Architecture
- Museum: Museum Of Natural History
- Description:
Art sketchbook page showcasing the stunning and historically important building full of artistic detail.
Stone Carving
Around the museum you will find beautifully carved stonework up high and down low. The carvings were created by exceptionally talented stonemasons the O’Shea brothers. If you look around you will see carvings of plants which were modelled directly from real plants from the University’s Botanic Garden. The O’Shea brothers also carved animals, look in the museum porch to find a parrot, an owl and see if you can identify any others.
John Ruskin
Although the building was created to house a science collection, it was designed and created by artists and skilled craftsmen. One man that was very influential in the design of the building was art critic John Ruskin (1819 – 1900). Ruskin helped to start the Pre-Raphaelite movement which was about creating art that was true to nature. He believed that the building should be a vision of nature in its own right and each piece of the museum’s stone carving should be carefully copied from real plants.
Architecture
The museum was built in 1860 and there was a open competition to design it. Benjamin Woodward was the architect who won the competition and created this beautiful building with the influence of John Ruskin. John Ruskin made drawings of what he hoped the museum would look like in terms of the design. Think about designing your own building and use the museum for inspiration. http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/learning/pdfs/arch.pdf
