BY CLARENCE COOK.

Under this heading it is intended to give in successive numbers of The Chautauquan descriptions of the principal Art Museums of our country: The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, and the Corcoran Art Gallery in Washington. We begin in the present number with the Boston Museum.

In the year 1870 the trustees of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts were organized under a charter from the Massachusetts legislature. It was not, however, until 1876 that a building was erected in which the pictures, casts, antiquities, engravings and objects of curiosity which formed the nucleus of its present extensive collections could be exhibited to the public.

Up to the time when the first portion of the present building was erected, the amateur or the student of the fine arts in Boston or its neighborhood had been obliged to take a good deal of trouble, and to spend much time, if he would see the few objects that existed there—in public institutions or in private houses—in the domain of painting, sculpture, antiquities, or in that of the minor arts—now classed together in popular speech under the incorrect title of bric-a-brac.

Beside the permanent exhibition of the pictures which belonged to it, the AthenÆum Library had generously devoted some of its rooms every season for several successive years to the exhibition of pictures painted by American artists, an exhibition answering to those held yearly by the National Academy of Design and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Beside these regular exhibitions, there had been many occasional ones of importance, such as that of the Spanish pictures belonging to the Duc de Montpensier, which gave to those of us who had not visited Europe, the opportunity of seeing respectable specimens of the works of Zurbaran, Herrera, Morales, Murillo, Ribalta and Velasquez. There was also in the AthenÆum a small but well selected collection of plaster-casts of antique sculpture, so that for a long time this institution was an art center of no little value and importance. The AthenÆum was not, however, an art institution, but a library, and the time came when the increase of the library made it necessary to give up its art collections and devote all its space to books.

The collections of the AthenÆum were the most important, both in number and in value, to be found in Boston, but there were many interesting objects scattered about which it was felt would be of much greater service to the community if they could be brought together under one roof, and made to work in common for the education of the whole community. The late Francis C. Gray had bequeathed to Harvard College his large and valuable collection of engravings together with a fund for its maintenance, and it was found that its usefulness, whether for purposes of enjoyment or as a means of education was very much restricted by its being so far away from the capital. Yet it had been impossible to find a proper place for it in Boston, and it therefore remained shut up in Cambridge. The Institute of Technology had formed, under the direction of Prof. William R. Ware, a collection of architectural ornament, but as this was lodged in the Institute building it could only be seen and studied at such times as suited the convenience of the professors and their pupils. The Social Science Association had called the attention of the public to the need that existed of a large and complete collection of casts of antique sculpture. But—what to do with such a collection, could it be brought together?

In a city like Boston, a want so deeply felt could not long remain unsatisfied, and the matter having been widely discussed, and a general interest created in the public mind, the first steps were taken with generous unanimity, and as has been stated, a charter was procured from the legislature, the Museum was organized by the naming of trustees, and the city having given a site, no difficulty was met with in raising a subscription of $261,000 toward a building. The plans of Messrs. Sturgis and Brigham, submitted in competition, were selected, and on the 3d of July, 1876, one wing of the front of the building was opened to the public. This was filled by the collections of the AthenÆum, and by the Gray collection of engravings, both permanently loaned to the Museum, by the casts of antique sculptures purchased with funds bequeathed by the late Charles Sumner, the Egyptian collections presented by Mr. C. Granville Way, and valuable gifts from Mr. Lawrence and other persons. The space at the disposal of the trustees was soon overcrowded, and in 1878 a fresh subscription of $126,000 having been raised, the front was completed and opened to the public in 1879. At the present time of writing the need is seriously felt for more room, and it is hoped that the means may soon be provided for taking a third step toward the completion of the original plan of the building.

The building containing the collections of the Boston Museum of Fine Art is constructed of red brick and terra cotta on a basement of granite. It stands in the new quarter of the city, and is built like all other structures in that part of the city, on piles. It is rather ornate in its character, and compared with its massive neighbor, Trinity Church, has a somewhat effeminate look, but it is solidly built, and planned with great good sense, and with a steady view to convenience. On entering, the visitor finds himself in a large hall, in the center of which rises an ample staircase conducting to the second floor. At the right and left are doorways leading to the rooms containing the casts from antique sculpture. By taking either of these doorways we can make the circuit of the whole series of apartments, but as the present arrangement is only temporary, awaiting the completion of the building for a logical disposition of the material, it may be better to pass at once to the rear of the hall, and taking the door at the left hand, enter

THE EGYPTIAN ROOM.

The contents of this room were chiefly collected between the years 1828 and 1833, by a Scotch gentleman, Mr. Robert Hay. After his death they were purchased by Mr. C. Granville Way, of Boston, and presented to the Museum in 1872. Several fine pieces of sculpture, collected in Egypt in 1835 by the late Mr. John Lowell, the founder of the Lowell Institute, have been added to this room by the gift of Mr. Lowell’s heirs. The valuable and interesting casts from bas-reliefs and statues are the gift of General Charles G. Loring, the director of the Museum, to whose zeal and efficiency the institution owes so much of its usefulness.

The room is finely lighted by large windows, and General Loring, who is much interested in botany, generally keeps here a few fine specimens of tropical plants, especially such as belong to Egypt. Thus, on the occasion of my last visit, I had the pleasure of seeing there a fine specimen of the papyrus plant waving its graceful fans in salute to Pasht and Amenophis, hard by. The giant figure of Amenophis III., the Memnon of the Greeks (1500 B. C.) is a cast from the granite original in the British Museum. Near it is the statue of Pasht, the Cat-headed, in black granite, with the cartouch of Amenophis III., and there are also several blocks of red granite, probably portions of a throne, with a few fragments of sculpture—the colossal head of a king, pieces of the lid of a sarcophagus in green basalt, and two capitals cut out of sandstone, showing the lotos and papyrus forms. In the center of the room are several mummy cases, and in glass cases are disposed mummied heads, skulls, hands and feet, with mummies of animals, the cat, the dog, the dog-faced ape, the hawk and the ibis. In one of these cases is a hand still bearing a ring on the fourth finger. The remaining cases contain very interesting specimens of mummy-cloth of various dates and quality, one of the most important being a robe of justification supposed to be worn in the trial of the deceased before Osiris. It is sixteen feet in length by six feet nine inches in width, and has a fringe. The remaining contents of this room consist of various objects gathered from the tombs and from the mummy cases in such number and variety as to make it impossible to describe them in the narrow space at my command. But while there can be no doubt as to the value of the collection as a means of study in a field of wide interest and importance, it may be said, so far as art is concerned, the Way collection is of less value than the Abbott collection in the Historical Society of New York City. Each collection, however, supplements the other in a most interesting way, and taken together, they enable a student to make a fair beginning in the study of Egyptian antiquity.

THE FIRST GREEK ROOM

Opens directly from the Egyptian Room, and contains casts of archaic and early Greek sculpture. Here will be found the Lions from the gate of MycenÆ, the funeral slabs of Orchomenos, of Aristion, and of the soldier of Marathon, the Dresden Pallas, the relief of Demeter, Persephone, and Triptolemus, from Athens, and the so-called Leucothea, and the infant Bacchus from the Villa Albani, with several interesting archaic reliefs from the same collection. There have lately been added to the Museum a number of the funeral slabs or stele discovered at Athens and preserved in the museum there, objects of great beauty and interest, properly belonging, either in this room or in immediate connection with it, but placed for temporary convenience, in the Roman and Renaissance Room. The most important objects in this First Greek Room are the casts from the sculptures of the eastern and western Pediments of the Temple of Minerva at Egina, consisting of five figures from the eastern pediment and ten from the western, arranged as they are believed to have been originally. Passing from this room to

THE SECOND GREEK ROOM

We find ourselves in the midst of a group of statues, most of them of the Praxitelean type and making too sharp a contrast by their grace and sensuous refinement to the hardness and severity of the contents of the room just left. It must be remembered, however, that owing to the small space at the command of the Museum authorities it has not been possible to follow a strict chronological order, and we must therefore be content for the present to follow the arrangement of the separate rooms. We have, therefore, here, the casts from the Parthenon frieze, the Theseus and the Fates from the eastern and the Ilissus from the western Pediment of the same building, with the Torso of the Victory, also from the eastern Pediment, together with several figures from the temple of the Wingless Victory (NikÈ Apteros) on the acropolis. But space fails us to enumerate all the casts contained in the rooms devoted to antique sculpture; and why attempt a mere catalogue? The Venus of Milo is here, and the lately discovered Hermes with the infant Dionysus, the Niobe and her daughter, the Ludovisi Mars, the Diana of the Louvre, the Apollo Belvidere, the Eirene and Plutus, the Faun of Praxiteles, and the glorious mask of the Ludovisi Juno. Indeed, we miss few works of prime importance, and there are many casts here that can not be found elsewhere in America, and which are yet essential to even a superficial study of the rise and progress of Greek sculpture. Passing on, we come to the other rooms where are the LaocoÖn, the Dying Gladiator, the younger Agrippina, the Sophocles, the Demosthenes, the Menander, the Æsculapius, the Discobulus, the Silenus and the infant Bacchus, and the Boy taking a Thorn from his Foot (the Spinario), with many another famous and less famous work, enabling us to carry on the study until the stream dies away to rise again in new beauty in the art of the early Italian Renaissance. While no capital piece can be said to be wanting to this collection there remain many pieces to be added which are needed for fullness of knowledge, but every year sees important acquisitions, and there can be no doubt, judging from the past history of the Museum, that if the wished for addition to the building could be made, the missing gaps in the sculpture would speedily be filled up by gift. But before leaving the antique rooms we must mention the two sarcophagi from Vulci, now deposited in the Museum, and which, it is earnestly to be hoped, will become its property, since they are not only deeply interesting in themselves, but have an added value from their great rarity. They represent the bodies of two married pair reposing upon the lids of the two sarcophagi, as on the marriage-bed. The finer of the two groups is carved in alabaster, the other is in travertine; the one in alabaster has a monumental beauty and sweet dignity that is surpassed by nothing of the kind that exists, and considering its great beauty and rarity it is said there is only one other example of this treatment of the subject, and that is in the Vatican.

Crossing the Hall of Entrance, to which we have returned, we find ourselves in the last of the antique sculpture rooms, where are placed some of the most interesting of the Roman works just enumerated. Nothing would be gained by an attempt to catalogue the rooms at present, as their contents are likely to be changed at any time when the projected enlargement of the Museum is carried out. The space in this portion of the building, the addition built in 1879, answering to that occupied in the older portion by the first and second Greek Rooms, is here thrown into one large apartment filled with the

CASTS OF ARCHITECTURAL ORNAMENTS.

The principal object here is the cast of the Caryatid Portico of the Pandroseion, one of the portions of the complex structure generally called the Erechtheium, from the name of one of its parts dedicated to the worship of Erechtheus. The Portico with its Caryatids is given here of the full size of the original, and is so placed (until the great court can be built in which these large objects are to be shown) that a good view of it can be obtained from a considerable distance, while it is well lighted by a large window at one side. The remaining objects in this room are casts in great numbers from Greek and Roman architectural ornament, from the ornament of the Italian Renaissance, from the Alhambra, from the Gothic buildings of France, Germany and England, the specimens from England including twelve out of the thirty angels composing the so-called angel choir of Lincoln Cathedral. These figures of angels playing on musical instruments are of the thirteenth century, and are among the most beautiful works of their time. In this room again we find it impossible to do justice to our subject; the variety is too great and the range of artistic development covered by the example too extensive to be dismissed in less than an entire article, and even that would be insufficient. Turning to the right at the end of this room we come to

THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE,

Where the works of Michelangelo, Donatello, Ghiberti, Luca della Robbia, and a few other such names meet us in some of their best works. Here is the Lorenzo of Michelangelo with the statues of Day and Night, the David of Donatello, the Cupid of Michelangelo with his unfinished bas-relief of the Virgin and Child, the Mercury of John of Bologna, and various bas-reliefs of the time with the singing boys of Donatello and those of Luca della Robbia. Here, too, is the cast of the trial plate, “The Sacrifice of Isaac,” made by Ghiberti in competition with Brunelleschi and Donatello for the Florence Baptistery Gates, interesting in itself, and in connection with that most important event in the history of modern art.

The last room on this floor is filled with specimens of Greek, Roman, and Asia Minor pottery, with a sufficient number of examples of the sculpture, pottery, and glass of Cyprus, a small but well-chosen group of figurines from Tanagra, and the results of the late researches at Assos by the members of the American Society of ArchÆology. This room is full of interesting objects, but it is uncomfortably crowded and necessarily ill-arranged. In the next article we shall describe the contents of the second floor of the Museum.