Kassel Apollon

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The Kassel Apoll (on) is the eponymous Roman copy of a classical Greek statue, presumably by the sculptor Phidias in the Kassel Collection of Antiquities at Wilhelmshöhe Castle .

Apollo statue in the type of Apollo from Kassel in the Louvre

statue

Apollo is the diverse Greek god of vegetation, god of salvation and atonement, oracle god in Delphi . In Greek mythology he also protects house and gate, and as god of the arts he is the leader of the muses.

The white marble statue was made in the 2nd century AD by an unknown Roman sculptor as a copy of a lost Greek bronze original. 26 other copies, mostly of the head, are known, of which the Kassel Apollon is the most complete. The large number of copies, which are also represented on coins and gems , suggests that the original was a famous statue. Pausanias reports that there was a statue of Apollo by the sculptor Phidias on the Acropolis in Athens , which represented the god as the avenger of a plague of locusts ( Parnopios ). Since the copies that have been preserved show great stylistic similarities to the figures of the Parthenon frieze on the Acropolis by Phidias, it makes sense to identify the model of Apollo in Kassel with the statue of Phidias.

The oversized classical Greek statue is slightly twisted by changing the standing and free leg . The head has classic Greek features and curly hair. What is remarkable about the broad-shouldered and narrow-hipped statue is the fine definition of the muscles. Apollo held a bow in his left hand, and a grasshopper in his right hand (both attributes have been lost). The statue was originally painted, red paint remains in the drill holes in the hair, blue-green and gold showed the base of the arch in the left hand.

Find history

The marble statue was probably in 1721 in a niche of an ancient Roman villa between Nettuno and Terracina nearby Lago di Sabaudia in Italy found that probably originally the emperor Domitian was one. Landgrave Friedrich II, who was interested in classical art through Gotthold Ephraim Lessing's Laocoon and Johann Joachim Winckelmann's History of Antiquity, acquired the marble statue during a trip to Italy in 1776 or 1777 . Previously it was probably in the Conti Collection in Rome, was also known under the name Apollo Conti and was already described by Winckelmann as "Apollo in the Pallaste Conti". In 1779 it was presented to the public in the Kassel Fridericianum Museum for instruction and pleasure . Afterwards the Kassel Apollon was shown in the Kassel New Gallery. Goethe visited the work of art, but owned a bust of Apollo von Belvedere himself . The Kassel Apollon has been in the collection of antiques in Wilhelmshöhe Palace in Kassel since 1974 .

literature

  • Peter Gercke among others: Apollon and Athena. Classical statues of gods in casts and reconstructions. Catalog for the special exhibition 1991 (= catalogs of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Kassel. Volume 17). State Art Collections, Kassel 1991.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Peter Gercke : Apollon Typ Kassel on the website of the Museum Schloss Wilhelmshöhe.
  2. ^ Johann Joachim Winckelmann: History of the art of antiquity. Volume 1. Walther, Dresden 1764, pp. 93-95 ( digitized version ).