Anton Kisa

Anton Karl Kisa (born January 16, 1857 in Brno , † October 19, 1907 in Stuttgart ) was a German-Bohemian art historian , archaeologist and museum director.

Life

Anton Kisa was born the son of the prison director in Brno (South Moravia). He first attended the grammar school in Brno and then the Mariahilfer grammar school in Vienna . In 1874 he began his studies in the painting class of the Vienna Academy of Arts . From 1875 to 1879 he studied art history and classical archeology at the University of Vienna . During his studies, Kisa became a member of the Silesia Vienna fraternity in 1876 and an honorary boy of the Stiria Graz fraternity in 1879 . On 1 December 1880 he was at Rudolf Eitelberger to Dr. phil. PhD . In 1881/82 he worked as a volunteer at the Austrian Museum for Art and Industry in Vienna under Rudolf Eitelberger.

From 1882 to 1883 Kisa was custodian at the Moravian Trade Museum in Brno, where he designed the reorganization of the collection. Numerous study trips took him to northern and central Germany and Italy. In 1887 he went to Düsseldorf , where he became a librarian at the Kunstgewerbemuseum . His experience with the realignment of arts and crafts collections also led to a redesign of the collection in Düsseldorf. In 1891 he became an assistant at the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne and head of their archaeological collection . Here he curated special exhibitions and carried out numerous investigations on objects from the museum's depot holdings, and he was also active in the preservation of monuments. In 1894 he married Elisabeth H. (Else) Plitt, daughter of the theologian Jakob Theodor Plitt .

In 1898 Kisa became director of the Suermondt Museum in Aachen . There he campaigned for the collection to be moved from the Alte Redoute to the Villa Cassalette on Wilhelmstrasse. He processed the extensive donations to the Suermondt Museum, among others from the industrialists James Cockerill and Alfred Coumont. He presented the new acquisitions in temporary exhibitions and implemented a museum concept based on modern museum technology. Seriously ill, Kisa retired on March 30, 1904 to July 1, 1904, which he spent in Godesberg. On October 19, 1907, Kisa died in Stuttgart at the age of 50. He was buried in the Prague cemetery section 44, row 6, grave site 28.

Kisa wrote numerous art-historical and archaeological publications. The three-volume publication Das Glas im Altertume (1908) on the glass and the glass industry of antiquity, which was one of the standard works to this day, is regarded as his most important scientific work . The work is based on the glass collection of the Wallraf-Richartz Museum (now in the Roman-Germanic Museum ) in Cologne, built by Kisa .

He also published a few publications under the pseudonym Fritz Günther .

Publications (selection)

• Bishop Bernward of Hildesheim. His art-historical activity and artistic position . Dissertation University of Vienna 1880 (unprinted).
• Arts and Art Industry in India . Leipzig 1885.
• The Externsteine. In: Yearbook of the Association of Friends of Antiquity in the Rhineland 94, 1893, pp. 73–142 ( digitized ).
• The "Friedenssaal" in Osnabrück. In: Journal of the Bavarian Arts and Crafts Association in Munich 1894, pp. 6–10 ( digitized version ).
• Roman excavations on Luxemburger Strasse in Cologne In: Yearbook of the Association of Friends of Antiquity in the Rhineland 99, 1896, p. 21 ff.
• The beginnings of the Rhenish glass industry In: Journal of the Bavarian Arts and Crafts Association in Munich 1896, p. 45ff.
• Antique arts and crafts on the Rhine In: Kunstgewerbeblatt NF 7, 1896, S, 113–119. 133-140 ( digitized version ).
• The antique glasses of Mrs. Maria vom Rath born. Stein, to Cologne . Bonn 1899.
• Vasa diatreta . In: Journal for Christian Art 12, 1899, pp. 15–24. 37-44. 79-84 ( digitized version ).
• with Arthur Lindner, Edmund Renard : Der Kunstschatz. The history of art in its masterpieces. A book of elevation and enjoyment . W. Spemann, Berlin / Stuttgart 1900.
• Guide to Aachen's Suermondt Museum. Aachen 1902.
• (Ed.): Memorandum on the occasion of the twenty-five years of existence of the Suermondt Museum . Aachen 1903, therein p. 1ff. The antiquities of the Suermondt Museum .
• The Burgundian casula of the parish church in Erkelenz. In: Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft 26, 1903.
• The art history exhibition in Düsseldorf In: Journal for Christian Art 18, 1905, pp. 193–198. 257-264.
• The engraved metal bowls of the 12th and 13th centuries In: Zeitschrift für christliche Kunst 18, 1905, 227–236. 293-300. 365-378.
• The works of art of the Münsterkirche in Essen In: Kunstchronik. Wochenschrift für Kunst und Kunstgewerbe NF 16, 1905, pp. 129-138 ( digitized version ).
• History of the arts and crafts from its beginnings to the most recent times (= Hillger's illustrated folk books 50). Hillger, Berlin / Leipzig 1906.
• The Roman antiquities in Aachen . In: Westdeutsche Zeitschrift 25, 1906, pp. 1–83.
• Aachen and its sister city Burtscheid and the surrounding area . Seifert, Stuttgart [1907].
• Cologne on the Rhine and the surrounding area . Seifert, Stuttgart 1907 ( digitized version ).
• The art of the centuries. Images from art history. W. Spemann, Berlin / Stuttgart [1907].
• The glass in antiquity . 3 volumes, Hiersemann, Leipzig 1908 ( digitized volume 1 , volume 2 , volume 3 ).

literature

• Kisa, Anton Karl. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 3, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1965, p. 347.
• Hubert Partisch: Austrians from Sudeten German tribe . tape 7 . Typografische Anstalt, Vienna 1970, p. 27-28 .
• Cornelius Steckner: Anton Kisa's importance for ground monument maintenance and museum in Cologne and glass research in the late 19th century. In: Kölner Jahrbuch 49, 2016, pp. 669–746.
• Cornelius Steckner: Anton Kisa: The beginning of glass research in Cologne. In: Marcus Trier, Friederike Naumann-Steckner (Ed.): Zerbrechlicher Luxus . Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2016, ISBN 978-3-7954-3144-0 , pp. 17-20.
• Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume II: Artists. Winter, Heidelberg 2018, ISBN 978-3-8253-6813-5 , p. 391.

Web links

• German Digital Library: Anton Carol Kisa