William Diebold

"The Uses of Classicism"

Humanities 110

October 25, 2004

 

 

"It needs a particular courage not to overcome the past but to live with it still"--Geoffrey Hartman

 

 

Monuments

 

Aegina, Temple of Aphaia

            Temple constructed c. 490 B.C.

            West pediment sculptures carved c. 490 B.C. (now Munich, Glyptothek)

            East pediment sculptures carved c. 480 B.C. (now Munich, Glyptothek)

            Pedimental sculptures restored 1816-1818 A.D. by Bertel Thorwaldsen

            Thorwaldsen restorations removed 1962-75

 

Valhalla (near Regensburg), Leo von Klenze, 1830-42  

 

Munich, Königsplatz

            North side:  Glyptothek, Leo von Klenze, 1816-30

South side: Ausstellungsgebäude (Exhibition Hall); Friedrich von Ziebland; 1838-48

            West side:  Propyläen, Leo von Klenze, 1854-62

East Side:  Führerbau (Führer's Building), Paul L. Troost, 1933-37 (now Academy of Music)

Verwaltungsbau der NSDAP (Administration Building of the Nazi Party), Paul L. Troost, 1933-37 (now Central Institute for Art History; University of Munich department of classical archeology; and Bavarian State Collection of prints and drawings)

Ehrentempel (Temple of Honor), Paul L. Troost, 1933-35 (dynamited, 1947)

 

 

 

 

Terms and Persons

 

Ludwig I of Bavaria (1786-1868)

Bertel Thorwaldsen (1770-1844)

Gesamtkunstwerk (German:  "total work of art")

Glyptothek (Greek:  "container of sculpture")

Leo von Klenze (1784-1864)

Leon Krier

 

 

Chronology (all dates A.D. unless otherwise noted)

 

c. 490 B.C.      West pediment of Temple of Aphaia, Aegina

c. 480 B.C.      East pediment of Temple of Aphaia, Aegina

[antiquity?]      Pedimental sculptures dislodged from Temple of Aphaia, Aegina

1811                Aegina pediments excavated

1813                Aegina pediments sold to Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria

1816-18           Aegina pediments restored by Thorwaldsen

1825                Crown Prince Ludwig becomes King Ludwig I of Bavaria

1830                Aegina pediments put on display in Munich Glyptothek

1833                Ludwig's son becomes King Otto I of Greece

1862                Abdication of Otto I as King of Greece

1923                Failed Nazi putsch in Munich; 16 Nazis killed

1933                Nazi seizure of power

1962-75           Thorwaldsen restorations of Aegina pediments removed

 

 

 

Further Reading

 

Acropolis Restoration:  The CCAM Interventions, ed. R. Economakis.  London, 1994

 

Beard, Mary.  The Parthenon.  London, 2002

 

Diebold, William J.  "The Politics of Derestoration:  The Aegina Pediments and the German Confrontation with the Past."  Art Journal 54 (1995), 60-66

 

Hurwit, Jeffrey M.  The Athenian Acropolis:  History, Mythology, and Archaeology from the Neolithic Era to the Present.  Cambridge, 1999

 

Marlowe, E.  "Cold War Illuminations of the Classical Past:  'The Sound and Light show' on the Athenian Acropolis." Art History 24 (2001), 578-597

 

Yalouri, Elena.  The Acropolis:  Global Fame, Local Claim.  Oxford, 2001.