ARCHITECTURE IN THE MUSEUM: DISPLACEMENT, RECONSTRUCTION AND REPRODUCTION OF THE MONUMENTS OF ANTIQUITY IN BERLIN’S PERGAMON MUSEUM, Volume 1 (Phd Thesis)

316 Pages·2003·0.87 MB·English

by  S. M. Can Bilsel

ARCHITECTURE IN THE MUSEUM:
DISPLACEMENT, RECONSTRUCTION AND REPRODUCTION
OF THE MONUMENTS OF ANTIQUITY IN BERLIN’S PERGAMON MUSEUM
Volume I
S. M. Can Bilsel
A DISSERTATION
PRESENTED TO THE FACULTY
OF PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE
OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
RECOMMENDED FOR ACCEPTANCE
BY THE SCHOOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
NOVEMBER 15, 2003
UMI Number: 3107866

Copyright 2003 by
Bilsel, S. M. Can

All rights reserved.

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© Copyright by S. M. Can Bilsel, 2003. All rights reserved.
Abstract
This dissertation is a study in the formation of modern knowledge about the architecture
of antiquity. Its main concern is to address an epistemic problem by exploring the
relationship between archaeology—the scholarly practice of excavating the past—and
the reconstruction and display of “monuments” of antiquity in the museum—the process
through which the history of art and culture becomes intelligible to modern viewers.
Exploring the framing of archaeological fragments by modern visions, I examine the
Pergamon Museum, a highly contested and, yet, immensely popular “museum of ancient
architecture” in Berlin, and three of its chief exhibits, the Great Altar of Pergamon, the
Market Gate of Miletus and the Ishtar Gate of Babylon.
The first part of the dissertation, “Architecture in the Museum,” investigates the
architectural exhibits of the Pergamon Museum through the 20th century theories of
museology and historic preservation. Part 2, “The Architecture of an Imperial Museum
in Berlin,” studies how German imperialist discourse on art and “Kultur” was translated
into the actual ordering of works of art and cultural contexts in Alfred Messel’s project
of the Royal Prussian Museum of 1907 (today’s Pergamon Museum). In Part 3, “The
Altar and its Frames,” I study the history of the museum displays and reconstructions of
the Great Altar of Pergamon, from Carl Humann’s excavations of the castle of Bergama
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in 1878 to 1930 when the Pergamon Museum was opened to the public. The final part of
the dissertation focuses on Walter Andrae’s curious reproduction of “Babylonian
architecture” in the museum’s South Wing, reframing the products of an archaic industry
as unique works of art.
Focusing on the history of the construction of the Pergamon Museum, I expose the
ideological underpinnings of the process that transformed fragmentary archaeological
finds into complete museum-objects. I argue that, even though initially hypothetical, the
reconstituted “monuments” gained autonomy from the discursive field in which they had
found their form and, through the assumption of aesthetic distance and modern
spectatorship, have come to replace the lost antique originals instead of merely
representing them.
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Table of Contents
Volume I
Abstract ……………………………………………………………………………... iii
List of Illustrations ……………………………………………………………….… vii
Acknowledgements ..……………………………………………………………….. xvi
Part 1. Architecture in the Museum: Definitions and Problems
1. 1. Architectonic Restitution: Historical Monument versus Historical Décor ……. 2
1. 2. Architecture in the Museum: Viewing the Fragment and the Whole ………17
1. 3. Monuments in “Exile”: On the Location and Dislocation of Architecture …24
1. 4. On the Historical Method ...…………………………………………………31
Part 2. The Architecture of an Imperial Museum in Berlin: Art and Kultur
2. 1. Alfred Messel’s Project for the Royal Prussian Museum, c. 1907 ……...… 39
2. 2. On the Vocation of the Museum: Bildung versus Kultur …………….….… 60
2.3. Art versus Ethnology: Imperial Archaeology and Taxonomies of Culture ... 85
2. 4. The “Style-Room”: Between the Original Setting and the Bourgeois Intérieur 97
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Part 3. The Altar and Its Frames: Reconstructing Pergamon
3. 1. Space and Relief in the Pergamon Room ……………………..……….… 106
3. 2. Antique Fragments and Modern Visions ………………………………… 118
3. 3. The Problem of Museum Reconstruction …………………………………135
3. 4. On the Museum’s Object: a Model, a Décor and a Restored Monument …141
3. 5. The Museum of Ancient Architecture: Monuments for Mass-Spectacle … 151
Part 4. Architectural Reproduction: Reconstructing Babylon
4. 1. The Lion of Babylon in the Age of the Work of Art ………………………169
4. 2. Transgressing Bilderverbot: the Babel-Bible Controversy ………….…… 180
4. 3. Romantic Reconstruction: in Search of “Organic” Essence …….……….. 188
4. 4. Symbol, Ornament, Art: Figures of the Counter-Enlightenment ………… 199
Conclusion. On the Modern Cult of Authenticity ………………………….……… 209
Selected Bibliography …………………………………………………………….. 220
Volume II
Illustrations
Illustrations for Part 1 …………………………………………………………. 259
Illustrations for Part 2 …………………………………………………………. 266
Illustrations for Part 3 …………………………………………………………. 295
Illustrations for Part 4 …………………………………………………………. 357
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List of Illustrations
Illustrations for Part 1
Fig. 1.1 The reconstruction of the West Façade of Great Altar of Pergamon,
completed in 1929, the Pergamon Museum, Berlin.
Fig. 1.2 Walter Andrae, the reconstruction of the Ishtar Gate of Babylon (6th to 5th
century B.C.), completed in 1930, Vorderasiatisches (Near Eastern)
Museum (in the Pergamon Museum), Berlin.
Fig. 1.3 Theodor Wiegand, the reconstruction of the Market Gate of Miletus (c.
160 A.D.), c. 1926-1929, the Pergamon Museum, Berlin.
Fig. 1.4 Reconstruction of the Market Gate of Miletus (c. 160 A.D.), c. 1926-
1929, Berlin.
Fig. 1.5 Detail From the Photograph of the Reconstruction of the Market Gate of
Miletus, c. 1926.
Fig. 1.6 “Zeus in Exile” from the cover of Sefa TaskIn’s book Sürgündeki Zeus:
-
Bergamadan Berlin’e, Berlin’den Bergama’ya).
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Illustrations for Part 2
Fig. 2.1 Perspective drawing, showing Berlin’s Museum from the Southeast.
Fig. 2.2 Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Altes Museums, completed in 1830, Berlin,
showing the main façade from the Lustgarten.
Fig. 2.3 Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Site Plan of the (Altes) Museum showing the
Royal Palace (below) and the Custom Houses (Packhof) along the
Kupfergraben (above), 1823.
Fig. 2.4 August Stüler, “Forum” with the Neues Museum, site plan, 1853.
Fig. 2.5 August Stüler, “Forum” with the Neues Museum, elevations and
perspective.
Fig. 2.6 August Orth, master plan of the Museum Island, 1875.
Fig. 2.7 August Orth, plan of the Museum Island, second design, 1875.
Fig. 2.8 August Orth, master plan of the Museum Island. View from the
Kupfergraben canal.
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Fig. 2.9. Alfred Messel, entry in the architectural competition for the Museum
Island, 1884, site plan.
Fig. 2.10 Alfred Messel, entry in the architectural competition for the Museum
Island, 1884, elevation from the Kupfergraben.
Fig. 2.11 Alfred Messel, entry in the architectural competition for the Museum
Island, 1884, section.
Fig. 2.12 Alfred Messel, Project for the Extension of the Royal Prussian Museum
and Development of the Museum Island, 22 August 1907.
Fig. 2.13 Alfred Messel, Project for the Extension of the Royal Prussian Museum.
Fig. 2.14 Alfred Messel, Project for the Extension of the Royal Prussian Museum
in Berlin, 30 October 1907. The first exhibition (ground) floor.
Fig. 2.15 Alfred Messel, Extension of the Royal Prussian Museum in Berlin, 30
October 1907. Section through the court and the Pergamon Altar-Room.
Fig. 2.16 Alfred Messel, “Gothic Room.”
Fig. 2.17 Alfred Messel, “Baroque Room.”
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