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BOOK III,
Chap. VII.
RECON-

STRUCTORS

AND PRO-
JECTORS.

MR.

OLDFIELD'S

PROJECT OF

RECON-
STRUCTION

(1858-1860)-
continued.

FIRST
ROMAN
ROOM.
HALL.

SECOND
ROMAN
ROOM.

THIRD
ROMAN
ROOM.

FOURTH

ROMAN ROOM.

MEANS OF

FUTURE
ENLARGE-
MENT.

PHOENICIAN
ROOM.

SUPPLE

MENTAL
ROOM.

would admit, whilst the rooms should be not less than twenty-five feet high.

XXXIX. First Roman Room, one hundred and ten feet by twentyeight, exclusive of the alcoves.-It would contain mosaics, including those from Carthage, and miscellaneous sculptures, altars, architectural fragments, &c.; the mosaics indifferently placed on all sides of the room, the sculptures on the east side and against the two end walls.

XL. Hall, fifty-six feet by seventeen.-Here might be an entrance from Charlotte Street, which on many occasions would furnish a convenient relief to the principal entrance to the Museum. It would open immediately into the Rotunda, and through the vista beyond would be seen, in the distance, the cast of the colossal head from Abousimbul. Within the two abutments of the Rotunda would be recesses for the attendants to sell catalogues, receive umbrellas, &c.

XLI. Second Roman or Iconographical Room, fifty-four feet by twentyeight, without the alcoves.-This would contain the series of portrait statues and busts, in chronological order. The west, or dark side of the room, could only be used for very inferior sculptures.

XLII. Third (or Anglo-) Roman Room, the same size as the preceding, for Roman monuments found in this country. The rude character of many would admit of placing them on the west side.

XLIII. Fourth Roman or Sepulchral Room, eighty-two feet by twentysix, containing Roman sarcophagi for which the west side might be partially available, and sepulchral cippi, and inscriptions. At the north-east angle would be a Columbarium, twenty-three feet by fourteen, fitted up like that in the present Sepulchral Basement Room, but with the advantage of a skylight.

[Then follows a Summary of Accommodation provided in the plan for Roman Sculptures, amounting to a superficial area (without alcoves) of eight thousand five hundred and fifty-eight square feet, and seven hundred and seventeen linear feet of wall-space.]

The first three rooms, when their contents sufficiently increased, would admit of an easy alteration, which would not merely increase the wall-space, but much improve the lighting, by simply inserting transverse walls between each window. Against these walls the sculptures would have a true side light, whilst those against the east wall would be protected from double lights. It may even be doubted whether such an arrangement should not be adopted in the first instance, without waiting till the additional accommodation is actually required.

XLIV. Phoenician Room, twenty-six feet square. Here would be the stela and bas reliefs from Carthage and its vicinity, with the few Punic inscriptions which we possess. The room contains six hundred and seventy-six superficial feet, and eighty-eight of wall-space.

XLV. A similar room to the preceding, which, in case of necessity,

Book III,

Chap. VII.
RECON-

STRUCTORS

JECTORS.

MR.

OLDFIELD'S

might serve for extending the Phoenician collection. In the mean time it might perhaps be used for exhibiting such miscellaneous inferior sculptures as could be advantageously weeded from the regular series, though circumstances might temporarily prevent their removal from AND PROthe Museum. In such case it might be entitled 'Supplemental Room.' In accordance with a suggestion made in the Committee now sitting, the writer has added to the new buildings proposed in his plan another PROJECT OF story, or second floor, over the first. The advantage of this is, that it RECONwould provide for objects which it might be more costly or inconvenient STRUCTION to accommodate elsewhere. But it involves necessarily two evils: 1. That the height of the second floor, involving an ascent of perhaps nearly one hundred steps (though this is not more than is common in continental museums), might excite complaint in English visitors. 2. That so lofty a building, by excluding all oblique rays from the east side of the Græco-Roman galleries, would make the light on the statues and busts there placed somewhat too vertical.

(1858-1860)continued.

PLAN OF

UPPER

FLOORS.
ADVANTAGES

AND EVILS
OF A SECOND
STORY.

COLLEC

TIONS RE-
TAINED OR

REMOVED.

With regard to the collections to be provided for on the upper floors, it is here assumed, though of course without any express authority, that Ethnography and Oriental Antiquities would be removed from the Museum, and better accommodated elsewhere. The British and Mediæval Collections, however, are supposed to be retained; if they are removed, a modification of this plan must in consequence be made. The apartments should all be about eighteen feet high, the windows of FIRST FLOOR the same breadth as those below, but, except in the Terracotta Room, only about eight feet high, and as near the ceiling as possible. On the east side should be corresponding windows, so that each wall would be QUITIES; illuminated; for cross lights, though so injurious to sculptures, are generally desirable for galleries filled with wall-cases. All the windows should have ground glass, to prevent injury to the collections from the

sun.

OR NEW BUILDINGS

FOR ANTI

ITS CON

STRUCTION.

GALLERY.

1. Vase Gallery.—Two hundred and twenty-two feet long, the southern VASE half twenty-six feet wide, and the northern twenty-eight feet. The wall-cases should be about eight feet high, like those in our First Vase Room; and the transverse projections, flanked by pilasters, would be only of the same height, so as not to shut out the view of the upper part of the gallery; having glass on each side, they would serve for vases with double paintings, such as we now exhibit only in dwarf central cases. The most important vases should stand isolated on tables, or pedestals, on each side the gangway; as in the present arrangement of the Temple Collection. Although the superficial area of this gallery (five thousand nine hundred and ninety-two feet) is little more than a third greater than that occupied by vases in the present buildings (four thousand three hundred and twenty-one feet), the amount of accommodation it would afford is nearly double. For the present wall

ITS ACCOM-
MODATION.

BOOK III, Chap. VII. RECON

STRUCTORS

AND PRO-
JECTORS.

MR.

cases, eight feet high, extend to one hundred and forty-six feet of linear measurement; those ten feet high will, when the collection is fully arranged, extend to eighty-four feet; the whole therefore may be reckoned as equivalent to two hundred and fifty-one feet of cases, eight feet high. The total extent, however, of such wall-cases in the proposed gallery is four hundred and fifty-five feet. The projections also, with the tables and pedestals, may safely be estimated as providing twice the accommodation for vases painted on both sides which is now furnished by the dwarf central cases, besides exhibiting them much more conve(1858-1860) — niently. It should be added that the vases would be better lighted than at present; whilst the length and comparative openness of the gallery would produce a more striking impression on the passing visitor.

OLDFIELD'S

PROJECT OF

RECON

STRUCTION

continued.

PROPOSED
ETRUSCAN

APARTMENT.

TERRACOTTA
ROOM.

GALLERY OF
ROTUNDA.

Ассоммо

TERRA

The accommodation here provided being so ample, it might be desirable to appropriate one compartment of the gallery to an exclusively Etruscan Collection, comprising not merely the pottery of the Etruscans, properly so called, but that for which they were really more distinguished in ancient times, their bronze and other metal work.

2. Terracotta Room.-Fifty-six feet by seventeen. As no windows could be made on the east side, there should be no cases on the west; but the western windows, which do not correspond with the others of this story, should extend from near the ceiling to four or five feet from the floor. A sloping case might then be placed in each window, for lamps and other small objects, requiring a strong light. Against the east wall should be cases for vases, and other large objects.

3. Gallery of the Rotunda.—From one hundred and eighty to one hundred and ninety feet in circumference, and about nine feet wide. The powerful light from the centre of the dome would be favourable to terracotta statuettes and bas-reliefs, which could all be contained in shallow wall-cases, that would not materially narrow the gangway.* The Townley Collection of bas-reliefs, now in the Second Vase Room, might be arranged in panels all round, so as to produce a decorative effect, agreeable to their original destination.

The entire space provided in these two rooms is much more than our DATION FOR terracottas can absolutely require; but this will facilitate an ornamental arrangement of the collection, appropriate to the character of the larger room. The small spaces between the Rotunda and the main building would serve for closets.

COTTAS.

GLASS ROOM.

4. Glass Room, twenty-eight feet by twenty-six.-The fittings proper for glass being different from those of terracottas, it is desirable to give

* In the accompanying Plan (of the Parliamentary Report, 1860), pilasters of unnecessary size have been inadvertently introduced into this gallery, reducing both the extent of the wall-cases, and the breadth of the gangway, in a manner never intended.

1

Book III,

Chap. VII.
RECON-

STRUCTORS

AND PRO

PROJECT OF
RECON-
STRUCTION

continued.

it a separate room. This should be similarly arranged to the Vase Gallery, with wall-cases eight feet high, and table-cases in the centre. 5. Bronze Gallery, three apartments united; together eighty-two feet by twenty-eight.-As the advantage of a skylight for the bronze statuettes is necessarily sacrificed by the adoption of an upper floor, it JECTORS. would be best to place them, as far as possible, against each side of the MR. transverse projections, separating those sides by internal partitions, and OLDFIELD'S employing some contrivance to protect the bronzes from the cross light of the further windows, an arrangement possible with small objects in glass cases, though not with large statuary. In the middle of the (1858-1860)— gallery might be table-cases, placed longitudinally, or important objects on pedestals. The increase of accommodation in the Bronze Gallery, as in the Vase Gallery, is more than proportionate to the increase of space. Though the superficial area is only two thousand two hundred MODATION. and ninety-six feet, in lieu of our present quantity, two thousand and twenty-one, the extent of wall-cases, which now is only one hundred and thirty-eight feet, would, even allowing doorways of twelve feet wide between each of these compartments, be increased to two hundred and fifty feet, equivalent, after allowing for the difference in height of the cases, to two hundred feet. This, if the Etruscan bronzes were transferred as already suggested, would liberally provide for the Greek and Roman Collection.

Each room should be fifteen to eighteen feet high; the windows exclusively on the east side, and extending from the ceiling to four or five feet from the floor. As the aspect is nearly N.E., the sun could not be injurious, and the glass of the windows, therefore, had better be unground.

BRONZE
GALLERY.

ITS ACCOM

SECOND

FLOOR OF

NEW BUILD

INGS FOR
ANTIQUI-

TIES.

1. British Rooms, each twenty-seven feet by twenty-six.-That which BRITISH adjoins the staircase (and, if necessary, those on each side), should be Rooms. lighted from the roof, and have wall-cases all round, with a separate case in the centre. The other rooms should have wall-cases on the west side, and shallower cases against the transverse walls. Two long tablecases in each room might extend from the windows to a line with the doorway.

MEDIEVAL

Rooms.
SUMMARY OF
ACCOMMO-

DATION FOR

BRITISH AND

2. Mediaval Rooms, each twenty-eight feet by twenty-seven, and similarly arranged to the British.-Though the entire superficial area in the British and Mediæval Rooms is only five thousand and seventy-two feet, in lieu of four thousand and forty-six, the amount in the present building, yet the wall-space is four hundred and sixty-six feet, instead of only two hundred and ninety-seven, and the cases, having no windows above, MEDIEVAL, might, if necessary, be made ten feet high, like the present. The gain in table-cases would be much greater. In lieu of six, there would be twelve, each sixteen or eighteen feet long, instead of ten; whilst the central case in the room adjoining the staircase might be at least as

BOOK III,
Chap. VII.
RECON-

STRUCTORS

AND PRO

JECTORS.

MR.
OLDFIELD'S

PROJECT OF
RECON-
STRUCTION

capacious as the large separate case in the present British and Mediæval Room. The lighting would throughout be more advantageous for these collections than at present; and the rooms, from the character of the windows, might be bright instead of gloomy.

3. Gem Room.-As the contents of this and the succeeding room have more or less intrinsic value, an iron door might be placed at the end of the Medieval Gallery, to be open only when the public are admitted to the Museum. The Gem Room, twenty-eight feet by twenty-seven, would be fitted like the preceding. The gems would occupy the table-cases, (1858-1860) which would accommodate a far larger collection than ours, and would exhibit them in the best possible light for such objects. In the wallcases might be displayed the gold and silver ornaments, which would have much more space than as now arranged, though in a room only of the same size.

continued.

GEM ROOM.

COIN AND
MEDAL
GALLERY.

PRIVATE

ROOMS OF

COIN DE-
PARTMENT.

OUTER COIN

ROOM.

INNER COIN
ROOM.

4. Coin and Medal Gallery, fifty-six feet by seventeen.-As the dome of the Rotunda would only rise a few feet above the floor of this gallery, and would, from its curvature, recede to a distance of several feet, windows on the east side would be quite unobstructed. In each might stand a table-case, six or seven feet long, on which would be exhibited, under glass, a series of coins and medals which, though not the most valuable of our collection in the eyes of a numismatist, would suffice to give the public an interesting and instructive view of the monetary art. In the drawers of these cases might be kept the moulds and casts of the Coin Collection. Against the side walls might be upright cases, or frames, for extending the exhibition; but the walls facing the windows, having a front light, would be unsuitable for coins or medals, and must be employed for some other purpose.

5. The rooms which remain would be a private suite for the Coin Department. The present rooms of that department are arranged in an order the reverse of what is best for security and convenience, the coins being kept in an outer room, which must be passed in going either to the Keeper's study, or to the Ornament Room, a room open to all persons merely on application. In the accompanying plan the contents of the Ornament Room have been transferred to the Gem Room; and the Keeper's study is placed near the beginning of the private suite.

Outer Coin Room, twenty-eight feet by twenty-seven, for the freer exhibition of coins to properly introduced persons, for the use of artists copying coins or other minute objects, and all other purposes now served by the Medal Room, except the custody of the collection, and work of the department.

Inner Coin Room, fifty-five feet by twenty-eight, secured by a strong iron door, of which the Keeper, Assistant-Keeper, and Principal-Librarian, would alone have keys.-In this room, to which none but the

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