Apollo Kitharoidos (Berlin SK 44)

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A statue of the Apollo Kitharoidos type (also Apollo Kitharodos and Apollo Citharoedus ) is in the Berlin Collection of Antiquities in the Altes Museum (inventory number Berlin SK 44). It is a Roman copy, probably from the 2nd century AD, of a Greek original.

Former installation in the north wing of the Pergamon Museum

description

The 213 cm high, larger than life marble statue, which shows the god in heroic nudity , was created in Rome . In 1766 it was acquired for Frederick the Great in Rome through the mediation of Giovanni Ludovico Bianconi . A letter from Johann Joachim Winckelmann shows that the statue was restored and supplemented as part of the trade in the workshop of the restorer Bartolomeo Cavaceppis . The right arm from the elbow, the entire left arm including the kithara , the entire left leg, the right leg from knee height, feet, base, support, parts of the neck, penis and both testicles were added. The head of another Roman copy of Apollo Kitharoidos was placed on the headless statue.

It is unclear which object the statue actually held, but when adding it, Cavaceppi let his imagination run wild, based on an Apollo statue from the Capitoline Museums . The statue is probably a copy of the statue of Apollon Lykeios from the Lykeion in Athens, mentioned in Lukian . The Greek original, which has not survived, is dated to the 2nd half of the 4th century BC for stylistic reasons. Dated. The sculptor of the work was probably an Attic artist, and Praxiteles is often mentioned as a possible creator. Today around 30 copies, mostly in the form of torsos or portraits, have survived. No other type of Apollo has survived in more ancient copies and it can be assumed that this form was particularly popular during the Roman Empire.

In Potsdam , the statue was initially placed in front of the New Palace . In 1826 it was transferred to the newly created Antikensammlung in Berlin. Since the weather had taken a toll on the statue in the almost 60 years that it was freely installed, it was previously restored in Christian Daniel Rauch's workshop . In 2001/02 the statue was restored again, in the course of which corroded metal anchors were removed and damage caused by them repaired. Another copy of Apollon Lykeios is in the antique collection , a torso acquired in 1842 from the collection of the Marchesa Galli in Florence.

What is noticeable on the Berlin Apollo Kitharoidos is the retraction of the waist on the side of the supporting leg. The lack of pubic hair symbolized the youthfulness of God. Both feet are on the floor with their whole soles, the proportions are very slim. All of this corresponds to the usual way of depicting God in classical art of the 4th century BC. BC, as can be seen, for example, in the Apollo of Belvedere . The column that is the original of the 4th century BC. BC, was rarely copied in Roman times. The Berlin Apollo Kitharoidos actually didn't have a column by its side either.

literature

  • Sascha Kansteiner : Apollon with the kithara in the Pergamon Museum , in EOS XIX (July 2002), pp. VIII – X.

Remarks

  1. ^ Comment by Bartholomeo Cavaceppi to Johann Friedrich Wacker
  2. ↑ Lukian, Anacharsis 7.
  3. ↑ Inventory number Berlin SK 512.

Web links

Coordinates: 52 ° 31 '15 "  N , 13 ° 23' 47"  E