BOOK III, STRUCTORS AND PRO- MR. OLDFIELD'S PROJECT OF a partial light from the openings between them. To increase this, how. ever, and to furnish the only light to the basement under the Fourteenth Greek Room, and the apartments adjoining its west side, panels of strong glass or open metal work might be inserted at convenient places in the various floors, and serve rather as an ornament to them. With the aid of some such arrangement, the last-mentioned portions of the basement would serve as storing-rooms; in default of it, they could merely be available for any apparatus used in heating or ventilation. [Then follows a General Summary of Additional Space provided for the (1858-1860) Collections of Antiquities, amounting to a net addition of forty-one thousand nine hundred and fifty-six square feet of superficial area.] This is somewhat less than the additional space demanded in the estimate supplied to the Committee by Mr. HAWKINS; but it supposes the removal of the Oriental and Ethnographical Collections, which Mr. HAWKINS, when considering only the existing department, and not the question of its modification, included in its contents. RECON STRUCTION continued. SUMMARY OF ANTIQUI TIES. EXTRA SPACE. SPACE IN SPACE TRANS FERRED TO NATURAL PUBLIC In addition, however, to the space provided for the collections, the new buildings would comprise about eight thousand six hundred feet on the three principal floors, for studies, closets, staircases, &c. The space in the basement it is unnecessary to estimate in detail, being manifestly superabundant for its purpose. The Plan of the Upper Floors shows the accommodation which might be provided, upon the present scheme, for the Departments of Natural History, by transferring to them the galleries and studies on that floor now occupied by Antiquities, and constructing an upper room on the site of the staircase, to unite the Central Saloon (Return 379, Plan 18, No. 1), into which the new principal staircase would conduct, with the galleries so transferred. The apportionment of the space amongst the different collections of Natural History must be left to more competent authorities than the present writer. He may, however, add a few words on the general character of the apartments comprehended in the transfer. The public galleries are similar to the present Zoological Galleries, not GALLERIES. merely in their structure, but in their fittings. The wall-cases, therefore, might be available, without alteration, for the new collections; and the central cases might either be retained for Natural History, or removed STUDIES FOR to the new upper floors for Antiquities, as was found more convenient. The present Medal and Ornament Rooms might serve for the use of students, whilst the four private studies numbered 6, 7, 10, and 10 in Plan 18, would be used by the officers. The rooms for students might, if necessary, be further increased by a trifling alteration, in the event of the official establishment being transferred to the east of the Museum. In place of the closet adjoining the Medal Room, a private staircase might descend by a few steps to the entresol below, the whole of which might then be made an appendage to the upper, instead of the lower OFFICERS SUGGESTION FOR IN- THOSE FOR SIUDENTS. floor, and would furnish two convenient rooms for students, over those numbered 4 and 6 in Plan 17. The same staircase, falling in with one already existing between the entresol and Secretary's Office, would supply a private communication between the upper and lower floors, in lieu of that abolished for the construction of the First Egyptian Room (III, 69). The total area of the apartments transferred to Natural History may be summarily stated thus: Public Galleries : Present Galleries of Antiquities Book III, Chap. VII. RECON STRUCTORS AND PRO JECTORS. MR. OLDFIELD'S Proposed room over III (69) Students' Working Rooms Officers' Studies Closets, Passages, and Staircase. Total addition 19,185 GIVING IT A Independently of the increased accommodation, the advantage of CONVENI acquiring for Natural History the exclusive possession of the upper floor ENCE OF is obvious and unquestionable, though the gain is not limited to that DISTINCT department. By separating its galleries entirely from those of Antiqui- FLOOR. ties, the practical superintendence of each would be simplified; one department would no longer be a necessary thoroughfare to another; the confusion of ideas experienced by ordinary visitors from the juxtaposition of collections so incongruous would be avoided; and as each department would have a separate entrance, a facility would be given for varying their periods or regulations of admission, as the circumstances of each might at any time require; considerations which must hereafter acquire increasing weight in proportion to the increasing magnitude of the Museum. APPROXI- PENSE. EXPENSE OF The ground immediately round the Museum, on the average of its ESTIMATE OF three sides, is valued in the Report of the Special Committee of Trustees (twenty-sixth November, 1859), at about forty-three thousand five hundred pounds per acre. The houses in Charlotte Street are inferior in character to those on the other two sides, and might doubtless be GROUND. purchased at a proportionately less price; but the writer, being anxious to err only on the safe side, assumes the average price as necessary. The ground proposed to be taken is about four hundred and fifty feet long, by a breadth generally of one hundred and fifty feet, but at the south end not exceeding one hundred and ten feet; so that the total area is about sixty-four thousand seven hundred square feet, or somewhat BOOK III, STRUCTORS MR. OLDFIELD'S PROJECT OF RECON- (1858-1860)- FIRST THIRD FOURTH MEANS OF PHOENICIAN SUPPLE MENTAL 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. RECON JECTORS. MR. OLDFIELD'S PROJECT OF 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 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. (1858-1860)But it involves necessarily two evils: continued. 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. PLAN OF UPPER FLOORS. ADVANTAGES AND EVILS COLLEC TIONS RE- 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 FOR ANTI ITS CON- 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- BOOK III, STRUCTORS AND PRO- MR. OLDFIELD'S PROJECT OF STRUCTION (1858-1860) continued. SUMMARY department; they are at present divided like those of Sennacherib, and SUMMARY OF THE ACCOMMODATION PROVIDED IN THE PLAN It thus appears that the wall-space provided in the plan, though one hundred and twenty-seven feet more than the wall-space in the existing rooms, falls short by one hundred and twenty-seven feet of the total linear extent of the bas-reliefs, as now arranged. In lieu, however, of placing slabs in the middle of a gallery, as is done in the basement room, and as it would likewise be possible to do in XVI or XVII, it is thought better, in these last rooms, to provide the additional space by simply carrying up the slabs to a greater height. The space for central cases for small objects, which is at present four thousand and eighty square feet in rooms would be eight thousand one hundred and seventy square feet in Rooms XVI and XVII, an amount so abundant as to supersede the necessity for any wall-cases. The accommodation here provided for Assyrian antiquities is little more in quantity, though much better in quality, than the present. |