the British Museum in London was designed
in the 19th century. The core of today's
building, the four main wings of British Museum. Sir Robert Smirke was
the architect who designed it in 1823.
The building was complete in 1852. Smirke
designed the building in the Greek
Revival style, which emulated classical
Greek architecture. Greek features on the
building include the columns and
pediment at the South entrance. This
style was so popular in the 18th
century when the ancient Greece was  rediscovered by Europeans. The origins
of the British Museum lie in the will of
Sir Hans
Sloane, who collected more than 71,000 object.
After it the British Museum was founded in
1753. The Museum opened to the public in
1759.
Today's it has six million visitors in a
year. The original collection of the
British Museum included antiquities,
coins and medals, natural history
specimens and a large library.
The collection it now comprises over 8
million objects spanning the history of
the world's cultures: from the stone tools
of early man to 20th century prints. You
can find here for example: the Rosetta
Stone (it helped to understand the Egyptian hieroglyphic writing signs)
the Parthenon frieze or Nebamun hunting
(this is the wall painting). I sketched up
the building main part, the south
entrance of it with the pediment.
Now I'm doing the ionic style columns, these
are standing in two lines before the
main door. It's like than for example the Parthenon.
The pediment was designed by
Sir Richard Westmacott,
the theme of it is The Progress of
Civilization. Its figures represents
subjects: architecture, sculpture, painting,
science, geometry, drama, music and poetry.
