Ateneum is an

art museum An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the display of art, usually from the museum's own Collection (artwork), collection. It might be in public or private ownership and may be accessible to all or have restrictions in place. A ...

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

and one of the three museums forming the

Finnish National Gallery Finnish National Gallery ( fi, Suomen Kansallisgalleria, sv, Finlands Nationalgalleri) is the largest art museum institution of Finland. It consists of the Ateneum, an art museum; Kiasma, a contemporary art museum; and the Sinebrychoff Art Muse ...

. It is located in the centre of Helsinki on the south side of

Rautatientori Helsinki Railway Square ( fi, Rautatientori, sv, Järnvägstorget) is an open square immediately to the east of the Helsinki Central railway station in central Helsinki in Finland. The square serves as Helsinki's secondary bus station along with ...

square close to

Helsinki Central railway station Helsinki Central Station ( fi, Helsingin päärautatieasema, sv, Helsingfors centralstation) ( HEC) is the main station for commuter rail and long-distance trains departing from Helsinki, Finland. The station is used by approximately 400,000 peo ...

. It has the biggest collections of classical art in Finland. Before 1991 the Ateneum building also housed the Finnish

Academy of Fine Arts The following is a list of notable art schools. Accredited non-profit art and design colleges * Adelaide Central School of Art * Alberta College of Art and Design * Art Academy of Cincinnati * Art Center College of Design * The Art Institute o ...

and

University of Art and Design Helsinki A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

Collections

The collections of Ateneum include Finnish art extensively from 18th-century rococo portraiture to the experimental art movements of the 20th century. The collections also include some 650 international works of art. One of them is

Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2 ...

's ''Street in Auvers-sur-Oise'' (1890), which when deposited to Ateneum in 1903 made it the first museum collection in the world to include a Vincent van Gogh painting. Other notable works include Albert Edelfelt’s ''The Luxembourg Garden'' (1887),

Akseli Gallen-Kallela Akseli Gallen-Kallela (26 April 1865 – 7 March 1931) was a Finnish painter who is best known for his illustrations of the ''Kalevala'', the Finnish national epic. His work is considered a very important aspect of the Finnish national ident ...

’s ''Aino Triptych'' (1891),

Eero Järnefelt Erik "Eero" Nikolai Järnefelt (8 November 1863 – 15 November 1937) was a Finnish painter and art professor. He is best known for his portraits and landscapes of the area around Koli National Park. He was a medal winner at the Paris ''Expositi ...

’s ''Under the Yoke (Burning the Brushwood)'' (1893) and

Hugo Simberg Hugo Gerhard Simberg (24 June 1873 – 12 July 1917) was a Finnish symbolist painter and graphic artist. Life and career Simberg was born on 24 June 1873, at Hamina (in the original Swedish: ''Fredrikshamn''), Finland, the son of Colonel Nico ...

’s ''Wounded Angel'' (1903).

Notable works

Architecture

The Ateneum building was designed by

Theodor Höijer Carl Theodor Höijer (20 February 1843, Helsinki – 31 October 1910, Helsinki) was a Finns, Finnish architect. He designed a large number of buildings in central Helsinki. He was the first architect in Finland who managed to pursue a truly succe ...

and completed in 1887. The facade of Ateneum is decorated with statues and reliefs which contain a lot of symbols. Above the main entrance, in the second floor, are busts of three famous classical artists: architect

Bramante Donato Bramante ( , , ; 1444 – 11 April 1514), born as Donato di Pascuccio d'Antonio and also known as Bramante Lazzari, was an Italian architect and painter. He introduced Renaissance architecture to Milan and the High Renaissance style ...

, painter

Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of works by Raphael, His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of ...

and sculptor

Phidias Phidias or Pheidias (; grc, Φειδίας, ''Pheidias''; 480 – 430 BC) was a Greek sculptor, painter, and architect. His Statue of Zeus at Olympia was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Phidias also designed the stat ...

. Above the busts, in the third floor, four

caryatid A caryatid ( or or ; grc, Καρυᾶτις, pl. ) is a sculpted female figure serving as an architectural support taking the place of a column or a pillar supporting an entablature on her head. The Greek term ''karyatides'' literally means "ma ...

s support the pediment. These symbolize the four classical art forms: sculpture, painting, geometry, and architecture.http://vanderkrogt.net/statues/object.php?webpage=ST&record=fi117 Façade decoration of the Ateneum The facade culminates in a collage of sculptures in which the Goddess of Art,

Pallas Athene Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarded as the patron and protectress of v ...

, blesses the products of the different art forms. Below the pediment's collage is the Latin phrase '' Concordia res parvae crescunt'' (''With concord small things increase''), which is usually understood in Helsinki to refer to the long-lasting battle of the Finnish art circles in order to establish the museum. All the statues were by Carl Eneas Sjöstrand. In between the second floor windows are 16 medallion-style reliefs by Ville Vallgren representing some of Finland's most well known creative people of his day, including painter Aleksander Lauréus, Werner Holmberg and the architect

Carl Ludvig Engel Carl Ludvig Engel, or Johann Carl Ludwig Engel (3 July 1778 – 14 May 1840), was a German architect whose most noted work can be found in Helsinki, which he helped rebuild. His works include most of the buildings around the capital's monumental ...

. Other ornamental elements were sculpted by

Magnus von Wright Magnus von Wright (13 June 1805 – 5 July 1868) was a Swedish-Finnish painter and educator. In addition to bird illustrations, he was also known for his landscapes. Biography Magnus von Wright was born at the village of Haminalahti in Ku ...

. The Ateneum building is owned by

Senate Properties sv, Senatfastigheter , logo = Senate logo.gif , type = Liikelaitos Senate Properties 2009(Finnish). (≈ unincorporated entity, unincorporated state-owned enterprise) Ministry of Finance 2009. Senate Properties 2009/ref ...

( fi, Senaatti-kiinteistöt), the government real estate provider.

References

External links

Ateneum Art Museum
within Google Arts & Culture * {{Helsinki Cityscape 1887 establishments in Finland Museums in Helsinki Art museums and galleries in Finland Art museums established in 1887 Kluuvi

Collections

Notable works

Architecture

See also

References

External links