Edwin Heathcote explores the new trend for galleries to display artworks in domestic, home-like settings.
The idea of the gallery begins in the house. And it is nothing new. Archaeologists were astonished to find the remains of a domestic museum in the palace at Ur, a building in modern-day Iraq dating from the neo-Babylonian empire, about 530BC. Its curator was Princess Ennigaldi, daughter of the last ruler of the empire, Nabonidus. He is known to have been an antiquarian and a keen restorer of antiques, instilling a love of archaeology in his daughter.
The objects archaeologists found, in a curious reflection of their own industry, were labelled with descriptive texts in three languages inscribed on to clay cylinders. Some of the artefacts seem to have been collected earlier by Nebuchadnezzar, the alleged creator of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon... Keep reading on The Financial Times
The idea of the gallery begins in the house. And it is nothing new. Archaeologists were astonished to find the remains of a domestic museum in the palace at Ur, a building in modern-day Iraq dating from the neo-Babylonian empire, about 530BC. Its curator was Princess Ennigaldi, daughter of the last ruler of the empire, Nabonidus. He is known to have been an antiquarian and a keen restorer of antiques, instilling a love of archaeology in his daughter.
The objects archaeologists found, in a curious reflection of their own industry, were labelled with descriptive texts in three languages inscribed on to clay cylinders. Some of the artefacts seem to have been collected earlier by Nebuchadnezzar, the alleged creator of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon... Keep reading on The Financial Times