Roman Hyperboreans

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Emblem of the Roman Hyperboreans by Otto Magnus von Stackelberg

The Roman Hyperboreans were a group of friends of archaeologically interested persons of German origin in Rome in the mid-1820s .

prehistory

The Roman Hyperboreans stood in the tradition of the artistic-scientific salons , which since the beginning of the 19th century often arose in Rome around foreign artists, scholars and statesmen. The first important salon, in whose direct tradition the Hyperboreans stood, was that of Wilhelm von Humboldt , who had been Prussian ambassador to the Holy See since 1802 . Above all non-Italian writers like August Wilhelm Schlegel , Madame de Staël , Ludwig Tieck and Friederike Brun , artists like Karl Friedrich Schinkel , Christian Daniel Rauch , Bertel Thorvaldsen , Franz and Johannes Riepenhausen , as well as travelers and scientists like Carl Ludwig gathered around him Fernow , Nicholas Revett , Johan David Åkerblad and Edward Dodwell . Friedrich Gottlieb Welcker , who left Rome with Humboldt in 1807, was also a private tutor at the Humboldt's and thus part of the circle . Under the influence of the Humboldt circle, new associations formed.

The year 1816, when the Livonian artist and explorer Otto Magnus von Stackelberg came to Rome, was of particular importance for further development . The landscape painter Jakob Linckh was with him . Both came into contact with the Hanoverian diplomat August Kestner . Everyone was interested in ancient art and culture. They formed the focus of a new salon that included Bartolomeo Borghesi and Peter Oluf Brøndsted , but also other European archaeologists and art historians.

A second salon shaped by Germans was that of Humboldt's successor as envoy of Prussia, Barthold Georg Niebuhr , whose focus, in addition to the host, was his young colleague Christian Karl Josias von Bunsen . Together with the painter Ernst Plattner , it was planned to publish a “Description of the City of Rome”. In 1822 Eduard Gerhard joined this group. Just a year later, he put his skills to the test when he identified the Basilica Iulia in the Roman Forum . He quickly became part of the inner circle, especially when Niebuhr returned to Berlin in 1823 and the publication of the description of Rome had to be rearranged. The ancient sculptures in the Vatican were assigned to him. Theodor Panofka joined the circle in 1824 .

The Roman Hyperboreans

An inner circle of four people quickly formed from the two salons: Stackelberg, Kestner, Gerhard and Panofka. They now formed their own circle and met regularly at Kestner's house. There they held readings and studied together. After the mythical people, they enthusiastically called themselves the Roman Hyperboreans . Stackelberg even designed its own emblem for the group: to the left of a centrally arranged Apollonian candelabra , the griffin of the god Apollon defeats a predatory Arimaspen . The griffin guards the treasures of the Hyperboreans in the far north. Stackelberg took the motif from a Campana relief . To the right of the candelabra, the Capitoline Wolf with the twins Romulus and Remus is shown in a typical manner. Both mythical creatures stand with their heads in the direction of the central candelabra. In 1825 Gerhard wrote a poem on the circle of friends. Both the vignette and the poem were placed in front of his writing Venere Proserpina , which he also dedicated to the Hyperboreans: Al Diletto e Venerato Ceto della Società Iperboreo-Romana . Other writings were also published from within the group in the following years without making any direct reference to the group.

  • Otto Magnus von Stackelberg; Contemporary portrait of Carl Christian Vogel von Vogelstein

  • August Kestner around 1810

  • Eduard Gerhard in the 1860s

  • Theodor Panofka

  • Christian Karl Josias von Bunsen, a close colleague and friend of the group

Gerhard and Panofka tried to stick to the original plan for describing the ancient works of art in Rome. But despite the promise of many well-known scientists, this request could not be brought to an end. In 1827 the four friends went on a joint research trip to Corneto , where they examined the recently discovered tombs of ancient Tarquinias and copied the wall paintings in their original size. Since many of these paintings have now disappeared, the copies of the Hyperboreans are of hardly any significance for research. Today they are kept in the Rome department of the German Archaeological Institute . Although the time was very productive and many individual studies, but also joint research could be carried out, Gerhard failed with the idea of ​​a common, organized society. While Panofka was able to secure the financial support of the community through acquaintance with the Duc de Luynes and the Duc de Blacas and obtain new impulses, the circle of friends also broke up. Panofka went to Naples as a private tutor with the Duc de Blacas and later to Paris, Stackelberg left Rome.

aftermath

After the ultimate failure of the loose union of the Hyperboreans, Gerhard realized that in the future only an international society could achieve this goal with the aim of collecting and publishing ancient works of art. Despite some doubts even from his friends, he pushed this goal further. With Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm as patron saint and the support of Bunsen - who became the first general secretary -, de Blacas - who became the first president - as well as Kestners, Carlo Feas and Thorwaldsens, he worked out the basic features of an organization in 1828 that one year later became the Istituto di corrispondenza archeologica was founded: the later German Archaeological Institute (DAI).

The Roman Hyperboreans were thus one of the direct predecessors of the German Archaeological Institute. The Hyperborean Griffin Stackelberg was modified to become the symbol of the DAI and is still in a modernized form today. In 1833, the Hyberborean-Roman Studies appeared, the last research results that came about within the framework of society.

literature