Museum of Classical Archaeology, Cambridge, University museum of classical archaeology in Cambridge, United Kingdom
The Museum of Classical Archaeology is a university museum in Cambridge that holds a large collection of plaster casts of Greek and Roman sculptures. The casts are arranged in a single long gallery in chronological order, running from archaic works through to pieces from the Hellenistic and Roman periods.
The collection was put together in the 1880s to support teaching in classical archaeology at Cambridge University. It moved to its current building in 1983, where it has been open to students and visitors ever since.
Many of the casts carry notes or reconstructions showing how the originals were once painted in bright colors, which changes how you read the figures entirely. Seeing them this way makes it clear that ancient sculpture was never meant to look like plain white stone.
The museum is free to enter and sits on the university campus, making it an easy stop during a walk around Cambridge. As everything is in one room, you can take in the whole collection in about an hour without feeling rushed.
Some of the casts reproduce sculptures whose originals have since been lost or destroyed, making these plaster versions the only way to see those works in full. In a few cases, the casts are actually more complete than the damaged originals that still survive.
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