Paul Müller-Walde

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Paul Müller-Walde (born March 14, 1858 in Altona , according to other sources Eberswalde ; † December 21, 1931 in Berlin ) was a German art historian whose most important works included research on Leonardo da Vinci at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th Century belong. In particular, he conducted research in the Castello Sforzesco in Milan , where he exposed numerous wall and ceiling paintings by the Renaissance artist.

Life

Inside title of one of the works by Paul Müller-Walde

Müller-Walde was born in 1858 and studied art history under Moritz Thausing at the University of Vienna. His dissertation was titled Über das Riesentor am Stefansdom , it was submitted to the University of Zurich and printed in Innsbruck in 1883. He spent most of the years from 1890 to 1897 doing research in Milan, where - after intensive study of archives and documents and the inspection of numerous drawings - he uncovered works by Leonardo da Vinci and other artists in several rooms in the Castello Sforzesco.

After Müller-Walde received permission in 1893 to examine the wall plaster in the Castello (until then the building was still occupied by the military), he first discovered several frescoes by Leonardo da Vinci in the Cortile Ducale , which he had in the reign of Francesco Sforza (1450-1466) dated. He also attributed other works that he uncovered in the Duke's Sala del Tesoro (treasury) to Leonardo, which, according to recent findings, was incorrect. He did, however, put a lot of work into supporting his attribution with documents.

As a result, Müller-Walde examined the chapel of Castello and the so-called Camerini , smaller rooms, which he assumed that Leonardo da Vinci had worked there in the spring of 1498. In one of the rooms he believed he had discovered the Saletta Negra , which later turned out to be a mistake.

The decors in the vault of the room later identified as the Sala delle Asse are considered an important discovery by Müller-Wald - it is unclear whether he was already aware that it was the Sala delle Asse.

In 1893, Müller-Walde returned temporarily to Germany to publish his findings on the supposed Sala Negra in Munich . The publication should contain numerous photos on the current condition of the paintings; however, why it was ultimately not published is unknown. Müller-Walde then went to England in order to gain new information about the works he had discovered through the Leonardo drawings kept in Windsor Castle . In 1895 he returned to Milan with new knowledge; A year and a half of uncovering and restoration work followed in the Sala del Tesoro .

Why Müller-Walde concentrated on the Sala del Tesoro instead of the promising Sala delle Asse is unclear; national interests of the Italian authorities and the art historian Luca Beltrami , who also conducted research in the Castello and possibly withheld permission to work on “more important” works of art, are presumed.

From 1897 to 1901 Müller-Walde worked as a research assistant and deputy curator in the Königliche Gemäldesammlung Berlin under Wilhelm von Bode , with whom he had already been in extensive correspondence in the years before - in his early days in Milan he also had activities on the local art market helped expand the collections of Bode and other galleries with Italian Renaissance art.

Müller-Walde died of a stroke in 1931 in the Herzberge psychiatric hospital near Berlin .

58 letters of the detailed correspondence with Bode have been preserved, which are kept in the central archive of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (Prussian Cultural Heritage). Müller-Walde is said to have kept his private archive in Leipzig, but detailed research by the art historian Patrizia Costa in various Leipzig archives has not yet led to any results.

Fonts

  • Leonardo da Vinci. Life sketch and research on his relationship to Florentine art and to Rafael. G. Hirth's Kunstverlag, Munich 1898/1890
  • Contributions to the knowledge of Leonardo da Vinci . In: Yearbook of the Royal Prussian Art Collections . 1899

literature

  • Patrizia Costa: The Sala delle Asse in the Sforza Castle in Milan . Dissertation 2006

Web links

supporting documents

  1. ↑ a b Dates and places from the obituary for Paul Müller-Walde by Gustav Pauli ; in: Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte , 1 vol., H. 2. (1932), pages 167–168.
  2. ↑ Patrizia Costa, The Sala delle Asse in the Sforza Castle in Milan , page 44 (the biographical information comes from a conference contribution by Marco Pozzetto from 1996)
  3. ↑ a b Patrizia Costa, The Sala delle Asse in the Sforza Castle in Milan , page 45
  4. ↑ Patrizia Costa, The Sala delle Asse in the Sforza Castle in Milan , page 49
  5. ↑ Patrizia Costa, The Sala delle Asse in the Sforza Castle in Milan , page 54
  6. ↑ Patrizia Costa, The Sala delle Asse in the Sforza Castle in Milan , page 61
personal data
SURNAME Müller-Walde, Paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German art historian
DATE OF BIRTH March 14, 1858
PLACE OF BIRTH Altona or Eberswalde
DATE OF DEATH December 21, 1931
Place of death Berlin