156-618: The Museum Wiesbaden is a two-branch museum of art and natural history in the Hessian capital of Wiesbaden , Germany. It is one of the three Hessian State museums, in addition to the museums in Kassel and Darmstadt . The foundation of the originally three museums traces back to the citizens of the city and to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , who stayed in Wiesbaden in 1814/1815 for a rehabilitation measure, and worked hard to establish such
312-471: A jigsaw puzzle . Rocks normally form relatively horizontal layers, with each layer younger than the one underneath it. If a fossil is found between two layers whose ages are known, the fossil's age must lie between the two known ages. Because rock sequences are not continuous, but may be broken up by faults or periods of erosion , it is very difficult to match up rock beds that are not directly next to one another. However, fossils of species that survived for
468-470: A sword , could be hired from shops outside. The treasuries of cathedrals and large churches, or parts of them, were often set out for public display and veneration. Many of the grander English country houses could be toured by the respectable for a tip to the housekeeper, during the long periods when the family were not in residence. Special arrangements were made to allow the public to see many royal or private collections placed in galleries, as with most of
624-674: A Fan", 1909), Nikita (1910) or Selbstbildnis ("Self-portrait", 1912) and, above all, many works of the paintings in series, such as the variations Von Frühling, Glück und Sonne ("Of Spring, Happiness and Sun", 1917) or the Abstract Heads created in Wiesbaden as Kopf in Rot-Weiß-Gold ("Head in Red-White-Gold", 1927) and the meditations as Mein Geist wird weiterleben ("My Spirit will live on", 1935). Remarkable among
780-537: A bequest. The Kunstmuseum Basel , through its lineage which extends back to the Amerbach Cabinet , which included a collection of works by Hans Holbein the Younger and purchased by the city of Basel in 1661, is considered to be the first museum of art open to the public in the world. In the second half of the 18th century, many private collections of art were opened to the public, and during and after
936-449: A collaboration of museums and galleries that are more interested with the categorization of art. They are interested in the potential use of folksonomy within museums and the requirements for post-processing of terms that have been gathered, both to test their utility and to deploy them in useful ways. The steve.museum is one example of a site that is experimenting with this collaborative philosophy. The participating institutions include
1092-453: A collection was rebuilt from the 1950s onwards with very few resources. Clemens Weiler played a major role in the construction of the Alexej von Jawlensky -Collection, which is today the most important collection of the house. The Natural Science Museum was largely rebuilt by Friedrich Heineck, who was impeached of office during the war. It was the aim of the museum to show in particular info on
1248-552: A collision that formed the Moon about 40 million years later, may have cooled quickly enough to have oceans and an atmosphere about 4,440 million years ago . There is evidence on the Moon of a Late Heavy Bombardment by asteroids from 4,000 to 3,800 million years ago . If, as seems likely, such a bombardment struck Earth at the same time, the first atmosphere and oceans may have been stripped away. Paleontology traces
1404-602: A common ancestor. Ideally the "family tree" has only two branches leading from each node ("junction"), but sometimes there is too little information to achieve this, and paleontologists have to make do with junctions that have several branches. The cladistic technique is sometimes fallible, as some features, such as wings or camera eyes , evolved more than once, convergently – this must be taken into account in analyses. Evolutionary developmental biology , commonly abbreviated to "Evo Devo", also helps paleontologists to produce "family trees", and understand fossils. For example,
1560-456: A constant rate. These " molecular clocks ", however, are fallible, and provide only a very approximate timing: for example, they are not sufficiently precise and reliable for estimating when the groups that feature in the Cambrian explosion first evolved, and estimates produced by different techniques may vary by a factor of two. Earth formed about 4,570 million years ago and, after
1716-510: A cultural institution. In 1825 he persuaded the Frankfurter private collector Johann Isaac Freiherr von Gerning [ de ] to donate his extensive collections of works of art, antiquities and in kind to the Duchy of Nassau in return for the payment of an annuity for life. Under the responsibility of the newly founded associations, but controlled by the ducal government,
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#17327718346421872-403: A data source that is not limited to animals with easily fossilised hard parts, and they reflect organisms' behaviours. Also many traces date from significantly earlier than the body fossils of animals that are thought to have been capable of making them. Whilst exact assignment of trace fossils to their makers is generally impossible, traces may for example provide the earliest physical evidence of
2028-573: A fortunate accident during other research. For example, the 1980 discovery by Luis and Walter Alvarez of iridium , a mainly extraterrestrial metal, in the Cretaceous – Paleogene boundary layer made asteroid impact the most favored explanation for the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event – although debate continues about the contribution of volcanism. A complementary approach to developing scientific knowledge, experimental science ,
2184-421: A general mineral collection of worldwide origin, the focus is on finds from the region, which document in particular the mining industry, which was important until a few decades ago. The scientific collection comprises about 14,000 pieces, currently listed in a computerized catalog. Three geological eras are particularly represented in the immediate region of Wiesbaden. About 50,000 fossils are documented. From
2340-433: A major factor in social mobility (for example, getting a higher-paid, higher-status job). The argument states that certain art museums are aimed at perpetuating aristocratic and upper class ideals of taste and excludes segments of society without the social opportunities to develop such interest. The fine arts thus perpetuate social inequality by creating divisions between different social groups. This argument also ties in with
2496-821: A minor group until the first jawed fish appeared in the Late Ordovician . The spread of animals and plants from water to land required organisms to solve several problems, including protection against drying out and supporting themselves against gravity . The earliest evidence of land plants and land invertebrates date back to about 476 million years ago and 490 million years ago respectively. Those invertebrates, as indicated by their trace and body fossils, were shown to be arthropods known as euthycarcinoids . The lineage that produced land vertebrates evolved later but very rapidly between 370 million years ago and 360 million years ago ; recent discoveries have overturned earlier ideas about
2652-408: A new building became louder and louder. After the three museums came under Prussian control in 1866, the city of Wiesbaden took over these institutions in 1899. This change was generally accepted because Wiesbaden had sufficient funds at the end of the 19th century to promote culture. According to plans by architect Theodor Fischer , the foundation stone for a new building with three wings was laid at
2808-402: A number of online art catalogues and galleries that have been developed independently of the support of any individual museum. Many of these, like American Art Gallery, are attempts to develop galleries of artwork that are encyclopedic or historical in focus, while others are commercial efforts to sell the work of contemporary artists. A limited number of such sites have independent importance in
2964-555: A rapid increase in knowledge about the history of life on Earth and to progress in the definition of the geologic time scale , largely based on fossil evidence. Although she was rarely recognised by the scientific community, Mary Anning was a significant contributor to the field of palaeontology during this period; she uncovered multiple novel Mesozoic reptile fossils and deducted that what were then known as bezoar stones are in fact fossilised faeces . In 1822 Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville , editor of Journal de Physique , coined
3120-543: A relatively short time can be used to link up isolated rocks: this technique is called biostratigraphy . For instance, the conodont Eoplacognathus pseudoplanus has a short range in the Middle Ordovician period. If rocks of unknown age are found to have traces of E. pseudoplanus , they must have a mid-Ordovician age. Such index fossils must be distinctive, be globally distributed and have a short time range to be useful. However, misleading results are produced if
3276-471: A spectacular campaign entitled Wiesbaden schafft die Wende! ("Wiesbaden is making the turn!") The painting Die Labung by Hans von Marées , stolen by the Nazi regime in 1935, came into the possession of the museum in 1980. It was still shown in the context of this action, but only the reverse of the painting. It was not until the beginning of November, by which time donations had already raised enough money for
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#17327718346423432-608: A steady increase in brain size after about 3 million years ago . There is a long-running debate about whether modern humans are descendants of a single small population in Africa , which then migrated all over the world less than 200,000 years ago and replaced previous hominine species, or arose worldwide at the same time as a result of interbreeding . Life on earth has suffered occasional mass extinctions at least since 542 million years ago . Despite their disastrous effects, mass extinctions have sometimes accelerated
3588-752: A title which he attached to his sculptural works. The other positions of art of the 1940s and 1950s are envisioned by Ernst Wilhelm Nay with his painting Afrikanisch ("African", 1954), Willi Baumeister , Max Ackermann , Rolf Cavael, Fritz Winter and above all the painter Otto Ritschl from Wiesbaden with his painting Komposition (1955). These artists are followed by abstract painting artists such as Rupprecht Geiger , Ulrich Erben, Bruno Erdmann and Gotthard Graubner . The ZERO group and kinetic art are featured by artists such as Günther Uecker with his work Spirale Weiß ("White spiral", 1963), Rolf Kissel, Hermann Goepfert, Heinz Mack and Adolf Luther. Also Sigmar Polke and, above all, Gerhard Richter belong to
3744-484: A very early stage it was possible to find rooms for the cultural assets collected by the citizenry . In 1821 the three museums and the regional library of Hessen were thus able to move into the palace, which is nowadays the seat of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Wiesbaden. Around the middle of the 19th century the building became too small, due to the busy collection activities and new acquisitions. The call for
3900-753: A work of the Russian Natalia Goncharova was acquired. A milestone in the history of the art collection was the acquisition of a large part of the Hanna Bekker vom Rath collection. With this collection, the museum not only received 11 paintings and three drawings by Jawlensky, but also 16 other works of Classical Modernism. Graphics by Wassily Kandinsky and August Macke as well as paintings by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner , Erich Heckel (painting Maske vor Buschbockfell , "Mask in front of Buschbockfell", 1913), Adolf Hölzel , Ida Kerkovius , Willi Baumeister and Ernst Wilhelm Nay have enriched
4056-567: Is a building or space for the display of art , usually from the museum 's own collection . It might be in public or private ownership, be accessible to all, or have restrictions in place. Although primarily concerned with visual art , art museums are often used as a venue for other cultural exchanges and artistic activities, such as lectures, jewelry, performance arts , music concerts, or poetry readings. Art museums also frequently host themed temporary exhibitions, which often include items on loan from other collections. An institution dedicated to
4212-473: Is a focal theme in the collection of the Museum Wiesbaden. Although some of the big names are missing, the collection still offers a good overview. Among others, László Moholy-Nagy with his painting Architektur III (1920), Erich Buchholz , Walter Dexel as well as the post-war artists Klaus Staudt, Günter Fruhtrunk and François Morellet are included here. There are large complexes of works by
4368-595: Is composed only of eukaryotic cells, and the earliest evidence for it is the Francevillian Group Fossils from 2,100 million years ago , although specialisation of cells for different functions first appears between 1,430 million years ago (a possible fungus) and 1,200 million years ago (a probable red alga ). Sexual reproduction may be a prerequisite for specialisation of cells, as an asexual multicellular organism might be at risk of being taken over by rogue cells that retain
4524-448: Is extensive, which is why only a few names are mentioned here. Informalism is represented by works by Karl Otto Götz , Otto Greis and Bernard Schultze . Further sheets from the 1940s and 1950s come from Willi Baumeister , HAP Grieshaber and above all from the extensive Ernst Wilhelm Nay collection. Minimalist tendencies are shown in the works of Sol LeWitt . Pop art is represented by Thomas Bayrle , among others. Compared to
4680-695: Is generally considered to have been the first art museum in the United States. It was originally housed in the Renwick Gallery , built in 1859. Now a part of the Smithsonian Institution , the Renwick housed William Wilson Corcoran 's collection of American and European art. The building was designed by James Renwick Jr. and finally completed in 1874. It is located at 1661 Pennsylvania Avenue NW. Renwick designed it after
4836-482: Is hard to decide at what level to place a new higher-level grouping, e.g. genus or family or order ; this is important since the Linnaean rules for naming groups are tied to their levels, and hence if a group is moved to a different level it must be renamed. Paleontologists generally use approaches based on cladistics , a technique for working out the evolutionary "family tree" of a set of organisms. It works by
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4992-443: Is often said to work by conducting experiments to disprove hypotheses about the workings and causes of natural phenomena. This approach cannot prove a hypothesis, since some later experiment may disprove it, but the accumulation of failures to disprove is often compelling evidence in favor. However, when confronted with totally unexpected phenomena, such as the first evidence for invisible radiation , experimental scientists often use
5148-594: Is one that contained an extinct "crocodile-like" marine reptile, which eventually came to be known as the mosasaurid Mosasaurus of the Cretaceous period. The first half of the 19th century saw geological and paleontological activity become increasingly well organised with the growth of geologic societies and museums and an increasing number of professional geologists and fossil specialists. Interest increased for reasons that were not purely scientific, as geology and paleontology helped industrialists to find and exploit natural resources such as coal. This contributed to
5304-401: Is our only means of giving rocks greater than about 50 million years old an absolute age, and can be accurate to within 0.5% or better. Although radiometric dating requires very careful laboratory work, its basic principle is simple: the rates at which various radioactive elements decay are known, and so the ratio of the radioactive element to the element into which it decays shows how long ago
5460-559: Is provided by a dedicated print room located within the museum. Murals or mosaics often remain where they have been created ( in situ ), although many have also been removed to galleries. Various forms of 20th-century art, such as land art and performance art , also usually exist outside a gallery. Photographic records of these kinds of art are often shown in galleries, however. Most museums and large art galleries own more works than they have room to display. The rest are held in reserve collections , on or off-site. A sculpture garden
5616-402: Is represented by Joshua Reynolds . The 19th century is excellently represented in the collection. Although the great names and French Impressionism are missing, a broad overview for this period is guaranteed. With artists such as Wilhelm von Kobell , Carl Morgenstern and Georg Waldmueller, German genre painting is particularly well represented. Ludwig Knaus from Wiesbaden, who at his time
5772-538: Is represented by Katsura Funakoshi with his work of art A Tale of the Sphinx (2004). Although the Museum Wiesbaden does not award any art awards itself, two of them are closely linked to the museum. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his death in 1991, the city of Wiesbaden established the Alexei von Jawlensky Prize, endowed with 18,000 Euros. Alexei von Jawlensky (1865–1941) was an important Russian artist in
5928-414: Is represented by artists such as Joos van Cleve ( Christuskind mit Weintraube , "Christ Child with Grape"), Albrecht Bouts , Otto van Veen , Joos de Momper , Frans Floris , Roelant Savery , Gerard van Honthorst , Willem van de Velde , Willem van de Velde , Jan Lievens , Frans Snyders ( Stillleben , "Still life") and Nicolaes Berchem . Late German Gothic and Renaissance art is represented by
6084-557: Is similar to an art gallery, presenting sculpture in an outdoor space. Sculpture has grown in popularity with sculptures installed in open spaces on both a permanent and temporary basis. Most larger paintings from about 1530 onwards were designed to be seen either in churches or palaces, and many buildings built as palaces now function successfully as art museums. By the 18th century additions to palaces and country houses were sometimes intended specifically as galleries for viewing art, and designed with that in mind. The architectural form of
6240-456: Is the scientific study of life that existed prior to the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossils to classify organisms and study their interactions with each other and their environments (their paleoecology ). Paleontological observations have been documented as far back as the 5th century BC. The science became established in
6396-1026: Is the wall object Eighter from Decatur (1965). The painting of the 1970s and 1980s is portrayed by artists such as Georg Baselitz with his work Stillleben ("Still Life", 1969), Eugen Schönebeck, Jörg Immendorff and Thomas Bayrle. An outstanding focus of the collection is the installation- and object art of the last thirty years. The most important artists in the collection are Dietrich Helms, Jeppe Hein , Rebecca Horn , Thomas Huber , Vollrad Kutscher, Ingeborg Lüscher , Christiane Möbus, Norbert Radermacher, Franz Erhard Walther and Dorothee von Windheim with her work Fassade III (in English Facade III ) (1979). In addition, there are works of international artists such as Ilya Kabakov with his work Der Rote Waggon ("The Red Wagon", 1991), Micha Ullman , Richard Serra , Jochen Gerz with his composition Der Transsibirische-Prospekt ("Trans-Siberian View", 1977) and Christian Boltanski . Modernist sculpture
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6552-503: Is thought to have been propelled by coevolution with pollinating insects. Social insects appeared around the same time and, although they account for only small parts of the insect "family tree", now form over 50% of the total mass of all insects. Humans evolved from a lineage of upright-walking apes whose earliest fossils date from over 6 million years ago . Although early members of this lineage had chimp -sized brains, about 25% as big as modern humans', there are signs of
6708-502: Is to shape identity and memory, cultural heritage, distilled narratives and treasured stories. Many art museums throughout history have been designed with a cultural purpose or been subject to political intervention. In particular, national art galleries have been thought to incite feelings of nationalism . This has occurred in both democratic and non-democratic countries, although authoritarian regimes have historically exercised more control over administration of art museums. Ludwig Justi
6864-587: The Alexej von Jawlensky teacher Ilya Repin from the Ernst Alfred Aye Collection. The collection of this century ends with the works of the main representatives of German Impressionism , Max Liebermann and above all Lovis Corinth , of whom the museum owns five paintings ( Portrait von Frau Halbe , 1898) as well as Oskar Moll ( Havelkähne , 1907) and Christian Rohlfs . The works of the Russian artist Alexej von Jawlensky , who spent
7020-768: The Alte Pinakothek , Munich) was opened to the public in 1779 and the Medici collection in Florence around 1789 (as the Uffizi Gallery). The opening of the Musée du Louvre during the French Revolution in 1793 as a public museum for much of the former French royal collection marked an important stage in the development of public access to art by transferring the ownership to a republican state; but it
7176-649: The French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars , many royal collections were nationalized, even where the monarchy remained in place, as in Spain and Bavaria . In 1753, the British Museum was established and the Old Royal Library collection of manuscripts was donated to it for public viewing. In 1777, a proposal to the British government was put forward by MP John Wilkes to buy the art collection of
7332-772: The Guggenheim Museum in New York City by Frank Lloyd Wright , the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao by Frank Gehry , Centre Pompidou-Metz by Shigeru Ban , and the redesign of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art by Mario Botta . Some critics argue these galleries defeat their purposes because their dramatic interior spaces distract the eye from the paintings they are supposed to exhibit. Museums are more than just mere 'fixed structures designed to house collections.' Their purpose
7488-778: The Guggenheim Museum , the Cleveland Museum of Art , the Metropolitan Museum of Art , and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art . There are relatively few local/regional/national organizations dedicated specifically to art museums. Most art museums are associated with local/regional/national organizations for the arts , humanities or museums in general. Many of these organizations are listed as follows: Paleontology Paleontology ( / ˌ p eɪ l i ɒ n ˈ t ɒ l ə dʒ i , ˌ p æ l i -, - ən -/ PAY -lee-on- TOL -ə-jee, PAL -ee-, -ən- ), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology ,
7644-551: The Late Medieval period onwards, areas in royal palaces, castles , and large country houses of the social elite were often made partially accessible to sections of the public, where art collections could be viewed. At the Palace of Versailles , entrance was restricted to people of certain social classes who were required to wear the proper apparel, which typically included the appropriate accessories, silver shoe buckles and
7800-582: The Middle Ages the Persian naturalist Ibn Sina , known as Avicenna in Europe, discussed fossils and proposed a theory of petrifying fluids on which Albert of Saxony elaborated in the 14th century. The Chinese naturalist Shen Kuo (1031–1095) proposed a theory of climate change based on the presence of petrified bamboo in regions that in his time were too dry for bamboo. In early modern Europe ,
7956-670: The Nassauischer Verein für Naturkunde [ de ] ("Nassau Society of Natural Science)" and the Nassauischer Kunstverein [ de ] ("Nassau Kunstverein") (art society) were responsible for these museums. Following the death of the Duke, the Hereditary Prince's Palace at Wilhelmstraße , built for his son, was now available for other purposes. In contrast to other cities, at
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#17327718346428112-552: The Nassauischer Verein für Naturkunde [ de ] (Nassau Association for Natural History). The beginning of the 19th century was marked by industrialization and enormous discoveries in the natural sciences. This is how the desire for a permanent institution was born. On the one hand, this offered the opportunity to establish an important place of education for the public and, on the other hand, to promote internal research. These goals are still pursued by today's natural history collections. One can find more information on this at
8268-540: The National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo . The phrase "art gallery" is also sometimes used to describe businesses which display art for sale, but these are not art museums. Throughout history, large and expensive works of art have generally been commissioned by religious institutions or political leaders and been displayed in temples, churches, and palaces . Although these collections of art were not open to
8424-749: The Natural Sciences Collection was also able to move into the new building, but it was not until after the end of the First World War that the Natural Sciences Museum and the Museum of Nassau Antiquities reopened on 15 July 1920. Half of the picture gallery was to be used for changing exhibitions, which were carried out by the Nassauischer Kunstverein in the 1920s and early 1930s. During this time, citizens of Wiesbaden also contributed to important additions to
8580-538: The Neogene - Quaternary . In deeper-level deposits in western Europe are early-aged mammals such as the palaeothere perissodactyl Palaeotherium and the anoplotheriid artiodactyl Anoplotherium , both of which were described earliest after the former two genera, which today are known to date to the Paleogene period. Cuvier figured out that even older than the two levels of deposits with extinct large mammals
8736-624: The Papacy , while the Vatican Museums , whose collections are still owned by the Pope, trace their foundation to 1506, when the recently discovered Laocoön and His Sons was put on public display. A series of museums on different subjects were opened over subsequent centuries, and many of the buildings of the Vatican were purpose-built as galleries. An early royal treasury opened to the public
8892-637: The Permian–Triassic extinction event . Amphibians Extinct Synapsids Mammals Extinct reptiles Lizards and snakes Extinct Archosaurs Crocodilians Extinct Dinosaurs Birds Naming groups of organisms in a way that is clear and widely agreed is important, as some disputes in paleontology have been based just on misunderstandings over names. Linnaean taxonomy is commonly used for classifying living organisms, but runs into difficulties when dealing with newly discovered organisms that are significantly different from known ones. For example: it
9048-516: The Permian–Triassic extinction event . A relatively recent discipline, molecular phylogenetics , compares the DNA and RNA of modern organisms to re-construct the "family trees" of their evolutionary ancestors. It has also been used to estimate the dates of important evolutionary developments, although this approach is controversial because of doubts about the reliability of the " molecular clock ". Techniques from engineering have been used to analyse how
9204-489: The Still lifes is the painting Stillleben mit schwarzer Vase ("Still Life with Black Vase", 1910) and among the paintings of landscapes by Jawlensky the work Blaue Berge ("Blue Mountains", 1912). The collection of graphics include lithographs such as Liegender weiblicher Akt ("Lying female nude", 1912) and drawings including Konstantinowka mit geneigtem Kopf ("Konstantinovka with inclined head", circa 1912). Most recently,
9360-470: The biomes in the exhibitions. The reconstruction was not entirely successful, partly because rooms were still being used by other people (e. g. by an American library and an urban archive). In 1973 the three museums came into the possession of the state of Hesse . Since that time they have been united in a three-division house, the Museum Wiesbaden. The Nassauischer Kunstverein [ de ] ("Nassau Kunstverein"), which had previously been housed in
9516-454: The embryological development of some modern brachiopods suggests that brachiopods may be descendants of the halkieriids , which became extinct in the Cambrian period. Paleontology seeks to map out how living things have changed through time. A substantial hurdle to this aim is the difficulty of working out how old fossils are. Beds that preserve fossils typically lack the radioactive elements needed for radiometric dating . This technique
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#17327718346429672-553: The mystification of fine arts . Research suggests that the context in which an artwork is being presented has significant influence on its reception by the audience, and viewers shown artworks in a museum rated them more highly than when displayed in a "laboratory" setting Most art museums have only limited online collections, but a few museums, as well as some libraries and government agencies, have developed substantial online catalogues. Museums, libraries, and government agencies with substantial online collections include: There are
9828-526: The " jigsaw puzzles " of biostratigraphy (arrangement of rock layers from youngest to oldest). Classifying ancient organisms is also difficult, as many do not fit well into the Linnaean taxonomy classifying living organisms, and paleontologists more often use cladistics to draw up evolutionary "family trees". The final quarter of the 20th century saw the development of molecular phylogenetics , which investigates how closely organisms are related by measuring
9984-463: The 18th century as a result of Georges Cuvier 's work on comparative anatomy , and developed rapidly in the 19th century. The term has been used since 1822 formed from Greek παλαιός ( 'palaios' , "old, ancient"), ὄν ( 'on' , ( gen. 'ontos' ), "being, creature"), and λόγος ( 'logos' , "speech, thought, study"). Paleontology lies on the border between biology and geology , but it differs from archaeology in that it excludes
10140-401: The 1970s, a number of political theorists and social commentators have pointed to the political implications of art museums and social relations. Pierre Bourdieu , for instance, argued that in spite the apparent freedom of choice in the arts, people's artistic preferences (such as classical music, rock, traditional music) strongly tie in with their social position. So called cultural capital is
10296-548: The 19th and 20th century collections, the Old Masters are rarely represented in the museum. The focus is on Italian and Dutch artists from the 15th century onwards. The most important Italians are Prospero Fontana , Albertino Piazza ( Heimsuchung Mariae , "Visitation of Mary"), Domenico Tintoretto , Marietta Robusti , Sebastiano del Piombo , Alessandro Rosi , Luca Giordano , Francesco Solimena , Sebastiano Ricci , Cristoforo Munari and Gennaro Greco . Dutch painting
10452-498: The 20th century are represented by Max Klinger (portrait bust of Friedrich Nietzsche , ca. 1910), Franz von Stuck , Georg Kolbe , Wilhelm Lehmbruck , Gerhard Marcks , Emy Roeder and Ernst Barlach (Der Tod, 1925). Compared to the collection of paintings, the graphic art collection is less important. Work before 1800 is scarce. In the 19th century, on the other hand, there are a number of works by Ludwig Knaus , Arnold Böcklin , Hans von Marées and Max Slevogt , among others. In
10608-555: The Early Cambrian , along with several "weird wonders" that bear little obvious resemblance to any modern animals. There is a long-running debate about whether this Cambrian explosion was truly a very rapid period of evolutionary experimentation; alternative views are that modern-looking animals began evolving earlier but fossils of their precursors have not yet been found, or that the "weird wonders" are evolutionary "aunts" and "cousins" of modern groups. Vertebrates remained
10764-463: The Earth's organic and inorganic past". William Whewell (1794–1866) classified paleontology as one of the historical sciences, along with archaeology , geology, astronomy , cosmology , philology and history itself: paleontology aims to describe phenomena of the past and to reconstruct their causes. Hence it has three main elements: description of past phenomena; developing a general theory about
10920-474: The Kassel architects Schultze and Schulze completely renovated the rooms of the art collection, from 2003 to 2006 the roofs, the entrance area and the lecture hall and opened up new exhibition rooms of the art collection. From 2007 to 2012, the north and south wings were to be renovated. In the north wing, the natural history collection can be shown again from 2013 onwards. According to press reports and reports from
11076-602: The Louvre's Tuileries addition. At the time of its construction, it was known as "the American Louvre". University art museums and galleries constitute collections of art developed, owned, and maintained by all kinds of schools, community colleges, colleges, and universities. This phenomenon exists in the West and East, making it a global practice. Although easily overlooked, there are over 700 university art museums in
11232-736: The Marxist theory of mystification and elite culture . Furthermore, certain art galleries, such as the National Gallery in London and the Louvre in Paris are situated in buildings of considerable emotional impact. The Louvre in Paris is for instance located in the former Royal Castle of the ancient regime , and is thus clearly designed with a political agenda. It has been argued that such buildings create feelings of subjugation and adds to
11388-639: The Master of the Heisterbach Altar , the Master of the Holy Family, Lucas Cranach the Elder , Bartholomew Bruyn the Elder and Hans Muelich . The German Baroque and Classicism is represented by Johann Conrad Seekatz and January Zick , Nicolas Treu, Johann Georg Platzer und Angelika Kauffmann ( Bildnis Johann Isaak von Gerning , 1798 – "Portrait of Johann Isaak von Gerning"). English painting
11544-554: The Taunus originate from the Devonian , an equally warm time with a high sea level. Therefore, the collection contains evidence of an enormous marine fauna: trilobites , conodonts and graptolites . Beside it are worth mentioning: a Palaeozoic and mesozoic fish collection, an extensive Mesozoic vertebrate collection , a large and complete ichthyosaur specimen of Holzmaden , a well sorted paleontological reference collection from
11700-536: The US alone. This number, compared to other kinds of art museums, makes university art museums perhaps the largest category of art museums in the country. While the first of these collections can be traced to learning collections developed in art academies in Western Europe, they are now associated with and housed in centers of higher education of all types. The word gallery being originally an architectural term,
11856-412: The ability to reproduce. The earliest known animals are cnidarians from about 580 million years ago , but these are so modern-looking that they must be descendants of earlier animals. Early fossils of animals are rare because they had not developed mineralised , easily fossilized hard parts until about 548 million years ago . The earliest modern-looking bilaterian animals appear in
12012-433: The active lending-out of a museum's collected objects in order to enhance education at schools and to aid in the cultural development of individual members of the community. Finally, Dana saw branch museums throughout a city as a good method of making sure that every citizen has access to its benefits. Dana's view of the ideal museum sought to invest a wider variety of people in it, and was self-consciously not elitist. Since
12168-515: The appearance of moderately complex animals (comparable to earthworms ). Geochemical observations may help to deduce the global level of biological activity at a certain period, or the affinity of certain fossils. For example, geochemical features of rocks may reveal when life first arose on Earth, and may provide evidence of the presence of eukaryotic cells, the type from which all multicellular organisms are built. Analyses of carbon isotope ratios may help to explain major transitions such as
12324-418: The art world. The large auction houses, such as Sotheby's , Bonhams , and Christie's , maintain large online databases of art which they have auctioned or are auctioning. Bridgeman Art Library serves as a central source of reproductions of artwork, with access limited to museums, art dealers , and other professionals or professional organizations. There are also online galleries that have been developed by
12480-750: The artist couple Robert Michel and Ella Bergmann-Michel , Anton Stankowski , and above all by Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart with the painting complex K 116 (1940). His archive is maintained by the museum. The Art collection of the Museum Wiesbaden is one of the most important art collections in Germany after 1945. It starts with Art Informel . Here the German artists Karl Otto Götz ( Krakmo , 1958), Otto Greis, Heinz Kreutz, Fred Thieler, Emil Schumacher , Hann Trier , Gerhard Hoehme and Bernard Schultze ( Venen und Tang , "Veins and Seaweed", 1955) are shown. The museum owns several of Bernard Schultze's Migofs ,
12636-625: The atmosphere increased their effectiveness as nurseries of evolution. While eukaryotes , cells with complex internal structures, may have been present earlier, their evolution speeded up when they acquired the ability to transform oxygen from a poison to a powerful source of metabolic energy. This innovation may have come from primitive eukaryotes capturing oxygen-powered bacteria as endosymbionts and transforming them into organelles called mitochondria . The earliest evidence of complex eukaryotes with organelles (such as mitochondria) dates from 1,850 million years ago . Multicellular life
12792-415: The bodies of ancient organisms might have worked, for example the running speed and bite strength of Tyrannosaurus , or the flight mechanics of Microraptor . It is relatively commonplace to study the internal details of fossils using X-ray microtomography . Paleontology, biology, archaeology, and paleoneurobiology combine to study endocranial casts (endocasts) of species related to humans to clarify
12948-401: The causes of various types of change; and applying those theories to specific facts. When trying to explain the past, paleontologists and other historical scientists often construct a set of one or more hypotheses about the causes and then look for a " smoking gun ", a piece of evidence that strongly accords with one hypothesis over any others. Sometimes researchers discover a "smoking gun" by
13104-763: The characteristics and evolution of humans as a species. When dealing with evidence about humans, archaeologists and paleontologists may work together – for example paleontologists might identify animal or plant fossils around an archaeological site , to discover the people who lived there, and what they ate; or they might analyze the climate at the time of habitation. In addition, paleontology often borrows techniques from other sciences, including biology, osteology , ecology, chemistry , physics and mathematics. For example, geochemical signatures from rocks may help to discover when life first arose on Earth, and analyses of carbon isotope ratios may help to identify climate changes and even to explain major transitions such as
13260-520: The chronological order in which rocks were formed, is useful to both paleontologists and geologists. Biogeography studies the spatial distribution of organisms, and is also linked to geology, which explains how Earth's geography has changed over time. Although paleontology became established around 1800, earlier thinkers had noticed aspects of the fossil record. The ancient Greek philosopher Xenophanes (570–480 BCE) concluded from fossil sea shells that some areas of land were once under water. During
13416-466: The citizens of Wiesbaden and the region were able to quickly expand these collections. Together with the pieces of the Verein für Nassauische Altertumskunde und Geschichtsforschung [ de ] ("Association for Nassauian Antiquity and Historical Research") founded in 1812, three originally independent museums emerged. In addition to the Verein für Nassauische Altertumskunde und Geschichtsforschung
13572-518: The collection ever since. In addition, there are five paintings by Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, among which the painting Selbstportrait ("Self portrait", 1919), and two paintings by Max Beckmann , including the famous painting Weiblicher Akt mit Hund ("Female Nude with Dog", 1927). After this great enrichment, further individual works from this collection were acquired, to mention above all Jawlensky's painting Heilandsgesicht: Ruhendes Licht ("Face of Salvation: Resting Light") from 1921. Constructivist art
13728-520: The collection has been extended by eleven paintings and three drawings from the Hanna Bekker vom Rath Collection in 1987, including the portrait Bildnis Marianne von Werefkin ("Portrait of Marianne von Werefkin") from 1906. From 17 September 2021, to March 2022 the museum shows Alles! 100 Jahre Jawlensky in Wiesbaden (All! 100 years of Jawlensky in Wiesbaden) – an anniversary show celebrating
13884-501: The collection of Hanna Bekker vom Rath . Works by other artists of the time, such as Edvard Munch , Otto Dix , Oskar Kokoschka , Käthe Kollwitz and Pablo Picasso , can also be found. Constructivist works, including those by László Moholy-Nagy , the artist couple Robert Michel and Ella Bergmann-Michel , as well as Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart , form another focal point of the collection. The graphic art collection after 1945
14040-524: The collection survived the Second World War. A large part of the collection is documented in catalog, on index cards and digitally. Larger gaps exist especially in the areas of geology and invertebrate animals. Digital photographs are also available of numerous items in the collection. The mineral collection is still completely in its 19th-century form, as the exhibition combines both scientific and display collections in vitrines. In addition to
14196-515: The collection. The American post-war art is featured by some of its main protagonists by works of Mark Rothko , Ad Reinhardt and Agnes Martin . Also listed in the collection are artists such as Sol LeWitt , Donald Judd , Robert Mangold , Fred Sandback , Dan Flavin and Brice Marden . The museum also has the largest collection of works (graphics, paintings and objects) by the German-American Eva Hesse . One of her works
14352-456: The collection. The museum possesses five paintings by Richter, including the famous Ein Wunder rettete ("A Miracle Saved", 1964). Surrealism is illustrated by two paintings by Max Ernst . In 1962 the legendary first Fluxus Festival took place in the museum. Of this period, the museum holds works by Joseph Beuys , Wolf Vostell and Nam June Paik . His work Zen for Head (1962) is part of
14508-498: The collections. The natural science collections showed systematic exhibitions on topics of geology, paleontology and biology . Ecological aspects were also presented for the first time. During the Second World War , the building was partly used for military purposes. With few exceptions, the collections survived the war unscathed. However, the exhibitions were dismantled and most of the showcases were damaged. Only slowly
14664-467: The corner of Wilhelmstraße/Rheinstraße in 1913. Previously, the banker's mansion Mons had stood there, in which the reception building of Ludwigsbahnhof was housed until 1906. The interior design of the three houses was influenced to a large extent by the three directors and the curators, as there were different needs. The first to open was the Gemäldegalerie on 1 October 1915. In the same year
14820-520: The counterpart of the Munich School . The Leibl-Kreis in Munich is represented extensively, especially by Wilhelm Trübner , but also Hans Thoma , Carl Schuch and Otto Scholderer are present with paintings in the collection. French realism is featured with works by Gustave Courbet , Jean-François Millet and Charles-François Daubigny , while Russian realism is represented by a work by
14976-445: The date when lineages first appeared. For instance, if fossils of B or C date to X million years ago and the calculated "family tree" says A was an ancestor of B and C, then A must have evolved more than X million years ago. It is also possible to estimate how long ago two living clades diverged – i.e. approximately how long ago their last common ancestor must have lived – by assuming that DNA mutations accumulate at
15132-594: The development of mammalian traits such as endothermy and hair. After the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event 66 million years ago killed off all the dinosaurs except the birds, mammals increased rapidly in size and diversity, and some took to the air and the sea. Fossil evidence indicates that flowering plants appeared and rapidly diversified in the Early Cretaceous between 130 million years ago and 90 million years ago . Their rapid rise to dominance of terrestrial ecosystems
15288-561: The development of the body plans of most animal phyla . The discovery of fossils of the Ediacaran biota and developments in paleobiology extended knowledge about the history of life back far before the Cambrian. Increasing awareness of Gregor Mendel 's pioneering work in genetics led first to the development of population genetics and then in the mid-20th century to the modern evolutionary synthesis , which explains evolution as
15444-482: The different levels of deposits represented different time periods in the early 19th century. The surface-level deposits in the Americas contained later mammals like the megatheriid ground sloth Megatherium and the mammutid proboscidean Mammut (later known informally as a "mastodon"), which were some of the earliest-named fossil mammal genera with official taxonomic authorities. They today are known to date to
15600-612: The display of art can be called an art museum or an art gallery, and the two terms may be used interchangeably. This is reflected in the names of institutions around the world, some of which are considered art galleries, such as the National Gallery in London and Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin , and some of which are considered museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and
15756-695: The display rooms in museums are often called public galleries . Also frequently, a series of rooms dedicated to specific historic periods (e.g. Ancient Egypt ) or other significant themed groupings of works (e.g. the gypsotheque or collection of plaster casts as in the Ashmolean Museum ) within a museum with a more varied collection are referred to as specific galleries, e.g. Egyptian Gallery or Cast Gallery . Works on paper, such as drawings , pastels , watercolors , prints , and photographs are typically not permanently displayed for reasons of conservation . Instead, public access to these materials
15912-409: The end of the 20th century have been particularly important as they have provided new information about the earliest evolution of animals, early fish, dinosaurs and the evolution of birds. The last few decades of the 20th century saw a renewed interest in mass extinctions and their role in the evolution of life on Earth. There was also a renewed interest in the Cambrian explosion that apparently saw
16068-651: The entire building solely intended to be an art gallery was arguably established by Sir John Soane with his design for the Dulwich Picture Gallery in 1817. This established the gallery as a series of interconnected rooms with largely uninterrupted wall spaces for hanging pictures and indirect lighting from skylights or roof lanterns . The late 19th century saw a boom in the building of public art galleries in Europe and America, becoming an essential cultural feature of larger cities. More art galleries rose up alongside museums and public libraries as part of
16224-410: The evolution of the human brain. Paleontology even contributes to astrobiology , the investigation of possible life on other planets , by developing models of how life may have arisen and by providing techniques for detecting evidence of life. As knowledge has increased, paleontology has developed specialised subdivisions. Vertebrate paleontology concentrates on fossils from the earliest fish to
16380-466: The evolutionary history of life back to over 3,000 million years ago , possibly as far as 3,800 million years ago . The oldest clear evidence of life on Earth dates to 3,000 million years ago , although there have been reports, often disputed, of fossil bacteria from 3,400 million years ago and of geochemical evidence for the presence of life 3,800 million years ago . Some scientists have proposed that life on Earth
16536-555: The exceptional events that cause quick burial make it difficult to study the normal environments of the animals. The sparseness of the fossil record means that organisms are expected to exist long before and after they are found in the fossil record – this is known as the Signor–Lipps effect . Trace fossils consist mainly of tracks and burrows, but also include coprolites (fossil feces ) and marks left by feeding. Trace fossils are particularly significant because they represent
16692-545: The first half of the 20th century who spent the last twenty years of his life in Wiesbaden. The prize is awarded every five years and has so far been awarded six times. The prize includes the purchase of a work for the Museum Wiesbaden and a special exhibition on the work of the winner in the Museum Wiesbaden. The previous laureates were: The Otto Ritschl Prize was established by the Museumsverein Otto Ritschl e. V. in 2001. Otto Ritschl (1885–1976)
16848-650: The first half of the 20th century, the expressionists stand out, especially Alexej von Jawlensky (see Alexej von Jawlensky -Collection, excellently represented with drawings, woodcuts and Lithographs ). These include works by Die Brücke-artists such as Ernst Ludwig Kirchner , Erich Heckel and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff , as well as works by the artists of the Blaue Reiter-Editorial Association . Of particular note are works by Franz Marc , August Macke and above all Wassily Kandinsky's watercolour Allerheiligen ("All Saints", 1910) from
17004-515: The focus of paleontology shifted to understanding evolutionary paths, including human evolution , and evolutionary theory. The last half of the 19th century saw a tremendous expansion in paleontological activity, especially in North America. The trend continued in the 20th century with additional regions of the Earth being opened to systematic fossil collection. Fossils found in China near
17160-449: The following: At the end of the 18th century Georges Cuvier 's work established comparative anatomy as a scientific discipline and, by proving that some fossil animals resembled no living ones, demonstrated that animals could become extinct , leading to the emergence of paleontology. The expanding knowledge of the fossil record also played an increasing role in the development of geology, particularly stratigraphy . Cuvier proved that
17316-413: The former collection of Johann Isaak von Gerning from Frankfurt. Through purchases, donations and loans, the art collection has become one of the most important in Germany, especially in the area of the 19th and 20th centuries. The Museum Wiesbaden endeavours to identify Nazi plunder in its own collection and, if necessary, to return it to the legitimate heirs. In October 2014, the museum therefore launched
17472-580: The fossil record: different environments are more favorable to the preservation of different types of organism or parts of organisms. Further, only the parts of organisms that were already mineralised are usually preserved, such as the shells of molluscs. Since most animal species are soft-bodied, they decay before they can become fossilised. As a result, although there are 30-plus phyla of living animals, two-thirds have never been found as fossils. Occasionally, unusual environments may preserve soft tissues. These lagerstätten allow paleontologists to examine
17628-491: The founder of the Newark Museum , saw the traditional art museum as a useless public institution, one that focused more on fashion and conformity rather than education and uplift. Indeed, Dana's ideal museum would be one best suited for active and vigorous use by the average citizen, located near the center of their daily movement. In addition, Dana's conception of the perfect museum included a wider variety of objects than
17784-424: The general public, they were often made available for viewing for a section of the public. In classical times , religious institutions began to function as an early form of art gallery. Wealthy Roman collectors of engraved gems and other precious objects, such as Julius Caesar , often donated their collections to temples. It is unclear how easy it was in practice for the public to view these items. In Europe, from
17940-687: The history and driving forces behind their evolution. Land plants were so successful that their detritus caused an ecological crisis in the Late Devonian , until the evolution of fungi that could digest dead wood. During the Permian period, synapsids , including the ancestors of mammals , may have dominated land environments, but this ended with the Permian–Triassic extinction event 251 million years ago , which came very close to wiping out all complex life. The extinctions were apparently fairly sudden, at least among vertebrates. During
18096-533: The history of Earth's climate and the mechanisms that have changed it – which have sometimes included evolutionary developments, for example the rapid expansion of land plants in the Devonian period removed more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, reducing the greenhouse effect and thus helping to cause an ice age in the Carboniferous period. Biostratigraphy , the use of fossils to work out
18252-539: The history of the collection with a complete exhibition of the works of expressionist Alexej von Jawlensky. Even before World War II , the Museum Wiesbaden had an important collection of works by the Expressionists . In addition, the collection of the Wiesbaden art collector and patron Heinrich Kirchhoff was regularly exhibited, with which many modernist works could be shown. With the Nazi confiscation campaign under
18408-614: The hydrobiic layer of the Mainz Basin, an extensive Cephalopods collection, a well sorted Brachiopodes collection and an extensive collection of fossils from the Taunus quartzite (incl. Trace fossils ). In 2023 the museum was one of seven German museums and universities to return Māori and Moriori remains to the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in New Zealand. Art museum An art museum or art gallery
18564-542: The immediate ancestors of modern mammals . Invertebrate paleontology deals with fossils such as molluscs , arthropods , annelid worms and echinoderms . Paleobotany studies fossil plants , algae , and fungi. Palynology , the study of pollen and spores produced by land plants and protists , straddles paleontology and botany , as it deals with both living and fossil organisms. Micropaleontology deals with microscopic fossil organisms of all kinds. Instead of focusing on individual organisms, paleoecology examines
18720-434: The index fossils turn out to have longer fossil ranges than first thought. Stratigraphy and biostratigraphy can in general provide only relative dating ( A was before B ), which is often sufficient for studying evolution. However, this is difficult for some time periods, because of the problems involved in matching up rocks of the same age across different continents . Family-tree relationships may also help to narrow down
18876-538: The interactions between different ancient organisms, such as their food chains , and the two-way interactions with their environments. For example, the development of oxygenic photosynthesis by bacteria caused the oxygenation of the atmosphere and hugely increased the productivity and diversity of ecosystems . Together, these led to the evolution of complex eukaryotic cells, from which all multicellular organisms are built. Paleoclimatology , although sometimes treated as part of paleoecology, focuses more on
19032-463: The internal anatomy of animals that in other sediments are represented only by shells, spines, claws, etc. – if they are preserved at all. However, even lagerstätten present an incomplete picture of life at the time. The majority of organisms living at the time are probably not represented because lagerstätten are restricted to a narrow range of environments, e.g. where soft-bodied organisms can be preserved very quickly by events such as mudslides; and
19188-456: The investigation of evolutionary "family trees" by techniques derived from biochemistry , began to make an impact, particularly when it was proposed that the human lineage had diverged from apes much more recently than was generally thought at the time. Although this early study compared proteins from apes and humans, most molecular phylogenetics research is now based on comparisons of RNA and DNA . Fossils of organisms' bodies are usually
19344-557: The last twenty years of his life in Wiesbaden, are outstanding in the collection of the Museum Wiesbaden. With 57 paintings and 35 graphics, the museum has the largest collection of this artist besides the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena . The collection includes early works such as Stillleben mit Krug und Buch ("Still Life with Jug and Book", around 1902), many expressive major works such as Dame mit Fächer ("Woman with
19500-707: The late Sir Robert Walpole , who had amassed one of the greatest such collections in Europe , and house it in a specially built wing of the British Museum for public viewing. After much debate, the idea was eventually abandoned due to the great expense, and twenty years later, the collection was bought by Tsaritsa Catherine the Great of Russia and housed in the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg . The Bavarian royal collection (now in
19656-409: The logic that, if groups B and C have more similarities to each other than either has to group A, then B and C are more closely related to each other than either is to A. Characters that are compared may be anatomical , such as the presence of a notochord , or molecular , by comparing sequences of DNA or proteins . The result of a successful analysis is a hierarchy of clades – groups that share
19812-572: The monarch, and the first purpose-built national art galleries were the Dulwich Picture Gallery , founded in 1814 and the National Gallery, London opened to the public a decade later in 1824. Similarly, the National Gallery in Prague was not formed by opening an existing royal or princely art collection to the public, but was created from scratch as a joint project of some Czech aristocrats in 1796. The Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
19968-409: The most informative type of evidence. The most common types are wood, bones, and shells. Fossilisation is a rare event, and most fossils are destroyed by erosion or metamorphism before they can be observed. Hence the fossil record is very incomplete, increasingly so further back in time. Despite this, it is often adequate to illustrate the broader patterns of life's history. There are also biases in
20124-523: The municipal drive for literacy and public education. Over the middle and late twentieth century, earlier architectural styles employed for art museums (such as the Beaux-Arts style of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City or the Gothic and Renaissance Revival architecture of Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum) succumbed to modern styles , such as Deconstructivism . Examples of this trend include
20280-542: The museum, was moved to the historic villa on Wilhelmstraße 15 in the immediate vicinity. Since 2010 Alexander Klar has been director of the museum. He succeeds Volker Rattemeyer, who ran the museum for 23 years. Under his leadership, in 2007 it was elected by the International Association of Art Critics (Association Internationale des Critiques d' Art (AICA)) as Museum of the Year . From 1994 to 1997,
20436-554: The north and south wings were renovated. Since 2013, the natural history collection is now on show in the north wing. The Collection of Nassau Antiquities is now shown at the Stadtmuseum am Markt in Wiesbaden. In the freed south wing, the Old Masters are presented in connection with contemporary art The chronological sequence was abandoned in favour of spaces on the themes "religion", "portrait", "mythology", "still life" and "landscape". The museum's art collection dates back to
20592-402: The now legitimate purchase, that the painting could be turned back. Sculptures do not play a significant role in the art collection of the Museum Wiesbaden. However, some interesting works are represented. French sculpture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries is presented with a work by one of its main representatives, Aristide Maillol's Badende . The German sculptors of the first half of
20748-570: The oldest artefacts of Hesse were found. One of the most important collections is related to the following two earth ages. It is the largest part of the legacy of the brothers Guido and Fridolin Sandberger . The Mainz Basin bears witness to the impressive world of life in the Paleogene . In this warmer phase after the extinction of the dinosaurs, the Mainz basin was regularly connected to
20904-414: The outcome of events such as mutations and horizontal gene transfer , which provide genetic variation , with genetic drift and natural selection driving changes in this variation over time. Within the next few years the role and operation of DNA in genetic inheritance were discovered, leading to what is now known as the "Central Dogma" of molecular biology . In the 1960s molecular phylogenetics ,
21060-602: The paintings of the Orleans Collection , which were housed in a wing of the Palais-Royal in Paris and could be visited for most of the 18th century. In Italy, the art tourism of the Grand Tour became a major industry from the 18th century onwards, and cities made efforts to make their key works accessible. The Capitoline Museums began in 1471 with a donation of classical sculpture to the city of Rome by
21216-452: The principal types of evidence about ancient life, and geochemical evidence has helped to decipher the evolution of life before there were organisms large enough to leave body fossils. Estimating the dates of these remains is essential but difficult: sometimes adjacent rock layers allow radiometric dating , which provides absolute dates that are accurate to within 0.5%, but more often paleontologists have to rely on relative dating by solving
21372-432: The radioactive element was incorporated into the rock. Radioactive elements are common only in rocks with a volcanic origin, and so the only fossil-bearing rocks that can be dated radiometrically are a few volcanic ash layers. Consequently, paleontologists must usually rely on stratigraphy to date fossils. Stratigraphy is the science of deciphering the "layer-cake" that is the sedimentary record, and has been compared to
21528-670: The recent history of the earth there are testimonies from the Pleistocene , which originate in particular from the Mosbacher Sande [ de ] . Regularly Rhine and Main had dammed up in front of the Middle Rhine Valley and bones carried along remained in the sediment. Especially from the warm periods numerous fossils are preserved. A second focal point is the find area at the Caves of Steeden , where
21684-522: The rooms were able to regain their original function after renovation. This delay had another reason: the Americans , who moved to Wiesbaden after 1945, turned the museum into a Central Collecting Point . Temporarily stored art treasures were shown, such as the bust of Nefertiti or the painting The Man with the Golden Helmet , which was attributed to Rembrandt at the time. After their return,
21840-701: The same approach as historical scientists: construct a set of hypotheses about the causes and then look for a "smoking gun". Paleontology lies between biology and geology since it focuses on the record of past life, but its main source of evidence is fossils in rocks. For historical reasons, paleontology is part of the geology department at many universities: in the 19th and early 20th centuries, geology departments found fossil evidence important for dating rocks, while biology departments showed little interest. Paleontology also has some overlap with archaeology , which primarily works with objects made by humans and with human remains, while paleontologists are interested in
21996-478: The similarity of the DNA in their genomes . Molecular phylogenetics has also been used to estimate the dates when species diverged, but there is controversy about the reliability of the molecular clock on which such estimates depend. The simplest definition of "paleontology" is "the study of ancient life". The field seeks information about several aspects of past organisms: "their identity and origin, their environment and evolution, and what they can tell us about
22152-687: The site of the Museum Wiesbaden. Originally the collection was intended to cover nature of the Duchy of Nassau . However, as the duchy lacked a university and international collections had to be integrated with the founding of the museum, this approach was abandoned. Nowadays the Natural History Collections belong to the larger ones in Germany with material from all regions of the world. About one million individual objects and series are available to science and public relations. Several thousand first described specimens serve in particular research into biodiversity . With few exceptions,
22308-470: The slow recovery from this catastrophe a previously obscure group, archosaurs , became the most abundant and diverse terrestrial vertebrates. One archosaur group, the dinosaurs, were the dominant land vertebrates for the rest of the Mesozoic , and birds evolved from one group of dinosaurs. During this time mammals' ancestors survived only as small, mainly nocturnal insectivores , which may have accelerated
22464-435: The state government, the collection of Nassauian antiquities SNA was handed over to the city of Wiesbaden in 2009. The Old Masters are to be shown in the freed south wing. From 1994 to 1997, the Kassel architects Schultze and Schulze completely renovated the rooms of the art collection, from 2003 to 2006 the roofs, the entrance area and the lecture hall and opened up new exhibition rooms of the art collection. From 2007 to 2012,
22620-631: The study of anatomically modern humans . It now uses techniques drawn from a wide range of sciences, including biochemistry , mathematics , and engineering. Use of all these techniques has enabled paleontologists to discover much of the evolutionary history of life , almost back to when Earth became capable of supporting life, nearly 4 billion years ago. As knowledge has increased, paleontology has developed specialised sub-divisions, some of which focus on different types of fossil organisms while others study ecology and environmental history, such as ancient climates . Body fossils and trace fossils are
22776-535: The surrounding seas, in between these connections were lost, the inland sea sweetened out, a lake was formed and finally the water disappeared completely. In this change numerous animal species lived here, so there are traces of, amongst others, Manatees , Basking sharks , reef-forming mussel banks, but also land creatures, such as the Deinotherium , which was found in Eppelsheim . Especially artefacts from
22932-629: The systematic study of fossils emerged as an integral part of the changes in natural philosophy that occurred during the Age of Reason . In the Italian Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci made various significant contributions to the field as well as depicted numerous fossils. Leonardo's contributions are central to the history of paleontology because he established a line of continuity between the two main branches of paleontology – ichnology and body fossil paleontology. He identified
23088-507: The title Entartete Kunst all modern works of art were removed from the museum, so that one had to start again after the war. High quality works were purchased from Paula Modersohn-Becker , Otto Mueller ( Liebespaar ) ("Love Couple", 1925), Emil Nolde , Walter Jacob , Conrad Felixmüller ( Familienbildnis Kirchhoff , "Kirchhoff family portrait", 1920), Karl Hofer and above all from Jawlensky's companion Marianne von Werefkin ( Schindelfabrik , "Schindel Factory", around 1910). In addition,
23244-399: The traditional art museum, including industrial tools and handicrafts that encourage imagination in areas traditionally considered mundane. This view of the art museum envisions it as one well-suited to an industrial world, indeed enhancing it. Dana viewed paintings and sculptures as much less useful than industrial products, comparing the museum to a department store. In addition, he encouraged
23400-406: The word "palaeontology" to refer to the study of ancient living organisms through fossils. As knowledge of life's history continued to improve, it became increasingly obvious that there had been some kind of successive order to the development of life. This encouraged early evolutionary theories on the transmutation of species . After Charles Darwin published Origin of Species in 1859, much of
23556-454: Was "seeded" from elsewhere , but most research concentrates on various explanations of how life could have arisen independently on Earth. For about 2,000 million years microbial mats , multi-layered colonies of different bacteria, were the dominant life on Earth. The evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis enabled them to play the major role in the oxygenation of the atmosphere from about 2,400 million years ago . This change in
23712-626: Was a continuation of trends already well established. The building now occupied by the Prado in Madrid was built before the French Revolution for the public display of parts of the royal art collection, and similar royal galleries were opened to the public in Vienna , Munich and other capitals. In Great Britain, however, the corresponding Royal Collection remained in the private hands of
23868-412: Was an important German post-war artist who lived in Wiesbaden until his death. An international jury awards the prize at irregular intervals, which is associated with a cash reward and an exhibition at the Museum Wiesbaden. The previous laureates were: The originally independent Museum of Natural History in Wiesbaden was founded in 1829 by citizens of the region with the support of the Duke together with
24024-862: Was equally important as Adolph von Menzel , is represented in practically no other museum here. His Spaziergang im Tuileriengarten ("Walk in the Tuilerie Garden") of around 1855 is an early approach to Impressionism , from which he later withdrew. The Düsseldorf school of painting is represented by several works of the brothers Andreas Achenbach and Oswald Achenbach . The Deutschrömer – German artists and writers who lived in Rome – are represented by Anselm Feuerbach ( Nanna , 1861), Arnold Böcklin and Hans von Marées . Karl Friedrich Lessing and Johann Wilhelm Schirmer are also featured. Carl Spitzweg ( The Butterflycatcher , around 1840), Wilhelm von Kaulbach , Franz von Lenbach and Franz von Stuck form
24180-563: Was for example dismissed as director of the Alte Nationalgalerie (Old National Gallery) in Berlin in 1933 by the new Nazi authorities for not being politically suitable. The question of the place of the art museum in its community has long been under debate. Some see art museums as fundamentally elitist institutions, while others see them as institutions with the potential for societal education and uplift. John Cotton Dana , an American librarian and museum director, as well as
24336-571: Was the Green Vault of the Kingdom of Saxony in the 1720s. Privately funded museums open to the public began to be established from the 17th century onwards, often based around a collection of the cabinet of curiosities type. The first such museum was the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford , opened in 1683 to house and display the artefacts of Elias Ashmole that were given to Oxford University in
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