The Antikensammlung Berlin is one of the most important collections of its kind in the world. Its highlights include the “Berlin Goddess”, the “Praying Boy”, the “Green Caesar”, the portrait of Cleopatra and the astonishing sculptural decoration of the Great Altar of Pergamon. In this lavishly illustrated volume Andreas Scholl, Director of the Antikensammlung, offers a fascinating survey of classical sculpture on display at the Altes Museum, the Neues Museum, the Pergamonmuseum and the interim building “Pergamonmuseum. Das Panorama”. He briefly discusses the artistic and technical qualities of the statues and reliefs, their original cultural context, and explains the functions they served on graves, in public spaces and in sanctuaries. Presenting works of Greek, Cypriot, Etruscan and Roman sculpture, the book is also a short history of classical sculptural art. To conclude, Andreas Scholl also outlines the 350 year history of the collection, which after World War II and the division of Germany is now reunited on the Museumsinsel.
Author(s): Andreas Scholl
Publisher: C. H. Beck
Year: 2020
Language: English
Pages: 256
Tags: Art, Ancient art, Classical art, Museum, Berlin, Antikensammlung, Pergamon
Cover
Contents
The Collection of Classical Antiquites Berlin today
The Altes Museum
Ancient worlds. The new presentation of the Antikensammlung in the Altes Museum
Italia antiqua. Etruscans and Romans in Berlin
The Antikensammlung in the Neues Museum
Greek sculpture
The age of heroes. Early Greece
Places of the gods. Sanctuaries in archaic Greece
Memory and representation. Funerary monuments in archaic Greece
Gods and heroes. Images from Greek mythology
Votive offerings in the classical period
Masterpieces. The human image in the Greek classical period
Life and death in classical Athens. Everyday life in an ancient metropolis
Greek theatre. Cult and entertainment
The western Greeks. Southern Italy and Sicily
Alexander and the outcome. The age of Hellenism
The island of Aphrodite. Sculptures from ancient Cyprus
The Pergamon Altar. Architecture, sculpture and meaning
Reconstruction of the altar in the Pergamonmuseum
The architecture of the Pergamon Altar
The great frieze with the gigantomachy
The small frieze with the Telephos myth
The roof figures: the gods await the battle
The architectural form of the Pergamon Altar. Origin and meaning
The Pergamon Altar as the palace of Zeus
The reliefs at the top of the stairs. The climax of the battle
Etruscan and Roman sculpture
The Etruscans. Rise of a civilization
Funerary sculpture from Chiusi
Etruscan architecture. Roof terracottas from Southern Etruria and Latium
Etruscan sanctuaries and votive offerings
Etruscan mythology and belief in the afterlife
Life and death in Rome
Roman sculpture and Greek model
Luxury as a lifestyle. Sculpture in Roman villas
Rome. Faces of the empire. Imperial and private portraiture
History of the Collection of Classical Antiquities Berlin
From the Kunstkammer at the Schloss to the Museum in the Lustgarten
Classical antiquity in the museum and at the university
The original presentation of ancient sculpture in the Altes Museum
The first decades after the opening of the Altes Museum
The sculptures from Pergamon. A new world enters the Altes Museum
The new installation of the Antikensammlung by Reinhard Kekulé von Stradonitz
The Pergamonmuseum
The Second World War and its repercussions
The Antikensammlung in East Berlin
The Antikensammlung in West Berlin
The reunified Antikensammlung in the Altes Museum
Chronological table
Bibliography
Floor plans of the museums
