Visitor Experience enhancements with Art Museum Books + Digital Museum Strategies
Two affordable books at the front desk greatly helped me to plan my experience in two art museums.
Art Museums typically offer audio guides or guided tours to visitors to experience their collections.
However, I appreciated how these books allowed an enhanced experience of ‘slow looking’ at the artwork.
In this museum insight, I highlight the advantage of using these types of Jot Books from a visitor experience perspective for professionals involved in the Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums (GLAM) field.
In the chart of the end of this insight, you will find my analysis on how the Jot Books link to their digital strategy through online collections and YouTube videos.
Through this insight, our firm is building on our previous work in Digital Literacy for GLAM.
I visited three art museums:
- Gallerie dell’Accademia – Venice
- Pinacoteca Nazionale Bologna – Bologna
- Pinacoteca di Brera – Milan
Venice
In other posts and industry panels, I’ve described how art museums can enhance their digital strategy.
GLAM professionals can increase audience development and outreach to various communities by following a Loyalty Loop for Culture framework.
I was keen to use my time in Venice to understand more about the work of Titian.
One of my priorities for this trip was to see significant works by Titian located at the Gallerie Accademia.
Gallerie dell’Accademia had a book for sale that could help me plan my time there.
I used this book to prioritize the Titian, Tintoretto, and Bellini artwork.
The artist index on the back page could be used to match the room numbers to the museum’s layout on the front page.
Using this matching approach and jotting down my path, I was able to view 7 out of the 30 masterpieces.
Titian
One of the first rooms features a whole wall dedicated to The Presentation of the Virgin at the Temple (1534-1538).
You can sit and stand from several different angles to examine aspects of Titan’s storytelling.
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The museum’s Don’t Miss These Thirty jot book, mentions these aspects of Titian’s masterpiece:
- Part of the Venetian tradition of large-scale narratives
- A custom of portraying members of the confraternity among the bystanders
- The architectural details of St. Mark’s Square were promoted by Doge Andrea Gritti and carried out by Jocopo Sansovino.
Bellini
by Giovanni Bellini
Hieronymus Bosch
There were many surprises along the way, including viewing the artwork by Hieronymus Bosch.
The museum’s Don’t Miss These Thirty jot book, describes The Hermit Saints Triptych, H. Bosch, 1495-1505:
All the extraordinary imagination and visionary nature of Flemish painter Hieronymus Bosch shine through the lavish details of this “portable” altar devoted to three hermit saints.
- The left-hand panel portrays St. Anthony the Abbot in an infernal landscape, as he battles the demon who appeared to him in the guise of a young naked woman;
- in the centre, Jerome is depicted while praying in the “desert” before a decorated altar, surrounded by symbolic objects.
- On the right, we recognise St. Giles who, according to legend, was nourished by the milk of a deer, depicted at his feet.
Milan
With the Milan Art Museum, I was able to experience 4 out of the 30 pieces of artwork:
- Madonna and Child, G. Bellini, 1510
- St. Mark Preaching in Alexandria, G. & G Bellini, 1504-7
- Portrait of Laura da Pola, L. Lotto, 1543-4
- Portrait of Count Antionia Porcia and Brugnera, Titan (Tiziano Vecellio), 1535-40
The Madonna and Child, dated 1510, is the latest of the works by Giovanni Bellini in Brera.
Another key point was that Bellini was around 80 when he painted this artwork.
Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan
St. Mark Preaching in Alexandria,
1504 – 7
Gentle Bellini and Giovanni Bellini
The jot book mentioned that:
- Gentile Bellini was responsible for most of the work.
- Gentile worked for the Sultan in 1497 at Constantinople.
- Giovanni Bellini, his brother painted the confraternity group on the left.
I found a restoration lab in the middle of the public galleries.
Visitors can walk around the glass cube and see the preservation work in progress.
Pinacoteca di Brera has a Restoration Lab sponsored by the Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Linking Visitor Experience to Digital Museum Strategies
In this section, I will examine how each museum’s digital museum strategies match the visitor experience and material featured in the Jotbook/guide.
| Artwork Featured | Art Museum | Jot Book Comments | Online Collection Analysis |
| The Presentation of the Virgin at the Temple (1534-1538), Titan | Gallerie dell’Accademia – Venice | This work wasn’t obvious on the path, however, I was looking for it based on finding works by Titian using the artist guide at the back of the book. | Not featured as a story in the museum’s online collection. The image was not found, so a wiki-commons image was used instead. |
| Madonna and Child with Saints Catharine and Mary Magdalene, Giovanni Bellini | Gallerie dell’Accademia – Venice | This artwork is an example of a piece I would have liked to see, but I missed it somehow because the room they had placed it in was off to the side, and I was focused on finding Three Scenes from the Life of St. Mark, Giovanni Mansueti, 1525 -1531. | Both of the Bellini artwork pieces featured detailed online posts including a high-quality picture of the artwork so one can look at the piece before and after the visit. Gold Star for Collections Online information. |
| The Hermit Saints Triptych, Hieronymus Bosch, 1495-1505 | Gallerie dell’Accademia – Venice | I appreciated the detailed way the Jot book described each panel in the Triptych so I could follow and trace the concepts. | I was unable to find this artwork featured on their website. I used an image from the Web Gallery of Art instead. |
| The Madonna and Child, Giovanni Bellini, 1510 | Pinacoteca di Brera – Milan | The jot book cleverly explained the green centre of the painting in this way: “Seating Mary on a clot chair allowed him to play with a luminous colour palate: green watered silk against forested hill” | I appreciated that the museum had offered this image as a high-resolution image to download, and also offered this insight online: “in fact examination under infrared light, carried out during the restoration of 1987, revealed the almost total absence of preparatory drawing, reduced to a summary sketch without hatching or shading on which the image was constructed solely by the spreading of paint.” Gold Star for Collections Online information alignment with Book |
| St. Mark Preaching in Alexandria, 1504 – 7 Gentle Bellini and Giovanni Bellini | Pinacoteca di Brera – Milan | I probably spent over 20 minutes looking at this painting because there are so many people depicted within. It reminded me a little of Raphael’s School of Athens fresco that I had viewed at the Vatican. Having the Jot book with me helped to explain different aspects of the painting and what to look for. | I appreciated that the museum had offered this image as a high-resolution image to download, and also offered this insight online: “The huge canvas adorned the reception room of the Scuola Grande di San Marco in Venice, one of the city’s most prestigious and powerful confraternities.” Gold Star for Collections Online information alignment with Book. |
YouTube resources that enriched my visitor experience in Italy:
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