History of the museography of the National Sculpture Museum of Valladolid. A reflection on the reciprocal relationship between museums and society or the museum as an instrument of the new social paradigms.

Since the first Wunderkammern to modern museums, the way museums have been envisioned has changed over time to mirror the social and cultural trends of each historical moment. At the same time, museums have been used as instruments from where innovative ideas were promoted to society. In this study we analyse the reciprocal interaction between museums and society by studying the changes in museology and exhibition techniques. Our hypothesis is that each change in the concept and role of museums was also reflected in the museology, which was adapted to better reproduce the ideals that the museum wanted to show to society. We studied the historical evolution of the museography of the National Museum of Sculpture of Valladolid, as well as the social and cultural trends of each historical moment to establish a correlation between them. The results confirm the direct and intimate relationship between museums, museography and changing social paradigms. We can conclude that the aesthetic evolution of the public presentation of the collections determines the image and self-identity, both that of the museum in itself and that which it projects externally. Simultaneously this evolution also reflects innovative ideas about the role of culture within society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]