in detail
Exactly two hundred years ago, in April 1811, the architect Carl Haller von Hallerstein and a group of fellow English and German architectural researchers discovered the pediment sculptures of the Aphaia Temple in the ancient sanctuary on Aegina. The Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig was able to acquire at an auction the marble sculptures which had been recovered in a carefully documented excavation. Artistically restored by the sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen in Rome, the "Aeginetans" were first exhibited in the Glyptothek in 1827 and since then have been the centrepiece of the collection.
It was only after the Second World War that the Thorvaldsen restorations were removed as they had proven to be wrong in a considerable number of respects. The east and west pediments groups were then presented in a new arrangement.
This new arrangement, which today is generally accepted, is now for the first time contrasted with the figures as restored by Thorvaldsen in the earlier arrangement. This reveals both the artistic achievement of the reconstructions as well as their compositional problems. An entirely new interpretation of the pediment sculptures and new suggestions as to their original colouring are also put forward.
Admission
3,50 / 2,50 EUR ;
Sonntag / Sunday : 1 EUR
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