The Yale University Art Museum Case Study

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1. Describe the Museum interior and exterior. What kind of museum is it? Art? History? Ethnographic? Explain: The Yale University Art Gallery was founded in 1833 when John Trumbull donated to the University a collection of over 100 paintings of the American Revolution. The original building was raised in 1901. Currently the gallery, considered to be the oldest in the western hemisphere, houses a huge collection of art occupying several buildings of the University. The Main building of the Gallery was built in 1953 and was among the very first designs of Louis Kahn, who taught architecture at Yale. Kahn sought to give the modern post-WWII architecture a monumentality when designing the gallery. His choice of materials such as heavily textured …show more content…

It is a relatively large piece of mosaic approximately 67.3 x 67.9 cm made of limestone and a glass tesserae ( small, cubed pieces of naturally colored stone or glass), used to create colorful images. This particular piece was once a part of a much larger mosaic lining the dining room floor of a Roman house in Gerasa. As I had learned, there are more than twenty other pieces of that particular mosaic. However, the majority of them are in private collections in …show more content…

Mosaics were very popular during that period in our history. They decorated private homes as well as public buildings and the Roman bathhouses. The common themes represented in the mosaics included animals, fighting gladiators, romantic scenes borrowed from both; Mythology and Astronomy. They were a true masterpiece crafted from thousands of tiny, colored stones and gems called tesserae, set in a mortar ( or a type of cement). During the Roman Empire era, aside from their practical aspect serving as an excellent walking surface and a decorative element, much like the frescoes, obelisks and sculptures, the mosaics served as a vehicle for propaganda and a display of the owners ' wealth, social and political success and influence. Sometimes they were used for advertisement. Today they provide insight into the lives of the Roman people. (Milani-Santarpia, Giovanni., et. Milani,

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