Kurt Erdmann

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Kurt Erdmann (born September 9, 1901 in Hamburg ; † September 30, 1964 in Berlin ) was a German scholar of Sassanid and Islamic art as well as the art history of the oriental carpet , which he made an art-historical specialty.

Live and act

Erdmann originally began studying German in 1919, but he soon developed an interest in European art history. In 1927 he received his doctorate under Erwin Panofsky in Hamburg with his dissertation on European architecture. In the same year he started as a volunteer at the State Museums in Berlin. He was invited by Friedrich Sarre to take part in the large publication on carpets that he brought out in 1928 with Hermann Trenkwald . From now on he studied carpets scientifically all his life. This interest was reflected in numerous contributions, not only with regard to Persian, but Islamic plays as a whole.

Erdmann's career and his numerous publications were closely linked to the Islamic Department of the State Museums in Berlin , of which he was director from 1958 until his death. He taught at the universities of Berlin, Hamburg, Bonn, Cairo and from 1951 to 1957 in Istanbul. He was a member of the German Archaeological Institute .

Erdmann earned further services in the rescue and preservation of the Berlin museum holdings. The return of the works of art that had been brought to the Soviet Union from 1945 to 1946 and the restoration of the Aleppo room and two prayer niches made it possible to move into all the rooms in the Pergamon Museum by 1967. In the last few years before his death he was planning the Islamic one Department in the planned new Dahlem Museum for Asian Art.

His wife Hanna supported him with many publications and, after his death, took up teaching positions in Islamic art history at the universities of Mainz and Bonn. Kurt and Hanna Erdmann's written estate and estate library are located in the Department of Asian and Islamic Art History of the Institute for Oriental and Asian Studies at the University of Bonn.

Creative time

Systematic research of the sources through travels and on European paintings, as well as the analysis of patterns, structures and technical characteristics of the carpets led Erdmann to new insights into the general history of the oriental carpets as well as into special groups of carpets. His main works on carpets reached an international audience through the translations. Kurt Erdmann was an important representative of the “Berlin School” of carpet science ( going back to Wilhelm Bode , Friedrich Sarre, Ernst Kühnel), who researched in different areas and thus became pioneers. Two of his articles are still considered important contributions to the knowledge of carpets from the Safavid period:

  • “Persian carpets of the Safavid period”, In: Pantheon No. 5, 1932, p. 227-231 and
  • "The Art of Carpet Making, A Survey of Persian Art", In: Ars Islamica No. 8, 1941, pp. 121-291

The excavations of 1928/1929 and 1931/1932 that Ernst Kühnel , Erdmann's colleague in the Berlin sculpture department, had undertaken near the Achaemenid capital Persepolis , as well as purchases by the museum of Parthian and Sassanid art objects and probably the general interest in them Time led Erdmann to his second area of ​​interest: The art of pre-Islamic Persia, especially the Sassanid period , was of great importance for his research in the 1930s and 1940s. In his studies of Sassanid hunting bowls, the first systematic work in this group of objects, he developed a chronological sequence according to the compositional characteristics of the royal crown.

  • The Sasanian hunting bowls. Studies on the development of Iranian precious metal art under the Sasanids. In: Yearbook of the Prussian Art Collections No. 57, 1936, pp. 193–232.
  • An unknown Sasanian hunting bowl. ibid., No. 59, 1938, pp. 209-217.
  • On the chronology of the Sassanid hunting bowls. In: ZDMG No. 97, 1943, pp. 239-283.

His identification of the king in the rock relief in Ṭāq-e Bostān as Pērōz (r. 457 / 59-484) sparked a controversy with Ernst Herzfeld , who had identified the king as Kosrow II (r. 591-628). Although Herzfeld's arguments were widely accepted, this view was still a topic among scientists for a long time.

  • The date of the Tāḳ-i Bustān. In: Ars Islamica No. 4, 1937, pp. 79-97.

Many studies of various aspects of rock reliefs followed , like that

and about the identification of crowns

  • The evolution of the Sassanid crown. In: Ars Islamica No. 15/16, 1951, pp. 87-123

From 1951 to 1957 Kurt Erdmann taught at the University of Istanbul. Nurhan Atasoy (later director of the Topkapi Saray Museum and herself a professor at the university) began her studies in 1953 at Istanbul University, where Kurt Erdmann taught Islamic art and Philipp Schweinfurt taught Byzantine art. She writes about it as follows: “We had the German system, one class for all students for 4 years. I was one of four new students. Today there are hundreds. Four subjects were required for the intermediate diploma: Classical Archeology, Turkish and Islamic Art, Byzantine Art and European Art. Every summer we went on month-long study excursions organized by the university, and Prof. Erdmann often led the group. We visited mosques in search of old carpets and helped him to draw up measurements and plans as well as to take photos of old caravanserais. ”“ Although I wasn't very good in my courses, ”says Atasoy with typical modesty,“ I was very active and helped research. It was these trips that aroused my love for Anatolia. "

  • The 15th century Turkish carpet. Istanbul n.d. (1954). XII, 134 pages, 67 illustrations, text in German and Turkish.
  • The Anatolian caravan aray of the 13th century Berlin 1961–1976.

Erdmann also dealt with the influence of Sassanid themes on other cultures.

  • The universal historical position of Sasanian art. In: Saeculum No. 1, 1950, pp. 508-534

Much of his insights into Sassanid art can be found in his first publication dealing with this subject alone

  • The art of Iran in the time of the Sasanids. Florian Kupferberg, Berlin 1943; 2nd edition Kupferberg Verlag, Mainz 1969.

While carpets and Sassanid art were his two main areas of interest, Erdmann wrote extensively on a variety of other topics, ranging from the Achaemenids to Turkish architecture

  • Persepolis: dates and interpretations. MDOG zu Berlin 92, 1960, pp. 31-47.

Erdmann's work in the Berlin Museum resulted in numerous publications on groups or individual works that refer to his productive research in all areas of pre-Islamic and Islamic art:

  • Afrasiyab ceramics. In: Berliner Museen No. 63, 1942, pp. 18–28;
  • Islamic rock crystal work. In: Yearbook of the Prussian Art Collections No. 61, 1940, pp. 125–146;
  • New Islamic rock crystals. In: Ars Orientalis No. 3, 1959, pp. 201-205

Many purchases made under his direction of the museum in Berlin expanded the scope, knowledge and understanding of Persian art in the Islamic period.

  • Ceramic acquisitions by the Islamic Department 1958–1960. In: Berliner Museen, No. 10, 1961, pp. 6–15;
  • Newly acquired glasses from the Islamic Department 1958–1961. ibid., 11, 1961, pp. 31-41

Fonts

  • Oriental carpets from four centuries. Exhibition at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, August 22 to October 22, 1950. Hamburg 1950.
  • Arabic characters as ornaments in western art of the Middle Ages. In: Treatises of the Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz. Humanities and social science class. Born 1953. No. 9. pp. 467-513.
  • The oriental knotted carpet: attempt to portray its history. Verlag Ernst Wasmuth, Tübingen 1955;
    • Translated by CG Ellis as Oriental Carpets: An Essay on Their History. New York 1960.
  • The 15th century Turkish carpet. Istanbul 1957.
    • translated by R. Pinner as The History of the Early Turkish Carpet. Oguz Press, London 1977 (With a bibliography of Kurt Erdmann's carpet publications by Hanna Erdmann).
  • Europe and the oriental carpet. Publishing house, F. Kupferberg, Berlin / Mainz 1962.
  • with Peter W. Meister: Caucasian carpets. Exhibition catalog Museum für Kunsthandwerk, Frankfurt 1962.
  • Carpets East Carpets West. In: Saudi Aramco World , March / April 1965 edition, pp. 8–9.
  • Seven hundred years of oriental carpets: On its history and research. Edited by Hanna Erdmann. Bussesche Verlagshandlung, Herford 1966.
    • translated by MH Beattie as Seven Hundred Years of Oriental Carpets. London 1970.
  • Iranian art in German museums (Ed.): Hanna Erdmann, using the estate of Kurt Erdmann; with a foreword by Annemarie Schimmel. F. Steiner, Wiesbaden 1967.
  • with Hanna Erdmann: The Anatolian Karavansaray of the 13th century. Part two and three. Part 2/3., Building description. The ornaments (= Istanbul Research Volume 31). Gebrüder Mann, Berlin 1976, ISBN 3-7861-2241-5 .

literature

Web links

proof

  1. ^ Sarre, Trenkwald: Old Oriental Carpets II. Leipzig and Vienna 1928.
  2. ↑ for the history of the collection see Museum for Islamic Art (Berlin)
  3. ↑ Annual Report 2014. Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, Institute for Oriental and Asian Studies
  4. ↑ HALI No. 151, April 16, 2007 Text in English ( Memento of the original from November 24, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.hali.com


personal data
SURNAME Erdmann, Kurt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German art historian
DATE OF BIRTH September 9, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH September 30, 1964
Place of death Berlin