Pergamonmuseum Berlin. Collection of Classical Antiquities, Museum of the Ancient Near East, Museum of Islamic Art [5 ed.] 3791357492, 9783791357492

Table of contents :
Cover
Contents
The Pergamon Museum – a long building history
Collection of Classical Antiquities
The history of the collection
Excavations
Olympia
Pergamon
Magnesia on the Maeander
Priene
Miletus, Didyma, Myus
Samos
Baalbek
Hall of Hellenistic architecture
The Pergamon Altar
The Telephus Frieze
Hall of Roman architecture (Miletus Hall)
Museum of the Ancient Near East
The history of the collection
Southern Mesopotamia and neighbouring Iran
Iran
Northern Mesopotamia and neighbouring Urartu
Urartu
Northern Syria and Anatolia
Writing
Museum of Islamic art
The history of the collection
The Umayyads (661-750)
The Abbasids and Samarra (750-1258)
The Mediterranean world at the time of the Fatimids (909-1171)
Iran and Central Asia in the 9th-13th centuries
The Rum Seljuks (1071-1307) and their capital, Konya
The Ayyubids and Mamluks in Syria and Egypt (1171-1517)
Arabs and Berbers on the Iberian Peninsula (711-1492)
The Il-Khanids and Timurids in Iran (1258-1506)
The Mshatta Palace Façade
The Sasanians (224-651)
Book arts
Carpets
The Safavids in Iran (1501-1737)
The Ottomans (1300-1922)
The Aleppo Room

Citation preview

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Pergamon Museum Collection of Classical Antiquities Museum of the Ancient Near East Museum of Islamic Art

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Contents The Pergamon Museum - a long building history

10

Collection of Classical Antiquities

24

The history of the collection

28

Hall of Hellenistic Architecture

36

The Pergamon Altar

44

The Telephus Frieze

52

Hall of Roman Architecture (Miletus Hall)

58

Museum of the Ancient Near East

66

The history of the collection

70

Southern Mesopotamia and neighbouring Iran

74

Northern Mesopotamia and neighbouring Urartu

96

Northern Syria and Anatolia

114

Writing

122

Museum oflslamic Art

128

The history of the collection

132

The Umayyads (661-750)

136

The Abbasids and Samarra (750-1258)

140

The Mediterranean world at the time of the Fatimids (909-1171)

144

Iran and Central Asia in the 9th-13th centuries

148

The Rum Seljuks (1071-1307) and their capital, Konya

152

The Ayyubids and Mamluks in Syria and Egypt (1171-1517)

156

Arabs and Berbers on the Iberian Peninsula (711 - 1492)

160

The 11-Khanids and Timurids in Iran (1258-1506)

162

The Mshatta Palace Fa~ade

164

Book arts

170

Carpets

174

The Safavids in Iran ( 1501- 1737)

178

The Ottomans (1300- 1922)

180

The Aleppo Room

182

The Pergamon Museum a long building history Construction of the Pergamon Museum, the youngest structure on Berlin's Museum Island, took many years. From 1830---1876 three neoclassical museum buildings had been erected on the island in the Spree: the Altes Museum, the Neues Museum and the Alte Nationalgalerie. But already there was no room for the display of the large number ofobjects that found

The first Pergamon Museum Entrance fa~ade from the south-ease. c. 1903

10111

their way to Berlin thanks to new purchases and from excavations in the Mediterranean region and the

ear East that had begun in 1875.

In 1881 the Berlin Architects' Association was commissioned to design structures to house the finds from Olympia and Pergamon, as well as an e:i..1:ension for the enormous collection of plaster casts. According to a major competition announced in 1884, a 'Renaissance museum' for the art-historical holdings was meant to be erected at the tip of the island, and another for the ancient originals south of the urban railway viaduct. Then in 1896 Wilhelm von Bode convinced Wilhelm II to build the Kaiser Friedrich Museum (since 1960 the Bode Museum ). The excavation museum planned by the architect Fritz Wolff was thereupon reduced to a pavilion for the Pergamon Altar frieze. This first Pergamon Museum housing finds from Pergamon, Magnesia on the Maeander, and Priene was inaugurated in December 1901.

A full-scale reconstruction of the Pergamon Altar that could be viewed from all sides served as the museum's centrepiece. Fragments of ancient buildings were to be found in a courtyard, and low ground-floor rooms accommodated the remaining objects in stone. This building, with galleries filled with natural light, was a groundbreaking innovation, but it survived for only a few years; structural damage and plans for the expansion of the museums led to its being razed in the spring of 1909. Following Wilhelm von Bode's concept, Alfred Messel in 1907 began planning a monumental new museum building with three wings: in addition to the Pergamon Altar and reconstructions of ancient architecture filling the main section, the south wing was to house the Muse um of the Ancient Near East (Vorderasiatisches Museum), and the north wing the German Museum (Deutsches Museum) -with central European art from the Midclle Ages to the Baroque. A colonnade was to close off the courtyard on the Kupfergraben side. After Messel's death in 1909 the project was entrusted to Ludwig Hoffmann, who together with the municipal architect Wilhelm Wille realised his plan by 1930. The site posed special problems. A mud-filled crevasse 50 metres deep known as the Kolk, a leftover from the Ice Age, had to be bridged over with a concrete vault beneath the south wing. Work was suspended during World War I and resun1ed only after 1924. The fi rst Pergamo n Museum Main hall with the front of the Pergamon Altar, c. 1903

Courtyard of t he first Pergamon Museum with fragments of classical architecture, c. 1903

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The planned colonnade, the entrance structure and all the sculptural ornamentation were abandoned so as to reduce the cost. The design of the interiors reflected the architectural notions of the 1920s. In 1926 the Olympia Room was abandoned in favour of the Ishtar Gate and Processional Way from Babylon. For the museums' centennial in 1930, the new structure - with the German Museum (Deutsches Museum ), the ancient architecture galleries, the Pergamon Altar and the Babylonian structures in the south wing- was inaugurated. In 1932 the Museum ofislamic Art (Museum fur Islamische Kunst), previously housed in the Bode Museum, moved to the upper floor of the south wing. Pedestrian bridges connected the main floor to the Neues Museum and to the Bode Museum on the other side of the urban railway viaduct, but the entry situation remained provisional. At the beginning of World War II the museums were closed and their holdings placed in storage. Bombing at the end of the war heavily damaged mainly the Mshatta Fa,;:ade and the Market Gate from Miletus. After repairs, the Museum of the Ancient Near East (Vorderasiatisches Museum) was reopened to visitors in 1953, and the rebuilt Market Gate a year later. The hall containing the Pergamon Altar had to wait until 1959, that is, until after the return from the Soviet Union the year before of important museum collections, such as the slabs of the altar frieze. War damage and the political division of Berlin occasioned a redistribution of the collections between the island's museums and the new

Front of t he Pergamo n Museum on the Kupfe rgrabe n

Entrance co urt

Pergamon Altar Room

Drawing by Alfred Messel

Drawing by Alfred Messel

Drawing by Alfred Messel

14 115

museums in West Berlin. The returned holdings from the Collection of Classical Antiquities (Antikensammlung) were placed in the galleries of the former German Museum (Deutsches Museum), in the north wing. The main floor served primarily for the display of ancient sculptures, while smaller works were accommodated in a portion of the second floor. The remaining second-floor space was given over to the Far Eastern Collection (Ostasiatische Sammlung). The Folk Art Museum (Museum fur Volkskunde) found a new home in the north wing's basement. In the years 1980-1982 a central entrance structure with space for service facilities was erected after designs by the Berlin-Weissensee College of Art (Werner Dutschke, Peter Gohlke). In its dimensions it was required to adhere to those of the entrance structure as planned by Messel. The courtyard was redesigned, and a new bridge built across the Kupfergraben. The Pergamon Museum construction site

Substructions of the south wing 1912

April 19 12

161 17

---i....__

-- ---- . Arc hitecture Hall Hellenistic

1933

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At last the Pergamon Museum was given a suitable entrance in the style of the contemporary architecture. The reunification of Germany and, subsequently, of the State Museums under the aegis of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (Stiftung PreuEischer Kulturbesitz) meant that new planning for the Pergamon Museum might proceed as well. Once its overall refurbishment is complete (by 2025), the Museum of the Ancient Near East (Vorderasiatisches Museum) is to take over the entire south wing, and the Museum of Islamic Art (Museum fur Islamische Kunst), with the Mshatta Fayade, is to be assigned to the north wing. The historic galleries with classical and ancient

ear Eastern architectural monuments are to remain largely

unchanged. A planned connector, the "Archaeological Promenade", partially underground, will serve to tie the buildings together. Additionally, a

Hall of the Pergamon Alt ar

Classical sculptures in the no rth wing

damaged in World War II, 1945

1964

20121

new central entry structure, the James Simon Gallery, now under construction to the south of the Pergamon Museum after plans by David Chipperfield, will assume the general service functions. In 2000, following an international competition, Oswald Mathias Ungers was awarded the commission fo r the general refurbishing and expansion of the Pergamon Museum. In addition to a new interior guidance system that includes a central entrance structure, his design calls for a fourth wing along the Kupfergraben. It is to accommodate Egyptian archi tecture as well as the ancient Near Eastern Tell HalafFa