Exhibiting ancient Greek architectural sculpture: a comparison of the heritagescape and visitor responses in ten European collections

Snook, Laura Jane Caroline (2015). Exhibiting ancient Greek architectural sculpture: a comparison of the heritagescape and visitor responses in ten European collections. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

This thesis examines the exhibitions of Greek architectural sculpture in ten European collections. The exhibitions used as case studies display both original sculptures and plaster copies. These displays can be found in the Acropolis Museum, Athens; the British Museum, London; the Musée du Louvre, Paris; the Archaeological Museum of Olympia, Olympia; Delphi Archaeological Museum, Delphi; the Museum of Classical Archaeology, Cambridge; the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, Oxford; the Kongelige Afstøbningssamling, Copenhagen; and the Skulpturhalle, Basel.
These exhibitions are assessed using the heritagescape methodology, considering the boundaries, visibility and cohesion within the displays. This assessment is then compared with the results of a survey of visitors to the same exhibitions, asking for their responses to interpretive material within the exhibitions, specifically, tours, models, pictures, information labels and videos.
It argues that while all archaeological or history museums are places of the past, the degree to which each creates a sense of the past for its visitors, rather than relying on the inherent sense of the past present in the artefacts displayed or supplied by visitors themselves, will vary according to a number of factors, including the target audience and the aims and objectives of the different institutions.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):