Collection of our casts

The Antiquities Museum and its plaster casts of antique sculptures in Leipzig.

Public museums with collections of plaster casts were, until the beginning of the 20th century, a common sight in any larger city. During this period, they would have been seen as central institutions of cultural and artistic life. Such casts are generally three-dimensional, full-scale replicas, taken from antique Greek and Roman sculptures. The idea of creating such collections dates back to the second half of the 17th century. At that time, such plaster casts were often commissioned for the drawing studios of newly founded art academies, where students would learn how to reproduce the human figure (Fig. 1).  

In Leipzig, as in many other places, the collection of casts is closely connected with the archaeological studies of the university. With the help of such collections, students could compare objects held in museums scattered throughout the world. This furthered their knowledge of antique sculpture and supplemented their study of available original artefacts.

Today, the collection’s holdings include around 800 plaster casts, alongside the original antique objects from the Alte Nikolaischule. It is considered one of the most important historical collections of its kind in Germany.

By 1840 the Antiquities Museum, which was founded as a teaching and research collection, had been granted a provisional location on Augustusplatz (Fig. 2). In 1843, the first museum for ancient minor arts and casts was installed in the nearby ‘Fridericianum’, with a floorspace of about 240 sqm (Fig. 2. 3). Since its establishment, the collection of casts served as a resource for archaeological study, but was also open to the public.

- Jörn Lang, translation Rubymaya Jaeck-Woodgate

From the middle of the 19th century on, the collection of plaster casts was expanded as a resource for archaeological studies. Johannes Overbeck (1826–1895) is especially noted for his almost exclusive commissioning of plaster casts of ancient statues during his period as director of the museum. The extent of the collection is apparent in the »Guide to the Archaeological Museum«, which Overbeck published in 1859, and again in a new edition in 1881 (Fig. 1).

Overbeck’s successor Franz Studniczka (1860–1929) continued this successful work. The cast collection, the inventory for which totalled around 3000 pieces at its height, held a secure place as a representative part of the university’s public collections right up until World War II. Despite several extensions, the collection eventually expanded beyond the capacity of its original location in the ›Fridericianum‹, and in 1881 it was moved to the main building of the university on Augustusplatz.

Only a few years later, the collection gained greater quarters within its new location. Now the plaster casts were exhibited over 1300 square metres of floorspace in the  ›Johanneum‹, the south wing of the main university building, then newly renovated by Arwed Roßbach (Fig. 2. 3). In this new location, the collection was not only used as a resource for researchers, teachers and students, but was also open to the interested public of Leipzig. A highlight of the collection was the imposing casts of a monumental sculptural group, the Farnese Bull in Naples (Fig. 4). This group was actually commissioned by Overbeck, though he did not live to see its opening exhibition in 1896.

- Jörn Lang, translation Rubymaya Jaeck-Woodgate

Destruction and Storage.

The promising future anticipated for the collection at the opening of the 20th century came to an abrupt end during World War II. All original pieces not in secure storage, as well as the archive and the greater part of the cast collection fell victim to the bombing of the main university building in December 1943. This incident shows in stark relief how the history of the collection would mirror the history of Leipzig as a whole.

Following the war’s end, the Antiquities museum was re-established during the 1955 reorganisation of the archaeological exhibitions in a more modest form, as the »Hellenistic Salon« (Fig. 2 plan). Over 600 plaster casts had previously been safely removed from the burned-out exhibition halls, and these form the surviving historical core of the current collection. The socialist politics governing tertiary education at the time and the demolition of the university complex on Augustusplatz on July 20, 1968, resulted in a temporary end to the whole institution.

The majority of the remaining plaster casts were stored in makeshift facilities within a former coal bunker (Fig. 3). Objects kept in other locations suffered further damage from storage in overcrowded spaces, and still more were damaged (sometimes irreparably) from damp, so that certain statues had to undergo repeated provisional relocations (Fig. 4). While the original pieces were at least shown as parts of special exhibitions, the casts continued to remain hidden from the public.

- Jörn Lang, translation Rubymaya Jaeck-Woodgate

Current perspectives and state of preservation.

Even after the political shifts of 1989/90 and the restructuring of the university, the collection remained in provisional storage spaces. Nonetheless, the rapid deterioration of the buildings, and above all the danger of flooding, began to acutely threaten the very existence of the cast collection. In this emergency situation, the university managed to make appropriate alternative storage spaces available within the shortest possible timeframe, so that in January and February 1999, the 600 or so surviving casts could be transported to the new storage facility at the current complex (Fig. 1).

By today’s standards, the complex is also well-equipped to accommodate the collection. The current building was erected in 1986 to house the VEB data processing centre (Fig. 2). The computer hardware of the time was such that the floors had to be able to bear very heavy loads, so the building provides ideal conditions for the up to 460 kilogramme casts.   

As early as 1995, the then director of collections Eberhard Paul expressed the hope that he could revive the »long standing, though interrupted, tradition of the plaster cast museum as an academic teaching resource«, since although students could now use the space and objects for their research (Fig. 3), the public had thus far remained largely excluded from experiencing the collection in its new location. The combination of the architecture of a former data processing centre from the 1980s and the classical sculpture created exciting contrasts (Fig. 4).

With the temporary opening of some of the exhibition spaces, the collection was re-introduced into the cultural life of Leipzig. This collection should be understood as a firm part of the city, as it has been since its establishment, and not purely as a plaster cast museum, but as a changing site of learning, dialogue and creative processes.

- Jörn Lang, translation Rubymaya Jaeck-Woodgate

Documentation and visualisation of antique statuary using the example of the Farnese Bull in the cast collection of the Leipzig Antiquities Museum.

The Farnese Bull (also known as the Toro Farnese or Farnesischer Stier), standing 4 metres tall and covering a floor surface area of 9 square metres, is the largest known antique sculptural group (Fig. 1). It was found in the thermal baths of the emperor Caracalla in Rome, and today it is held by the National Museum in Naples.

By 1895/96, there was a historical plaster cast of this sculptural group in the Antiquities Museum at Leipzig, completed from multiple partial casts. At one point, this piece was the highlight of the cast collection in the main university building. Due to inappropriate storage conditions, the piece suffered clearly visible damage. As part of this project, its restoration has been underway since 2022, and a reconstruction of the whole sculptural group is currently being crafted.

Given the size of the group, a full reconstruction within the available rooms is not possible. For this reason, the plaster cast will be reconstructed as a virtual spatial model. To achieve this, the partial casts will be scanned using a 3D structured light scanner, and will then be formed into 3D models using specialised software (Fig. 2–4). These 3D models will then be calibrated and integrated with each other in a further step, so that the sculpture can be represented as a whole while the individual parts remain recognisable.
The aim is to use the Farnese Bull as a case study to test and develop digital documentation processes for historical casts, so that such casts can be made available for teaching and research beyond their physical location.

Project timeframe: 2022–2025.

Project team: Joana Apelt, Jörn Lang, Katharina Meinecke, Paula Michalski

- Translation Rubymaya Jaeck-Woodgate

The Telephos frieze, part of the Great Altar of Pergamon, surely counts as one of the most well-known antique structures in the world. Today, the reliefs are held in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. The altar was a monumental structure built in the royal seat of Mysien, a region of Asia Minor. It was erected between 197 and 159 BCin an area of the royal city containing many shrines/sanctuaries and housed a sacrificial podium serving the practices of an important cult. The Telephos frieze was situated on the walls of the altar court (Fig. 1). It depicts the life of Telephos, the founding hero of Pergamon and ancestor of the ruling house. The pictorial scenes stretch over all three sides of the court, which was open at the front. They begin with the history of Telephos’s birth and end with his heroicisation at the end of his life.

The casts held in Leipzig were made from the northern part of the frieze, which depict the earliest stages of Telephos’s life (Fig. 2):

• Panels 1 and 2: the story begins at the royal court of the Greek city Tegea when King Aleos receives a prophecy warning him against the son of his daughter Auge. In order to avoid this fate, he makes Auge a priestess of Athena.
• Panels 3 (absent), 4 and 5: the hero Heracles comes to Tegea and impregnates Auge with a son (Telephos), and Aleos must once more try to cheat fate. He abandons the boy child in the forest and has a boat built, in order to send Auge out to sea.
• Panel 6: Auge is brought to the shore of Mysien by dolphins and taken in by King Theuthras.
• Panel 7 (absent): Auge founds a cult of Athena in Mysien.
• Panel 8: Telephos is suckled by a lioness in the mountains and is finally found by his father.
• Panels 9 (absent) and 10: the last sequence shows nymphs bathing the young Telephos.

- Zoe Li Wnuck, translation Rubymaya Jaeck-Woodgate

The plaster cast of the relief of the Spoils of Jerusalem within the Arch of Titus in Rome, acquired by Leipzig in 1915, underwent extensive restoration work in 2014 at the Jewish Museum of Frankfurt in preparation for an exhibition entitled “By the Light of the Menorah: Jewish life in the Roman provinces”. The piece was thus made ready to be once more presented to the public and has since been exhibited at the Jewish Museum in Berlin and at Kolumba, the Arts Museum of the Archbishopric of Cologne.

This cast really shows the conservational value of its medium. The marble of the original passageway reliefs of the triumphal arch have suffered massive exposure to environmental forces and the pollution of the city and have become progressively more weathered (Fig. 2). The more than 100-year old cast therefore reveals a state of preservation that the original no longer displays.

Triumphal arches have a long tradition in Rome, and here we are looking at monumental bases for bronze arches (Fig. 3), showing the Roman leader in a chariot, pulled by horses or elephants. The Arch of Titus is the oldest surviving example of its genre. It was commissioned by the Emperor Domitian shortly after his ascension to the imperial throne in 81 AD and commemorates the defeat of an uprising amongst the Jews of Jerusalem by his brother and predecessor Titus in 71 AD.

The relief displays a scene from the triumphal procession through the city of Rome, in which the Romans, victoriously crowned in laurel wreaths, carry the spoils from the Temple of Jerusalem through the streets. The menorah or seven-armed candlestick on the left side is particularly eye-catching, as is the table for the display of loaves offered to God, another important object for the ritual practices of ancient Judaism. The contemporary Jewish-Roman historian Flavius Josephus has also left an account of this triumphal procession:

Moreover, there followed those pageants a great number of ships; and for the other spoils, they were carried in great plenty. But for those that were taken in the temple of Jerusalem, they made the greatest figure of them all; that is, the golden table, of the weight of many talents; the candlestick also, that was made of gold. (translation William Whiston et al 1895)

- Moritz Rusche, translation Rubymaya Jaeck-Woodgate

Apollo, the god of the sun, of spring, of light, morality, and prophecy, the god of archers, art and most especially of music appears here before us in mid-step. The god is nude, with only his shoulders covered by a kind of mantel called a chlamys. His left arm is raised, holding a square block, probably the remains of a bow. When the statue was found, it was missing both the right arm and left hand (Fig. 1. 2), and reconstructions were added later.

Like many Roman statues, this piece was based on a Greek original dating from the 4th century BC. The Roman statue’s name derives from its location in the papal Belvedere (beautiful view, Fig. 3). It has been displayed there since at least 1491, in the inner courtyard.

Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717–1768), the founder of Greek art history, praised this piece as »the highest ideal of art amongst all the works of antiquity«. In his 1764 work, the ›History of the Art of Antiquity‹, he viewed the statue as an original Greek sculpture. However, by the end of the 18^th century it could be proven that the piece was sculpted in Carrara marble, and this material was first used during the Roman period. The statue is therefore the work of a Roman sculptor, who copied a Greek bronze piece and thus introduced the heavy tree trunk for stability. The plaster cast in Leipzig stands above other casts owing to the snow-white colour of its surface. This is in fact because it is a replacement made for an older cast, destroyed in the December 1943 bombing.

- Pia C. Pfaff, translation Rubymaya Jaeck-Woodgate