"Art gallery" of Ancient Greece as an art protomuzeyi Cover Image

"КАРТИННІ ГАЛЕРЕЇ" ДАВНЬОЇ ГРЕЦІЇ ЯК ХУДОЖНІ ПРОТОМУЗЕЇ
"Art gallery" of Ancient Greece as an art protomuzeyi

Author(s): Olena Honcharova
Subject(s): Anthropology, Cultural history, Museology & Heritage Studies, Visual Arts, Aesthetics
Published by: Національна академія керівних кадрів культури і мистецтв
Keywords: pinakotheks; proto museums of art; ancient Greece;

Summary/Abstract: The problem of the genesis of an art museum as one of the institutionalized forms of modern museums is little research in domestic culturological discourse. The proposed paper aims to somehow fill this gap theoretical analysis of the museum as a social and cultural phenomenon, using as a base of source ancient literary reflection, in particular the work of historians, geographers and art of ancient Greece and Rome.Unlike domestic to foreign museology art museums have become quite the object of intense discussion in interdisciplinary discourse: philosophy, history, art, and cultural. Thus, over the past decade and a half there was a series of works (from articles to doctoral theses), the authors have devoted their research – completely or partially – that is what museums.By example is the article O. Sapanzha "Modern art Museum: In the Service of Humanity or man?", in which he emphasizes that art museum is a separate and independent form of museum culture phenomenon, while stressing the art museum and gallery type memorial Museum of art [1, 8]. On the genesis Art Museum, the O. Sapanzha even the Renaissance period considers "before museum gathering" that existed in the form of Antiquaries. To them it does and collection of the Medici in Florence, and the collection of Wittelsbach in Munich.This view of the process of institutionalization of art museum is somewhat contrary to the position of Western museologists. Italian scientist Raffaello Monti argues that the conversion art collection of the Florentine Medici dukes on municipal property is that the date on which we can talk about the emergence of an art museum, and suggests it is the first gallery Uffizi art museum in Europe. Therefore, the emergence of museums in the modern sense is in the first half of the eighteenth century [2, 28].T. Yurenyeva in a doctoral thesis on the museum as a social and cultural institution, pays attention to the question of the genesis of art museums. She believes the process of becoming not only an art museum, and the museum in general quite lengthy. "The genesis of the museum as a social and cultural institute – notes the author – starts on the Renaissance, when there is formation of its structural elements that are related to collecting, studying, exhibiting things as bearers of social and cultural meanings and functionally oriented preserve and updating cultural values. "The final stage of this process, in its opinion, is in the XVIII-XIX centuries [3, 34-36].Studied in detail the process of becoming an art museum T. Kalugina. Scientist pushes the beginning of this process to antiquity, however, in our opinion, rightly warns against in order to begin the process of counting of such institutions as Museyon, which usually normally written in various dictionaries and encyclopedias. She rightly argues that art museums have a short history but a long history ... Usually researchers, without going into the subtleties of philological called Greek Museyon ... first museum however they differed significantly from modern museums. However, analysis of semantics words are "Museyon" (a place dedicated to the Muses, a temple of the Muses) indicates, according to the researcher that these entities prior to the actual museum, but by no means can be considered the first museum in our sense [4, 41]. Thus, according to T. Kalugina, a social institution, which in the Renaissance called "museum" or "Museyon" could hardly be considered the beginning of what is embedded in the concept of "museum" us [4, 42].Sharing this view, however, we note that researchers leave aside another spatial form of the existence of ancient cultures in which architecture has become a "safe haven" for collection if not, the placement of works of art, and was the bearer of the spiritual culture of objectification in paintings – art stoya (gallery) ancient Greece.None of the authors do not deny the fact that if not a collection, the focus in a particular area of art – sculpture and painting – began in the days of ancient Greece. Along with the sacred or randomly-memorial places – temples and sculptures of athletes at Agora – artwork decorated stand – covered galleries, sometimes several tiers where philosophers met or walking, talking, vacation dwellers. These galleries, one side of which was a wall, and on the other floors supported by columns, often decorated with painting and sculpture.Information on the subject that interests us beginning with a common in the literature of ancient Greece genre ekfrazis – description of monuments of art. The earliest of these descriptions can be attributed to V century BC, because they already found the "father of history" – Herodotus. In the third century BC tradition continued, particularly Duris Samos, from whose works – "about the artist" and "On sculptors" – survived only three fragments. Polemon Ilionskiy (the end of the III century – first half of II century BC.). Left a first catalog of the so-called Athenian Pinakothek (stoya), which were stored, along with other artifacts and works of art: paintings, sculptures, objects of applied art.Among this information anywhere else "scattered" information about places that could be considered a prototype for art museums. That interior walls of homes are often painted or even covered with monumental painting, architectural theorist Vitruvius pointed out (I century BC). However, he mentioned only private homes [5, 138-139]. Pliny the Elder (23 – '79) in his "Naturalis History" ('77 BC. E.) Most attention to the realities of Rome, which is quite logical, because he wrote this encyclopedia for the Roman Emperor Titus. However, historian and suggests a number of important information about the Greek artists and their works. He writes about Athens Pinakothek, which was published works of Greek artists.About the Greeks Pliny writes that "they decorate their picture gallery old picture", "decorate their palestra and keromats images of athletes" and "portraits of Epicurus they are in bedrooms everywhere carry with them" [6, 79]. The text of Pliny follows that Pinakothek were common [6, 108]. As for the Greeks ("old") Pliny notes that "the art of the cities served and the artist was the common property of the world" [6, 102].Another valuable resource is informative ten-work "Description of Greece" Greek geographer and historian Pausanias. Pausanias (second century AD.), who is considered traditionally geographer, in his "Narrative ..." acted as a historian and art critic. At least half of the text of the book is devoted to a careful description of the works of ancient Greek art sculptures and paintings. Pausanias carefully enumerates and describes the monuments of art, which he saw clearly. Because his work is not only geographical in nature, but as for us, much more historical and historical in art. In the latter sense, it can be as genre of ekfrazis [7, I, XV, XXIII].Describing Points of Epidaurus, Pausanias notes Tholos, where the picture painted Pavsiy on which was depicted the goddess of intoxication and Matt god of love Eros. Given the geometry of Tolos (round building) can be in the affirmative to believe that it was a wall painting, easel and not [7, II, XXVIII]. Also Pausanias mentions stoya in Trezene (Korynfika) [7, II, XXXI] gallery Sparta [7, III, XIII, XVI], a place to talk – Leskha in Delphi [7, X XXVI].The fact that the galleries, which were works of art, were quite common and at the end of the second century AD shows ekfrazis Philostratus the Elder "paintings." Action "picture" is in one of the galleries of the suburbs of Naples, which at that time, like Greece in general was part of the Roman Empire. Ekfrazis constructed in the form of lectures for young people, as a retrospective record conversations instructive-educational nature at the request of the son of his friend, who's stopped by [9, 32]. The text can be understood that the gallery was filled with paintings, whose number, according to the text ekfrazis, reached 65 units. They were written on mythological subjects drawn from Greek literature (Homer, Hesiod, Aesop, Aeschylus, Euripides, Pindar), and the events of Greek history (gallery seems to have been public, works that adorn the gallery represented easel painting, according to architectural features, this gallery was stoya, though unusual, "four or five beams", gallery was not the old building, and the main thing: the picture was "collected and put"). This clearly says the author, and this means that we have at least two of the main functions of museums: collecting and exhibiting. (Note that most historians believe Philostratus described the gallery so that there is realistic, as well as the paintings referred to in ekfrazis [10, 23-26]).Thus, the museum features the de facto performed not those institutions that ancient Greeks called museyons. It is worth recalling that in Alexandria Museyon artwork is also not met. A way to meet one another – social and cultural phenomenon and its linguistic labels – is still very long. It should be noted that the term "Pinakothek" is also preserved and is now used to denote the subclass art museums, which contains only the collection of paintings.However, only conditionally possible to talk about the implementation galleries with custody. Survival from adverse weather conditions ensured of the building, as well as some techniques technology if they resorted artist himself, as testified Vitruvius. Any purposeful work on the conservation of the artwork has been conducted, but on some attempts such a restoration of ancient some authors have reported as generally unsuccessful, which often ended in damage or even destruction of the original.Only in ancient Rome will appear capture collecting (Greek) art, and so will be grounds to speak about the systematic collection as one of the museum invariant functions. This will happen as a transition to private ownership of the collection of works of art, which was not the Greeks, because all space art of ancient Greece was public.Given that the art museum can not be considered, ignoring the history of art, there is reason to believe "art" stoya and tolos ancient Greece in nature art proto museums, because they served as preservation and broadcast through art social and humanitarian experience of ancient society.

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