Paul Arndt (archaeologist)

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Paul Julius Arndt (born October 14, 1865 in Dresden , † July 17, 1937 in Munich ) was a classical archaeologist .

Paul Arndt was the son of the businessman Julius Arndt (1824-1904) from Neustrelitz and his wife Amalie Cölestine born Schumann (1830-1883) from Zwickau . He attended school in Dresden and passed his Abitur at the Kreuzgymnasium in Dresden . He then studied classical archeology at the University of Leipzig and later at the University of Munich . Arndt Johannes Overbeck in Leipzig and Heinrich Brunn in Munich had a particular influence . Despite the closeness to his teachers, Arnsdt's own research interests focused almost exclusively on ancient sculpture - especially ancient portraits and Greek sculpture - and gemology . In 1887 he was in Munich with the thesis "Studies on vases Customer" doctorate . After receiving his doctorate, Arndt worked as a research assistant to von Brunn in Munich and then to Adolf Furtwängler until he completed his habilitation there in 1894 and now taught as a private lecturer . Travels took him to different regions of the Mediterranean world , where he was able to acquire a very deep knowledge of the ancient regions and the works of art.

Arndt took over the editing and editing of the corpus work Monuments of Greek and Roman Sculpture from his lifelong deeply revered teacher Heinrich Brunn . In addition, he initiated Greek and Roman portraits (published between 1891 and 1947) in 1891 with over 1000 panels with illustrations and texts and individual photographs of ancient sculptures (published between 1893 and 1937), two further corpus works on ancient sculpture. Up until the beginning of the delivery company Antike Plastik , initiated by Walter-Herwig Schuchhardt , in 1962, these corpora with their detailed photographs were an important research tool. The Greek and Roman portraits , in which Arndt was later assisted by Georg Lippold , were only discontinued due to the time of World War I in 1942. The individual photographs of ancient sculptures were intended as a preparation for a corpus statuarum and appeared with explanatory texts . Walter Amelung continued this series . After Furtwängler's death, Arndt was considered the best expert on ancient glyptics.

Arndt was less than his contemporary colleagues an academic teacher, excavator or institutionally anchored archaeologist. He lived in Munich as a private scholar, collector and art dealer from the late 1890s. As a collector and one of the most important art dealers of antique works of his time, he bought and sold antique art, especially sculptures on a large scale, and was sold artifacts to well-known museums. The most important customers were the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen , the Szépművészeti Múzeum in Budapest and the Glyptothek in Munich . The Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam , the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven and the Antikensammlung of the University of Tübingen also owe a large part of their collections to Arndt's mediation. For Copenhagen he also wrote a scientific table of sculptures. Munich owes Arndt's mediation, among other things, to the sculpture of a larger than life archaic kouro . The mediation is not limited to mediating a work of art to a seller. Since institutions like the Munich Glyptothek mostly had no or only a small budget for new acquisitions, Arndt also helped directly in the search for powerful donors who could provide the institutions with the necessary money. Arndt was networked in the art trade across Europe. With his sure eye for artistic quality and his system of selling certain pieces to certain museums, Arndt has helped shape the face of many antique collections to this day. He collected himself at first in a modest way, after the death of his wealthy father at a much higher level. In 1918, Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria acquired his important collection of antique gems , which has been in the State Coin Collection in Munich since 1958 .

Although not anchored in institutions, Arndt was highly regarded by his archaeological colleagues, and in particular in Munich he enjoyed a very good reputation. On his 60th birthday, he was given a rare honor at the time with the dedication of a commemorative publication . Karl Anton Neugebauer described Arndt in an obituary as a scholar of restless diligence and extraordinary knowledge; but he was also a man of pure character, helpful and loyal, an admirer of the beautiful and a personality of sharp character. Arndt is portrayed as spirited, the pictures obtained show a person with a pointed goatee and mustache, which gives a very humorous impression. In addition, he was evidently very communicative and especially very open-minded and approachable towards younger colleagues. Ludwig Curtius described him as a medium-sized, lively, agile man to whom his Dresden Saxon could hardly be heard and who was "slick and ironed", in black ice cream gloves and smelling of eau de cologne with a "melon" on his head . He appeared almost daily in the Museum for Casts of Classical Sculptures , in phases of friendship while Furtwängler was present, when they were fighting again, when he was not in the house. He struggled as an author, he was rather considered the person who had - often spontaneous - ideas and ideas. Curtius emphasized the rarity of his communicative nature and his joy in the generosity of his knowledge in a more controversial and strictly ideas-minded academic world and described him as a "noble appearance".

Paul Arndt was married to the farmer's daughter Christine, born Huber, who came from the Bavarian-Austrian border and was described in the memories of Ludwig Curtius as a kind-hearted woman who did not really fit into high academic society, and had two sons. The family lived since he could afford it at Himmelreichstrasse 2 by the Englischer Garten in Munich, where he had a villa built. In addition to his collection of antiquities, his extensive archaeological library and an extensive collection of archaeological photographs were also located here. With this he had built up his own little institute, to which he was happy to give other users access. He died after a long period of cancer. Some of the holdings of the large Arndts collection that had not been sold before ended up in the Budapest Szépművészeti Múzeum and the State Collections of Antiquities in Munich ( Heymel Foundation ), the rest, at the insistence of Ludwig Curtius, in the Collection of Antiquities of the University of Freiburg . His scientific estate is in the possession of the Institute for Classical Archeology at the University of Erlangen . In the course of the Nuremberg Laws , Arndt's memory quickly faded. It wasn't until the 1980s that gem and plastic researchers and art dealers began to focus more on research.

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Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Described as an example for the acquisition of the Munich Apollo in Ludwig Curtius: Deutsche und antike Welt. Life memories. Stuttgart 1950, 138-139.
personal data
SURNAME Arndt, Paul
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Arndt, Paul Julius (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German classical archaeologist
DATE OF BIRTH October 14, 1865
PLACE OF BIRTH Dresden
DATE OF DEATH July 17, 1937
Place of death Munich