacalan à Bordeaux, adepte de la monarchie de Juillet

David Johnston, who was born in 1789 in Bordeaux where he died in 1853, created the manufactory of fine earthenware of Bacalan. He was the mayor of Bordeaux and a strong supporter of the July monarchy (1830) as can be seen on many pieces of ceramics kept at the Museum of Decorative Arts and Design in Bordeaux and at the National Museum in Sèvres.

Zpráva z výstavy Móda v modré

The article details the preparation and run of the exhibition “Fashion in Blue. Tradition and Present of Indigo in Japanese and Czech Textiles”, which took place at the turn of the years 2021 and 2022 in the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague. The exhibition presented the rich tradition and the present of Japanese aizome, the patterning and dyeing of textiles using indigo, as well as the blue print production connected to our territory, from folk costumes, through the work of the Center for Folk Art Production to the reinterpretation of the blue print by contemporary fashion designers. The article describes the concept of the exhibition, individual parts of the exhibition as well as some specific exhibits and their creators.

Programul unei vieți: rolul lui Lajos Pákei în înființarea Muzeului Industrial și a Școlii Industriale din Cluj

"One Life’s Mission: Lajos Pákei’s Role in Establishing the Industrial Museum and the Industrial School in Cluj. The development of museums and schools of industry took place in some important industrial cities of the Dual-Monarchy, a part of the capitals in Salzburg, Graz, Prague, Brno, Czernowitz starting from the 1870-1880s. In the last quarter of the 19th century several school and some museum buildings of industry were erected in Hungary. Some of these new edifices were capable of performing dual, educational and museum tasks due to their special spaces: their list includes Ödön Lechner’s Museum of Applied Arts in Budapest, Alajos Hauszmann’s Technologic Museum of Industry in Budapest and Lajos Pákei’s Museum of Industry in Kolozsvár (Cluj Napoca). It is exactly in this period that Lajos Pákei graduated from Theophil Hansen’s studio in Vienna, and soon after, in 1880 he became chief architect of the city of Kolozsvár. In his new position the young architect played a prominent role in the infrastructural and institutional modernization of the city. One of the biggest investments of the city focused on the reshaping of the industrial institutional structure – this process was articulated around the foundation of the Museum and School of Industry of the city. Acting also as the director and professor of architectural disciplines in the school of industry of the city he had a significant impact on the development of a master builder, stone and wood carving classes and moreover in the curriculum of the educational profile of the institution. Lajos Pákei followed the architectural principles of Camillo Sitte in terms of urban city planning in Kolozsvár under the influence of the Austrian architects work published in 1889 entitled Der Städtebau nach seinen künstlerischen Grundsätzen. Kolozsvár, the par excellence renaissance town of historic Hungary. The town was the birthplace of the last great medieval king of Hungary, the earliest renaissance ruler over the Alps, King Mathias (1443-1490) whose political and cultural legacy as national king and the town’s long goldsmith and woodcarving activity have become a points of reference the late 19th century discourse on the modernization of Kolozsvár. Lajos Pákei was one of the members of the first generation of architects having accomplished their studies in the new political circumstances related to the creation of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. Lajos Pákei in Kolozsvár has completed diverse missions simultaneously such as did Camillo Sitte in Vienna or Joseph Leitzner in Czernowitz: he actively reshaped the urban spaces of his city, made architectural plans for the industrial museum and school, as director he influenced the educational profile of the school of industry and the acquisition policy of the museum of industry. Lajos Pákei prepared several plans for this building of dual function through almost first fifteen years. After a number of design changes the museum-school building was finally built between 1896 and 1898. Due to the rapidly growing collection, the shift in the acquisition policy from technological profile to applied arts objects, the growing number of students soon it became too small, and the construction of a purely museum building has become necessary. The building of the museum of industry has been erected in 1903–1904 opposite the previous one, according to the plans of Lajos Pákei. The first, museum-school building followed the construction principles of Hungarian secondary school architecture of its time, including a centrally positioned external wing for the technological collection. The second one – planned purely for museum purposes – followed the latest example of applied art museum buildings, the one of Joseph Schulz in Prague built in 1897–1901. The history of two buildings of Lajos Pákei in Kolozsvár reflect the specialization of educational and museum spaces, the characteristics of the changing models in industrial education and presentation of the changing profile of the collection as “ideal of a modern museum” as an attempt to develop. The study interprets the foundation and the management of the museum and school of industry as the lifetime project of Lajos Pákei in the context of architectural modernization (both in education and practice) in the Dual Monarchy and in the theoretical framework of urban planning. Keywords: urban planning, museum of industry, vocational education, decorative arts, museum of decorative arts "

Костюм второй половины XX – начала XXI века в российской музейной практике

The article considers the main stages in developing museum attitudes to the costume of the second half of the XX – beginning of the XXI century, collecting and exhibiting costume in foreign and Russian museums. There is examined the theory of Danish researcher M. R. Melchior separating the history of collecting and exhibiting costume in museums into «dress» and «fashion» museology. While the «dress» museology is largely based on the study of garments and their classification, «fashion» museology focuses on organizing events that could be considered fashionable themselves, creating spectacular exhibitions that attract the attention of the public and ensure the museum’s recognition, organizing communications around the museum. The limitations and contradictions of the theory are noted and the issue of the applicability of the theory to the national museum practice is brought up. In the view of the fluidity of terms that comprehend vestmental practices in the human sciences, there is given the analysis of the use of the term «fashion» in relation to stylistic changes in the costume of the Soviet period. There is given a view at the costume collections of the State Historical Museum and the All-Russian Museum of Decorative Art including the main sources of acquisition of the collections and the prospects for their further formation. In both cases, the most representative part of the collection belongs to the 1960s–1980s. And while in the State Historical Museum the costume was gathered mostly as background material for illustrating historical events the All-Russian Museum of Decorative Arts’ acquisition was purposefully based on the artistic quality of the items, which helped to form up the collection of the author’s costume. In the concluding part of the article there is given a view upon the exhibition practice of the State Historical Museum and the All-Russian Museum of Decorative Art representing the costume of the second half of the XX and early XXI centuries

Pourquoi me touche-t-elle à ce point ?

Jacqueline du Pasquier was the head curator of the Bordeaux Museum of Decorative Arts from March 1972 until 2000. She organized many exhibitions centered on the art of earthenware. She also published numerous books devoted, in particular, to the production of the South-West of France, and to ceramists like René Buthaud or Robert Lallemant . Here she relates the joys that ceramics in all its diversity has brought her.

About the cover artist

Setsuko Kurioka studied at the Trondheim Academy of Fine Art and later worked from Lademoen Kunstnerverksted. The artist is now based in Asker, near Oslo, where she has her studio. Currently, Kurioka works on a grant from Arts Council Norway, and her pieces has been featured multiple times in the annual Autumn Exhibit. Her work has also recently been acquired by the National Museum of Decorative Arts.

'Affiches cubaines. Révolution et cinéma. 1959-2019'. Uma exposição no Museu de Artes Decorativas de Paris

Recensão da exposição “Affiches cubaines. Révolution et cinéma. 1959-2019”, comissionada por Amélie Gastaut, inaugurada em outubro de 2019 e em exibição até fevereiro de 2020 no Museu de Artes Decorativas de Paris. A mostra reúne um conjunto de cartazes cubanos revolucionários, recobrindo os sessenta anos da Revolução e do ICAIC.

Svaz československého díla: muzeum jako platforma modernizace

The text demonstrates the metamorphosis of the new platform of modernization of the industrial society: The European Network of Museums of Decorative Arts in the second half of XIXth century. After the foundation of German Werkbund in 1907, the new wave of a reform movement concerning the quality of manufactured objects of everyday use arose, embracing both artistic and economic aims. Museums played an important role as a mediator of synergy between art and business. The formative task of the museums was the education in the matters of aesthetics and good taste, inspired by Deutscher Werkbund initiative: Gustav Edmund Pazaurek’s Department of Aesthetic Aberrations in Stuttgart and The German Museum of Art in Trade and Industry in Hagen. These strategies had influenced the museums in the Czech lands after the foundation of the Association of the Czechoslovak Werkbund and its cooperation with The Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague. Under Karel Herain, the director of the museum, the activism had been focused on art contests, exhibitions of local contemporary works, the industrial production and the networking with the contemporary producers abroad. The collaboration with the Swedish Werkbund in the 1930’s and the personality of Hugo Steiner-Prag reveal unusual and complex concepts of modernity in the core of the Association of the European Werkbund.

Asijské umění a umělecké řemeslo ve sbírce Západočeského muzea v Plzni

The collection of the West Bohemian Museum in Pilsen includes significant examples of artworks and decorative arts from Asia. The history of this collection dates back to the last quarter of the 19th century, when these items were a part of a collection of the West Bohemian Museum of Decorative Arts in Pilsen. The first director of the museum, architect Josef Škorpil (1856–1931), contributed to the creation of the decorative arts collection and the acquisition of objects from the Far and Middle East. Thanks to its acquisition activities throughout Europe, a significant decorative arts collection was established in Pilsen. Its importance goes beyond the Pilsen region. The concept of creating this collection was in accordance with the emergence of decorative arts museums in Europe. The collection, together with the Asian objects, was presented to the public as a part of an exposition opened in 1913. Today, the Asian collection consists of Chinese and Korean objects, mainly ceramics and porcelain, as well as exceptionally well-preserved textiles from the late Qing Dynasty. The Japanese portable Buddhist altar zushi or a set of Japanese woodblock prints of the ukiyo-e style are among the most unique acquisitions. A relatively modest set of items from the Middle East includes typical examples of decorative arts from Iran, Turkey or Syria. The objects are still a popular subject of research and have also become a part of the new decorative arts permanent exhibition of the museum that was opened in 2017.

The three pendules aux biches in the collection of the Kunstgewerbemuseum Dresden. Workshop-report of the research and conservation project “Jean-Pierre Latz”

Within the framework of the research and restoration project “Jean-Pierre Latz” of the Museum of Decorative Arts (Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden), three clocks and their corresponding pedestals, all of the same model – the so-called pendules aux biches – were extensively analyzed in terms of construction, marquetry and mounts. The analyses showed that the three ensembles, all of which are traceable in Saxony without a gap since 1768, exhibit significant differences with respect to their construction, the design of the marquetry and its execution, as well as to the processing of the mounts. These varied features enable the distinction of two production types that may suggest their manufacturing in two different workshops.

A museological approach of an urban project: Parisian cultural institutions as urban actors

Considering the most recent contemporary historical, geographical and social displacements of the places of power have been taken into consideration through the role of the culture and arts on them. The aim of this research is to examine, from the perspective of the urban historiography of Paris, an analyse of the trajectory and transformation of the city by the means of its museums’ institutions. Paris has suffered from important processes of acceleration and changes to become the contemporary capital that it is nowadays. The city counts with the precedent of its great Haussmannian transformation into a modern city and the historical three concentric growth of its city walls perimeter and the later succession of up to six international exhibitions (between 1855 and 1937). However, after the impasse produced by the two war periods, a new urban and political project - still present in our days - was built up based on the cultural institutions. Great new cultural infrastructures were designed for expecting areas and terrain vagues, most of them with a proved level of change, at the Seine riverbanks. They follow the Louvre museum historic model of implantation. Meanwhile, the historical inner Marais district experimented a deep restoration and a reuse process, with cultural institutions as the main actors. Even more, Beaubourg void was pointed as an opportunity for a decisive change for the whole city. Cultural insertions of the opportunity spaces beside the river have definitely established Paris as a top rank cultural destination. Heading the cultural tourism rates at a global level, its historical heart - The City Island, nowadays being under research conducted by the French architect Dominique Perrault, with the horizon of a 25-years renovation project, the Right Bank (with the French Cinematheque, the Arsenal Pavilion, Louvre Museum, Decorative Arts Museum, The Orangerie, The Grand Palais, The Palais of Tokyo and the Palais of Chaillot) and the Left Bank (counting with the French National Library, The Arab World Institute, the Orsay Museum, the Invalids Hospital, Quay Branly Museum and the Eiffel Tower), sum up to the most relevant museums’ institutions and exhibition spaces of the city. Thus, the research will deepen in the urban strategy for the choice of the museums and cultural institutions as the decisive architectural actors for the renewal of the Parisian urban landscape. The role of their architectures, intimately associated with their performing use, will be critically examined.

Texto y contexto. El Museo Nacional de Artes Decorativas como fuente en la investigación histórico-educativa

Este artículo estudia las correspondencias y paralelismos que existen en el contexto de creación del Museo Nacional de Artes Decorativas, antes Museo Nacional de Artes Industriales (MNAD), en la segunda mitad del siglo XIX, con el Museo Pedagógico Nacional y los principios de la Institución Libre de Enseñanza. Señala las conexiones y semejanzas en cuanto a principios y actuaciones en los comienzos y en la misión de las dos instituciones, así como los referentes en el contexto europeo y español. Desde la constancia de numerosas coincidencias en planteamientos, modos de proceder y elementos coincidentes en las colecciones, se propone finalmente una vía de trabajo que ponga en valor la colección del MNAD y las piezas custodiadas en instituciones relacionadas con las artes aplicadas —bien sean museos o casas museo—, y las de los museos pedagógicos, para el aprendizaje y la enseñanza de la Historia el Arte y de la Historia de la Educación en España. Contemplar con la perspectiva del paso del tiempo el paralelismo entre los dos museos, produce una foto significativa de una parte de los intereses educativos y sociales del primer tercio del siglo XX en España.

Pour une «polychromie monumentale» de quelques grands décors de Théodore Deck dans les années 1880

When it was inaugurated in 1905, within the walls of Le Louvre palace, the Museum of Decorative Arts bought two sets of architectural ceramics made by Théodore Deck and his collaborators. These works date back to the 1880s and each one, in its own way, illustrates the audacious experimentations carried by Deck throughout his career and reveals the challenges of 19th century ceramics.

La Antigüedad al servicio del rey. La difusión del gusto pompeyano en España en el siglo XVIII

The diffusion of Pompeian taste in Spain during the reign of Charles III did not reach the notoriety expected. It was later on with Charles IV and Maria Luisa, interested by the new esthetic currents, when they introduced the Pompeian styles in their countryside residences. The arrival of the plaster casts from the Herculanese Museum in 1765, of the volumes of Le Antichita di Ercolano and finally the so-called Servizio Ercolanese, served as a reference to Spanish artists who at that time continued to resort to classical and renaissance sources such as the frescoes of the Domus Aurea and Raphael’s Vatican Loggias. This article analyzes pieces from the Herculaneum porcelain service, acquired by the National Museum of Decorative Arts and traces their relationship to the originals found in Pompeii and Herculaneum preserved in the museum of Portici before 1780.

The involvement of women in the National Museum of Decorative Arts of Madrid (Spain): 1912–1942

ABSTRACTThis article discusses, from the perspective of women’s history, the activity of the National Museum of Decorative Arts of Madrid (MNAD) during its first thirty years (1912–1942). This work is mainly focused on the role of the Museum in promoting the artistic education of Spanish women, an undertaking which is only possible in a political and intellectual context dominated by a reforming liberalism and which results in a deep understanding that, for the general good of society, women must be better educated. It also examines the development of the Museum’s textile collection, on the grounds that it is closely related to the appreciation of work done by women, by the Museum’s curators and by the Spanish intellectual élite of the time. The essay concludes with the idea that the MNAD was following the model established several decades before in Britain by the Victoria and Albert Museum, even though it is possible to detect some differences which are unique to this particular case.

Determining the Presence of Spalted Wood in Spanish Marquetry Woodworks of the 1500s through the 1800s

The process of using fungal-colored wood (spalted wood) for marquetry and intarsia woodworks in Italy and Germany was very popular from the 1400–1600s, with some instances continuing as late as the 1800s. While spalted marquetry in these countries is relatively well documented, less is known about its use in other parts of Europe. One of the primary reasons for this lack of knowledge is the difficulty in identifying spalted wood, especially the blue-green variety produced from Chlorociboria species, from wood dyed with copper-based compounds or other synthetics. The most reliable testing method involves destructive sampling, where a small piece is taken from the work, the pigment extracted, and an analysis performed. Such sampling is simply not feasible, nor often allowed, on ancient artwork. To make a reliable, non-destructive identification of spalted wood, a visual method based on anatomical characteristics of spalted wood was developed to differentiate spalted wood from dyed wood. High-resolution pictures were taken from wooden artifacts containing blue-green colored wood in collections at the National Museum of Decorative Arts (MNAD), the Royal Site Monastery El Escorial and the Bilbao Museum of Fine Arts in Spain. The concentration of pigment in the rays, the color distribution, the size of the piece and the date of production, were analyzed. With the use of this new visual method, it was possible to determine that intarsia artifacts, held in Spain but of Augsburg origin from the 1500–1600s, contained spalted wood details. Meanwhile, Spanish and Italian intarsia artifacts from the 1800s were found to only contain dyed wood.

The Victoria and Albert Museum: Rethinking the Context

The Victoria and Albert Museum: Rethinking the Context Bruce Robertson (bio) It is useful to remember that the Victoria and Albert Museum did not receive its current name until 1899; before then it was the South Kensington Museum (or Museums). When it opened, it was effectively a condensation of the Great Exhibition’s compendium of Art and Industry: the collection included the Museum of Ornamental Art and the Sheepshanks Gallery but also the Patent Museum, the Museum of Animal Products, the Food Collection, the Museum of Construction, the Educational Museum, the Economic Museum, and a few other odds and ends; a few years later, ship models, paintings and oils by J. M. W. Turner, and an active fish hatchery were added. The purpose of this collection of collections was to educate, with two audiences in mind: the general public and students in the schools affiliated with the museum, beginning with the School of Design. The museum was a classroom, not only for those formally enrolled in courses but also for self-education. The museum was also effectively a workshop and laboratory (where different design and building techniques could be developed), as well as a gift shop and the first museum café. By 1899, the museum had largely become a museum of decorative arts but still retained elements of its heterogenous past at its Bethnal Green outpost (fig. 1). It is also useful to know that the person responsible for the name change from South Kensington to Victoria and Albert was Lyon Playfair, a member of Prince Albert’s circle from 1850 and the museum’s cofounder, with Henry Cole, as one of the two secretaries of the Science and Art Department, the institution that housed the museum and its affiliated schools. In histories of the V&A, Playfair’s name is seldom mentioned; his departure from the department in 1858, one year after the museum opened its doors in South Kensington, has been taken to indicate that his tenure was a [End Page 41] Click for larger view View full resolution Fig. 1. Sketch-layout of the 1851 Commissioners’ Estate suggested by Prince Albert in 1853. A, National Gallery; B, C, Colleges of Art and Science; D, E, Museums of Industrial Art, Patented Inventions, Trade Museums, etc.; F, G, H, private houses, official residences, or other institutions; I, possible site of hall for Academy of Music; K, possible site of Learned Societies; L, Hall of Glory; K, Approximate site of the current V&A. From Survey of London, vol. 38, The Museums Area of South Kensington and Westminster (1975). failure.1 In fact, as one of the commissioners of the exhibition of 1851, and as the long-time representative of the Scottish universities to Parliament, among his many other governmental and royal duties, he remained vitally interested in the functions of the museum and its success; in 1885, the museum reported directly to him, as vice-president of the Privy Council. But the erasure of Playfair’s role is indicative of a larger amnesia, one that discounts the fundamental fact that the museum was conceived as a function of the Science and Art Department and given the task of putting into [End Page 42] concrete action the department’s goals to improve and spread technical education throughout Britain. The V&A was primarily an institution for the production and transmission of knowledge across the disciplines. This purpose was shared by the first civic museums in the United States, almost all of them created in alliance with schools: New York’s Metropolitan Museum had a school; Boston’s and Chicago’s still do. The goal of technical education is a prism through which the creation and programs of museums in Victorian Britain, and then throughout the colonies and much of the Western world, needs to be seen. Museums were emphatically conceived of as part of the great reform of education that was set in train in Britain with the election of the Reform Parliament in 1830, an approach mirrored by similar developments throughout Europe and the United States. In Britain, the Museum Act of 1845, followed by legislation in 1850 and 1855, created public libraries and parks in addition to...