National Gallery

The National Gallery is a public gallery, located in London, United Kingdom. It is well recognized for its great collection of more than 2,300 paintings, dating back from the mid-13th century to 1900.

The Gallery was officially opened on 10 May 1824, based on the Angerstein’s former town house Pall Mall. The town house was too small in size and soon became uncomfortable which led to the decision to be built a new building. Its foundation was laid in 1832 by construction designer William Wilkins. The new building was situated in the area between the prestigious West End and the poor neighbourhoods of East, on the site of the King’s Mews in Charing Cross, later known as Trafalgar Square.

A significant period of time, the management of the gallery was under criticism. The gallery was not acquired by any new works of art and those which it already contained were mainly paintings by High Renaissance masters. This lack of development was considered as necessity for the current direction of the gallery to be changed. The new head of the gallery became Sir Charles Lock Eastlake.

During his leadership, the gallery was enriched by 194 new paintings and a private art collection.
After his dead, Eastlake was succeeded as gallery’s manager by his friend William Boxall.

The Gallery was provided with a collection of 18th-century art and a number of paintings from English private collections by his third director Sir Frederick William Burton.

In the early 20th century works in the gallery were supplemented by a large number of paintings from private collectors such as Dr Ludwig Mond, George Salting, Austen Hentry Layard and Sir Hugh Lane.

In the period of post-war years, two of the most famous works purchased by the gallery were the Leonardo da Vinci’s The Virgin and Child with St.Anne and St.John the Baptist as well as the Titian’s Death of Actaeon.

In 1985 a donation provided by the brothers Lord Sainsbury of Preston Candover, Simon Sainsbury and Sir Timothy Sainsbury allowed the construction of the Sainsbury Wing.

Among the greatest works of art in the National Gallery are: The Battle of San Romano by Paolo Uccello; the Virgin of the Rocks and The Burlington House Cartoon by Leonardo da Vinci; The Entombment and The Manchester Madonna by Michelangelo; the Boy Bitten by a Lizard, the Supper at Emmaus and the Salome with the Head of John the Baptist by Caravaggio; The Judgment of Paris by Rubens; the Belshazzar’s Feast by Rembrandt; The Water-Lily Pond and The Thames Below Westminster by Claude Monet and the Sunflowers by Vincent van Gogh.

Address:
National Gallery
Trafalgar Square
London
WC2N 5DN
United Kingdom

Tel: 44 20 7747 2885

Universal Studios

The Universal Studios also called Universal City Studios or simply Universal is a movie studio located in Los Angeles, California. It’s one of the six largest movie studios in United States.

Founder of Universal is considered the German Jewish immigrant Carl Laemmle. In 1909 Laemmle along with partners Abe and Julis Stern established the Yankee Film Company. The company was rapidly becoming an Independent Moving Pictures Company (IMP). In 1912 the IMP was united with eight smaller companies so to become the Universal Film Manufacturing Company. It was under the management of Mark Dintenfass, Charles Bauman, Adam Kessel, Pat Powers and Laemmle himself as its president. Several years later the company was already known as Univesal Pictures Company, Inc.

In 1915 the Universal City Studios was opened to the public. Since its opening it became the greatest studio in Hollywood.

In 1928, on the occasion of 21st birthday of his son, Carl, Jr., Laemmle appointed him director of Universal Pictures. Some of the most famous productions released by Carl, Jr. were the 1929 part-talkie version of Edna Ferber’s novel Show Boat, the musical Broadway, the King of Jazz, the Imitation of Life, the My Man Godfrey as well as a number of long-running series of horror movies, including the Frankenstain, Dracula and The Mummy.

In 1936 control of the Universal Studio was taken over by Standard and the Laemmles were removed from the leadership of the company.

Under the new management the Universal focused on making mainly smaller-budget productions such as westerns, melodramas and serials. Hits among the company productions were the movies Three Smart Girls, Destry Rides Again, Arabian Nights as well as the series The Dead End Kids, Little Tough Guys, Sherlock Holmes and Inner Sanctum Mysterious.

In 1962 Universal Pictures became a part of the Music Corporation of America agency, mostly known as MCA. During its management, the Universal experienced a great development with blockbusters as E.T: The Extra Terrestrial, Back to the Future, Jurassic Park, Airport, The Sting, American Graffiti and Earthquake.

In 1990, MAC founded the new organization MCA/ Universal Home Vide Inc. which was concentrated in the production of videotapes and DVDs.

On the distribution and financing of various films, the Universal has often cooperated with other smaller companies such as Imagine Entertainment, Morgan Greek Productions, Working Title Films, Amblin Entertainment, Shady Acres Entertainment, StudioCanal, Beacon Communications LLC and Marc Platt Productions.

Address:
Universal Studios
100 Universal City Plaza
Universal City
Los Angeles
CA 91608
United States

Tel: 818 622 3801

British Museum

The British Museum is an institution of human history and culture, located in the capital of England, London.

The Museum is under the management of the Department for Culture and Media and Sport.

The British Museum was first established as a “universal museum” thanks to the great support of the physician and naturalist Sir Hans Sloane. His collection was composed of around 40,000 printed books, 7,000 manuscripts, 337 species of dried plants, prints and drawings as well as many antiquities from Egypt, Greece, Rome, the Ancient Near, Far Fast and the Americas.

The Museum became officially a British Museum on 7 June 1753 and the Sloane’s collection was supplemented by two libraries, the Cottonian library and the Harleian library. The Museum was also expanded with the accession to it the 17th –century mansion, Montagu House.

In 1784 the museum acquired а great collection of Greek and Roman artefacts, sold to the museum by Sir William Hamilton.

In 1822 the museum was donated with the personal library of King George III which was so rich in items that the museum had to be considered for expansion. The new King’s Library Gallery was established in the place of already being destroyed Montagu House.

Due to highly increase in the number of museum collections, in 1895 69 houses were purchased with the idea to be collapsed as their place would be occupied by the construction of the new wings of the museum.

All the museum exhibits are divided into nine departments: Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan; Department of Greek and Roman antiquities; Department of the Middle East; Department of prints and drawings; Department of Asia; Department of Africa, Oceania and the Americas; Department of Coins and Medals; Department of Prehistory and Europe; Department of Conservation, Documentation and Science.

The Ancient Egypt and Sudan department hosts one of the richest collections of Egyptian antiquities out of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and the Museo Egizio in Turin. Among the most significant items are the works of the Rosetta Stone, the Wendorf Collection of Egyptian and Sudanese Prehistory as well as the collection of 140 mummies and coffins.

The Greek and Roman Antiquities department consists of more than 100,000 items, dating back from the Greek Bronze Age to the 4th century AD. Items are represented by the elements of Mausoleum at Halikarnassos, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesos, a sculpture from the Parthenon in Athens, the collections of Italic and Etruscan antiquities and also some collections of Greek vases, Roman glass, silver, ancient jewellery and bronzes.

The Middle East department holds one of the largest collections of Mesopotamian antiquities outside Iraq, numbering around 330,000 displays. Here are also the collections of Assyrian, Babylonian and Sumerian antiquities as well as collections representing civilizations of the ancient Near East.

The Prints and Drawings department is composed of about 50,000 drawings and more than 2 million prints. The most famous drawings are by Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Claude, Rubens and Dürer. Some of the prints include works by William Blake and Thomas Bewick.

The Asia department is represented by more than 75,000 items from the East, South, Central and South-East Asia as well as from the Neolithic period to nowadays.

The Africa, Oceania and the Americas department covers over 350,000 displays among which are a brass head of aYoruba ruler from Nigeria, Asante goldwork from Ghana as well as the Torday collection of Central African sculpture, textiles and weaponry.

The Coins and Medals department includes one of the greatest numismatic collections, composed of nearly a million objects.

The Prehistory and Europe department comprises prehistoric collections from all over Europe, Africa and Asia.

The Conservation, Documentation and Science department was established in 1920. Conservation division is arranged in six areas: ceramics and glass; organic material; stone, wall paintings and mosaics; Eastern pictorial art and Western pictorial art. The science branch is focused on revealing all kind of techniques for identifying the origin of the artefacts.

Address:
British Museum
Great Russell Street
WC1B 3DG
London
United Kingdom

Tel: +44 (0)20 7323 8181

Great Pyramid of Giza

The Great Pyramid of Giza is one of the three pyramids in the Giza Necropolis, located in Giza, Egypt. It’s one of the greatest landmarks in the country as well as one of the most visited tourist sites in the world.

The Great Pyramid of Giza also known as the Pyramid of King Khufu’ or the Pyramid of Cheops is recognized as the oldest and the largest one among the other two pyramids in the Giza Necropolis.

The Great Pyramid is a central feature of a complex of buildings, including the two mortuary temples in honor of Khufu, three smaller pyramids for Khufu’s wives, a “satellite” pyramid as well as mastaba tombs.

Some sources claim that the pyramid was established to serve as a tomb for Fourth dynasty Egyptian pharaoh Khufu.

The pyramid is with a total weight of 5.9 million tonnes and it is believed that its original height was 146.59 metres but due to erosion process, the pyramid is now 138.74 meters high.
For more than 3,800 years, the pyramid was considered as the tallest man-made structure in the whole world.

The Great Pyramid is constructed of over 2.3 million limestone blocks as one of the largest among them weight 25 to 80 tonnes.

The pyramid is consisted of three chambers, the Queen’s chamber, the King’s chamber and the third chamber which is situated on the lowest level and it is not entirely finished.

The Queen’s Chamber is 4.57 metres in height, being the smallest of the three chambers. There is no exact information on what the purpose of the chamber was. According to the Egyptologist Mark Lehner, it was built to serve as a serdab, a construction noticed in a few other Egyptian pyramids.

The King’s Chamber is the second largest chamber, all lined with red granite. It has two small shafts for which purpose there are a number of statements. Two of the statements claim that they were either used as ventilation shafts or for ceremonial events.

Above the King’s Chamber there are five more chambers called the Davidson chamber, the Wellington chamber, the Nelson chamber, the Lady Arbuthnot chamber and the Cambell’s chambers.

The unfinished chamber is the largest chamber of the three, situated 27.5 metres below ground level. Some Egyptologists believe that King Khufu originally wanted to build it as a burial chamber but later decided it to be higher up in the pyramid.

Address:
Great Pyramid of Giza
Giza Necropolis
Giza
Egypt

Taj Mahal

The Taj Mahal is a mausoleum built by Mughal Emperor Shan Jahan as a memorial to one of his most beloved wives, Mumtaz Mahal. Located in Agra, India, the mausoleum is one of the greatest landmarks of the country as well as one of the most visited tourist attractions in the world.

Since 1983 the Taj Mahal has been listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

In 1631 the emperor Shan Jahan’s third wife died in childbirth. A year later, in 1632 the foundation of a mausoleum in her memory was laid. The building process was under the management of a board of architects, including Abd ul-Karim, Ma’mur Khan, Makramat Khan and Ustad Ahmad. The whole construction work took 16 years to be done and in 1648 it was finally completed. In 1653 the mausoleum garden along with the surrounding buildings were also built.

When Shan Jahan died, his son Aurangzeb buried him in the mausoleum right next to his wife.
Over the years some part of the mausoleum’s buildings were completely neglected. At the end of the 19th century, British viceroy Lord Curzon established a major reconstruction process which was done in 1908.

The materials used in the construction of the Taj Mahal were from all over India and Asia, including white marble from Rajasthan, jasper from Punjab, jade and crystal from China, turquoise from Tibet, lapis lazuli from Afghanistan as well as sapphire from Sri Lanka and carnelian from Arabia.

All the façade of the mausoleum was nicely decorated with calligraphy, abstract and vegetative motifs. A great part of the decorative elements are represented by passages from the Qur’an.
The calligraphy was a work of the Persian calligrapher Abd ul-Haq which mainly consisted of florid thuluth script, made of jasper or black marble.

Abstract motifs are dominated in the plinth, minarets, gateway as well as mosque and jawab.
Decoration of the Taj Mahal’s interior is not traditionally designed at all. The incrustation work is lapidary of precious and semiprecious gemstones.

A central place in the mausoleum complex is occupied by the tomb. It’s a huge white marble structure composed of a symmetrical building on the top of which stands a large dome and finial. The Dome is really impressive with its height of about 35 metres which height is also highlighted by decorated in a lotus design the top of the dome.

Address:
Taj Mahal
Purani Mandi
Agra
Uttar Pradesh
India

Hermitage Museum

The Hermitage Museum is an art and culture museum located in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is recognized as one of the oldest museums in the world and also one of the largest cultural institutions with nearly 3 million items on display.

The museum collections are covered in a complex of six historic buildings, including the Palace Embankment, the Winter Palace, the Menshikov Palace, the Museum of Porcelain, the Storage Facility at Staraya Derevna and the eastern wing of the General Staff Building.

The Hermitage Museum is well-known for hosting one of the greatest collections of paintings.
The current manager of the museum is Mikhail Piotrovsky.

The first art collection in the museum was established by Catherine the Great in 1764. It was presented by Rembrandt, Rubens, Jacob Jordaens, Antoon van Dyck, Paolo Verones, Frans Hals, Raphael, Holbein as well as Titan, Jan Steen, Hendrick Goltzius, Dirck van Baburen, Hendrick van Balen and Gerrit van Honthorst.

Catherine the Great provided the museum with a further 4,000 paintings, 38,000 books, 10,000 engraved gems, 16,000 coins, and medals, 10,000 drawings and also a natural history collection. Due to increase in the number of exhibits, it became necessary to be built an additional building. The construction work was entrusted to Yury Velten who completed the building in 1787, became known as the Large Hermitage or also Old Hermitage.

On demanding by Nicholas I, the German architect Leo von Klenze had to build a building for the public museum. The New Hermitage was officially opened in 1852.

In 1922 the Hermitage Museum acquired a very significant collection of 19th-century European paintings from the Academy of Arts.

In 1948 by the Moscow Museum of New Western Art, 316 displays of Impressionist, post-Impressionist and modern art were delivered to the Hermitage Museum, including collections of Sergei Shchukin, Ivan Morozov as well as some works of art by Matisse and Picasso.

In 2003 the Museum of Porcelain was established as a part of the Hermitage Museum.
The museum collections are consisted of Egyptian antiquities, Classical antiquities, Prehistoric Art, Jewellery and decorative Art, Italian Renaissance, Italian and Spanish fine Art, Knight’s Hall, Dutch Golden Age and Flemish Baroque, German and French fine art, Russian art as well as Neoclassical, Impressionist and post-Impressionist art.

Address:
Hermitage Museum
34 Dvortsovaya Naberezhnaya
St. Petersburg 190000
Russia

Tel: 812 110 9079