Important Museums and Art Galleries

Other Countries of Europe.

Spain has its Museo del Prado and the Archaeological Museum, of interest only in its collections of Moorish and Spanish art. (See MADRID.) The museums of the chief provinces are situated at Barcelona, Valencia, Granada and Seville. The National Museum of Portugal is at Lisbon (q.v.).

In Greece, the centre of all art and archaeology is Athens (q.v.), which has three museums, all devoted to Greek art : that of the Acropolis, that of the Archaeological Society (vases and terra cotta), and the National Museum of Antiquities.

In Switzerland, the Swiss National Museum, Ziirich, is a model of arrangement and organization. Its collection of stained glass is of general importance, while the arrangement of rooms illustrat ing the historical progress of art is a special feature. Basle, Ge neva, Lausanne and Bern have museums of great value to the Swiss people, keenly interested in art as they are.

Norway, Sweden and Denmark rank high as countries interested in their collections of art and archaeology, despite their reputed leaning toward museums of science and industry. Stockholm has three museums : the Royal Palace, with its unusual collection of costume and armour; the Northern Museum, which contains a considerable amount of modern and domestic art ; the National Museum of Sweden, containing a general collection, well classified. The National Museum of Denmark at Copenhagen, however, must be classed with the few outstanding national museums of the world. The paintings form a complete record of the work of Danish artists from the end of the 18th century, and the engrav ings number more than 8o,000. The Thorwaldsen Museum, named after perhaps the greatest of all northern sculptors, the Museum of Industrial Art and the Danish Folk Museum are also in Copen hagen. Oslo and Bergen contain many Norse antiquities.

In Russia, western art is found principally at Moscow and Leningrad. The Hermitage Palace in the latter city contains a selection of mediaeval objects of fabulous value, such as the ivories, the gold and silver objects illustrating the primitive arts and ornament of Scythia, Crimea and Caucasia. (See LENINGRAD also Moscow.) Russian art predominates in other places, as in Kharkoff and Odessa (the university), Krasnoyarsk, with 12,000 specimens of Buriat art, etc., indicating interest in collecting even

in the most remote parts of Siberia.

Various Other Countries.

There are several museums in India, the chief one being at Calcutta, devoted to Indian activities. Mention is only due the ones that are growing up under the direction of the Department of Archaeology, wisely established by Lord Curzon. The Gizeh Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, Cairo, is housed in a large building, well classified and liberally supported. Carthage and Tunis have small museums. The Turkish Museum of Antiquities at Constantinople has classical sculpture, but little else of significance. In the Orient about the only mu seums are found in Japan, a fuller description of which follows : Teishitsu Hakubutsu Kan (Imperial Household Museums) consists of the Tokyo Imperial Household Museum, the Nara Imperial Household Museum, and the Shosa-in.

The Tokyo Imperial Household Museum, in Uyeno Park, Tokyo, dates from 1872. The main exhibition building, badly damaged by the earthquake in 1923, will be replaced by a new one. At the present time the Hyokeikan, which withstood the earthquake, is the only building now open to the public. The ex hibition building contains two rooms for Oriental paintings, which are changed every month, a room for lacquer work, a room for Oriental wood, bamboo, metal, jade and ivory work, a room for the ceramic arts of Japan and China, two rooms for Japanese ancient sculptures, and three rooms devoted to historical and archaeological exhibits.

The Museum holds special exhibitions from time to time, and issues annual reports, reports of investigations, "Zuroku" (collo type reproduction of works of art with explanatory notes), "Gomotsu Jodai Senshokumon" (colour reproductions of 7th, 8th, and 9th century, dyed and textile fabrics in the Imperial Household Collection).

Nara Imperial Household Museum, in Nara Park, was com pleted in 1894. It contains the most representative collection of early Japanese sculpture, mainly in loan from different temples and shrines. It also contains archaeological and historical ex hibits, as well as paintings.