Notes
The scientific literature on casts has increased considerably over the past decades: S. Weber-Unger (ed.), Gipsmodellen und Fotografie im Dienste der Kunstgeschichte 1850-1900, Vienna, Kabinett, 2022; M. Szőcs and M. Tóth (ed.), Casting a New Light. Plaster Casts and Cast Collections in Europe and Beyond, Budapest, Museum of Fine arts, 2024, especially the splendid article by E. Marchand, “‘The best laid schemes’: The Politics of the universal museum & the vicissitudes of their plaster cast collections at the turn of the twentieth century”, in ibid., p. 12-39.
S. Klamm, “Sammeln – Anordnen – Herrichten: Vergleichendes Sehen in der Klassischen Archäologie”, in L. Bader, M. Gaier, F. Wolf (ed.), Vergleichendes Sehen, Munich, Fink, 2020, p. 383-405; A. Alexandridis and L. Winkler-Horaček (ed.), Destroy the Copy – Plaster Cast Collections in the 19th-20th Centuries: Demolition, Defacement, Disposal in Europe and Beyond, Berlin, de Gruyter, 2022.
F.M. Kammel, “Der Gipsabguss. Vom medium der ästhetischen Norm zur toten Konserve der Kunstgeschichte”, in A.M. Kluxen (ed.), Ästhetische Probleme der Plastik im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert, Nürnberg, Aleph, 2001, p. 47-72.
See S. Altekamp, M.R. Hofter, M. Krumme (ed.), Posthumanistische Klassische Archäologie. Historizität und Wissenschaftlichkeit von Interessen und Methoden, Munich, Hirmer, 1999; C. Güthenke, Feeling and Classical Archaeology: Knowing Antiquity in German Scholarship, 1770-1920, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2020.
S. Marchand, “From antiquarian to archaeologist? Adolf Furtwängler and the problem of ‘modern’ classical archaeology”, in P.N. Miller (ed.), Momigliano and Antiquarianism, Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 2007, p. 248-285.
Letter by C.N. Cochin, July 11, 1784. Warocqué collection, Musée de Mariemont, Belgium (Aut. 1147/2). See M.-J. Durry (ed.), Autographes à Mariemont, Paris, Nizet, 1959, p. 200-205.
On the dialectics between archaeological research and restoration in Berlin, see A. Fendt, Archäologie und Restaurierung. Die Skulpturergänzungen in der Berliner Antikensammlung des 19. Jahrhunderts, 3 vols., Berlin, de Gruyter, 2012.
W. Geominy, “Zwischen Kennerschaft und Cliché. Römische Kopien und die Geschichte ihrer Bewertung”, in G. Vogt-Spira and B. Rommel (ed.), Rezeption und Identität: die kulturelle Auseinandersetzung Roms mit Griechenland als europäisches Paradigma, Stuttgart, Steiner, 1999, p. 38-59.
See A. Domanig, “Karl Schwerzek und die Rekonstruktion des Parthenongiebel”, in S. Weber-Unger (ed.), op. cit. note 1, p. 7-16.
C. Klose, Die Dresdner Gipsabgusssammlung im 19. Jahrhundert. Von der Künstlersammlung Anton Raphael Mengs’ zu Georg Treus experimentellem Lehrmuseum, Berlin, de Gruyter, 2024.
C. Klose, “Götterexperimente: Georg Treu und die Rekonstruktion der Giebelfelder des Zeustempels in Olympia”, Dresdener Kunstblätter, 1, 2023, p. 16-23.
C. Friedrichs, Königliche Museen zu Berlin. Die Gipsabgüsse antiker Bildwerke in historischer Folge erklärt. Bausteine zur Geschichte der griechisch römischen Plastik, P. Wolters (ed.), Berlin, Seemann, 1885; on the history of the collection, L. Winkler-Horacek, “The Fate of the Berlin plaster cast collections: from veneration to destruction, defacement, and disposal”, in A. Alexandridis and L. Winkler-Horaček (ed.), op. cit. note 2, p. 349-374.
This is the comparison made by the famous archaeologist A. Michaelis, Die archäologischen Entdeckungen des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts, Leipzig, Seemann, 1906, p. 256; F.M. Müller (ed.), Archäologische Universitätsmuseen und -sammlungen im Spannungsfeld von Forschung, Lehre, und Öffentlichkeit, Berlin, LIT, 2013.
L. Therrien, L’Histoire de l’art en France : genèse d’une discipline universitaire, Paris, CTHS, 1998, ch. 6 and 7.
J.-L. Martinez, “Les moulages en plâtre d’après l’antique du musée du Louvre: une utopie du xixe siècle”, in exh. cat., D’après l’antique, J.-P. Cuzin, J.-R. Gaborit, A. Pasquier et al. (ed.), Paris, musée du Louvre [16 October 2000-15 January 2001], Paris, Réunion des musées nationaux, 2000, p. 78-82; F. Ravaisson, “Projet d’un musée de plâtres”, Comptes rendus des séances de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, 4, 1875, p. 291.
Proceedings of the congress Le Musée de Sculpture comparée : naissance de l’histoire de l’art moderne, Paris, Musée des monuments français, 8 et 9 décembre 1999, published under the direction of C. Pieri, Paris, Éditions du patrimoine, 2001.
S. Jonas, A. Gérard et al. (ed.), Strasbourg capitale du Reichsland Alsace-Lorraine et sa nouvelle université 1871-1918, Strasbourg, Ed. Oberlin, 1995; J.C. Richez and R. Recht (ed.), Dictionnaire culturel de Strasbourg 1880-1930, Strasbourg, Presses universitaires de Strasbourg, 2017, p. 487-488 (Seminar). The palace was inaugurated in 1884 (the architect was Otto Warth): J.Y. Marc, “Le Kunstarchäologisches Institut de Strasbourg : un modèle pour l’université française ?”, in M. Lagrange (ed.), Université et Histoire de l’Art. Objets de mémoire (1870-1970), Rennes, Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2017, p. 15-39.
S. Morinière, “Le processus de création des collections de moulages universitaires de France : un phénomène national”, in M. Lagrange (ed.), op. cit. note 17, p. 81-94; R. Plana-Mallart and G. Mallet, “Le projet de rénovation et de valorisation du Musée des moulages et les collections d’Art et d’Archéologie de l’Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3”, In Situ, 17, 2011 (Les Patrimoines de l’enseignement supérieur) online. The collection was created in 1890, explicitly following the German model.
E. Michel, “Les Musées de Berlin”, Revue des deux Mondes, January 1882, p. 420-445.
“Moreover, when the arrangement of these figures presents, as for Aegina and Olympia, some uncertainty, the various modes of grouping proposed are presented to the public, who is thus more able to appreciate how likely each of them is to be correct”, Ibid., p. 429-430.
“The public, moreover, is made aware of discoveries as they occur. Thus, it was scarcely a year ago, when the news of the discovery made at Athens of a Minerva attributed to Phidias was announced to all Europe, that the director of antiquities at Berlin having obtained immediately two photographs of this statue, albeit mediocre, had taken care to expose them at once next to the other Minervas already known.”, Ibid., p. 430.
“On other occasions, it will be seen, these comparisons of photographs – and especially of casts, allow us to note borrowings and even formal copies in works hitherto regarded as original.” Ibid., p. 431.
M. Collignon, “L’Enseignement de l’archéologie classique et les collections de moulages dans les universités allemandes”, Revue internationale de l’enseignement, 3, 1882, p. 256-270.
F. Montargis, “Rapport au Ministère de l’Instruction publique sur l’organisation de l’enseignement de l’art dans les universités allemandes”, Journal Officiel, 37, February 7, 1887, p. 625-630; P. Vitry, “Musées d’enseignement en Allemagne. Musées de moulages antiques et modernes”, Revue internationale de l’Enseignement, 35, 1898, p. 529-537; A. Blanchet, “Rapport sur les musées d’Allemagne et d’Autriche”, Ministère de l’Instruction publique et des Beaux-Arts. Nouvelles archives des missions, II, 1892, p. 655-696.
J.M. Hofman, “Generation and Regeneration of the cast collections of the Musée de sculpture comparée”, in R. Frederiksen and E. Marchand (ed.), Plaster Casts. Making, Collecting and Displaying from Classical Antiquity to the Present, Berlin, de Gruyter, 2010, p. 58-73.
J. Piggott, Palace of the People: The Crystal Palace at Sydenham 1854-1936, London, Hurst, 2004.
P. Griener, Pour une histoire du regard. L’expérience du musée au xixe siècle, Paris, Hazan, 2017, p. 116-117.
In 1867 at the Exposition universelle (Paris, 1867), fifteen nations signed an agreement to the effect that they should exchange plaster casts of their best monuments. This document was drafted by H. Cole: Convention for promoting universally reproductions of works of art for the benefit of museums of all countries; D. Bilbey and M. Trusted, “‘The Question of casts’ – collecting and later reassessment of the cast collections at South Kensington”, in R. Frederiksen and E. Marchand (ed.), op. cit. p. 463-484; on the collection of plaster casts at the Victoria and Albert Museum, J. Bryant, Designing the V&A: the museum as a work of art (1857–1909), London, Lund Humphries and the V&A, 2017, p. 141-145.
M. Marvin, “Copying in Roman Sculpture: The Replica Series”, in H.A. Millon (ed.), Retaining the Original: Multiple Originals, Copies and Reproductions, Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art, 1989, p. 29-45.
Museumskunde. Deutscher Museumsbund. 1.1905 - 17.1923/24. Museumskunde, first published in 1905, was subtitled Zeitschrift für Verwaltung und Technik öffentlicher und privater Sammlungen. It became a leading publication in the field of museums. It had been founded by a professional curator: Karl Koetschau had been the director of several museums in Germany before moving to Dusseldorf where he was appointed head of the collections until his retirement in 1934. A. Meyer, Kämpfe um die Professionalisierung des Museums: Karl Koetschau, die Museumskunde und der Deutsche Museumsbund 1905-1939, Bielefeld, transcript Verlag, 2021.
I. Peiró and G. Pasamar, La Escuela Superior de Diplomática (Los archiveros en la historiografía española contemporánea), Madrid, Anabad, 1996.
P. Durey, École du Louvre. Jalons pour une histoire (1882-1998), Paris, École du Louvre et Fage éditions, 2021.
See B. Daun, “Die Bemalung antiker Gibsabgüsse”, Museumskunde, 11, 1915, p. 193-198.
B. Gräf, “Die Aufgaben einer Sammlung von Abgüssen nach antiken Skupturen”, Museumkunde, 4, 1908, p. 55-65, esp. p. 64.
F. Rathgen, “Ueber die Auffrischung verschmutzer Gipsabgüsse”, Museumskunde, 13, 1917, p. 33-40.
E. Panofsky, Idea: A Concept in Art History, Columbia, University of South Carolina Press, 1968; P. Griener, “La sculpture antique chez les modernes : propos de Johann Joachim Winckelmann”, Aufklärung, 27, 2015, p. 209-218.
F. Haskell and N. Penny, Taste and the Antique: the Lure of Classical Sculpture, 1500-1900, A. Aymonino and E. Dodero (revised ed.), 3 vols, London/Turnhout, Harvey Miller/Brepols, 2024.
E. Falconet, Observations sur la statue de Marc Aurèle, et sur d’autres sujets relatifs aux beaux-arts, Amsterdam, Rey, 1771, p. 131: “it is easier and more certain to study [a form] from a plaster cast than from a marble sculpture”.
R. Kekulé von Stradonitz, Die Vorstellungen von griechischer Kunst und ihre Wandlung im neunzehnten Jahrhundert [1901], Berlin, Reimer, 1908; opinion recorded by B. Daun, op. cit. note 33, here p. 194; W. Schiering, “Kekulé von Stradonitz als Interpret griechischer Plastik”, Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen, 21, 1979, p. 5-19.
W. Klein, “Die Aufgaben unserer Gipsabguss-Sammlungen”, Museumskunde, 8, 1912, p. 1-10, p. 100-114.
Proceedings of the congress Il Cortile delle Statue: Akten des Internationalen Kongresses zu Ehren von Richard Krautheimer, Rom, 21. – 23. Oktober 1992 = Der Statuenhof des Belvedere im Vatikan, M. Winner, B. Andreae and R. Krautheimer (ed.), Rom/Mainz, Bibliotheca Hertziana/von Zabern, 1998.
C. Keller and C. Schmälze (ed.), Archäologien der Moderne. Winckelmann um 1900, Hamburg, Meiner, 2022.
R. Cooper, Roman Antiquities in Renaissance France 1515-1565, London, Routledge, 2016, p. 127-169.
L. Winkler Horacek, “Appreciation and Rejection. Plaster Casts in the Discourse of Copy and Original. With an excursus on the Sleeping Ariadne in the Berlin Cast Collection,” in M. Szöcs and M. Tóth (ed.), op. cit. note 1, p. 130-143, esp. p. 137.
R. Stiassny, “Vom Gipsmuseum der Wiener Kunstakademie”, Museumskunde, 6, 1910, p. 1-17, p. 12.
J. Sieveking, “Nachbildungen antiker Kunstwerken im städtischen Museum zu Stettin”, Museumskunde, 5, 1909, p. 129-158, ill. 1, p. 130.
Georg Treu published his views on the ancients’ practice of polychromy: G. Treu, Sollen wir unsere Statuen bemalen?: ein Vortrag, Berlin, Oppenheim, 1884; see B. Daun, op. cit. note 33, p. 193-194, who remarked that plaster casts after works from the Italian Renaissance, in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum, were painted in imitation of marble or bronze, to good effect, without leading the viewer into the erroneous impression that the object was an original. One of the great modernist curators of the time, Alfred Lichtwark, also advocated the use of polychromy on casts: A. Lichtwark, “Farbige Skulptur”, in Studien, 2 vols, Hamburg, Luttke & Wulff, 1896, vol. 1, p. 87-131, esp. p. 93. Several authors published essays on the colouring of plaster, for instance L. Bernhard, Gibsabgüsse Stuckarbeinten und Künstlicher Marmor. Ihre Herstellung und Färbung, Frankfurt, Bechhold, 1893.
P. Jockey, Le Mythe de la Grèce blanche. Histoire d’un rêve occidental, Paris, Belin, 2015.
H. Bosecker, “Die Ästhetik des Archäologischen: Georg Treu und Auguste Rodin in Dresden”, in S. König, G. Lupfer and M. Obenaus (ed.), Drehscheibe Dresden, Dresden, Verband Deutscher Kunsthistoriker, 2018, p. 92-99. See the superb remarks by A. Potts, “The Public Gallery as Arena for Modern Sculpture”, in M. Baker and I. Reist (ed.), Sculpture collections in Europe and the United States 1500-1930, Leiden, Brill, 2021, p. 223-253.
On Treu and Rodin, see the very illuminating remarks by J.A. Schmoll gen. Eisenwerth, Rodin-Studien, Munich, Prestel, 1983, p. 329-365; Treu wrote some important essays on Rodin, “Auguste Rodin”, Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst, 2, 1901, p. 81-86; “Bei Rodin”, Kunst und Künstler, 1904-1905, p. 3-17, and “Rodin auf der Großen Kunstausstellung”, Dresdner Anzeiger, August 2, 1904. See cat. exp, Vor 100 Jahren: Rodin in Deutschland, M. Kuhlemann (ed.), Skulpturensammlung, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden [10 June-13 August 2006], Munich, Hirmer, 2006.
R. Stiassny, op. cit. note 45: “the physical effect of the original”.
B. Daun, op. cit. note 33, p. 196.
Ibid., p. 197.
F. Rionnet, Les Bronzes Barbedienne : l’œuvre d’une dynastie de fondeurs, 1834-1954, Paris, Arthena, 2016, p. 30 (machine and Collas process).
On the concept of transmediality, W. Wolf, “The Concept of ‘Transmediality’, and an example” Repetition, 1, 2022, p. 213-232.
B. Daun, op. cit. note 33, p. 195.
J. Sieveking, op. cit. note 46, p. 129. On this attempt by F. Hauser, see P. Arndt, Photographische Einzelaufnahmen antiker Skulpturen, Munich, Verlagsanstalt für Kunst und Wissenschaft, 1893, cats. 1724-1730, cols 41-44; M. Bieber, “Die Söhne des Praxiteles”, Jahrbuch der Kaiserlich Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, 28-29, 1925, p. 242-245, esp. p. 267-268. The museum ordered most of these copies from the Württembergische Metallwarenfabrik, a factory in Geislingen in der Steige (Baden Würtemberg): see their catalogue, which proudly mentioned the museum among its clients: Württembergische Metallwarenfabrik. Abteilung für Galvanoplastik. Galvanoptastische Nachbildungen antiker Statuen etc. nach Abgüssen von den Originalen, Geislingen, 1909.
B. Daun, op. cit. note 33, p. 198. Brandely ainé, Nouveau manuel complet de galvanoplastie, 2 vols, Paris, Roret, 1873, I, p. 240 ff., explains this process, which made it possible to produce incredibly precise copies. On this process, see E. Rodriguez-Castresana, L’Aura et le multiple : une histoire de la réception de la reproduction mécanique d’objets d’art au xixe siècle, Paris, Mare & Martin, 2025.
B. Bucher, “Die Aufgabe der kunstgewerblichen Museen”, Mittheilungen des K. K. Osterreichischen Museums, 1897, p. 337-445, esp. p. 339. This is quite correct: for example, an ‘original’ beaker (Ulrich zem Luft-Eberler) believed to have belonged to the Treasury of the cathedral at Basle, and now in the Victoria and Albert Museum (London), was only identified as a galvanoplastic copy in 2001! T. Husband and J. Chapuis (ed.), The Treasury of Basle Cathedral, New York, Museum of Modern Art, 2001, cat. 60 and pl. xx, p. 145.
J. Sieveking, op. cit. note 46, ill. p. 134.
B. Daun, op. cit. note 33, p. 198: “the copyist will never achieve the true form of the original, as science absolutely demands, in the already costly marble copies”.
See the famous painting by Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Phidias Showing his Friends the Frieze of The Parthenon, 1868 (Birmingham museums, UK), which shows Phidias’ friends walking on scaffolding which allows them to admire his bassorilievos as they were being carved. This painting provided the imaginary legitimation for this possibility of a close-up view of the friezes, which in fact only became possible during the museum age – as it was offered to visitors at the time in the British Museum.
H. Wölfflin, “Wie man Skulpturen aufnehmen soll”, Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst, N.F. 7, 1896, p. 224-228 and N.F. 8, 1897, p. 294-297; H. Wölfflin, “Wie man Skulpturen aufnehmen Soll? (Problem der italienischen Renaissance)”, Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst, N.F. 26, 1915, p. 237-244; see H. Wölfflin, How One Should Photograph Sculpture, transl. and commentary by G.A. Johnson, Art History, 36, 1, February 2013, p. 52-71.
A. von Hildebrand, Das Problem der Form in der bildenden Kunst, Strasbourg, Heitz, 1893; S. Rauprich, Aspekte der Betrachtung und Rezeption von Plastik in der deutschen Kunstwissenschaft des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts. Ein wissenschaftsgeschichtlicher Versuch, Weimar, VDG, 1995, chap 5.
H. Bulle, “Das kunstgeschichtliche Museum der Universität Würzburg”, Münchner Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst, 1910, p. 147-162.
Ibidem; F. Fries, “Der Erweiterungsbau des städtischen Museums Elberfeld”, Museumskunde, 10, 1914, p. 1-13, esp. p. 12.
On the perception of objects of the past during the 19th century, J. Siegel, Material inspirations. The Interests of the Art Object in the Nineteenth Century and After, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2020, and P. Griener, op. cit. note 27.
On photography of sculpture at the time, see C. Caraffa, Fotografie als Instrument und Medium der Kunstgeschichte, Berlin, Deutscher Kunstverlag, 2009; G.A. Johnson and D. Schultz (ed.), Photo Archives and the Place of Photography, London/New York, Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group, 2025; H.E. Roberts (ed.), Art History Through the Camera’s Lens, Amsterdam, Gordon and Breach, 1995; E. Edwards and E. Ravilious (ed.), What Photographers Do. The Making and Remaking of Museum Cultures, London, UCL Press, 2022; S. Hamill and M.R. Luke (ed.), Photography and Sculpture: the Art Object in Reproduction, Los Angeles, The Getty Research Institute, 2017; R. Marcoci (ed.), The Original Copy: Photography of Sculpture 1839 to Today, New York, Museum of Modern Art, 2010.
O. Homburger, Museumskunde, Breslau: Hirt, 1924, p. 40: “Long praised, then much reviled in recent times”.
J. Baum, “Gipsabgüsse”, Museumskunde, NF III/4, 1931, p. 141-143, p. 143.
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