Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Analysis

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum showcases Mrs. Gardner 's collection to the public in greater Boston area. Each room functions as a pilgrimage, as one travels through various countries and time periods ending at the chapel and subsequently the Gothic room. In this paper, I will examine the Gothic room 's theme in relation to the placement of its objects. I will also evaluate the room 's strengths and challenges in serving the public, and how the practices employed in this room fit into the context of accessibility for the entire museum. The room I chose at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum follows a Gothic theme. Its objects such as paintings, tapestries, altar pieces, and various furniture showcase this theme with period works from the fourteenth century and later revival styles from the nineteenth century. While the majority of the furniture is

While the Gothic room has a number of strengths, it faces some challenges in light of Mrs. Gardner 's will. The room functions as one of the more obvious rooms to recognize a theme. Also, the overall structure of the room is large enough to accommodate a substantial Gothic collection. It, however, was not large enough for the entire collection, as Gothic items sprawl throughout the Long Gallery, Chapel, along with Gothic tapestries by the stairs. As the room attempts a natural setting, a visitor has the opportunity to be very close to the museum objects. This can create make the objects seem more accessible to the general public. Unfortunately, this means objects are not in temperature controlled cases, which leads to fading paintings and tapestries. The only light in the room comes from the windows as well, which can make it difficult to inspect objects in the late afternoon. Also, there is only one guard to watch the room, and no alarm system for when someone gets too close to an object. This presents issues of the type of clientele for the museum, as the museum would not work with large families with rowdy