Category: Paris

Luxury in Silk and Perfume - Germanisches nationalmuseum Nürnberg

7/11/2018

Over the weekend I got to visit two beautiful exhibitions in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nürnberg. The one about painting and the birth of photography will be the subject of a future post; today it's all about silk dresses! The show Luxury in Silk (Luxus in Seide, through Jan. 6) centers on a newly acquired silk dress from the 18th century. It is displayed in a chamber of its own in the center of the square exhibition room, with the "supporting actors" surrounding it: brooches and other period jewelry, old books and caricatures documenting fashion trends, and several pieces of clothing and shoes in unfinished form.

My favorite aspect of the show was the innovative decision to pipe a light fragrance into the display area around the silk dress. It's a wonderful multisensory experience! (At right, a detail photo of the righthand wall shown above.) Subtle enough that you might not notice it at first, the perfume emanates through a small panel with a label above it. This "Flora grand poudre" scent was specially commissioned from a Parisian parfumeur who based her creation on the perfumes of the 18th century—a combination of lillies and other flowers, sandalwood, and musk. Aptly named, it smells like a delectable cosmetic powder in a precious gold-and-abalone toilette box. Not usually one for powdery scents, I was enraptured all the same; how can we bring smell into visual exhibitions more often?

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Better Together: Eastern mediterranean in the Louvre Museum

2/2/2016

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View into the galleries "East Mediterranean in the Roman Empire." Photo: http://www.louvre.fr/en/hours-admission/schedule-room-closures

A catalog published by the Louvre, L'Orient romain et byzantin au Louvre, underscores the power of perhaps the most fundamental matter of display: which objects are next to which. The catalog accompanied the opening of a new set of galleries featuring objects from three different departments—Greek, Etruscan, and Roman; Egyptian; and Near Eastern—now displayed together in a permanent exhibition space. The goal, the Louvre said, was that "these long-dispersed items could at last be assembled in a single space, and thereby placed in their geographical, cultural, and artistic context." It's a poweful example of how simply juxtaposing certain objects allows them to communicate in ways that they cannot individually or in other groupings.

You can read the full press release here, including the museological mission statement and a room-by-room description, while this document offers more detail, photos, and spotlights on a few objects.

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Designing for Crowds: Louvre and British Museum

7/29/2014

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Venus de Milo, Louvre Museum, Paris

Today's post is inspired by a New York Times article about the booming number of visitors to a few national art museums and the measures the museums are taking in order to accommodate such crowds (and protect the objects). While not specifically discussed in the essay, one of the issues bundled up with this phenomenon relates directly to this blog: How can a museum effectively display its collection for a whopping 9.3 million visitors per year (Louvre), or 6.7 (British Museum), or 5.5 (Vatican)?

One solution is the "Venus de Milo" approach pictured above: a capacious room containing a single blockbuster object, allowing many visitors to stand and circulate throughout the large space. Extra elbow room is especially important when so many visitors are using audio guides that lead them to spend one or more minutes looking at the object.

Another solution is the "Rosetta Stone" setup pictured below. Here the stone is displayed in the center of two intersecting galleries, protected by a glass case. This places the object in relation to the other materials nearby — in this case, other Egyptian works in stone — and therefore nicely contextualizes the piece. A concomitant drawback is the relative lack of space for the many visitors interested in such a famous piece. It's a difficult problem of spatial engineering which, if the predictions in the NYT article can be believed, will only become more pressing.

Rosetta Stone, British Museum, London

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Luxury in Silk and Perfume - Germanisches nationalmuseum Nürnberg

Better Together: Eastern mediterranean in the Louvre Museum

Designing for Crowds: Louvre and British Museum

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