Sculpture Collection (Dresden)

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View of the sculpture collection with the plaster casts that were removed from the flood (2003)

The sculpture collection in Dresden is a collection of sculptures from five millennia. The Antikensammlung is one of the largest and oldest collections of antiquities outside of Italy. In addition to the sculptures, the collection also includes vases , terracottas , bronzes , Assyrian relief tablets and Egyptian mummies .

The sculpture collection is part of the Dresden State Art Collections . It has been housed in the Albertinum since 1894 .

history

The collection began in the Kunstkammer of Elector August, founded in 1560 . Their actual justification came from Friedrich August I (1670–1733), Elector of Saxony 1694–1733, as August II. King of Poland from 1697, called Augustus the Strong.

Due to August the Strong's passion for collecting, Dresden became the first German city with a large collection of antiquities based on the Italian model. The elector sent agents to Rome and Paris to buy up ancient marble sculptures. In 1728 an extensive collection of antiquities consisting of 160 sculptures and 34 works from the collection of Cardinal Alessandro Albani were acquired in Rome from the estate of Prince Agostino Chigi .

Between 1729 and 1747 the collection was housed in the palace in the Great Garden . In 1736, three statues of women, the "Herkulanerinnen", were acquired in Vienna from the estate of Prince Eugene of Savoy . The well-known antiquity researcher Johann Joachim Winckelmann received suggestions for his writings in the Antiken-Kabinett, especially for his History of Ancient Art from 1764. With the purchase of 833 plaster casts in 1783 from the estate of the painter Anton Raphael Mengs , a collection of casts was created justified. This quickly grew to around 4,500 casts, which primarily reproduce works from Greek and Roman antiquity . In the middle of the 19th century, a large number of sculptures were acquired again, including a lot of ancient minor art and numerous individual pieces as well as some complete collections.

As successor to Hermann Hettner , Georg Treu was appointed director of the sculpture collection in 1882 . With the museum, he established a prestigious place for scientific research. He also opened up new thematic collecting areas with the purchase of ancient cabaret and original Greek sculptures. With a lot of commitment, Treu was also able to expand the collection significantly. He was able to acquire large collections through contact with important contemporary sculptors such as Auguste Rodin and Constantin Meunier . After the former Dresden armory on Brühlschen Terrasse was converted into an archive building and museum (Albertinum) between 1884 and 1889 , the sculpture collection previously located in the Japanese Palace moved in . The museum has been called this since then because the name “Antiken-Kabinett” was no longer appropriate due to the numerous new acquisitions made at the time. After Georg Treu, Paul Herrmann , Bruno Schröder and Walter Müller held the position of director. Among other things, they built up a large department of German and French contemporary art . At the time of National Socialism , 24 sculptures from the modern department were confiscated due to the " Degenerate Art " campaign and most of them were sold abroad. The sculpture " Große Kniende " by Wilhelm Lehmbruck , which the artist's widow had bequeathed to the collection in 1920, was removed from the collection by the National Socialists in 1937 as "Degenerate Art" and sold to the USA. In 1993 it was bought back for 1.1 million US dollars in New York for the sculpture collection.

At the beginning of the Second World War the museum was closed. The sculptures were later relocated from Dresden together with other art treasures. With the exception of a few large plasters, the collection survived the war without significant losses. After the end of the war, the Soviet occupation forces initially brought it to Moscow. In 1958, Dresden received the sculptures back. The first major exhibition of the sculpture collection opened in 1969 on the ground floor of the Albertinum in the restored Renaissance hall, which still comes from the previous building, the armory. During the GDR era , the museum acquired numerous important works of contemporary art, as well as sculptures from the period from ancient Greece to the 19th century .

Since the Albertinum has housed not only the Gemäldegalerie Neue Meister , but also the Green Vault , the Münzkabinett , the special exhibitions of the Dresden State Art Collections and central administration rooms since 1969, in addition to the Sculpture Collection , only excerpts from the Sculpture Collection, especially the Antikensammlung and some in sculptures exhibited in the Gemäldegalerie Neue Meister. This situation has gradually improved with the reconstruction of the Dresden Residenzschloss . The exhibitions of the Green Vault, the Kupferstichkabinett , the Münzkabinett, the Türckische Cammer , the art library and the general management of the museums have now been installed there.

Current situation

The Albertinum was reopened on June 19, 2010 after fundamental renovation work and the installation of a new depot and restoration workshops above the former inner courtyard. This construction project became necessary after the Elbe floods in 2002 . When in 2013 the armory from the Sempergalerie , once designed by Gottfried Semper for the cast collection, is moved to the Residenzschloss, its exhibition rooms will also be available for the sculpture collection. The collection of antiquities will be presented there in the future. This in turn enables a completely new exhibition concept in the Albertinum: the sculpture collection, together with the Galerie Neue Meister, shows art from the Romantic era to the present.

From March 2016 to the end of 2019, Mengs's cast collection was shown in the German Hall in the Zwinger within the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister . The Galerie-Café Algarotti is now located here . Since the reopening of the Sempergalerie on February 29, 2020, the collection of ancient sculptures has been shown in the Antikenhalle (east hall of the gallery). Parts of the sculpture collection and the Mengs cast collection are now in the area of ​​the Old Masters Picture Gallery. At the same time, bronze and stone sculptures from the Renaissance and Baroque periods can be viewed in the sculpture gallery of the Gemäldegalerie.

Since 2008 the sculpture collection has also had its own circle of friends, Paragone Dresden e. V., who supports the activities of the museum.

exhibition

Auguste Rodin : The Thinker

In addition to the sculptures, vases , terracottas , bronzes , Assyrian relief panels and Egyptian mummies are also on display. Other focal points after antiquity are the Saxon sculpture of the Middle Ages, bronzes from the Renaissance and Baroque, the sculptural legacy of Ernst Rietschel , sculptures by Auguste Rodin and Constantin Meunier as well as particularly figurative sculptures from the 20th century, etc. a. by Wilhelm Lehmbruck , Hermann Blumenthal and Wieland Förster .

In the sculpture hall 125 works can be seen, the sculpture of the GDR with works by Wieland Förster, Hermann Glöckner and Werner Stötzer enters into dialogue with works by Wilhelm Lehmbruck, Auguste Rodin and Fritz Wotruba , to name just a few of the artists exhibited here. The older sculpture is now visible in a compressed form in public viewing depots.

Eberhard Bosslet : Stump Stools , in the atrium Albertinum Dresden 2011

Due to the new concept, many previously deposited parts of the collection are made accessible to the public, such as the original models by Ernst Rietschel, the most important Dresden sculptor of the 19th century, who, among other things, created the Goethe-Schiller monument in Weimar, the Carl Maria von Weber monument in Dresden and the gable decoration of the first Dresden court theater built by Gottfried Semper. Above all, however, a new focus for modernism emerged in the structure of the Dresden museums. This also includes the interaction with the contemporary art exhibitions in the Lipsius Building opposite of the University of Fine Arts in the octagon under the dome known as the “lemon squeezer”, as well as the possibility of temporary sculptures from Saxony on the Georg-Treu-Platz between these houses to show.

The sculpture collection also includes a section of medieval sculpture. It goes back mainly to the collecting activity of the Royal Saxon Antiquities Association and includes predominantly Gothic sculpture from Saxon churches, but also some Romanesque works such as the Madonna from Otzdorf . For decades this collection was housed in the Albrechtsburg in Meißen. Since the summer of 2009 it has found a new home on permanent loan in the Schloßbergmuseum Chemnitz , which is located in a former monastery. There, the sculptures from the Dresden sculpture collection are presented together with the equally attractive holdings of the Chemnitz art collections, resulting in a unique overview of medieval sculpture from Saxony.

See also

Web links

Commons : Skulpturensammlung, Dresden  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 51 ° 3 ′ 7 ″  N , 13 ° 44 ′ 40 ″  E