This month's museum pick...
By Terry Posted on Education
The hands of artists have been busy in Europe for more than four thousand years. There is a fair bit of work to be seen...
 If you're not among those who are only dragged unhappily to museums and galleries—obligatory "culture time" to be served on your way to Harrod's and the Hard Rock—then perhaps you're among those who choose your destinations, in a large part, on the things you must see in this life, or must see again. Here, therefore, a compendium: too brief and surely too subjective (but how else?); a collection of collections. So long as one of these feasts has yet to be served — tired, loyal feet to hungry eyes— you have cause to return to Europe.
Acropolis & Acropolis Museum; Athens
Though badly pummeled by time, theft, and man's callousness, the Sacred Rock of Athens still offers an unmatched sense of the beauty and mystery of ancient Greece. The famous Parthenon is only the largest of the Acropolis' structures; equally worth seeing are the temples of Athena Nike and the Erechtheion (recently restored). In the museum at the foot of the rock, original caryatids from the Erechtheion are on display, as are many other Acropolis pieces rescued from the city's destructive pollution. The museum also offers numerous works from the earlier Classical periods (5th-6th century BC.) Open daily; admission.
National Archaeological Museum; Athens
For devotees of Western antiquity, simply the most important museum in the world, with three thousand years of archaeological finds from Greece and the environs of the Mediterranean. The very sizable premises include works from every era of Greek culture, ranging from a 2700-year-old brass Poseidon, rescued from the sea in 1928, to extraordinary Mycenean goldworking, to later Byzantine art. Some Acropolis pieces here too. Open daily; admission.
Pergamon; Berlin
Housing one of the best & largest collections of Egyptian sculpture outside of Egypt itself, the Pergamon Museum adds to this a fabulous array of Greek and early Christian pieces, including the enormous and spectacular Pergamon Altar (2nd century BC), which vies for attention with the equally enormous and spectacular Processional Way and Throne Room (6th Century BC, of Babylon). A carefully picked selection of medieval sculpture is here too, while some excellent Byzantine pieces compliment the larger Byzantine collection of the nearby Bodemuseum. Open daily; admission.
Musée d'Art Moderne and Musée Royale d'Art Ancien; Brussels
Perhaps neither of these excellent but smallish museums would fall on their own into Europe's first rank. But when taken together—as they readily can be, since they are next door—there is fine art enough for many an hour's gazing. Matisse, Dali, Degas, and Gauguin star on one stage; while Rubens, David, Van Dyck, the Brueghels, and their contemporaries of the Flemish and Dutch schools play the other. Hieronymous Bosch's fascinatingly wicked Last Judgment is here. Both closed Mondays; admission.
Királyi Palota; Budapest
Another combination entry, the Palace complex perched high above Buda and the Danube River houses three extensive museums: the Museum of Modern Hungarian History, the National Gallery, and the Museum of Budapest. Fine art from medieval to modern times, artifacts from the long and important history of the Magyar culture, and exhibits detailing Budapest's 1,000-year history are among the attractions here. All closed Monday; admission except on Saturday.
 Uffizi Gallery; Florence
Allow enough time for a leisurely pace through the Uffizi, home to the greatest collection of Italian painting and sculpture in the world—lest you fall victim to the Mal di Firenze, an apocryphal illness of ennui and disorientation, said to be brought on by "too much beauty." Michaelangelo (including the Holy Family sculpture group), Raphael, Botticelli, Donatello, and Giotti are among the all-star lineup. The handsome rooms themselves were once filled with live and breathing Medicis, who had a counting house here. Closed Mondays; admission.
Bargello (Museo Nationale); Florence
...And when you think the endless Uffizi has shown you everything, you discover the Bargello. The focus is sculpture, and what isn't in the Uffizi is here (except Michaelangelo's David, which is at the Accademia Gallery across town) Many additional works by Donatello, Verrocchio, and of course Michaelangelo. The dramatic building has been both palace and prison, a rather neat commentary on the up-and-down lives of so many of the artists. Among the many highlights are Donatello's bronze David, beautiful as the Michaelangelo but so wildly different that it's hard to imagine they represent the same character. Closed Monday; limited hours other days; admission.
British Museum; London
Even in this company, the British Museum would sit firmly at the head of the table. Possibly the most comprehensive and valuable assembly of treasures anywhere on Earth, the Museum's massive roof covers critically important collections in the schools of Greek sculpture, Roman and Roman Imperial sculpture, Egyptian art, religious iconography, medieval artifacts, and a great deal more. The Elgin Marbles, spirited out of Athens on dubious papers in the 19th century, are ironically the best-preserved part of the Parthenon in existence—they've been safely indoors in London during Athens' 60-year-long, carbon-belching traffic jam. (Greece is suing nonetheless, and European Court watchers say the friezes are odds-on to return to Athens within a decade.) The main collections of the British Library, whose gloriously-domed reading room is adjacent to the Museum, have moved elsewhere for logistical reasons; but items of great popular interest such as the Magna Carta, a Gutenberg Bible, and many famous letters, deeds, and manuscripts remain here for viewing. Open daily; free.
National Gallery; London
Divided into vast galleries by era and geography, the National Gallery and its newer Sainsbury Wing comprise one of the largest trouves of painting in the world. Italian and Dutch renaissance works are spectacularly represented, and you will be startled by encounters with more "famous" pictures—those iconic works you've been familiar with since childhood—than perhaps anywhere else save the Louvre. Da Vinci's haunting Virgin and Child sketch has a quiet darkened room to itself, not to be missed. Other major artists with important works here include Botticelli, Michaelangelo, Rembrandt, and Rubens (among many others). The National Gallery differs from many of the other museums described here in that its collections extend to modern (19th and early 20th century) periods, with well-known works including Van Gogh's Sunflowers and Monet's Water-Lily Pond. This is also one of the best-presented art museums of Europe; the paintings themselves are accompanied by numerous (and well-done) exhibits, charts, and explanatory texts putting the work into context and highlighting details of history and technique. (Corregio's School of Love, for example, is accompanied by an x-ray photograph revealing an earlier version of the painting beneath the visible one.) Open daily; free.
Victoria and Albert; London
Begun with items donated by its 19th-century namesakes, the V&A's warren of rooms and halls offer a fascinating display of handicrafts, precious metalwork, and decorative arts from around the world. Elaborate costumes, exquisite jewelry, and breathtaking furniture give you an incomparable look into the rarified private lives of history's royalty; there is also a great deal of superb religious art. Be sure to keep an eye out for some of the building's own fabulous touches, such as the Escher-like rear staircase and the Old Dining Room. Open daily; contribution requested.
Prado; Madrid
A leading guidebook suggests two full days for this world-class offering of fine art; the Prado is generally seen as a peer of the Louvre in Paris and the National Gallery in London—among the best of the best. Naturally the emphasis is on Iberian masters: this is the mother lode for Murillo, El Greco, Goya, and Velázquez, among others. The works of Goya include his extraordinarily dramatic renditions of Spain's Napoleanic wars; his 3rd of May will leave you chilled. Yet there is much more to the Prado than Spanish painting: Flemish and Italian greats are amply represented, with a good selection of Rubens, some interesting Hieronymus Bosch entries, and a number of works by Titian and Raphael. There is a large collection of religious art as well. Your Prado ticket will get you in to the nearby Casón del Bueno Retiro, where the headliner is Picasso's El Guernica. Closed Monday; admission except Wednesday.
Kunthistorisches Museum; Vienna
For Old Masters, this is one of Europe's premier showcases. A bronze Pallas Athene, perched above the 19th-century building's great dome, presides over a fabulous collection of Vermeers, Holbeins, Bellinis, Corregios, and many others, plus unmatched exhibits of Rubens and Breughel the Elder, each of whom has a dedicated room.. The Sculpture and Applied Arts group is also a must-see, with one of the best assemblies of Medieval and Renaissance finery to be found anywhere; Cellini's salt cellar is here, as is Miseroni's crystal tower. Antique tapestries line many of the walls. The Prehistoric and Early Egypt group is quite extensive, with collections of sarcophagi, mummies, rare papyrus writings, grave goods, and household items dating back to 5,000 BC. The Antiquities group includes rare sculptures and mosaics from Greek, Minoan, Roman, and Balkan cultures. The famous Roman piece Gemma Augustea is here. For those who want to complement their visit to Europe's artistic history with a tour of its physical history, Vienna's notable Natural History Museum is next door. Open Wednesday-Monday; closed Tuesdays; admission except first Sunday of the month.
Alte and Neue Pinakothek; Munich
...Like Brussels, Munich offers a pair of very good museums which add up to a great one. The Alte ("Old") Pinakothek—a remarkable 19th-century survivor worth a view in itself—offers an important group of paintings dating to the early Renaissance, with particular attention to rare German works. The Neue Pinakothek, also originally built in the last century, was devoted at the time to "contemporary" art, and today has built on this to create one of Europe's largest and best collections of 19th-century art. Although "Alte" and "Neue" began as designations for the items within, today it applies to the buildings as well, which could not be architecturally more different: the old "new" one was destroyed in WWII, and was rebuilt in 1981. Both closed Mondays; admission except Sundays and holidays.
The Louvre; Paris
If the British Museum sits at one end of the table, the mighty Louvre gazes back from the other. French acquisitions spanning more than 1,000 years—including the stockpiles of such acquisitive types as Louis XIV and Napoleon—fill three sprawling, multi-story wings with some 300,000 objets d'art. Any one of the Louvre's sixteen topical sections (Renaissance Sculptures, Medieval Sculptures, Greek and Roman Sculptures, Oriental Antiquities, and Spanish, Italian, Flemish, Dutch, and French painting—plus several more) would make a world-class museum in itself. Gathered into one site they form an exhaustive (and exhausting!) tour, little short of the history of human creativity.
The key to enjoying the Louvre is accepting that you will not see it all, at least not in one trip (or several). Then, decide what you want to see most and take time to savor it. There are, of course, many universally famed works here and you will repeatedly experience that odd mixture of recognition and vague disbelief—rather like meeting a famous person—that comes when you find yourself in front of such works as the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, or The Gleaners. One should, however, avoid the trap of spending the day in a mad rush to check off one "celebrity" after another. Instead, leave the selection to chance and come upon them unexpectedly (to the extent the crowds allow it) in the course of discovering unknown treasures for yourself: the towering, dramatic Melpomène; Poussin's eerie Shepherds of Arcadia; the engaging ensembles of Jan Steen's Dutch families, as human and humorous as your own. But come early: the Louvre draws more visitors each day than almost any other attraction in Europe. They have a parking lot the size of a football field just for the tour buses, and the line snaking into Pei's glass-pyramid entrance can run two hours long by mid-day. Unless you are desperately short of cash, forego the free Sundays; that's when tour buses come in force, along with seemingly endless hordes of sweet, adorable (shut UP!) schoolchildren. Open daily, with some galleries closed by rotation; admission except Sundays.
Vatican Museums; Rome
One may justly describe all of Rome as a great museum, with every side street leading to another exhibit (and some streets exhibits in themselves). Of what is indoors or under glass, however, the treasures accumulated by the See of Rome are the most varied and spectacular. Located in nearly 5 miles of rooms and halls situated to the right of St. Peter's, the term "Museo Vaticano" takes in seven separate museums—the Picture Gallery, Egyptian Museum, Museo Pio-Clementio (ancient sculpture), Museo Chiaramonti (Greek & Roman art), Etruscan Museum, and the Museums of Sacred and of Secular Art—plus the Vatican Library, Borgia Apartments, Map Gallery, Sistine Chapel, and Raphael Rooms.
Ancient sculpture is the real standout—it is the largest collection in the world—with a dazzling array of pieces from the pinnacles of Greek and Roman civilizations. Whereas in most of Europe one becomes accustomed to the phrase "Roman copy of a Greek original"—here one finds the Greek originals, more so than anywhere except Greece itself. Paintings are less comprehensive than they might have been but for the light fingers of Napoleon; a significant part of the Louvre's gain under the Empire was Rome's loss. Many items were returned after the 1815 Congress of Vienna, however, and there are a large number of important works here. For obvious reasons there is more and better-preserved early and medieval Christian art than anywhere else; not just the Raphaels, Titians, and other Italian masters one would expect, but also including remarkable pieces from the early iconic traditions of Serbia, Greece, and Russia. The Egyptian collection is not as deep as others in Europe (notably Berlin's Pergamon and the Louvre) but contains some exceptional items. The Map Gallery and Library should not be missed, though each displays only a small fraction of the Papacy's vast holdings. Open Monday-Saturday and last Sunday of each month; limited hours Saturday and October-June; admission except Sundays.
The Hermitage; St Petersburg
Housed in four splendid 18th- and 19th-century buildings, part of which comprised the Russian royalty's Winter Palace (and still retains the name & much of the interior splendor thereof). The collections, housed in over three hundred rooms, are in total one of the largest in the world. They are divided into 6 major exhibits: Prehistoric Cultures, Art & Culture of the East, Antiquity, Russian Art, Western European art, and Numismatics. Of these Russian Art is the smallest group, due to most of it having been transferred to St. Petersburg's Russian Museum around the turn of the century, but there are still many fine pieces, including some very good religious icons. Western European Art is the largest and most important group, with particularly strong representation of French and Italian work. Da Vinci's Madonna with a Flower, one of the few confirmed paintings from the master's early period, is here; as is Michaelangelo's sculpture Crouching Boy. There are also several Bernini pieces including a rare Self-Portrait. Among Dutch and Flemish artists, a set of portraits from Van Dyck and Rembrandt stand out, along with some Rubens landscapes.
The Hermitage is also rich in early modern painting and sculpture, with important works from Millet, Degas, Renoir, Matisse, Rodin, and Picasso on display. Some of the most fascinating sights in the Hermitage are the smallest: the collection of elaborately-worked cups, vases, clocks, religious icons, and wall panels—mostly found in the Russian Art group—is worth going out of your way for. A series of Greek miniature terra-cottas, bronzes, and jewelry are in astonishingly perfect good condition, as are many of the early Byzantine, Armenian, Syrian, and Iranian items, including some exceptional triptych carvings. In the Numismatics section—one of the most extensive in Europe—more than 90,000 coins, medallions, and seals are organized by region and era. For all of its displays, however, the Hermitage may be at least as famous for the vast stores of art it holds and does not show; as recent news reports indicate, not even the Moscow government is always aware of all that's squirreled away in the cellars and storerooms of St Petersburg. As these treasures (including much loot from WWII) gradually emerge into the better-lit atmosphere of post-Communist Russia, some items will no doubt be reclaimed by rightful owners; the rest, however, will serve to further enhance this already-spectacular museum. Open Tuesday-Sunday; closed Mondays; some collections closed by rotation; admission. ¤
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