Antique collection of the Martin von Wagner Museum

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The Würzburg four seasons altar , one of the showpieces in the collection.

The antique collection of the Martin von Wagner Museum is one of the three sub-collections as well as one of the two departments of the Martin von Wagner Museum in the south wing of the Würzburg Residence , along with the paintings and graphics collections, which together form a department . The publicly accessible collection is also a university teaching and research collection and is traditionally supervised in conjunction with the Chair of Classical Archeology at the University of Würzburg .

The collection is the largest of its kind in Germany. Like all university antique collections, it focuses on ceramics and houses the third largest collection in Germany with more than 5000 pieces. Many of these pieces are of international importance and raise the collection to the rank of a world-class museum. In addition to works from classical antiquity , works from other advanced cultures of antiquity, especially from ancient Egypt and ancient Asia , but also from prehistoric times, are collected and shown.

status

The Antikensammlung is part of the Martin von Wagner Museum and has its own director with Jochen Griesbach and the newer department with Damian Dombrowski . The administration and restoration also have their own staff, only an additional curator and a photo designer are missing from the antiquities collection in comparison. Both departments are accessible at different times, thus saving personnel resources for supervision. The eight-person advisory board includes Matthias Steinhart , the professor for Classical Archeology in Würzburg , and the Egyptologist Martin Stadler, two Würzburg ancient scholars and two external classical archaeologists, Katja Lembke and Martin Maischberger .

Until 2014, the directorate of the Antikensammlung - initially even the director's office of the entire collection - was traditionally associated with the appointment of the Chair of Classical Archeology. In 2014 this connection was severed and Jochen Griesbach, until then curator of the collection, became director, while Matthias Steinhart, as chair holder, is now a member of the museum's advisory board.

history

As for the modern department, the painters and Royal Bavarian Art Agent in Rome put together the basis of the collection by Johann Martin von Wagner . While working as a buyer for the Staatliche Antikensammlungen and Glyptothek , Wagner also put together his own art collection, including many antiques that were considered exemplary in the 19th century. In his will, he bequeathed his collection to the university on the condition that the university was responsible for its accommodation, installation and unrestricted accessibility for all. In addition, Wagner expressed the hope that his foundation would serve as a model for further donations and that the museum would thus continue to grow. On the mediation of the university librarian Anton Ruland , who was sent to Wagner in Rome, Wagner made the university a general heir and also bequeathed his fortune, which was used as endowment capital for the maintenance and expansion of the museum. After Wagner's death, Franz Hettinger brought the collection from Rome to Würzburg in 1859. Probably the most important piece in Wagner's collection is a centaur's head , a fragment of a relief that later turned out to be part of the Parthenon frieze from the Acropolis .

The famous Würzburg Brygos bowl came into the inventory with the Feoli collection.

Initially, the collection was not put up, and the proceeds from the foundation's capital were used to save for a museum. But when Ludwig von Urlich found out during a stay in Rome in 1872 that the Feoli collection, the last large Italian private collection of antique ceramics by a landowner on whose site ancient Etruscan necropolises had been excavated, was for sale, he took action. Since the collection had to be sold quickly and did not have to wait for the highest bid, Urlichs used the technology of telegraphing, which was still comparatively modern at the time, and obtained approval from the Ministry and, after some hesitation, from the University Senate in Würzburg to acquire the collection of around 480 vases. At a special meeting, a speech by Felix Dahn convinced the Senate to purchase the collection. Urlichs initially financed the purchase privately. In addition, as early as 1860, from interest income from Wagner's foundation capital, he acquired the collection of Wagner's friend, the German-Dutch painter Ludwig Brüls , who lived in Rome , which consisted of glasses, gems , vases and bronzes . In 1862 the collection of the Bavarian Legation Councilor by Faber, which had been assembled in Athens, was added, which mainly consisted of Attic reliefs and other, mostly smaller, marble works.

After the Feoli collection was acquired, the collection was exhibited in the university, and the central display case was named “the temple”. After that, no major purchases were made and no major gifts were given for almost 20 years. In 1892 Karl Sittl acquired the Margaritis collection, comprising 300 objects, for the museum; the collection mainly comprised Greek and Asian terracottas and Greek vases. Sittl also acquired other pieces in the Athens art trade and, until 1894, also archaeological finds from Franconia. He ended the acquisition of domestic material after the Franconian Art and Antiquity Association was founded in 1894 . He was able to gain additional rooms in the west wing of the university in order to be able to better exhibit the growing collection.

Paul Wolters , professor at the University of Würzburg, headed the collection from 1900 to 1908 and rearranged the inventories with his assistant Georg Hock . The 30 old inventories were now ten objectively arranged. He was able to acquire the collection primarily through donations from Egyptica through the Egypt Exploration Account , the Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft and Friedrich Wilhelm von Bissing, as well as through targeted purchases to close gaps in Greek ceramics of the late 5th and 4th centuries BC. As well as by Lower Italian pieces. Especially Heinrich Bulle drove the expansion of the cast collection pioneered and created this as well as the ancient sculptures 1910 on the second floor of the University as well as 1921, the vases on the third floor scratch. For the effect of the vases and terracottas, the colored backgrounds previously common for the 19th century were covered in matt yellow and the showcases were painted dark. In addition, other originals were also acquired, such as the two famous Würzburg theater pieces . He also closed gaps in the ceramics collection and acquired geometric , late Classical and Lower Italian pieces. After the foundation's capital lost its value during the inflation in the 1920s, Bulle was very successful in soliciting patrons for funds to make acquisitions. Curt Elschner , for example, financed the purchase of the broken pieces of the theater . Thanks to Bille's interest in the history of the Greek theater , many pieces related to this were acquired, and to this day this topic is one of the central research areas of the museum and university institute. When the Franconian Luitpold Museum was founded, all Franconian pieces in the collection were loaned to the new museum that opened in 1913. Since 1922, the collection of antiquities, like the collection of modern times, had its own curator , and there had been a “taxidermist” ( restorer ) since 1911 . In 1932 Ernst Langlotz wrote a catalog of the vases. He described 958 pieces in detail, and they were also shown on 237 plates. It was the most extensive catalog of its kind at the time. In order to prevent the annoying reflections when taking photos, he invented the "Würzburger box", which was used as polarizing light until the 1960s.

Torso of a miniature replica of Myron's Diskobolos (Roman copy, 2nd century).

The collection suffered heavy losses during the Second World War . Most of the holdings that were not removed from the university were destroyed in the devastating bomb attack on April 16, 1945. The casts were destroyed by the collapsing ceiling, Bucchero vases stored in the cellar melted, as did bronzes, glasses, gems and the coin collection in the fire. Large parts of the Egyptology were also lost. The vases stored in the basement of the brewery in Thüngen Castle were also not undamaged. Looters, who suspected real treasures to be among the art treasures, destroyed many of the vases, others were stolen, and entire boxes of vases were set on fire. However, this part of the collection survived the disaster best. The shards were swept up and restored in the following years in painstaking work by Wolfgang Züchner and the restorer Paul Lichtfuß. In doing so, they also removed incorrect modern additions. Thanks to the support of Franz Gottwalt Fischer , many of the charred vases could also be burned back. They were also protected from iron oxide damage with a layer of wax. The later restorer Sabine Wandel used more modern methods for this. In the course of the 1950s, a large number of the vases were restored. This was accompanied by an increasing problem of space, the basement of the former museum was no longer sufficient. It took Hans Möbius several years to secure a new domicile for the collection: the residence. On April 1, 1963, the museum in the south wing was opened in several consecutive rooms. It had a fixed budget, full-time staff and daily opening hours.

View of the collection, opened in 1963, Room D.

In the period that followed, the collection was gradually expanded from its own funds, although a large part of the budget had to be used for the maintenance of the museum. In 1966, Erika Simon bought the most important sculpture in the collection, the Würzburg four- seasons altar from Giorgio Fallani in Rome . More and more people were now dependent on foundations and loans. In 1972, on the occasion of the anniversary of the purchase of the Feoli collection, the Bavarian Ministry of Culture donated an East Greek dinosaur . Other foundations were made by the University of Würzburg , the banker Wilhelm Reuschel and Irene and Peter Ludwig , among others . In 1982, the museum received a very important private collection as a donation with the 2500 Egyptian, Minoan and Greek objects collection from Alexander Kiseleff . The condition was to leave the collection closed, which was taken into account with the closed presentation in room 3 of the collection. For the first time, as in the case of the Egyptica after the war losses, the collection was able to fill several gaps in the collection. The mummy portraits and the Coptic fabrics are of particular importance . Other important foundations since the 1980s were oriental bronzes by Paul and Ellen Doetsch, Roman glasses and gems by Wolfgang Leydhecker and Hans-Joachim Schwerdhöfer's collection of prehistoric and late antique pieces.

The collection has been indexed several times by guides in book form since the mid-1970s. The guide through the antiques department of the Martin-von-Wagner-Museum at the University of Würzburg , published in 1975, briefly introduces all the pieces on display, but does not offer a sufficient number of images. That changed in the 1983 Guide to Works of Antiquity in the Martin von Wagner Museum of the University of Würzburg , which only lists 80 numbers, but presents them in more detail and with better and sometimes colored images. Also the volume Encounters with Antiquity, released in 2001 . Evidence from four millennia of Mediterranean culture in the Martin von Wagner Museum of the University of Würzburg again shows a cross-section of the pieces in the collection in 80 catalog numbers with now consistently colored, high-quality images and also includes newly acquired pieces from the Kiseleff collection. In addition, the objects in the antique collection are recorded in inventory books. These have been cultivated since the beginning of the 20th century. About two thirds of the collection is recorded on index cards. A database has been under construction since the beginning of 2009 and is currently not publicly accessible. The digitization of the holdings started in 2008. About 80 percent of the inventory is documented photographically.

collection

The core of the collection is the vase collection, which consists mainly of pieces from the 1500 BC period. BC to 300 AD and a focus on pieces from the heyday of Greek and especially Attic ceramics between 560 and 300 BC. Chr. Sets.

In addition to some of the works of art already mentioned, some pieces can be named as examples for the collection. The Egyptian collection, for example, houses a red-painted string eyelet vessel with a rare depiction of an Egyptian ship. The Cycladic culture is represented by a female Cycladic idol. The collection houses a rare and precious boar tooth helmet from the Mycenaean culture . The Etruscan culture is represented with several typical works of pottery. Works with inscriptions stand out , especially the oinochoe of Mamarce . There is also a pontic amphora . There are works of Eastern Greek ceramics , including several figural Askoi and a Chiot chalice . Outstanding works of black-figure vase painting are an amphora with a pederastic scene by the Phrynos painter , a droop bowl from the workshop of Antidoros , an amphora with Silenen as the vintner of Amasis , a dinosaur of the Kampana genus , the Phineus bowl , a belly amphora des Andokides , a neck amphora by the Achelous Painter and a hydria by the Priam Painter .

The Attic - red-figure vase painting is pieces like Bauchamphoren of Kleophrades painter and Syleus-painter , a Spitzamphora with the representation of Heracles in the dispute over the Delphic tripod of the Berlin painter , goblets of antiphon painter , known Brygos cup of Würzburg the Brygos- Painter , the high-class master Duris , the Jena painter , represents a stamnos showing the murder of tyrants , who was long ascribed to Syriskos , known as the Copenhagen painter . Boreas and Oreithyia appear on a pelike by the Niobid Painter . A neck amphora of Hermonax shows a warrior farewell , a beaked jug of Polion shows Eros riding a dolphin . A musical picture puzzle by the Christie Painter is shown on a calyx crater . The name vase of the painter of the Würzburg Ammymone shows a satyr play on a bell crater .

The most important pieces of the South Italian ceramics are the famous theater shards that the Konnakis Painter and his circle, important representatives of gnathia vases are attributed. Red-figure pottery is attributed to the underworld painter , among others . The painted ceramic ends with a Hâdra-Hydria .

Special exhibitions

Special exhibitions of the collection of antiquities or special exhibitions related to antiquities

  • 1995: Luxury dishes for Celtic princes. Greek ceramics north of the Alps (special exhibition of the Mainfränkisches Museum Würzburg in connection with the antiquities department of the Martin-von-Wagner-Museum of the University of Würzburg and the Prehistoric State Collection Munich)
  • 1996: Sports in the ancient world. Competition, play and education in antiquity
  • 1997: Myths and People. Greek vase art from a German private collection
  • 1999: Goethe, die Antike and Martin von Wagner
  • 1999/2000: horse man and lion woman. Hybrid creatures of antiquity. With virtual gallery
  • 2001: The Hildesheim silver treasure in galvanoplastic replicas from the Württembergische Metallwarenfabrik (WMF)
  • 2001: Athletes in ancient times
  • 2001/2002: Music and dance in ancient Greece
  • 2002: writing, language, image and sound. Special exhibition on the occasion of the 600th anniversary of the university
  • 2003: The Greeks and their neighbors
  • 2003: cherished, hunted, sacrificed. Animals in ancient Greece
  • 2003/2004: To the forces of nature. World and myths of the ancient Peruvian Nasca Indians
  • 2003/2004: Half of life is a festival. Everyday life in ancient Athens
  • 2004: Marie Luise Kaschnitz. Exhibition on the 30th anniversary of his death on October 10, 1974
  • 2005: people, masks, rituals. Everyday life and culture 7000 years ago in the prehistoric settlement of Uivar, Romania
  • 2005/2006: In the sign of Dionysus. Choirs, masks and machines. Theater in ancient times
  • 2006: Heracles - Hercules: “Superman” of antiquity. Pictures of his deeds
  • 2006/2007: The Etruscans. Concepts of the afterlife and ancestral cult
  • 2007: Friends, I lost a day. Rome at the time of the Emperor Titus
  • 2007: true heroes? Honoré Daumier and the ancient world
  • 2007/2008: Johann Martin von Wagner - artist, collector and patron (with the Gemäldegalerie)
  • 2008: Hermes - Mercury. Metamorphoses of a god from ancient to modern
  • 2008/2009: gold, frankincense, myrrh. The gifts of the Magi and their meaning in antiquity
  • 2009: Coal traces. Student drawings in the Antikensammlung
  • 2009/2010: murders, revenge and reconciliation. Ancient theater and political history
  • 2011: Athens through the eyes of Aristophanes and Menander
  • 2011: High culture Mycenae
  • 2011/2012: Reconciled Gods - New Future
  • 2011/2012: 2000 years of antique glass. Jewelry and everyday items
  • 2011/2012: KultOrte. Myths, science and everyday life in the temples of Egypt
  • 2012/2013: The Bullenheimer Berg in the focus of modern methods of archeology
  • 2013/2014: GREEK-EGYPTIAN. Clay figures from the Nile
  • 2015: Visiting the Queen of Sheba - Archaeological finds and research in ancient South Arabia
  • 2015/2016: AugenBlicke. Seeing in the fine arts from ancient Egypt to modern times
  • 2016: Heracles in New Zealand. Pictures by Marian Maguire (Picture Gallery)
  • 2016/2017: Nineveh. Images from Sennacherib's "Palace beyond compare"
  • 2018: Ovid. Amor fou - Between Passion and Ridiculousness (Gemäldegalerie)
  • 2019/2020: Mus-Ic-On! The sound of antiquity
  • 2020: In the Visible Network (joint exhibition of the four university collections)

Employee

Initially, the management of the museum was always linked to the chair in personal union. The list of curators is incomplete; the designations for this function may have varied over time and include, for example, (scientific) unskilled workers, (scientific) assistants, curators or curators. After the director's position was separated from the chair in 2014 and the curator's position was transferred to the director's position, the curatorial position was discontinued.

Directors

Curators

literature

  • Heinrich Bulle: The Martin von Wagner Museum. In: Max Buchner (editor): From the past of the University of Würzburg. Festschrift for the 350th anniversary of the university. Springer, Berlin and Heidelberg 1932, pp. 134–145.
  • Ernst Langlotz : Greek vases. (= Picture catalogs of the Martin von Wagner Museum of the University of Würzburg, Volume 1), Obernetter, Munich 1932.
  • Hans Möbius (editor): Ancient works of art from the Martin von Wagner Museum. Acquisitions 1945–1961. Martin von Wagner Museum / Wasmuth, Würzburg / Berlin 1962.
  • Dorothee Renner : The Coptic fabrics in the Martin-von-Wagner-Museum of the University of Würzburg. Steiner, Wiesbaden 1974, ISBN 3-515-01815-8 .
  • Erika Simon (editor): Guide through the antiques department of the Martin von Wagner Museum at the University of Würzburg. von Zabern, Mainz 1975.
  • Guntram Beckel , Heide Froning , Erika Simon : Works of antiquity in the Martin-von-Wagner-Museum of the University of Würzburg. , von Zabern, Mainz 1983, ISBN 3-8053-0768-3 (book trade) and ISBN 3-8053-0773-X (museum edition).
  • Erika Zwierlein-Diehl : Glass pastes in the Martin von Wagner Museum at the University of Würzburg. Part 1: Imprints of ancient and selected non-ancient intagli and cameos. Prestel, Munich 1986, ISBN 3-7913-0744-4 .
  • Evamaria Schmidt : Catalog of the ancient terracottas of the Martin-von-Wagner-Museum of the University of Würzburg. Part 1: The figural terracottas. von Zabern, Mainz 1994, ISBN 3-8053-1518-X .
  • Ulrich Sinn , Irma Wehgartner : Encounters with antiquity. Evidence from four millennia of Mediterranean culture in the Martin von Wagner Museum at the University of Würzburg. Ergon, Würzburg 2001, ISBN 3-935556-72-1 .
  • Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum Germany , CH Beck, Munich

Volumes accompanying various exhibitions as well as individual studies have been published since 1996 in the news series from the Martin von Wagner Museum at the University of Würzburg, series A, Antikensammlung.

Web links

Commons : Collection of antiques of the Martin von Wagner Museum  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ^ Collection of antiquities in the Martin von Wagner Museum at the University of Würzburg
  2. ↑ When the two areas were separated cannot be determined from the available literature; at least Heinrich Bulle was still director of the entire collection. However, during Bore's directorate in 1918 and 1922, curatorial positions were created for both areas of the collection.
  3. ^ Volker Hoffmann: The Martin von Wagner Museum of the University of Würzburg. In: Peter Baumgart (Ed.): Four hundred years of the University of Würzburg. A commemorative publication. Degener & Co. (Gerhard Gessner), Neustadt an der Aisch 1982 (= sources and contributions to the history of the University of Würzburg. Volume 6), ISBN 3-7686-9062-8 , pp. 253-265; here: p. 260.
  4. ↑ 2500 objects in 1989 according to the museum website ; according to other sources 1,550 objects ; in encounters with antiquity. Evidence from four millennia of Mediterranean culture in the Martin von Wagner Museum at the University of Würzburg. about 1500 artifacts
  5. ↑ the Doetsch collection includes a small but representative collection of Iranian bronzes from northern and western Iran, dating from the 3rd millennium BC. Until the 9th / 8th Century BC There are also weapons, implements, parts of a harness, cult objects, costume components, animal and human figures and three clay implements
  6. ^ Collection of antiquities in the Martin von Wagner Museum at the University of Würzburg