Date:March 28
Partners for the day: Katherine (text) Caleb (images)
Site(s): Trafalgar Square, London
Museum(s): The National Gallery, The National Portrait Gallery
Principal Buildings/Monuments:
Time Spent on Each Site: from ca. 11:30 am to ca. 4:00 pm [ _4.5___ hours]
Weather: Sunny
Today the group was free until 11 am. We pursued various activities, including sleeping, finishing the assignment due today, and packing for our move to Athens tonight. We checked out of the hotel, then made our way to the National Gallery, where we were set free to roam the galleries for a few hours. After some gallivanting in Trafalgar Square and a lunch break, we headed to the National Portrait Gallery. There, we each chose a portrait to present to the group, using some of the insight we gained from Amy Smith’s portraiture lecture at the British Museum the other day. Our choices ranged from a painting of Queen Elizabeth I to a one-hour looped video portrait of a sleeping David Beckham.
Most of the objects we saw today were paintings or photographs. These works were generally displayed in a somewhat different manner than most of the Greek objects we have been viewing. While many of the objects in the British museum must be displayed so that the visitor has the ability to view several sides of the object, most paintings and photographs are best viewed from the front. The National Gallery showed some nice creativity when dealing with paintings best viewed from a non-traditional angle. For example, the painting of Jean de Winterville and Georges de Salve (the Ambassadors) by Hans Holden the Younger has a distorted skull in the foreground, which only looks like a full skull (rather than a confusing blur) when the viewer stands at the right and views the painting at an acute angle. Though the normal rope barrier to prevent visitors from getting too close was used in front of the painting, it was pushed back about a foot at either side to allow visitors to view the painting at the necessary angle. A note in the museum label at the side of the painting explained what to do.
Paintings with requirements such as that were the exception however. Most of the paintings in both museums were simply hung on a (usually) boldly colored wall with other paintings from the same movement or era. Some of the paintings were exceptionally large (particularly in the National Gallery), and these were usually displayed in very large rooms. This was great because it gave many people a chance to view the paintings at once, and there was enough space to move to the center of the room to see the entirely of the painting at once. Most of the rooms had benches in the center, for those who wanted to sit to view the paintings for a long time without standing in the way of other visitors, or for those who may have had difficulties standing to view each gallery.
Though the National Gallery had many large rooms with plenty of space for all the visitors to comfortably view the paintings, it also had some small rooms with smaller paintings. These rooms generally worked well, but in a few cases, famous paintings attracted a large number of people in a tight space. This was especially true of Jan van Eyck’s Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife (the Arnolfini Portrait). Several members of our group were very excited that the museum had this painting, but it was difficult to get close enough to see it. Famous paintings would work better in large galleries with more room for circulation.
Another difference between these museums and the other museums we visited this week was the ornamentation of the objects for display. The paintings in the National Gallery all had large ornate frames. The Greek artifacts we have seen were typically displayed without any comparable ornamentation. The frames in the National Gallery were used to set off the paintings they contained, but were often so detailed that they could be considered works of art in of themselves. Frames were also used in the National Portrait Gallery, but in a somewhat different manner. Here, the choice of frame seemed to depend on the era in which the portrait was painted. Modern portraits were framed with very small, minimalist frames, while older works had more ornate frames. This seems to have more to do with what the viewer expects to see in each era than any sort of artistic necessity. Similarly, though most of the walls in the National Gallery were boldly colored to complement the paintings, wall color varied largely in the National Portrait Gallery. Again, deeper shades were used for the older paintings, while stark white was used for the modern galleries. This shows evidence that the museum is, to some degree, catering to either artist or visitor expectations.