Museums and the Shaping of Knowledge Museums have been active in shaping knowledge over the last 600 years. Yet what is their function within today’s society? At the present time, when funding is becoming increasingly scarce, difficult questions are being asked about the justification of museums. Museums are actively re-organising their spaces and collections, in order to present themselves as environments for self-directed learning based on experience, often to new audiences. This critical review of past and current practices and theories will provide a valuable point of reference for museum professionals planning future policies. It will also provide powerful insights for academics and students in the fields of cultural studies, archaeology and material cultures, for it shows how context has determined the interpretation of objects. Eilean Hooper-Greenhill is Lecturer in Museum Studies at the University of Leicester. The Heritage: Care-Preservation-Management programme has been designed to serve the needs of the museum and heritage community worldwide. It publishes books and information services for professional museum and heritage workers, and for all the organizations that service the museum community. Editor-in-chief: Andrew Wheatcroft Architecture in Conservation: Managing developments at historic sites James Strike The Development of Costume Naomi Tarrant Forward Planning: A handbook of business, corporate and development planning for museums and galleries Edited by Timothy Ambrose and Sue Runyard The Handbook for Museums Gary Edson and David Dean Heritage Gardens: Care, conservation and management Sheena Mackellar Goulty Heritage and Tourism: in the global village Priscilla Boniface and Peter J.Fowler The Industrial Heritage: Managing resources and uses Judith Alfrey and Tim Putnam Managing Quality Cultural Tourism Priscilla Boniface Museum Basics Timothy Ambrose and Crispin Paine Museum Exhibition: Theory and practice David Dean Museum, Media, Message Eilean Hooper-Greenhill Museum Security and Protection: A handbook for cultural heritage institutions ICOM and ICMS Museums 2000: Politics, people, professionals and profit Edited by Patrick J.Boylan Museums and their Visitors Eilean Hooper-Greenhill Museums without Barriers: A new deal for disabled people Fondation de France and ICOM The Past in Contemporary Society: Then/Now Peter J.Fowler The Representation of the Past: Museums and heritage in the post-modern world Kevin Walsh Towards the Museum of the Future: New European perspectives Edited by Roger Miles and Lauro Zavala Museums and the Shaping of Knowledge Eilean Hooper-Greenhill London and New York First published in 1992 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003. Disclaimer: For copyright reasons, some images in the original version of this book are not available for inclusion in the eBook. © 1992 Eilean Hooper-Greenhill All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Hooper-Greenhill, Eilean Museums and the shaping of knowledge.—(Heritage). 1. Museums I. Title 069 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Hooper-Greenhill, Eilean Museums and the shaping of knowledge/Eilean Hooper-Greenhill. p. cm.—(Heritage) Includes bibliographical references. 1. Museums—Management. 2. Museum techniques. 3. Museums— Educational aspects. I. Title. II. Series. AM7.H66 1992 069´.5—dc20 91–17628 ISBN 0-203-41582-5 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-72406-2 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0-415-07031-7 (Print Edition) For my family, with love Contents List of plates viii 1 What is a museum? 1 2 The first museum of Europe? 23 3 The palace of the prince 47 4 The irrational cabinet 78 5 The ‘cabinet of the world’ 105 6 The Repository of the Royal Society 133 7 The disciplinary museum 167 8 A useful past for the present 191 Bibliography 216 Index 229 vii List of plates 1 The Museum of Frances Calceolari in Verona, from Ceruti and Chiocco, 1622. 13 2 Visitor at African culture exhibition at Bruce Castle Museum, Haringey, London, 1990. (Photograph: Townley Cooke) 19 3 Michelozzo: Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Florence, c. 1440. (Archivi Alinari) 25 4 Posthumous portrait of Cosimo de Medici (Pater Patriae) by Pontormo. (Uffizi, Florence; Archivi Alinari) 27 5 Marble bust of Piero de Medici by Mino da Fiesole, 1453. (Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence; Archivi Alinari) 31 6 School of Albrecht Dürer, Maximilian’s Treasure, woodcut, 1512–15. (Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich; by permission of the British Museum) 49 7 Tazza Farnese. (Museo Nazionale, Naples; Archivi Alinari) 55 8 Terracotta bust of Lorenzo de Medici by Andrea del Verrocchio, c. 1485. (National Gallery of Washington, Samuel H.Kress Collection) 59 9 Terracotta bust of Niccolo Niccoli da Uzzano by Donatello, based on an antique bust of Cicero, between 1460 and 1480, height 46 cm. (Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence; Archivi Alinari) 63 10 Judith by Donatello, c. 1456. (Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence; Archivi Alinari) 75 11 Kunstkammer by Frans Franken the Younger. Panel, early seventeenth century. (Städtische Museum, Frankfurt) 81 12 Credence vessel, silver and fossilised sharks’ teeth. Late sixteenth century. (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna) 83 13 Kunstschrank of Gustavus Adolphus, made in 1625–31 by Philip Hainhofer. (University of Uppsala) 87 14 Abbey memory system from Johannes Romberch, Congestorium Artificiose Memorie, ed. of Venice, 1533, p. 117. 93 15 Images to be used in the Abbey memory system from Johannes Romberch, Congestorium Artificiose Memorie, 1533. 95 viii List of plates 16 View of the east wall of the Studiolo of the Grand Duke Francesco I. (Palazzo Vecchio, Florence; Archivi Alinari) 107 17 The Ptolemaic Universe III, Utriusque Cosmi Maioris Scilicet et Minoris Metaphisica, Phisica atque Technica in Duo Volumina Secundum Cosmi Differentiam Divisa…. Tomus Primus de Macrocosmi Historia, by Robert Fludd. Oppenheim, Johann Theodore de Bry, 1617, pp.4–5. 111 18 The ‘Antiquarium’ of the Wittelsbach Residenz in Munich by Jacopo da Strada. Built in 1568, alterations 1586–1600, and restored after the Second World War. 113 19 Spring from the base of the fountain by Wenzel Jamnitzer and Johann Gregor van Schardt. (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna) 117 20 Portrait of Rudolf II as Vertumnus, by Arcimboldo, c. 1590. (Skokloster Castle, Sweden) 119 21 The Natural History Cabinet of the Neapolitan Naturalist and Chemist Ferrante Imperato. (Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris) 127 22 View of the Gardens and the Cortile of the Belvedere in Rome by Hendrick van Cleeve. (Ancient Art Museum, Brussels) 129 23 The Imperial Gallery in Prague by Johann Bretschneider, 1714. (Germanisches National Museum, Nuremberg) 143 24 Memory Theatre or Repository from J.Willis, Mnemonica, 1618. 151 25 ‘Description of the real character’ from Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language by John Wilkins, 1668, p. 387. (Reading University Library) 153 26 Page from Grew’s Musaeum Regalis Societatis (1681). 155 27 First page of the Instructions prepared on the order of the National Convention for the Preservation of Cultural Objects, 1794. (Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris) 175 28 Entrée Triomphale des Monuments (6 February 1798), engraving by Pierre Gabriel Berthault from a drawing by Girardet. (Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris) 177 29 Plan of the paintings gallery in the Schloss Belvedere, installation realised by Mechel, 1778, under the orders of Chancellor Kaunitz. (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna) 187 30 A choice screen from The Collectors interactive video, made by New Media for Gallery 33 at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. 207 31 The fishwife from ‘The People’s Story’, Edinburgh City Museum. 209 32 Photographs from The People’s Show’, Walsall Art Gallery, 1990. (Ming de Nasty) 212–13 ix What is a museum? 1 What is a museum? Museums are no longer built in the image of that nationalistic temple of culture, the British Museum. Today, almost anything may turn out to be a museum, and museums can be found in farms, boats, coal mines, warehouses, prisons, castles, or cottages. The experience of going to a museum is often closer to that of going to a theme park or a funfair than that which used to be offered by the austere, glass-case museum. The last few years have seen a major shifting and reorganisation of museums. Change has been extreme and rapid, and, to many people who loved museums as they were, this change has seemed unprecedented, unexpected, and unacceptable. It has thrown previous assumptions about the nature of museums into disarray. The recent changes have shocked most those who felt that they knew what museums were, how they should be, and what they should be doing. This fixed view of the identity of museums has sometimes been firmly held and, until recently, little has disturbed it. But it is a mistake to assume that there is only one form of reality for museums, only one fixed mode of operating. Looking back into the history of museums, the realities of museums have changed many times. Museums have always had to modify how they worked, and what they did, according to the context, the plays of power, and the social, economic, and political imperatives that surrounded them. Museums, in common with all other social institutions, serve many masters, and must play many tunes accordingly. Perhaps success can be defined by the ability to balance all the tunes that must be played and still make a sound worth listening to. At the present time, in many areas where decisions are made about the funding and maintenance of museums, hard questions are now being asked about the justification of museums, about their role in the community, and their functions and potentials.