Les musées de sciences naturelles : entre science et art

Abstract

Museums of Natural Sciences : Science or Art ? Museums of Natural Sciences found their origins in the old Wunderkammern. From its creation in 1635 as a royal collection, the National Museum in Paris was a centre of close relationship between sciences and artists, those at least who found their sources of inspiration in Nature. On the other hand, scientists needed artists to draw Nature and keep traces of what they were studying. If, to-day, we chiefly give these images an artistic and historical value, at the time, they were considered as truly scientific references. From 1960, a gap widened between the scientist and the artist who no longer needed museums to approach Nature. Artistic concepts have changed and, to-day, artists are asked to interpret their own visions. From that time, sciences and culture went their separate ways. We are at the heart of the debate between the museology of objects and the museology of ideas which is going to affect the museal community for many years. The message supported must be “ civic ” and take into account the social necessities so that the result of research may help to understand the stakes of development. The renovation of the Great Gallery in the Paris Museum worked as a catalyser of these ideas. By placing the visitor in a position of leisure, we may hope to make him realize what is at stake in sciences