Philipp von Stosch

Georg Martin Preissler's engraving after a drawing by Johann Justin Preissler after a bust by Edmé Bouchardon ; Copper engraving from 1754 at the latest.

Baron Philipp von Stosch (born March 22, 1691 in Küstrin ; † November 7, 1757 in Florence ) was a German diplomat , antiquarian , numismatist and gemologist . He was one of the most important antique collectors of the 18th century, and his collection of antique gems and gems is still one of the most important collections of this kind worldwide and one of the foundations of the Berlin Collection of Antiquities .

Life, achievement and meaning

Philipp Stosch was the son of the doctor Philipp Siegismund Stosch (1656-1724) and his wife Louysa Vechner. First he began studying theology at the Brandenburg University in Frankfurt . He broke off early in order to pursue his antiquarian-archaeological interests and travel wishes. At the age of 19 he went to the Netherlands in 1710 , where his cousin, the Baron von Schmettau, was the Prussian envoy . Through this he was introduced into diplomatic circles. Although he came from middle-class circles, he moved from now on in aristocratic and court circles in large parts of Europe. He made the acquaintance of the diplomat and art collector François Fagel (1659–1746), who was Stosch's first patron. He sent him to London in 1712 with a confidential diplomatic assignment . Two years later he traveled with Schmettau to Rome via southern France . In Rome he made the acquaintance of Bernard de Montfaucon , on whose recommendation he also met Pope Clement XI through the papal chamberlain Giusto Fontanini (1666–1736) . came into contact, who took him on amicably and would have liked to keep him permanently in Rome. Stosch began a lifelong friendship with his nephew Alessandro Albani . He also became acquainted with the architect Giuseppe Merenda (1687–1767). In 1717/18 he returned to Vienna via Florence and Venice , as his father had called him back after the death of his older brother Ludwig. In Vienna he was from Emperor Karl VI. probably ennobled for his diplomatic services and was able to examine his coin collection. From Vienna he traveled to Prague and then to Dresden . In Dresden he was given the title of royal councilor and antiquarian and a pension was suspended. From 1719 to 1721 he stayed - now in Saxon service - as envoy in the Netherlands , from where he reported regularly to Jacob Heinrich von Flemming , the Saxon head of government. He was also staying with his old friend Fagel. After leaving Prussia in 1719, he did not return to his homeland until his death. From 1722 until his death he lived in Italy, until 1731 in Rome, then in Florence. As an English secret agent, he was involved in the surveillance of the Scottish pretender James Francis Edward Stuart . He himself declared his move to Florence by saying that he had been exposed and feared for his life. However, this statement lacks a real basis, so that the real reasons are not apparent. Possibly he had to leave Rome because as a supposed or real atheist , freemason - he belonged to the lodge Zu den 3 Degen in Halle - and probably an openly living homosexual there had to reckon with problems.

Contemporary pen drawing by Pier Leone Ghezzi : Philipp von Stosch during his studies, on the right a servant holding up a bottle

Stosch made a name for himself primarily as a researcher and collector. After initially taking part in the processing of Fagel's coin collection, he was entrusted with numismatic tasks in his diplomatic missions. In addition to his first patron, he always found other patrons who encouraged his passion for collecting. He received pensions from the Pope, for example, but also from the Dutch, Saxons and English. As an antique dealer, he was also able to contribute to his maintenance and the expansion of his own collection. Due to his open, engaging nature and his thirst for knowledge, he was able to make friends quickly and anywhere and get access to collections that were previously closed to interested parties. Paul Ortwin Rave described him as “looking, learning, collecting, always taking more than giving”. His cut stone collection became one of the most important of its kind. He also collected coins and other artifacts to a lesser extent. The most famous piece in the collection, along with the gems, was the so-called Stosch stone , which was named after him. During his time in Italy he became a specialist in his fields of interest through self-taught studies and was able to fall back on a broad knowledge of materials. For Stosch, the representations on the gems were a means for the cultural and historical development of antiquity, especially the mythology of the Greeks and Romans. He used it to give as complete an overview as possible of the representations of the gods and their attributes, the heroic saga and history, customs and objects of daily life. His collection included 3,444 original antique intaglias , but also 28,000 impressions of gems from almost all important collections in Europe, some of which he had made himself. His houses in Rome and Florence were meeting places for scholars, art connoisseurs and artists, including Markus Tuscher . He was in correspondence with many other scholars, including Carl Gustav Heraeus and Johann Joachim Winckelmann , who obtained a catalog of Stosch's gem collection after his death. There was no personal contact between the great collector Stosch and Winckelmann, but Stosch was very open to the methods of the young researcher Winckelmann. He was a member of the Accademia Etrusca in Cortona and the Società Columbaria in Florence. Few other members of the Accademia Etrusca took such an active part in the life of the society for which he gave many lectures. Georg Martin Preissler (1700–1754) and Johann Adam Schweickart stayed with him as assistants .

Sophocles ' Medusa in an engraving by Bernard Picart, page 89 of the work Gemmae antiquae caelatae .

Even before Stosch moved to Rome, he was planning to publish his collection and the inscriptions on his gems. The work Gemmae antiquae caelatae, scalptorum nominibus insignitae was published in 1724 in Amsterdam in both Latin and French . In his work, in which he concentrated on 70 signed gems that he believed to be antique, he resorted to the research of Charles César Baudelot de Dairval (1648–1722) on gem inscriptions. Thanks to his knowledge, he was able to identify many imitations and forgeries, which were particularly common at that time, as gem research was particularly highly regarded at that time. To date, around half of all artist's signatures that he considers genuine among the mass of modern imitations are still considered antique. The engravings for his work were done by Bernard Picart , who also published the work, based on drawings by Johannes Hieronymus Odam ; the engravings are unusual for pictorial reproductions of the time with impressive accuracy. Peter Zazoff attested to Stosch that his work still meets scientific standards today. The work on the signed gems was continued by Domenico Augusto Bracci , who had previously raised hopes for the commission to process the collection. A planned publication of a topographical-geographical atlas, which was to show plans and views of cities, fortresses, buildings and gardens as well as events such as festivals, battles and sieges, did not come to print despite the advanced work with 324 volumes at the end (see Atlas Stosch ) . He has also been collecting extensive material in this area since his youth. This part of the collection is now in Vienna. In addition, he also collected paintings, graphics, weapons and manuscripts. Carl Justi published antiquarian letters from Stosch in 1871.

Stosch was buried at the Antico Cimitero degli Inglesi in Livorno . He was not married and had no children. His nephew Heinrich Wilhelm Muzel-Stosch , son of the high school professor Friedrich Muzel , was adopted by him and inherited from him. He commissioned Winckelmann to create the catalog and in 1764 sold the Stosch collection to King Friedrich II of Prussia. The theologians Eberhard Heinrich Daniel Stosch and Ferdinand Stosch and the physician Friedrich Ludwig Hermann Muzel were also his nephews.

Fonts

• Gemmae antiquae celatae, scalptorum nominibus insignitae. Ad ipsas gemmas, aut earum ectypos delineatae & aeri incisae, per Bernardum Picart. Ex praecipuis Europae museis selegit & commentariis illustravit Philippus de Stosch = Pierres antiques gravées, sur les quelles les graveurs ont mis leurs noms. Dessinées et gravées en cuivre sur les originaux ou d'après les empreintes by Bernard Picart. Tirées des principaux cabinets de l'Europe, expliquées par Philippe de Stosch. Bernard Picart, Amsterdam 1724.

literature

• Antiquarian letters from Baron Philipp von Stosch. Collected and explained by Carl Justi . Pfeil, Marburg 1871.
• Rudolf Schwarze :  Stosch, Philipp von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 36, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1893, p. 462 f.
• Dorothy MacKay Quynn: Philipp von Stosch: Collector, Bibliophile, Spy, Thief (1691–1757). In: The Catholic Historical Review. Volume 27, No. 3, 1941, ISSN  0008-8080 , pp. 332-344.
• Lesley Lewis: Philipp von Stosch. In Apollo. Volume 63 = Booklet 85, 1967, ISSN  0003-6536 , pp. 320-327.
• Fabia Borroni Salvadori: Tra la fine del Granducato e la Reggenza: Filippo Stosch a Firenze. In: Annali della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa. Classe di Lettere e Filosofia. Series 3, Volume 8, Number 2, 1978, ISSN  0392-095X , pp. 565-614.
• Peter Zazoff , Hilde Zazoff: Gem collector and gem researcher. From a noble passion to science. CH Beck, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-406-08895-3 .
• JJL Whiteley: Philipp von Stosch, Bernard Picart and the "Gemmae Antiquae Caelatae". In: Martin Henig, Dimitris Plantzos (ed.): Classicism to Neo-classicism. Essays dedicated to Gertrud Seidmann (= BAR international Series. Volume 793). Archaeopress, Oxford 1999, ISBN 1-8417-1009-1 , pp. 183-190.
• Jörn Lang: Scholars' networks. A sketch of antiquarian interaction using the example of Philipp von Stosch (1691–1757). In: Jan Broch, Markus Rassiller, Daniel Scholl (Eds.): Networks of Modernity. Explorations and strategies (= Forum. Volume 3). Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-8260-3720-7 , pp. 203-226 ( digitized version ).
• Max Kunze : Stosch, Philipp von. In: Peter Kuhlmann , Helmuth Schneider (Hrsg.): History of the ancient sciences. Biographical Lexicon (= The New Pauly . Supplements. Volume 6). Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2012, ISBN 978-3-476-02033-8 , Sp. 1193-1196.
• Renato Pasta:  Stosch, Philipp. In: Raffaele Romanelli (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 94:  Stampa – Tarantelli. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2019.

Web links

Commons : Philipp von Stosch  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Stosch in the Arachne database
• Stosch in the ZENON catalog
• Stosch, Philipp von . In: East German Biography (Kulturportal West-Ost)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Johann Christian Gädicke (Ed.): Freemason Lexicon. Gebrüder Gädicke, Berlin 1818, p. 475 (digitized version) .
2. ^ Quote from Stosch, Philipp von . In: East German biography (Kulturportal West-Ost) by Sepp-Gustav Gröschel

predecessor	Office	successor
Wolf Abraham von Gersdorff	Saxon envoy to the Netherlands 1719–1721	Claude de Brose