A narrative history of the founding of the Louvre that also explores the ideological underpinnings, pedagogical aims, and aesthetic criteria of this, the first great national art museum.

In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries the first modern, public museums of art—civic, state, or national—appeared throughout Europe, setting a standard for the nature of such institutions that has made its influence felt to the present day. Although the emergence of these museums was an international development, their shared history has not been systematically explored until now. Taking up that project, this volume includes chapters on fifteen of the earliest and still major examples, from the Capitoline Museum in Rome, opened in 1734, to the Alte Pinakothek in Munich, opened in 1836. These essays consider a number of issues, such as the nature, display, and growth of the museums’ collections and the role of the institutions in educating the public. The introductory chapters by art historian Carole Paul, the volume’s editor, lay out the relationship among the various museums and discuss their evolution from private noble and royal collections to public institutions. In concert, the accounts of the individual museums give a comprehensive overview, providing a basis for understanding how the collective emergence of public art museums is indicative of the cultural, social, and political shifts that mark the transformation from the early-modern to the modern world. The fourteen distinguished contributors to the book include Robert G. W. Anderson, former director of the British Museum in London; Paula Findlen, Ubaldo Pierotti Professor of Italian History at Stanford University; Thomas Gaehtgens, director of the Getty Research Institute; and Andrew McClellan, dean of academic affairs and professor of art history at Tufts University. Show more Show less

This volume explores the ways in which the aesthetics of public art were affected by the social, political, and cultural changes of the Enlightenment.

Publisher Description

This publication aims to provide a valuable and practical tool for those countries where court decisions in the copyright domain are scarce or non-existent - either because copyright law is a fairly new phenomenon or because legislation has not been extensively applied. To that effect,this publication examines a carefully selected number of court decisions illustrating general principles of copyright law, drawn from common law, civil law and the legislative systems of Arab countries. As the basic principles illustrated here are to a large extent commonly shared, many of the cases presented have a wider relevance, going beyond the confines of the legal system of which they form a part. L'objet du présent recueil est d'offrir un outil précieux et commode aux pays dont la jurisprudence en matière de droit d'auteur est restreinte ou inexistante, soit parce que le droit d'auteur est une réalité relativement nouvelle pour eux, soit parce que la législation en vigueur dans ce domaine n'a pas été largement appliquée. À cette fin, le présent ouvrage expose un certain nombre de décisions de justice, soigneusement sélectionnées, qui illustrent les principes généraux du droit d'auteur et qui émanent de la common law, du droit civil et des systèmes législatifs des pays arabes. Compte tenu de la valeur quasi universelle de ces principes fondamentaux, la pertinence des cas présentés va bien souvent au-delà des limites du système juridique dont ils relèvent.