"The 'house-museums' or atmosphere museums: a museum typology in Spain"

Throughout the history of art and, particularly, the history of museum institutions, we have observed that collection pieces can be arranged in a variety of ways depending on which aspects or functions of the exhibition are prioritized.

Among all these possibilities, this time we will focus on a museographic typology that responds to several denominations: house-museum, recreation museography, ambiance museums, or contextual museography (Pérez Mateo, 2017).

The origin of this museum practice are the period rooms or "rooms of a period", which became popular from the last third of the nineteenth century and, especially in the first decades of the twentieth century, they became symbols of British and American museums (Rodríguez-Marco, 2017).

At first, the museum room becomes a container or repository for a series of elements that, after being removed from their original location, are arranged in a more or less faithful manner to recreate the context they represent. With the evolution of these approaches, the museum space is interpreted as an immersive interior aimed at transporting visitors to a specific period of time. This is achieved through the embodiment of the tastes of the era regarding architectural and decorative resources, as well as the use of original furniture pieces or replicas, some of which are themselves works of art included in the museum's own collection.

In summary, we find ourselves facing a museographic project that encompasses the recovery, reconstruction, and recreation of a building and its spaces. The goal of this combination is to facilitate understanding for visitors by displaying historical-artistic objects not in isolation but collectively and embedded within a spatial context. In contrast to the presentation of works without intermediaries or obstacles, characteristic of sterile museography, ambiance museums propose a certain accumulation with the pretext of enhancing visitor experience and promoting "the communicative value of the building, the object, and the environment" (Pérez Mateo, 2017: 438). Along these lines, we could say that contextual museography directly addresses the idea of art as a product of a specific historical context.

Although there were some earlier incursions, such as the Historical-Natural and Ethnographic Exhibition in 1873 (Marcos Alonso, 2017), in Spain we owe the introduction of this museographic typology to Marqués de la Vega-Inclán, who promoted heritage tourism at the head of the Royal Commission for Tourism and carried out several museum projects. Based on the reconstruction and recreation both of the building itself as well as collections and surroundings, he frequently applied contextual museography, which had its first expression in our country with the El Greco House-Museum (1910). The character of recreation was always present but it is between 1942 and 2008 when the essence of a house-museum in its museography is most reflected (Sánchez Castillo, 2020).

This first incursion into the typology was followed by two more from Vega-Inclán: the Museum of Cervantes' House (1948), which becomes an ambiance museum after successive restoration and museography projects, and the Romanticism Museum (1924), conceived from its inception as a recreation of a specific period and its way of life.

The Sorolla Museum (1932) or the Cerralbo Museum (1944), although not initiated by Vega-Inclán, are other examples in Spain that soon joined to incorporate contextual museography for their collections. It is also worth noting that the museum work in the rooms of Palacio Cerralbo was recognized with the Europa Nostra Conservation Award in 2008 for the recovery of environments.

Over time, this model of museography has spread to find, in the last decades of the twentieth century, the creation of institutions such as the Velázquez Birthplace House (Seville, c. 1973), the Goya Birthplace House (Fuendetodos, 1985) or the Salvador Dalí House of Portlligat (1994), among many other examples. Although the term "house-museum" usually refers to a museum located in the birthplace or temporary or permanent residence of a significant figure, contextual museography or an "ambiance museum" also includes those museums that, without being dedicated monographically to a specific person, aim to reflect the lifestyle of a particular period. In addition to examples like the already mentioned Romanticism Museum, it is common to find this type of museography in museums of popular arts or ethnographic ones, such as the Seville Museum of Popular Arts and Customs.

We could also talk about ambiance museography in the museumification of some archaeological sites that sometimes become "movie sets" but which nonetheless open up a path to understanding life forms of Antiquity regardless of their greater or lesser historical accuracy (Pérez Mateo, 2017: 433).

Ambiance museography undoubtedly has a high educational value, as it facilitates the understanding of displayed pieces and their context for visitors. Whether due to this or other reasons (we cannot deny the "curiosity" we feel about entering into the more private and personal aspects of a character), recreation museums usually have great appeal to the general public. However, it is important not to lose sight of the fact that it is precisely a recreation and not historical reality. Even when original furniture and other pieces are used, their arrangement, treatment, and discourse respond to an approach that, despite containing much historicist intent, emanates from the present or, at any rate, from a past different from the one being reproduced. 

As a representative case in this regard, it is worth noting that the El Greco House-Museum itself is not even the original house where the artist lived in Toledo but rather a complex of houses belonging to Samuel Ha-Leví and the Duchess of Arjona. Nevertheless, in its restoration and museum project, it has been endowed with symbolic or "spiritual" significance that has led to identification of the institution with the painter's home. 

As an intermediate point between contextual museography and sterile museography, a limited recreation is proposed consisting of placing reference points with a didactic and orientation function for understanding. This can be achieved through the incorporation of painted walls, wallpaper or wall hangings simulating desired interiors or the use of certain pieces of furniture or objects in the room in relation to the displayed pieces, so that visitors can complete the rest of the scene.

While it is true that both the term and the practice itself have undergone transformations specific to historical and temporal developments, in recent times we might be witnessing a return to this type of ambiance museography. The shift towards experiential tourism, also in museums, has led to the implementation of an immersive museography where visitor experience is paramount. Thus, individuals approach rooms for a "discovery of the self as if looking into a mirror" (Pérez Mateo, 2017: 438).

Bibliography

The Metropolitan Museum of Art (2023). American Wing Period Rooms. Consulted on May 4, 2023. Retrieved from:
https://www.metmuseum.org/about-the-met/collection-areas/the-american-wing/period-rooms

Marcos Alonso, C. (2017). 150 years of the National Archaeological Museum. Boletín del Museo Arqueológico Nacional, 35, 1677-1715. 

Pérez Mateo, S. (2017). Vega Inclán and house museums: an unprecedented concept of cultural tourism in the Spain of Alfonso XIII. Cuadernos de Turismo, 42, (2018), 421-445. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.6018/turismo.42.19 

Rodríguez-Marco, I. M. (2017) Period rooms and recreation of environments. An analysis of a museum practice in both directions. Además de: revista on line de artes decorativas y diseño, 3, 9-26. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46255/add.2017.3.33 

Sánchez Castillo, N. (2020, September 18). The recreation of the El Greco House (1910-2008). Ministry of Culture and Sports.  Consulted on May 3, 2023. Retrieved from:
https://www.culturaydeporte.gob.es/mgreco/la-coleccion/aldetalle/museografias.html