museums of art: Continental Europe

Continental Europe

The major European museums and galleries include: Austria—Academy of Fine Arts, Art Historical Museum, Liechtenstein Gallery, Albertina, National Library, and the Czernin Collection (all: Vienna); Belgium—the Royal Museum of Fine Arts and the Old Museum (both: Brussels), and the Museum of Fine Arts (Antwerp); France—the Louvre, the Musée D'Orsay, the Pompidou Center, the Bibliothèque nationale, and Cluny, Picasso, Rodin, Carnavalet, Petit-Palais, and Guimet museums (all: Paris), the Versailles Museum and the local institutions of Nantes, Chantilly, Marseilles, and other cities.

A great number of German museums were destroyed during World War II. Most of the outstanding collections in Berlin, Munich, and Dresden were saved, and among the smaller surviving collections are those in the galleries of Augsburg, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt-am-Main, Freiburg, Hanover, Leipzig, Nuremberg, Stuttgart, and Trier. Among other museums in Europe are: Greece—the Acropolis Museum, the Byzantine Museum, and the National Archaeological Museum (all: Athens); Italy—Uffizi, the Pitti Palace, The Academy art museum, and the Bargello (all: Florence), the Vatican, Lateran, Barberini, Farnese, and Borghese palaces (all: Rome), the Academy of Fine Arts and the Scuola de San Rocco (both: Venice), the Brera Palace (Milan), the Cathedral Museum (Siena), and the National Museum (Naples).

Other European museums include: Netherlands—Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam), the Mauritshuis (The Hague), and the Groninger Museum of Art (Groningen); Portugal—National Museum (Lisbon); Scandinavia—Royal Academy of Arts and National Museum (both: Copenhagen) and the National Museum and State Historical Museum (both: Stockholm); Spain—the Prado, the Armería, the Escorial (all: Madrid) and the El Greco Museum (Toledo); Switzerland—Swiss National Museum (Zürich) and the Art Museum (Basel). In İstanbul, Turkey, the art of Babylon, Assyria, and Byzantium may be seen in the archaeological museums. Among the great Russian collections are those housed in the Hermitage (St. Petersburg) and the Tretyakov Gallery and Museum of Western Art (both: Moscow).

Sections in this article:

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

See more Encyclopedia articles on: Art museums