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The Botanical Collection is exhibited on the second floor of the

E. wing. It includes specimens of plants of all kinds, polished tablets of different kinds of wood, specimens of fruit and seeds, etc. Among the most interesting herbaria are those of Sir Hans Sloane, founder of the British Museum (see p. 233; about 1750), John Ray, Sowerby (English plants), and Sir Joseph Banks (1820), the last including the collection of Ceylon plants made by Hermann and described by Linnæus. The botanical drawings by F. Bauer, some of which are exhibited to the public in cases, form the finest collection of the kind in the world, remarkable both for scientific accuracy and artistic beauty.

The second floor of the W. wing is devoted to the Osteological Collection, with a very extensive collection of skulls. At the top of the staircase (second floor) is a sitting figure of Sir Joseph Banks (d. 1820), the botanist, by Chantrey, brought from the British Museum in 1886. Adjacent is the Refreshment Room.

The Natural History Museum faces Cromwell Road, a street of palatial residences, about 1 M. in length, and so called because Henry, son of the Protector, resided in a house which once stood here.

27. South Kensington Museum.

India Museum.

The **South Kensington Museum (Pl. R, 9), in Brompton, to the S. of Hyde Park, at the corner of Exhibition Road and Cromwell Koad, 1 M. to the W. of Hyde Park Corner, is most easily reached by the Metropolitan Railway. The station (p.37) is only a few hundred yards to the S.W. either of the principal entrance in Cromwell Road, or of the N.W. entrance in Exhibition Road. The Museum is open gratis on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Saturdays from 10 a. m. to 10 p.m.; on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, 10 a.m. to 4, 5, or 6 p.m. according to the season, charge 6d. Tickets, including admission to the libraries, etc., 6d. per week, 1s. 6d. per month, 3s. per quarter, 10s. per year. In the middle of the building is a restaurant (p. 282), to the right and left of which are lavatories for ladies and gentlemen.

The Museum, which was opened in 1857, is one of the subdivisions of the Science and Art Department of the Committee of Council on Education, which is under the control of the Lord President of the Council for the time being, assisted by a Vice President. The object of the Department is the promotion of art and science by means of the systematic training of competent teachers, the foundation of schools of art, public examinations and distribution of prizes, the purchase and exhibition of objects of art, and the establishment of art libraries. It is carried on at an annual expense of about 450,000l., defrayed by the national exchequer. Several other institutions in England, Scotland, and Ireland are administered by the Department. Among its professors, directors, and examiners are numbered many of the chief English savants; and the tangible results of its teaching and influence are seen in the progress of taste and knowledge in the fine arts and natural science throughout the kingdom. The Museum was visited in 1888 by 897,225 persons, and the total number of visitors since its opening in 1857 has been 27,352,935. The director is Sir Philip Cunliffe Owen, K.C.B., K.C.M. G., С.І.Е. — Bethnal Green Museum (p. 128) is a branch of the South Kensington Museum, established for the benefit of the great industrial population of the E. End, and maintained at an annual cost of 80001.

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The present buildings of South Kensington Museum contain

Entrance from Crom-
well Road.

1. The MUSEUM OF ORNAMENTAL OR APPLIED ART, a collection of 20,000 modern and mediæval works of art, and plaster casts or electrotype reproductions of celebrated ancient and modern works, partly belonging to the Museum and partly on loan.

2. The NATIONAL GALLERY OF BRITISH ART, or Picture Gallery, on the upper floor.

3. The ART LIBRARY, consisting of 70,000 vols. and a collection of 240,000 drawings, engravings, and photographs.

Offices.

4. The SCIENCE AND EDUCATION LIBRARY, containing 66,000 volumes.

5. The NATIONAL ART TRAINING SCHOOL, in which drawing, painting, and modelling are taught.

6. The NORMAL SCHOOL OF SCIENCE, for the training of teachers and others.

The Art Collection, which both in value and extent is one of the finest in the world, is at present exhibited in three large courts roofed with glass, and in the galleries surrounding and diverging from them, including a new wing opened in 1884. A large central structure in the Renaissance style, designed by Fowke, is now in course of construction. A building in Exhibition Road for the Science Schools, chiefly of terracotta, with fine sgraffito decorations, has recently been completed. The Museum is largely indebted for its rapid progress to the generosity of private individuals in lending the most costly treasures of art for public exhibition (Loan Collection); but Government has also liberally expended considerable sums in the acquisition of valuable objects of art. All the articles in the museum are provided with a notice of their origin, the names of the artist and (if on loan) owner, and (when acquired by purchase) a statement of their cost. The following is necessarily but a limited list of the chief objects of interest permanently belonging to the institution; and of the numerous plaster casts only such are mentioned as are not usually met with in other collections. The arrangement is frequently altered. Even a superficial glance at all the different departments of the museum occupies a whole day; but it is far more satisfactory, as well as less fatiguing, to pay repeated visits. Guide-books, catalogues, and photographs are sold at stalls close to the entrance of the Architectural Court.

In the grounds at the PRINCIPAL ENTRANCE (temporary) in Cromwell Road is a sitting statue of Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy by Marochetti.

Inside the building we first find ourselves in the Architectural Court, measuring 135 ft. each way. It is divided into two portions by an arcade (17 ft. broad) running down the centre, and is devoted to full-size plaster and other reproductions, chiefly of large architectural works, along with a few original objects. In entering we pass under a fine *Rood Loft, of alabaster and marble, from the Cathedral of Bois-le-Duc, North Brabant (1625). Immediately in front is a cast of the Monument of Sir Francis Vere in Westminster Abbey (p. 216), behind which is the original plaster model of a statue of Cromwell by John Bell. In the middle of the room is a copy, in two parts, of Trajan's Column, the original of which was erected at Rome in A. D. 114. The reliefs represent Trajan's war with the Dacians, and include 2500 human figures, besides animals, chariots, etc. Farther on is a plaster cast of the Bronze Lion of Brunswick, the original of which is said to have been brought from Constantinople

in 1166 by Henry the Lion. To the right of the entrance is the competition sketch model for the Wellington Monument in St. Paul's, in painted plaster of Paris, by Alfred Stevens. Adjacent are original models of various figures and groups forming part of the design. The composition is pleasing, though in a decorative rather than in a monumental style. To the left: Copy of the Chapter House Door in Rochester Cathedral (see Baedeker's Great Britain). Cast of a portion of Rosslyn Chapel, near Edinburgh, with the column known as the 'Prentice's Pillar' (1446). Cast of the angle of the Cloisters of San Juan de los Reyes at Toledo (15th cent.), an admirable example of Spanish Gothic. Cast of the Tabernacle in the church of St. Leonhard at Léau, in Belgium, executed by Cornelis de Vriendt in 1554, and one of the finest works of the Flemish Renaissance.

To the right, cast of the Schreyer Monument, outside the St. Sebaldus Church at Nuremberg, one of Adam Krafft's masterpieces, executed in 1492 (Crucifixion, Entombment, Resurrection). Cast of Choir-stalls, in carved oak, from the Cathedral of Ulm, by Jörg Syrlin (about 1470). By the end-wall: *Cast of the Puerta della Gloria or portal of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostella, Spain, by Maestro Mateo, an imposing work in the early-Romanesque style (end of the 12th cent.). In the lunette is a colossal figure of Christ. To the left, an original Alhacena or cupboard from Toledo (14th century). This section of the court also contains casts of works by Jean Cousin (1501-90), Jean Goujon (1515-72), etc.

In the CENTRAL PASSAGE are five wrought-iron screens made by Huntington Shaw for Hampton Court Palace (1695; see p. 320).

EASTERN SECTION of the Court. On the entrance-wall is the cast of a Chimney-piece from the Palais de Justice at Bruges, by Lancelot Blondeel, a fine specimen of Flemish work of the 16th century. Above is a cast of Thorwaldsen's frieze representing the Triumphal Entry of Alexander the Great into Babylon. In front, to the left, is a cast of the choir-screen of the church of St. Michael, Hildesheim, a Romanesque work of the end of the 12th century. Behind the last, Cast of the shrine of St. Sebaldus, Nuremberg, the masterpiece of Peter Vischer (1519). On the other side are original sculptures and casts from Mexico and Honduras. In the middle of the room are casts of two celebrated Pulpits in Pisa, by Niccolò (1260) and Giovanni Pisano (1302-1311). To the right, by the wall, the original Monument of Marquis Malaspina from Verona (1536). At the N. end is a series of casts of the masterpieces of Michael Angelo, including the colossal statue of David, backed by a cast of the great doorway of S. Petronio, Bologna. Numerous casts of other large objects formerly in different parts of the Museum have been transferred to this court. The entrance on the W. side leads to the Collection of Casts of classical sculptures (p. 280). We now descend the steps at the end of the Central Passage into the

South Court, which is also divided into an eastern and a western

half by an arcade (above it the Prince Consort Gallery, p. 287). On the upper part of the walls of these two departments, in sunken panels, are portraits in mosaic of the 35 following famous artists (beginning on the left, at the S. angle of the W. section):

1. Leonardo da Vinci, painter (d. 1519); 2. Raphael Sanzio, painter (d. 1520); 3. Torregiano, sculptor (d. 1522); 4. Peter Vischer, artist in metal (d. 1529); 5. Bernardino Luini, painter (d. 1530); 6. Lancelot Blondeel, Flemish painter, sculptor, and architect (d. 1560); 7. Velazquez de Silva, painter (d. 1660); 8. Maestro Giorgio of Gubbio, potter (d. 1552); 9. Hans Holbein the Younger, painter (d. 1543); 10. Michael Angelo Buonarotti, painter and sculptor (d. 1564); 11. Titian, painter (d. 1576); 12. Bernard Palissy, potter (d. 1590); 13. Inigo Jones, architect (d. 1652); 14. Grinling Gibbons, carver in wood (d. 1721); 15. Sir Christopher Wren, architect (d. 1723); 16. William Hogarth, painter (d. 1764); 17. Sir Joshua Reynolds, painter (d. 1792); 19. W. Mulready, painter (d. 1863); 19. John van Eyck, painter (d. 1441); 20. Phidias, sculptor (d. 432 B.C.); 21. Apelles, painter (d. 332 B. C.); 22. Niccolò Pisano, sculptor (d. 1280); 23. Giovanni Cimabue, painter (d. 1300); 24. William Torel, goldsmith (d. 1300); 25. Jean Goujon, sculptor (d. 1572); 26. William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester, architect (d. 1404); 27. Giotto, painter (d. 1336); 28. Lorenzo Ghiberti, sculptor (d. 1455); 29. Fra Giovanni Angelico da Fiesole, painter (d. 1455); 30. Donatello, sculptor (d. 1466); 31. Benozzo Gozzoli, painter (d. 1478); 32. Luca della Robbia, sculptor (d. 1481); 33. A. Mantegna, painter (d. 1506). 34. Giorgione, painter (d. 1511); 35. Fra Beato Giacomo d'Ulma, painter on glass (d. 1517).

In the northern lunette of the E. section of the court is a fine *Fresco by Sir Frederick Leighton, representing the 'Arts of War' or the application of human skill to martial purposes (best seen from the gallery upstairs). The corresponding *Fresco in the S. lunette, by the same artist, illustrates the 'Arts of Peace'.

The Court contains an extremely valuable **Collection of small objects of art in metal, ivory, amber, agate, jade, and porcelain, many of which are lent to the Museum by private owners. The W. half of the court is devoted to European objects, while the E. half contains works of art from China and Japan.

The WESTERN SECTION contains Ivory Carvings, Gold and Silver Work, and Loan Collections. On the walls and in the cases at the S. end are several hundred ivory carvings, affording a complete and highly instructive survey of the development of this mediæval art (scientific catalogue by Westwood). Among these belonging to the Museum are some works of world-wide celebrity, such as the figure of a *Muse of the 4th cent., probably the finest early ivory carving extant. There are also a few Consular diptychs, some of which were used at a later period as book-covers. Among the latest specimens are six *Panels by François du Quesnoy, surnamed Il Fiamingo, with processions of children. Then, bishops' croziers, tankards, caskets, combs, etc. The best works of other collections are here represented by admirable casts in fictile ivory. Other cases contain a valuable collection of silversmith's work, ecclesiastical vessels, jewellery, personal ornaments, clocks and watches, carvings in amber, engraved crystal, snuff-boxes, etc. Among the single objects

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