Destroy the Copy: Plaster Cast Collections in the 19th-20th Centuries: Demolition, Defacement, Disposal in Europe and Beyond PDF
Preview Destroy the Copy: Plaster Cast Collections in the 19th-20th Centuries: Demolition, Defacement, Disposal in Europe and Beyond
DestroytheCopy–PlasterCastCollectionsinthe19th–20thCenturies – Destroy the Copy Plaster Cast Collections th– th in the 19 20 Centuries Demolition, Defacement, Disposal in Europe and Beyond Edited by Annetta Alexandridis and Lorenz Winkler-Horaček ISBN978-3-11-075131-4 e-ISBN(PDF)978-3-11-075796-5 e-ISBN(EPUB)978-3-11-075799-6 LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2021952729 BibliographicinformationpublishedbytheDeutscheNationalbibliothek TheDeutscheNationalbibliothekliststhispublicationintheDeutscheNationalbibliografie; detailedbibliographicdataareavailableontheInternetathttp://dnb.dnb.de. ©2022WalterdeGruyterGmbH,Berlin/Boston CoverImage:PlastercastofmetopefromtheTempleofZeusatOlympiawithHeraclescapturing theCretanBull;CornellUniversityPlasterCastCollection. Typesetting:IntegraSoftwareServicesPvt.Ltd. PrintingandBinding:CPIbooksGmbH,Leck www.degruyter.com Preface This book is the product of an ongoing project on critical histories of plaster cast collections. Instead of retracing the origins and development of a collection, we wantedtolookatitslifecyclefromtheotherend.Investigatingdestructionseemed a productive way to uncover what meanings and functions such collections carry, whatrolestheyplay,andwhichassociationstheyevoke.Giventhemultiplicityand ubiquityofindividualcastsandcastcollections,thespecificcasestudiespresented here allow for some general conclusions to be made, all while highlighting local specificities. Thecollectionofessaysassembledinthisvolumeoriginatesfromtwointerna- tionalconferencestheeditorsorganizedin2010atCornellUniversityandin2015at the Freie Universität Berlin. In our, the editors’, experiences of learning, teaching, and working with plaster casts in various departments of classics or Greco-Roman (‘classical’) archaeology in Germany(Berlin, Munich, and Rostock) and the United States (Cornell), moments of destruction in the collections’ histories and beyond loomedlarge.Inmoreorlessdramaticfashion,theviolenceofthesemomentswas still palpable. Whether in severely damaged pieces or in the bright new casts, whichconstantlyremindedoneoftheirpredecessors’totalloss,destructionpointed toaclose–ifnotalwaysstraightforward–connectionbetweenaestheticsandpoli- tics.ThecastcollectioninMunich(MuseumfürAbgüsseKlassischerBildwerke),for example,onceamongthelargestofitstime,perishedalmostentirelyinthealliedair raidsofWorldWarII.1Locatedintheso-calledHofgartenarkaden,ithadbeentempo- rarilypushedasidebehindpartitionsin1937tomake(purposefullycrammed)place fortheNazipropagandashow“DegenerateArt”(EntarteteKunst).Berlin’suniversity and museum castcollections also suffered lossesinthe war.But moredamage was doneintheaftermathinwhathadbecomethesocialistGermanDemocraticRepublic (GDR)asaresultofunprofessionalremoval,storage,and,finally,adeliberateattack by students on such tokens of a ‘bourgeois’ society.2 What role did the casts (and classical archaeologists as theircustodians) playin both cases? Were theyinvolun- taryvictimsofpoliticalideologies,weretheycomplicit,ordidtheysimplygetinthe wayatsomepoint? TheCornellcollectioncomplicatedthesequestionssignificantly,foritscastshad alsobeenviolentlydestroyedordamagedincircumstancesverydifferentfromthose inWWIIorpost-warGermany.Itbecameclearthatpoliticalideologiescouldnotbe 1 Thepost-warMunichcastcollectionkepttheveryfewbrokenfragmentsthatsurvivedthebomb- ingsinwhatwasdubbedthe‘poisoncabinet’(Giftschrank)–studiedinaweasanextrachallenge fororalexamsattheuniversity’sDepartmentofClassicalArchaeology. 2 ThiswasthecaseofthecastsfromthecollectionatRostockUniversity,whichwerebroughtto Berlin’sHumboldtUniversitytorefillthegaps,butwereultimatelydestroyedaswell;seeLorenz Winkler-Horaček(Berlinarticle)inthisvolume. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110757965-202 VI Preface soeasilymappedontothefateofplastercasts.TheCornellconferencereorientedand broadenedourunderstandinginawaythatcalledforasecondconference.OurEuro- centricperspective,tothisdaystillprevalentinplastercaststudies,hadtobechal- lenged by a global one which in turn demanded a more explicit concern with the establishmentanduseofcastcollectionsascolonialistpractices.Givenrecentpoliti- caleventsbothintheUnitedStatesandinEuroperelatedtotheriseofwhitesuprem- acistmovements,weseeanurgentneedforfurther,unsparingresearchinthisarea. We believe this could also be the beginning of a new relevance of cast collections. Therefore, we emphatically understand destruction not as the end, but as another phaseinthereceptionofplastercastsandwhattheysooftenrepresent,namely‘clas- sical’EuropeanorGreco-Romansculpture. Notallthepapersdeliveredattheconferencesfoundtheirwayintothiscollec- tion,buteachofthemprovidedimportantinsight.Hereistheplacetoacknowledge theirpresenters.In2010,StephenDysonplacedthefoundingofCornellandIthaca withinUSAmericanneoclassicism.KevinO’Toolepresentedapaperonthecastsof theParthenonfriezeattheArtGalleryofWesternAustraliainPerthandcompeting claimsofculturalheritageinasettlercolony.In2015,WilliamBreitweiserlookedat how plaster cast collections helped establish and perpetuate racial ideologies and theideaofEuropean/whitesupremacyinsettlercoloniessuchastheUnitedStates, Australia,andSouthAfrica.TheMainzplastercastcollectionasanexampleofcivic philanthropy was the theme of Patrick Schollmeyer’s paper. As a historian of art and media, Silke Walther contributed to both conferences with a paper on the MuséedesculpturecomparéeinParisandcastsandphotosastwoformsofrepro- duction,aswellaswithapresentationontheuseofplasterinmodernandcontem- porary art. Pascal Weitmann analyzed how various classical modern artists and movements dealt with the traditional exemplarity of classical ancient art. While a moreorlessaggressiverefusalappearsintheworkofPaulGauguinorFranzMarc andespeciallytheItalianfuturists,otherssuchasLeCorbusierfoundinspirationin archaicGreekart.GiorgiodeChiricoemphaticallyrevivedtheoldmodelas‘trueart’ towardstheendofhislife.Wehavetakenthelibertytorefertosomeofthesepapers inourowncontributions. Contents Preface V Acknowledgements XI AnnettaAlexandridisandLorenzWinkler-Horaček Introduction 1 I (Post)colonialContexts AnnettaAlexandridis Introduction 21 HenrikHolm The(Mis)PerformanceofCastCollections 25 NataliaKeller TheRiseandFalloftheMuseodeCopias:OntheHistoryoftheCollection ofSculptureReplicasintheNationalMuseumofFineArtsinSantiagode Chile 51 ShinyaAraki EmbracetheCopy:PlasterCastsandModernityinArtEducationinJapan 77 II ContestedClassification:Artvs. Archaeology vs. Anthropology AnnettaAlexandridis Introduction 105 LaurenKelloggDiSalvo HiddeninPlainView:ThePlasterCastCollectionattheNationalMuseum ofNaturalHistoryoftheSmithsonianInstitution 109 StephaniePearson FallingBetweentheCracks:UCBerkeley’sPlasterCasts 131 VIII Contents AdamRabinowitz “MuseumofAncientArt”orWhiteElephant?TheBattleCollectionofPlaster CastsattheUniversityofTexasatAustin 151 HannahC.M.Hume ThroughAthena’sEyes:TheHenryW.SageCollectionofCastsatCornell University 175 EmmaPayne FromPillartoPost:ClassicalCastsattheBritishMuseum 201 IIITheContingencies ofValue LorenzWinkler-Horaček Introduction 223 CharlotteSchreiter Burnt,Destroyed,Sold,Lost:TheFateofCastCollectionsinthe18thand19th Centuries 225 ClaraBolle-Fivaz WhatArchivalRecordsDoorDoNotSay:TheDestructionofPlasterCastsin Geneva 239 RüdigerSplitter DieAbguss-SammlungenimMuseumFridericianumundinder GemäldegalerieKassel 261 HadwigaSchörner VonsystematischerVernachlässigungbisabsichtlicherZerstörung: GipsabgüsseinJenaerundWienerAntikensammlungenim 20.Jahrhundert 285 IVTheContingencies ofAuthenticity LorenzWinkler-Horaček Introduction 311 Contents IX NadineLeisnerundUlfertOldewurtel KeeptheCopy!DieGipsabguss-SammlungderKunsthalleimsog. HamburgerFaksimile-Streit 313 BrittaRabe Verkauft,verschenkt,zerstört.Vergessen?DieFrankfurterAbguss- Sammlung(en):VersucheinerRekonstruktion 329 LorenzWinkler-Horaček TheFateoftheBerlinPlasterCastCollections:FromVenerationto Destruction,Defacement,andDisposal 349 SallyFoster SmashingCasts:ReplicationofScottishEarlyMedievalSculptureasaCase StudyontheFragilityofValue 375 VRevolutionandIconoclasm AnnettaAlexandridisandLorenzWinkler-Horaček Introduction 403 ChristianePinatel DestructionofPlasterCastsinWorkshopsandCollectionsofImportant FrenchInstitutionsinthe19thand20thCenturies 407 SolineMorinière TheFateofCastCollectionsinFrenchEducation:BetweenDestructionand Abandonment 435 MichaelAnnBevivino “ARampagebyVandals”:TheHistoryandDestructionofthePlasterCastsof theNationalCollegeofArtandDesignofIreland 455 JosephJ.Basile ModelsforEternity:TheChangingRoleofPlasterCastsatTheMaryland Institute 469 X Contents VIEnvois AnnettaAlexandridis ‘Classical’PlasterCastsinEnlightenmentandColonialistDiscourseson Race 493 LorenzWinkler-Horaček DestroytheCopy?DestroytheCopy!AHistoryof(Non-)appreciation 527 AbouttheAuthors 585 Indices LocationsandCollections 591 Individuals 595 General 601
The list of books you might like
