Collection of plaster casts at the University of Leipzig

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The plaster cast collection of the Antikenmuseum der Universität Leipzig was one of the most complete and important collections of its kind in Germany before the Second World War and is still one of the largest university cast collections today, despite significant losses during the war. It comprises almost 700 plaster casts of Greek and Roman antiquities from all major archaeological collections in Europe and all historical epochs of antiquity. A large part of the holdings make up casts of small sculptures and portrait heads, but the collection also includes around 100 to 115 large sculptures, groups of figures and reliefs. The focus here is on works of Hellenism or Roman copies based on Hellenistic models.

Plaster cast of the Pasquino group in the reconstruction by Bernhard Schweitzer

Beginnings of the Leipzig cast collection (1836–1846)

In 1834 the so-called "Antiquarian Society" was established at the University of Leipzig and promoted the provision of a teaching collection for students. Up until then, university teaching had primarily worked with copperplate engravings based on original antique sculptures, but with the increasing importance of the subject and the steadily growing popularity of archaeological studies in the early 19th century, the acquisition of casts and originals for teaching and research became essential. After the universities of Tübingen, Göttingen and Bonn had long since been equipped with such collections, the Ministry of Education provided for the first time in Leipzig, at the instigation of the philologist Johann Gottfried Hermann (1772–1848), from 1837 an initially limited but from 1841 regularly approved budget of 200 thalers for this purpose .

The first purchases were made through the personal commitment of the archaeologist Wilhelm Adolf Becker (1796–1846), who was appointed to the Chair of Classical Archeology in Leipzig in 1836 and acquired the first Greek vases and 13 plaster casts for the collection in 1840/41. They were initially temporarily housed in the former Konviktsaal of the Mittelpaulinum of the University of Leipzig until they were moved to the ground floor of the so-called Fridericianum in Schillerstraße in 1843 . In the course of time, the first antiquities museum was built here, which not only served as a teaching and study collection, but was also open to the public from the start (even if only two hours a week).

Further construction and use of the cast collection (1847–1895)

The philologist, archaeologist and musicologist Otto Jahn (1813–1869), who held the professorship at the institute from 1847 to 1850 and whose commitment the University of Kiel and later the University of Bonn already owed parts of their cast collections, kept other important items in the Leipzig Collection of Antiquities to.

However, if he had primarily devoted himself to the purchase of antique originals (e.g. products from the Etruscan culture and terracotta statuettes), his successor Johannes Overbeck (1826–1895) limited himself from 1853 to the purchase of plaster of paris. His aim was "to create as complete a sequence as possible of art-historically characteristic, but especially [...] datable monuments". As early as 1854/55 he gave his first lectures “About selected art monuments, in connection with the academic museum” and the following year a “Declaration of the academic gypsum museum”, which he repeated regularly in the summer semester. In 1864 he gave a course on the "History of Fine Arts among the Greeks, using the Academic Gyps Museum". Overbeck therefore pursued a systematic integration of plaster into archaeological teaching and thus shaped the excellent position of the Leipzig cast collection among German university collections of the second half of the 19th century.

Due to its now considerable size - the collection now comprised over 850 casts - it had to move from the Fridericianum to the Augusteum on Augustusplatz in 1881, where they could be sorted chronologically or according to stylistic aspects.

The heyday of the cast collection under Franz Studniczka (1896–1929)

Overbeck's successor was Franz Studniczka (1860–1929) in 1896 , who also expanded the collection during his thirty-year term and used it intensively in teaching. Studniczka managed to win numerous sponsors for the collection of antiquities, who steadily increased the holdings through acquisitions and donations.

He is also responsible for the completion of the move of the Archaeological Institute to the spacious rooms in the new university building, which was already planned under Overbeck. Here the collection could not only be adequately exhibited on an area of ​​1400 m², but it also had its own depots and workshops. Under Studniczka, these were also used to undertake supplementary attempts based on the plaster, which of course would have resulted in irreversible changes to the original. In 1907–1911, for example, he successfully reconstructed the Artemis Iphigenia group from the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek using their plaster cast.

The time after Studniczka (1929–1945)

Studniczka was followed by his student Herbert Koch (1880–1962) and the archaeologist Bernhard Schweitzer (1892–1966), who continued and preserved the collection in the previous tradition. Schweitzer continued to use the workshop set up by Studniczka and reconstructed a. a. the famous Pasquino group based on the Leipzig plaster.

In the 1930s, however, the collection was already having its first problems. As early as the beginning of the 20th century, plaster casts fell into the sidelines of public interest due to their perceived poor optical quality. The number of foundations also fell noticeably during the Nazi era.

A large part of the collection rooms was finally completely destroyed by the bombing in December 1943 . Numerous originals and casts were no longer stored in good time and fell victim to the war together with part of the existing documentation. Of the originally more than 2,000 casts, only about 600 were later salvaged from the rubble of the university building and returned to the collection together with the originals that had been stored away.

The reorganization of the collection from 1945 to 1968

After the heavily decimated collection was only reopened in 1955 by Herbert Koch in the Oberlichtsaal of the Augusteum, it was removed from its rooms in 1968 when the historic university complex was blown up and stored in a rather temporary store (a former coal bunker). As a result, it was withdrawn from being used as a museum and as a teaching and study location. For the next two decades, the cast collection was hidden in the depots with almost no conservation or restoration care, which again led to considerable damage to the sensitive plaster of Paris. In addition, the chair was liquidated in the course of the university reform in 1968 and teaching in archeology was completely discontinued, so that a resumption of its important function was out of the question.

New beginning 1995 until today

With the end of the GDR, the political situation changed in favor of university teaching, so that at least the original collection was given a new domicile in the old Nikolaischule in 1994 and was made accessible again to the public and students. In the rooms of the antiquities museum, some already restored pieces from the cast collection are regularly presented at special exhibitions. The institute building in the Ritterstrasse with its shop window gallery in the study hall also serves the teaching-internal use of the collection; Smaller-sized plasters such as B. erected the imperial portraits. The large casts such as those of the Laocoon group , the torso of the Belvedere , Augustus of Primaporta , the Venus Medici or the Parthenon metopes can still not be presented to the public permanently. However, they have been housed in a Leipzig depot since 1999 under very good conservation conditions.

Collection highlights

Gaulish group Ludovisi in the atrium of the Bibliotheca Albertina

In addition to the famous pieces already mentioned, the cast collection still contains the cast of the so-called Artemis Iphigenie group from the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen, which Franz Studniczka used to reconstruct the group from 1907–1911. Other famous pieces from all major museums in the world such as the Capitoline Wolf , the Gemma Augustea and the so-called Cameo Gonzaga, architectural parts z. B. Corinthian capitals and column bases, the reliefs of the Ara Pacis Augustae , portraits of Greek philosophers and generals, Roman emperors and their families are represented in the form of casts in the collection. The Gaulish group Ludovisi is probably best known among Leipzig students - after the traveling exhibition “Pious, Strange, Barbaric - The Religion of the Celts” (2002) it kept its display in the atrium of the Bibliotheca Albertina .

Tasks and uses of plaster casts for teaching and research

A cast offers decisive advantages in teaching compared to a drawing or photograph. In this way, the haptic qualities of a sculpture, its surface properties, plasticity and overall effect can be studied much more precisely and more directly on the basis of the 1: 1 impression than two-dimensional images allow. Also, the overall impression is not disturbed by changes in color, which z. B. can result from storage in the ground on the original. In addition, the cast offers options such as B. the experimental reconstruction of original color versions or supplementary attempts based on fragments, which was successfully practiced in Leipzig, especially at the beginning of the 20th century (Artemis-Iphigenie group, Pasquino group).

Publications (selection)

  • Hans-Ulrich Cain, Hans-Peter Müller (ed.): Laokoon - pain and suffering. Graphic works by Donald von Frankenberg, booklet accompanying the special exhibition from 14.06. – 05.10.2008. Leipzig 2008.
  • Hans-Ulrich Cain, Sabine Rieckhoff (eds.): Pious - foreign - barbaric. The religion of the Celts. Catalog of the special exhibition from April 14th until June 15, 2002. Mainz 2002, ISBN 3-8053-2898-2 .
  • Hans-Ulrich Cain (Ed.): Aurea Aetas. The heyday of the Leipzig Museum of Antiquities at the beginning of the 20th century. Leipzig 2009, ISBN 978-3-938543-74-0 .

literature

  • The archaeological museum. In: Friedrich Bülau: Sr. Majesty of the King Johann von Sachsen visits the University of Leipzig on August 4th, 5th and 6th, 1857. Along with a description of the institutions and collections of the university. CL Hirschfeld, Leipzig 1858, pp. 24-25.
  • Johannes Overbeck: The archaeological collection of the University of Leipzig. Leipzig 1859.
  • Georg Ebers, Johannes Overbeck: Guide through the Archaeological Museum of Leipzig University. Leipzig 1881.
  • Franz Studniczka: The archaeological institute. Leipzig 1909.
  • Hans-Peter Müller: The Academic Gyps Museum. On the history of a forgotten sculpture collection. In: Leipziger Blätter 27, 1995, pp. 56-59.
  • Eberhard Paul: Art to Light. The University's Collection of Antiquities. In: Leipziger Blätter 24, 1997, pp. 10-12.
  • Eberhard Paul (Ed.): The sponsors of the Antikenmuseum yesterday and today. Leipzig 1997, ISBN 3-932019-06-7 .
  • Hans-Peter Müller: Classical archeology. In: History of the University of Leipzig 1409–2009. Vol. 4, 1. Leipzig 2009, pp. 197-217.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans-Peter Müller : The Academic Gyps Museum. On the history of a forgotten sculpture collection. In: Leipziger Blätter 27, 1995, p. 57.
  2. ^ Hans-Peter Müller: The donors of the Antikenmuseum der Universität Leipzig 1840–1992. In: Eberhard Paul (ed.): The sponsors of the Antikenmuseum. Yesterday and today. Leipzig 1997, p. 114.
  3. ↑ Reinhard Lullies (ed.): Archaeologist portraits . Portraits and short biographies of classical archaeologists in the German language. 1988, p. 35.
  4. ^ Johannes Overbeck: The archaeological collection of the University of Leipzig. Leipzig 1859. SV
  5. ↑ Overview of Johannes Overbeck's courses at the University of Leipzig .
  6. ^ Eberhard Paul: Art to Light. The University's Collection of Antiquities. In: Leipziger Blätter 24, 1997, p. 11.
  7. ↑ Hans-Peter Müller: The Academic Gyps Museum. On the history of a forgotten sculpture collection. In: Leipziger Blätter 27, 1995, p. 59.
  8. ↑ Bernhard Schweitzer: The original of the so-called Pasquino group. Leipzig 1936.
  9. ↑ Hans-Peter Müller: The Academic Gyps Museum. On the history of a forgotten sculpture collection. In: Leipziger Blätter 27, 1995, p. 59.
  10. ↑ Hans-Ulrich Cain: Working in plaster. To a creative method of archeology. In the S. (Ed.): Aurea Aetas. The heyday of the Leipzig Museum of Antiquities at the beginning of the 20th century. Leipzig 2009, pp. 16-21.