Mengs collection of casts

View into the German Hall with the Mengs cast collection of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (March 2016 to December 2019)

Original arrangement of the collection in the former Marstall (Johanneum)

The Mengs cast collection is a sculpture collection of works that Anton Raphael Mengs (1728–1779) brought together during his stay in Rome. The focus is on casts of famous antiquities from Rome and Florence, but also of Renaissance and Baroque works by Donatello , Michelangelo and Bernini . The collection of large-format casts and scaled-down sculptures served the artists as a template for drawing when studying antiquity. Today it is part of the sculpture collection of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden .

The collection of over 800 works was acquired from the estate for the Dresden Sculpture Collection in 1784. The works were shown from 1794 on the ground floor of the former Marstall, now Johanneum , where they were admired by Goethe , among others . From 1857 they were then housed in the east wing of the new picture gallery . After relocating due to the war, transporting it to the Soviet Union and returning it in 1958, the collection was stored in the basement of the Albertinum . After more than 70 years it is now open to the public again. From March 2016 to the end of 2019 it was shown in the German Hall of the Zwinger , now part of the collection of the Dresden Gemäldegalerie - Old Masters . Of the more than 400 works currently still in existence, around 120 are presented in museums.

By setting up the cast collection (together with the small bronzes in the sculpture corridor) in the picture gallery, sculptures and paintings in the sense of the paragone (“competition of the arts”) are juxtaposed.

Examples of some well-known works from the collection are:

Statue of Hermes, so-called Antinous from the Belvedere (Vatican, Museo Pio-Clementino )

Statue of Apollo, so-called Apollo from the Belvedere (Vatican, Museo Pio-Clementino)

Toga statue of the Aule Meteli, so-called Arringatore (Florence, Museo Archeologico Nazionale )

So-called. Torso from the Belvedere (Vatican, Atrio del Torso)

Pin extractor , so-called Spinario (Rome, Musei Capitolini )

Head of Heracles Farnese (Naples, Museo Archeologico Nazionale )

Mask of the so-called Juno Ludovisi (Rome, Museo Nazionale Romano , Palazzo Altemps )

So-called. Hera Barberini (Vatican, Museo Pio-Clementino)

Portrait head of Moses by Michelangelo (Rome, Basilica di San Pietro in Vincoli )

Portrait head of Alexander the Great as Helios (Rome, Musei Capitolini)

Head of Medusa , type Medusa Rondanini (Munich, Glyptothek )

literature

Karl Gottlob Küttner: The Mengssche cast collection, in "Future since 1560. The anthology. From the Kunstkammer to the Dresden State Art Collections ”, Dresden, 2010, pp. 95–98
Moritz Kiderlen, The collection of plaster casts by Anton Raphael Mengs in Dresden: Catalog of the casts, reconstructions, replicas and models from the painter's Roman estate in the sculpture collection, ed. from the Skulpturensammlung, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (Munich 2006).
Bénédicte Savoy: Temple of Art. The Birth of the Public Museum in Germany 1701–1815, Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz, 2006, 567 p. (With two articles on Mengs's cast collection)

Web links

Wikisource: Museum of plaster casts - sources and full texts

Individual evidence

↑ The Mengs collection of casts and masterpieces of Renaissance and Baroque sculpture in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister ( Memento from December 20, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (accessed on December 16, 2016)
↑ "Probably the largest collection of casts in the world" (accessed on December 14, 2016)
^ Art magazine: Sculpture in the Semperbau. The Mengs collection of casts and masterpieces of Renaissance and Baroque sculpture in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister ( Memento from December 14, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (accessed on December 14, 2016)
^ Sculpture Collection Dresden (accessed December 14, 2016)
↑ Teresa Ende: “Liberated from her prison” - masterpieces of Renaissance and Baroque sculpture and the Mengs cast collection, in DNN No. 291 of December 14, 2016, p. 9
^ The cast collection of Anton Raphael Mengs, booklet accompanying the exhibition, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, 2016
^ Future since 1560. The anthology. (PDF)
↑ Temple of Art. The Birth of the Public Museum in Germany 1701–1815 (PDF)

[1] The Mengs collection of casts and masterpieces of Renaissance and Baroque sculpture in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister ( Memento from December 20, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (accessed on December 16, 2016)

[2] "Probably the largest collection of casts in the world" (accessed on December 14, 2016)

[3] Art magazine: Sculpture in the Semperbau. The Mengs collection of casts and masterpieces of Renaissance and Baroque sculpture in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister ( Memento from December 14, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (accessed on December 14, 2016)

[4] Sculpture Collection Dresden (accessed December 14, 2016)

[5] Teresa Ende: “Liberated from her prison” - masterpieces of Renaissance and Baroque sculpture and the Mengs cast collection, in DNN No. 291 of December 14, 2016, p. 9

[6] The cast collection of Anton Raphael Mengs, booklet accompanying the exhibition, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, 2016

[7] Future since 1560. The anthology. (PDF)

[8] Temple of Art. The Birth of the Public Museum in Germany 1701–1815 (PDF)