Giuseppe Passalacqua

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Giuseppe Caspar Ludwig Passalacqua , Germanized Joseph Passalacqua , (born February 26, 1797 (baptism) in Trieste , † 1865 in Berlin ) was an Italian entrepreneur who specialized in the trade and collection of ancient Egyptian artefacts . His collection became the basis of the Egyptian Museum Berlin .

Life and accomplishments

Finds in the tomb of Mentuhotep in Thebes, drawing by Passalacquas (1832)
The coffins of Mentuhotep, drawing Passalacquas (1832)

Giuseppe Passalacqua went to Egypt to trade horses there. Unsuccessful in this business, he devoted himself to the ancient Egyptian artifact trade, which had flourished for several decades. From 1822 to 1825 he had graves of priests and priestesses excavated in Deir el-Bahari on the west bank of the Nile in Thebes . Further excavations led him to the pyramids of Saqqara around 1826 , where he discovered several important medical papyri , such as the so-called "Papyrus Brugsch" ( Papyrus Berlin 3038 ) acquired by him in 1823, which was over five meters long . In 1826 he exhibited his 1,600-piece collection at the Vivienne Gallery in Paris . Here he used a new exhibition concept, with the help of which he arranged the artifacts thematically and made them accessible via a catalog. Access has been simplified by extensive inscriptions and in part by translations of the Egyptian hieroglyphs . The high-ranking visitors included Friedrich Wilhelm III. He offered his collection to the French state for sale, which however refused. In 1828, however, Friedrich Wilhelm III. the majority of the collection and had it set up by Passalacqua in Monbijou Castle in the thematic alignment of the Paris Salon. At the same time, Passalacqua was hired with an annual salary of 1000 thalers and a personal allowance of 600 thalers as the overseer of the Egyptian collection and thus director for life and thus first head of the Egyptian collection, later part of the Royal Art Museum and now part of the Egyptian Museum Berlin. When installing it, it was based on Jean-François Champollion's concept in the Louvre in Paris . In 1832 the museum quickly became a great public success with up to 13,000 visitors a month. The meticulous worker Passalacqua developed Egyptology from scratch and reached a considerable scientific level. He even learned to read Egyptian hieroglyphs to a certain point and developed a special preference for it. That is why he also took care of the transfer of the papyrus collection from the Royal Library to the Egyptological Collection, where it has been presented in the specially set up papyrus hall since 1835. With the acquisition of the Drovetti Collection in 1837, the exhibition concept became even more difficult. At 37, no other director ran the collection longer than Passalacqua. His successor in the management of the Egyptian Museum was Karl Richard Lepsius , not Heinrich Brugsch , who would have liked to get this position and was encouraged by Passalacqua in his studies. Lepsius had been co-director of Passalacquas since 1855.

Draft drawing for the interior of the New Museum in Passalacqua, 1841

Heinrich Brugsch described Passalacqua as a sociable person who was often to be found in Berlin salons and who walked across Unter den Linden every afternoon . On April 21, 1865, he was buried in the St. Hedwig cemetery on Liesenstrasse in Berlin, the grave has been abandoned today. Despite its importance for early Egyptology, there was no obituary for Passalacqua, experts such as Georg Ebers and Adolf Erman did not have a high opinion of it. For a long time it was believed that there was not even a portrait of him, until information about a round three-dimensional portrait made by Schadow's student Julius Simony in 1832 was discovered in the 1990s . So far, however, neither an illustration nor the original has been discovered. In the meantime, Passalacqua is regarded as an important pioneer in Egyptology and the capable first director of the collection, who, with his meticulous studies and work on a general catalog, laid the foundation for the Berlin Egyptian Museum to be one of the most important of its kind in the world today. Probably the most important achievement for the city of Berlin was the advancement of a new museum building on Museum Island , the Neues Museum , in which the Egyptological collection found its new home from 1842. The new building became necessary so quickly because Passalacqua recognized early on that the collection, which had increased to 6,000 artifacts within a few years, needed a more spacious installation site in the medium term. He was then given the opportunity to submit his own draft, which he submitted to the King in 1843 in a high-quality, self-financed print via General Director von Olfers. He had a building in mind that, in keeping with the spirit of the times - there was almost an Egyptomania - should have striking Egyptian elements. The interior decoration should refer to the objects, but not drown out their own radiance with too bright colors. He paid attention to aspects such as the lighting conditions, safety and, in practical terms, the transport options inside. Since the successor Lepsius pursued other ideas in many ways, many of Passalacqua's concepts were not implemented for the museum or were changed shortly after his death. He was almost forgotten for a long time through the great names that followed German Egyptologists and was remembered primarily as an enterprising and enthusiastic autodidact, if at all.

Publications

  • Catalog raisonné et historique des antiquités découvertes en Egypt. Galerie d'Antiquités Égyptiennes, Paris 1826, ( digitized  - Internet Archive ).

literature

Web links

Commons : Giuseppe Passalacqua  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kamal Sabri Kolta: Papyrus Berlin 3038 (Papyrus Brugsch). In: Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 1099.
  2. ↑ Medical Papyrii
personal data
SURNAME Passalacqua, Giuseppe
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Passalacqua, Joseph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian collector of antiquities, art dealer and Egyptologist
DATE OF BIRTH baptized February 26, 1797
PLACE OF BIRTH Trieste
DATE OF DEATH 1865
Place of death Berlin