Christopher Whitehead, The Public Art Museum in Nineteenth Century Britain: The Development of the National Gallery, Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005

摘要

The chief purpose of this book is indicated in its sub-title: to chart the institutional history of theNational Gallery, London, between 1850 and 1876. Most previous histories of the Gallery haveconcentrated on the assembly of the collection, and, indeed, the history of museums andgalleries has predominantly been written in terms of the pursuit and capture of works of art. Aswe all know, this is the sexy side of museum life. But we have come to see in recent years thatthe interpretation and presentation of collections, and the relations of museums with theirvisitors, are fundamentally important also. As one of a new generation of "museological"historians, Whitehead knows this. He focuses especially on architecture and display, andshows how the National Gallery moved "away from the traditions of the private collection ¨C suchas the adoption of ahistorical criteria for acquisition and display ¨C and towards a newer publicmuseology based upon a correlation of museum space with a historiographical scheme"(p.152).Part Two of the book describes the recurrent attempts to supply the Gallery withaccommodation more spacious and appropriate than that provided by the Wilkins building,completed in 1838. The story is largely of discussions, and Whitehead draws on theproceedings of a series of inquiries, notably a Parliamentary Select Committee of 1853 and aRoyal Commission of 1857. While the proceedings of such inquiries are wonderful sourcesfor historians of ideas, the inquiries themselves seldom produced much action. In the case ofthe National Gallery, the result of twenty-five years of altercation was the extension (8 rooms)designed by E.M. Barry and completed in 1876 ¨C an outcome which, Whitehead admits, is"underwhelming" (p.205).