Collection of casts

Room with casts of medieval art in the Victoria & Albert Museum

A cast collection keeps copies of art-historically significant sculptures and makes them available to an interested public for study purposes. The origin of this presentation of art in the form of replicas goes back to the late 18th century and was based on the desire to be able to show antique sculptures in particular north of the Alps and in direct comparison. The copies were mostly made of plaster and on a scale of 1: 1. However, an exact replica was not necessarily the goal. Sometimes the size or even details of the elaboration were adapted to the requirements of the particular presentation. Cast collections were shown in their own museums, but also set up for teaching purposes at art academies , archaeological and art history institutes. Many collections that are independent today were originally founded at universities or academies. According to its own admission, the oldest and largest collection of casts in Germany belongs to the University of Bonn . For archeology, the advantage lies in the possibility of a three-dimensional view, which other image media cannot offer.

In the 19th century , collections of casts of the country's most important art monuments were established in the capitals of some European nation states (for example in Paris and London ).

Due to the change in aesthetics in the 20th century, cast collections have been neglected. They were seen as relics of a dusty ideal of education and lifeless academicism. Some large collections, such as that of the Brooklyn Museum of Art , were given up entirely; others, such as the collection in Leipzig , suffered from the consequences of the war, inadequate housing and little interest from their supporting institutions or the general public. This situation changed fundamentally only in the last decade of the 20th century.

Today the cast has been recognized as an instrument of merchandising by the major museums. In museum shops not only finished casts central works of the collection in plaster or resin sold. Special casting workshops also make copies on request.

Important collections of casts

Stand-alone collections

• Gipsformerei of the State Museums in Berlin , Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation
• Sculpture Hall Basel
• Museum for Casts of Classical Sculptures , Munich
• Musée des Monuments français , Paris
• Victoria and Albert Museum , London
• Mengs cast collection , sculpture collection of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden
• Cast collection of medieval sculptures, Asbach Abbey , branch museum of the Bavarian National Museum , Munich

Cast collections at universities

• Collection of antique plastic casts in Berlin
• Academic Art Museum , Bonn
• Archaeological Institute of the University of Frankfurt am Main
• Museum for Casts of Classical Sculptures , Munich
• Plaster collection from the University of Erlangen
• Collection of casts from the Philipps University of Marburg
• Collection of plaster casts and replicas of the Archaeological Museum of the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg.
• Collection of casts in the museum of the University of Tübingen
• Museum of antiquities and collection of casts at Heidelberg University
• Collection of casts in the Archaeological Museum of the Westphalian Wilhelms University of Münster
• Archaeological collection of the University of Zurich
• Bern Collection of Antiquities
• Collection des moulages de l'Université de Genève
• Collection of casts from the University of Leipzig
• Collection of casts from the University of Göttingen
• Kiel Collection of Antiquities

literature

• Johannes Bauer: plaster cast collections at German-speaking universities. A sketch of its history and meaning: In: Yearbook for University History : 5; 2002 pp. 117-132.
• Donna C. Kurtz (editor): The reception of classical art in Britain. An Oxford story of plaster casts from the antique. Beazley Archive and Archaeopress, Oxford 2000.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Lively antiquity in plaster of paris for the cast collection of the University of Marburg, accessed on January 10, 2010
2. ^ Collection of casts of antique sculpture in the Antikenmuseum der Universität Leipzig , accessed on January 10, 2010
3. ^ The Cast Courts - Victoria and Albert Museum . www.vam.ac.uk. Archived from the original on March 3, 2008. Retrieved July 3, 2010.
4. ↑ Collection of antique plastic casts in Berlin . Abguss-sammlung-berlin.de. Retrieved February 24, 2013.
5. ^ Facilities of the institute . Web.uni-frankfurt.de. Retrieved July 3, 2010.
6. ↑ AERIA - The plaster cast collection . www.aeria.phil.uni-erlangen.de. Archived from the original on August 17, 2007. Retrieved July 3, 2010.
7. ^ Philipps University of Marburg - Classical Archeology: Collection of casts . Uni-marburg.de. February 20, 2009. Retrieved July 3, 2010.
8. ^ Cast collection - Museum of Hohentübingen Castle . www.uni-tuebingen.de. Retrieved April 9, 2018.
9. ^ Museums of the University of Münster: Archaeological Museum . Uni-muenster.de. Retrieved February 24, 2013.
10. ^ Archaeological Institute and Archaeological Collection . University of Zurich. Retrieved February 24, 2013.
11. ↑ Catalog de la collection des moulages de l'Université de Genève . cms.unige.ch. Retrieved April 9, 2018.
12. ^ Institute for Classical Archeology and Museum of Antiquities at the University of Leipzig: cast collection . Uni-leipzig.de. Retrieved July 3, 2010.