Adolf Furtwängler

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Adolf Furtwängler
Furtwängler's birthplace next to the Freiburg im Breisgau district court
Furtwängler's grave in the First Athens Cemetery

Johann Michael Adolf Furtwängler (born June 30, 1853 in Freiburg im Breisgau , † October 10, 1907 in Athens ) was a German classical archaeologist .

Life

Adolf Furtwängler was a son of the Freiburg grammar school director Wilhelm Furtwängler and his wife Christiane, nee. Schmidt. After studying at the universities of Freiburg , Leipzig and Munich and receiving his doctorate with Heinrich Brunn in 1874, he received a travel grant from the German Archaeological Institute from 1876 to 1878 and took part in excavations in Mycenae , Olympia and Aegina . After his habilitation in Bonn in 1879, he was assistant director at the sculpture collection in Berlin from 1880 and at the Antiquarium in Berlin from 1882 .

In 1894 Adolf Furtwängler became professor of classical archeology in Munich and at the same time director of the museum for casts of classical sculptures . In 1896 he also became director of the Glyptothek and the Antiquarium in Munich.

family

Adolf Furtwängler was married to Adelheid Wendt (1863–1944) since 1884. The couple had four children, the conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler (1886–1954), the mountaineer Walter Furtwängler (1887–1967), Märit (Martha, 1891–1962), who married the philosopher Max Scheler in 1912 , and Annele (Anna, 1900– 1974). The grandson Andreas E. Furtwängler (* 1944) is also a classical archaeologist.

meaning

Adolf Furtwängler is considered to be one of the most important German archaeologists and the main proponent of an “art-historical” classical archeology in contrast to the realities and philological direction that predominated in the 19th century.

His processing of the archaic bronze finds from Olympia was decisive for researching the history of archaic art , his studies on Mycenaean ceramics carried out with his friend Georg Loeschke were groundbreaking for the research of Greek art of the 2nd millennium BC. During his time in Berlin, he presented comprehensive and systematic catalogs of vases and gems for the time .

In the field of plastic research, he initiated a modern critique of copies and master research, which culminated in his book Masterpieces of Greek Sculpture , which is still considered to be groundbreaking today.

During his time in Munich, from 1901 onwards, he was digging at the Temple of Aphaia on Aegina , the place of origin of the Munich Aeginetenskulpturen.

Fonts (selection)

  • with Georg Loeschke : Mycenaean clay vessels . Asher, Berlin 1879.
  • The gold find from Vettersfelde (= program for the Winckelmann Festival of the Archaeological Society of Berlin. Volume 43). Reimer, Berlin 1883 ( digitized version ).
  • Description of the vase collection in the Antiquarium . 2 volumes. Spemann Berlin 1885 ( digitized ).
  • with Georg Loeschke: Mycenaean vases. Pre-Hellenic clay pots from the Mediterranean Sea. Asher, Berlin 1886 ( digitized version ).
  • The bronzes and the other smaller finds from Olympia (= Olympia. The results of the excavation organized by the German Reich. Volume 4). 2 volumes (text volume, table volume). Asher, Berlin 1890 ( digitized version ).
  • Masterpieces of Greek sculpture. Art historical research. 2 volumes (text volume, table volume). Giesecke & Devrient, Leipzig a. a. 1893 ( digitized ).
  • Description of the cut stones in the Antiquarium . Spemann, Berlin 1896 ( digitized version ).
  • The ancient gems. History of stone cutting art in classical antiquity. 3 volumes (Volume 1: panels. Volume 2: Description and explanation of the panels. Volume 3: History of the stone-cutting art in the classical age. ). Giesecke & Devrient, Leipzig a. a. 1900 ( digitized version ).
  • with Karl Reichhold (ed.): Greek vase painting. Selection of excellent vase pictures. Series 1 (2 volumes: text volume, table volume). Bruckmann, Munich 1904.
  • with Ernst Robert Fiechter and Hermann Thiersch (eds.): Aegina. Sanctuary of Aphaia. 2 volumes (text volume, table volume). Publishing of K. B. Academy of Sciences, Munich 1906 ( Text tape, digitized , Tafelband, digitized ).
  • Small fonts. Edited by Johannes Sieveking and Ludwig Curtius . 2 volumes. Beck, Munich 1912–1913.

literature

Web links

Commons : Adolf Furtwängler  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Adolf Furtwängler  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ see Freiburg State Archives: Freiburg, Catholic Community: Münsterpfarrei, Standesbuch 1850–1859, entry no. 62/1853
personal data
SURNAME Furtwängler, Adolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German classical archaeologist
DATE OF BIRTH June 30, 1853
PLACE OF BIRTH Freiburg in Breisgau
DATE OF DEATH October 10, 1907
Place of death Athens