Framing the Artifact

Abstract

Throughout the nineteenth century archaeological artifacts were contemplated as the pieces of a puzzle that, it was hoped, would someday be completed to form an integral reconstruction of past worlds. As the background for their display, museum murals completed the visitor's experience by creating a complete visual environment. Over the course of the century, neo-classical murals on mythological themes were supplanted by schemes of decoration that featured specific references to the objects on display. An increased valorization of the fragment accompanied the important transformation in museums that saw white walls replace earlier decors during the first half of the twentieth century in accordance with modernist aesthetics. We will consider this evolution by examining the murals conceived for the display of Greco-Roman and Oriental objects in the Louvre from the Musée Charles X (1827) to the decoration (1887) and subsequent stripping (1934) of the Daru staircase that frames the Victory of Samothrace.