BOOK REVIEWS
Andrea Meyer and Bénédicte Savoy (eds), The that fourished in the United States following the Museum is Open. Towards a Transnational History trailblazing example of the Metropolitan Museum of of Museums, 1750–1940. Berlin, De Gruyter, 2014. Art in 1870 – quite forgetting that the New Yorkers ISBN 978-3-11-029880-2. 266 pp., 27 b. & w. illus. had themselves been inspired by earlier civic group- €79.95. ings in Leipzig. As might be expected, the most revealing case stud- The history of museums is making its transnational ies of intercultural transfer are situated on the periph- turn. Having swept across the humanities over eries of the continent. It was here that a pan-European the past decade, the methods of supranational and vision of heritage was really put to the test. Although entangled history, as well as histoire croisée, came to American buyers joined the collecting scramble rela- frame a conference on the European museum at the tively late, numerous essays demonstrate how their Technische Universität in Berlin in 2012. The result- arrival generated both admiration and alarm. Looking Downloaded from ing volume, The Museum is Open, seeks to correct east, Bénédicte Savoy and Sabine Skott mine the an older historiographical bias which has typically exceptionally rich correspondence between the direc- narrated the emergence of the museum through the tor of the Pushkin Museum, Ivan Tsvetaev, and his prism of the nation-state. Widening the lens of analy- German colleagues. Russian eagerness to learn from sis, all the essays in this stimulating volume engage in foreign prototypes, including the Musée de Trocadéro http://jhc.oxfordjournals.org/ various ways with the lateral, transnational networks and the Dresden Albertinum, led to an ambitious and of personnel, technologies and ideas which under- rather awkward amassing of antique plaster casts and wrote the museum age, from the mid-eighteenth models. In his sensitive discussion of the career of century (represented here in Stefanie Heraeus’s Igor Grabar, head of the Tretyakov gallery, Roland discussion of how Paris lighting design was adapted Cvetkovski demonstrates that these transfers were in Kassel) through to the eve of the Second World sometimes reciprocal. Grabar was not only crucial War. The collection thus offers a set of snapshots of in validating the integrity of Russian art through his
modern museological practice across the longue durée, exhibitions in Paris and Berlin in the 1920s, he also at Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin on June 30, 2015 selected from across the continent and thematically propagated new methods for the restoration of paint- arranged. Many of the contributors have published ing among western colleagues (ironically a specialism fuller studies of these contacts and crossings else- which Grabar acquired during his youth studying in where but it is still fruitful to have their arguments Munich). collated in a single book. These wide-ranging essays prompt three refec- The value and necessity of a transnational tions on transnationalism. The frst is that while it is approach is certainly vindicated. At the most basic salutary to consider cross-border exchange, we should level, the essays demonstrate that the architectural always remember that these exchanges happened plans of many major museums, as well as the modali- on very unequal terms. Many essays here underline ties of internal display, were indebted to foreign the hegemony of Germany in questions of museum exemplars. Several essays underline the importance design and classifcation: whether it is the clout of of cosmopolitan periodicals for the dissemination Gustav von Waagen in forming the National Gallery of ideas: this includes Andrea Meyer’s study of in London or the tutelage of Wilhelm von Bode in the Wilhelmine journal Museumskunde under Karl shaping the holdings of American museums; from the Koetschau as well as Alessandra Galizzi Kroegel’s nervous inquiries of French curators in the Second analysis of Mouseion, the publication from which Empire through to the ubiquitous infuence of Karl Guglielmo Pacchioni imported concepts to reform von Schinkel and Leo von Klenze on museum façades curatorial practice in twentieth-century Italy. The erected in Moscow or Istanbul. As Christina Kott essays highlight how complex hybrid forms were cre- demonstrates, German scholarship continued to exert ated by processes of appropriation, with foreign mod- a signifcant role on international museology even after els reftted for domestic contexts. These manifold the rupture of 1918. While there was a traffc of ideas borrowings could lead to a certain genesis amnesia. across borders, these interactions always occurred For instance, Thomas Adam shows that curators in within the framework of an hierarchical and competi- Dresden in 1913 praised those museum associations tive geopolitical system. It was not always easy to serve
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two masters, as attested by Xavier Pol-Tilliette’s pen- Rosie Dias, Exhibiting Englishness. John Boydell’s etrating account of Wilhelm Valentiner’s ambivalent Shakespeare Gallery and the Formation of a National loyalties to both the Metropolitan in New York and Aesthetic. New Haven and London, Yale University the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin. Press, 2013. ISBN 978-030019-668-9. 288 pp., 50 Secondly, the essays here frequently show that col. illus., 95 b. & w. illus. £45. transnationalism could not just enrich but also dis- tort museum practice. Ayse Koksal’s reconstruc- Boydell’s Shakespeare Gallery might appear at frst tion of Ottoman and Turkish museums underlines glance to be a cautionary tale of the dangers of invest- how the desire to satisfy an internalized Western ing in art. The gallery opened in 1789 with the grand ‘Other’ led to a demotion of Islamic art in favour intention of establishing an English School of Painting of Graeco-Roman and Byzantine antiquities, and to rival the national schools of other European coun- the denigration of insuffciently European Turkish tries. Despite an initially favourable critical response, Downloaded from painters as ‘primitives’. Most arresting is Bärbel the enterprise was to prove a fnancial disaster. In Küster’s essay on French museums in Réunion and 1805, Boydell was forced to dispose of the pictures to Algeria, in which the implantation of French mas- avoid bankruptcy and the whole gallery was offered terpieces, both classical and modern, was viewed as as the prize in a lottery. Yet, as Dias’s lucid and wide- an extension of the civilizing mission. These insti- ranging study shows, this well-rehearsed story of the http://jhc.oxfordjournals.org/ tutions expanded at the expense of any engagement rise and fall of the gallery should not detract from the with indigenous and non-European cultures, not to signifcance of Boydell’s project. Instead, Dias places mention the omitted history of slavery. Under what the gallery in its cultural context by exploring its rela- Küster calls the ‘cloak of humanism’, namely the tionship with other artistic institutions, and by look- universalist assumption that art could foster har- ing at the perceived success or failure of individual Book Review mony between nations, imperial attitudes and rela- works in Boydell’s collection. The resulting study is tionships persisted. a tour de force, which illuminates questions of taste,
Thirdly, while transnationalism adds geographi- aesthetics, national identity and artistic rivalry in the at Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin on June 30, 2015 cal diversity, the best scholarship in this feld also late eighteenth century. reformulates concepts of what a museum actually Dias’s book benefts from its balance between is. Dorothea Peters’s intriguing study of the use of wide-ranging contextual analysis and close readings photography to document and publicize nineteenth- of individual objects. Her frst chapter, for example, century collections, starting with the Raphael cor- explores the spaces – physical and intellectual – that pus, uncovers the crucial role of visual reproduction the Shakespeare Gallery occupied in the eighteenth- in forming an international canon of masterpieces, century art scene. She examines how new exhibition and thus transforming ‘art connoisseurship into spaces around Pall Mall challenged the apparent dom- photographic connoisseurship’. Recognizing the inance of the Royal Academy and encouraged a desire national museums as an assemblage of heterodox for a space dedicated to ambitious history painting. materials and techniques of diverse provenance is She concludes this broad sweep with a close study of also an opportunity to think about museums in ways the architecture of the gallery and Thomas Banks’s that transcend the building’s four walls. In this way alto-relievo sculpture of Shakespeare, fanked by the Peters’s essay directs us to consider how expectations Dramatic Muse and the Genius of Painting, that about what visitors should look at in a museum were was incorporated into the façade. This shifting focus formed long before they crossed the threshold. This between the general and the particular is one of the wide-ranging essay collection offers insights into the great strengths of Dias’s analysis and the benefts of transnational museum as both monumental site and her approach are confrmed in subsequent chapters. ‘spatial fction’. The titles of these chapters – ‘Reynolds, Boydell and Northcote: Negotiating the Ideology of an English Tom Stammers Aesthetic’, ‘“The Shakespeare of the Canvas”, Fuseli [email protected] and the Construction of English Artistic Genius’ doi:10.1093/jhc/fhu050 and ‘Painting Comedy in the Shakespeare Gallery’ Advance Access publication 10 October 2014 – clearly signal their overarching themes, but Dias
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social and cultural conditions in which artists The bulk of the book consists of 127 extensive cata- apparatus commissioned for the Mirabilia volumes. developed particular works at certain stages logue entries by numerous specialists accompanied by James Yorke’s English translation is generally clear, large and splendid colour plates. General information although the rendering of the Italian ‘conventuale’ as of their careers. As an eminent art historian on the Magi not covered in the introduction can be ‘Observant’ in the discussion of the internal divisions of coming from a background of early Chinese found in these entries. For example, the Magi’s names, the Franciscan order (p.97) is potentially misleading. For art, he is skilful in articulating the historical which first appear in the fifth century, are briefly a succinct English introduction to the basilica’s art and and philosophical links that vitally inform mentioned in the introduction but their individual history, the reader may still prefer Thames & Hudson’s Chinese art up to the present with regard to identity and appearance is not clearly discussed until 1996 translation of Elvio Lunghi’s Scala guide. Chiara its materials, forms and geographies. catalogue nos.16 and 18. Even then the reader will have Frugoni’s short but valuable introductory chapter is, as to consult other sources to confirm that Melchior is old one would expect, rather more substantial, offering a Wu’s book is likely to appeal to many on and bearded, Caspar a beardless youth and Balthasar series of thoughtful observations on the iconographic an aesthetic level as a volume to turn to for fully bearded. Equally, the introduction has a brief choices in the St Francis cycle and the historical debates reference across different spheres in the art reference to the black king who appears increasingly that stood behind them. Frugoni’s own research in world. His discussion of the vital international from the mid-fifteenth century and is here described in recent years has done much to fix May 1297 as a reliable influence on contemporary art in China in several catalogue entries. Yet there is no discussion of terminus ante quem for the painting of the St Francis chapter 7, ‘Contemporary Chinese Art beyond the early sources of his colour – Bede, broadly following cycle, but Malafarina perseveres with the later dating of St Augustine, says that the three represent Asia, Africa 1296–1300 – a small discrepancy perhaps, but arguably China 1990s–2000s’ (pp.276–309), is important and Europe – nor any mention of one of the first refer- a significant one given the immense historiographical since many Chinese artists came to prominence ences to Caspar as ‘a black Ethiopian’ by John of weight that continues to bear down on these murals. on foreign soil during the 1990s in major Hildesheim in his Historia Trium Regum (c.1364–75). DONAL COOPER exhibitions in Europe and the USA. Wu In their different ways, the introduction and the also skilfully manœuvres across a wide range catalogue entries are thorough, informative and stimu- lating, but the lack of such basic information underlines of art, including an important chapter, A Wider Trecento. Studies in 13th- and 14th-Century European ‘Conversation with Tradition 1990s–2000s’ the difficulties of turning an exhibition catalogue into a reference book. The translation is, on the whole, good Art Presented to Julian Gardner. Edited by Louise Bordua (pp.310–51), which discusses the use of ink and perfectly readable, but one is bound to point out and Robert Gibbs. 213 pp. incl. 1 col. + 73 b. & w. ills. painting and of traditional materials such as that in English an altar is a table and the image placed (Visualising the Middle Ages 5, Brill, Leiden and Boston, rice paper, silk and porcelain, which have above it is an altarpiece, a word hardly ever to be found 2012), €128. ISBN 978–90–04–21076–9. recently experienced a huge revival in China. here. Such quibbles aside, it must be said that the strength This Festschrift for Julian Gardner contains twelve of this imposing volume lies in the detailed descriptions papers by former pupils together with a bibliography of The passages on significant mid-career women his publications and an appreciation by Serena artists such as Yin Xiuzhen (Fig.43), Lin Tian- of so many objects of widely differing dates and materials discussed in terms of their conceptual contexts and their Romano. The individual papers offer the reader the miao and Xing Danwen, although brief, are purpose in providing devotional experience. kind of satisfaction found in tapping in a piece of a of great value, as women’s art is slowly gaining C.M. KAUFFMANN jigsaw and seeing the picture more clearly, providing ground in research and is worth further expo- new provenances, sources and other insights into the sure in a highly patriarchal art system. works discussed. These vary in medium, subject-matter and location, and while there are stimulating connec- The Basilica of St Francis in Assisi. Edited by Gianfranco tions between contributions, the book itself is by no Malafarina. Introduction by Chiara Frugoni. 324 pp. means the full picture; rather, its coherence comes from incl. 335 col. ills. (Thames & Hudson, London and a sense of the authors contributing to a broader shared Publications Received New York, 2014), £60. ISBN 978–0–500–51768–0. enterprise, and their work intersecting with Gardner’s First published in Italian in 2011, this lavishly illustrat- own wide-ranging scholarship – including publications The Magi. Legend, Art and Cult. Edited by Manuela Beer, ed book provides an eye-catching guide to the Basilica on tomb sculpture, papal imagery and art associated Iris Metje, Karen Straub, Saskia Werth and Moritz of S. Francesco at Assisi, encompassing both the Lower with the mendicants, as well as the relationship between Woelk. 336 pp. incl. 230 col. ills. (Hirmer Verlag, and Upper Churches, their frescos, architecture and Italian and northern European art. Munich, 2014), €49.90. ISBN 978–3–7774–2267–1. ornament. In many ways the volume’s principal authors While most of the volume focuses on central and According to legend, the relics of the Three Kings are the photographers: Elio Ciol and his son Stefano, and northern Italy, two contributions consider connections were found by St Helena, mother of Constantine; they Ghigo Roli. It is through their considerable accomplish- with regions and courts north of the Alps: links between were subsequently given to the Bishop of Milan, only ments – together with the contributions of Stefan Diller the Westminster Retable and the abbey’s Cosmati to be captured by Frederick Barbarossa and transferred and the late Padre Gerhard Ruf – that we can still pavement (Dillian Gordon); and the French royal gift to to Cologne Cathedral by Archbishop Rainald van appreciate, however vicariously, the Upper Church in its Assisi of a Parisian reliquary with Clarissan imagery Dassel in 1164. The publication here reviewed is the pre-1997 state, before the earthquakes of that year felled (Virginia Glenn). A number of papers engage with English version of the catalogue to the recent exhibition the nave and crossing vaults, permanently scarring the Franciscan topics, namely the influence of the Franciscan (held 2014–15 at the Museum Schnütgen, Cologne) building’s mural decoration (Roli himself was present in Spirituals on devotional panels from the Rimini area (Jill celebrating the 850th anniversary of that event. It is the Upper Church that traumatic September morning, Farquhar); the probable commissioning of Bartolomeo another example of the growing status and monumental having just completed a photographic campaign of the and Jacopino da Reggio’s Brera triptych for S. appearance of such catalogues, which are more afford- interior, and has written movingly of his experience). Francesco in Correggio (Roberto Cobianchi); and the able and have a wider sale than academic books. The present book is the latest spin-off from the four- importance of pilgrimage to the frescos in the chapel of The ten-page introduction provides a useful outline volume photographic survey of the basilica published St James in the Santo in Padua (Louise Bordua). Atten- of the texts behind the popular image of the Magi, by Panini Editore in the Mirabilia Italiae series in 2002. tion is also paid to the commemoration of prominent from the brief description in Matthew 2 to the numer- With a cover price hovering around €1,000 the Mirabilia individuals and families: Bolognese depictions of Pope ous Early Christian and medieval commentaries from set remains the preserve of serious book collectors and Urban V (Robert Gibbs); the tomb of Abbot Thomas the apocryphal Pseudo-Matthew – the first to mention specialist research libraries, so Thames & Hudson’s new Gallus in the Victorine church of S. Andrea, Vercelli the gifts – to the thirteenth-century Golden Legend. publication should bring the Panini photography to a (Martina Schilling); and the possible stemma of the Colon- Like the exhibition, the catalogue is arranged not wider audience. Some of the photographs reproduced na on the schola cantorum of S. Prassede, Rome (John chronologically but mainly according to eight thematic here are indeed stunning and not easily available else- Osborne). Two papers address modes of representation headings beginning with ‘From Magi to Kings’, out- where. Highlights include Giotto’s ascending Magdalene in sacred and secular wall painting: the juxtaposition of lining the basic change in their representation dating (pp.94 and 181), the enthroned St Francis from the monochrome and polychrome imagery to distinguish to the time of the Ottonian emperors. The introduc- ‘Vele’ vault (p.147), and the extraordinary kneeling friar temporal or spatial realms (Jill Bain); and the treatment tion goes on to discuss the other sections which with a skull visible in lost profile at the centre of the of interior and exterior space in the Chamber of Love at include ‘the Virgin Mary as the throne of God’, ‘the Allegory of obedience (p.108). Elsewhere, however, the Sabbionara d’Avio, which tricks the eye as Love itself History of Salvation’ dealing with related Christolog- quality of printing is not of the same standard and certain was thought to do (Anne Dunlop). Two other authors ical scenes depicted with the Magi, ‘the Journey’, ‘the images appear to have been over-enlarged (for example, contextualise works with distinctive iconographies: a relics in Cologne’ and ‘the Gifts’, ending with ‘the the detail of the Coronation of the Virgin from the St detached fresco with an anthropomorphic depiction of Lure of the Exotic’. It is admitted that the individual Stanislaw chapel on p.57). More problematic is the the Trinity is traced to the exterior of a church in the exhibits, which include all media, can be covered by designer’s habit of silhouetting figures against either the Suburra district of Rome (Claudia Bolgia); and Duccio’s more than one of these headings, but they are grouped white of the page or, occasionally, pitch black grounds. panel showing friars venerating the Virgin’s foot is according to what is considered the main theme, with Presumably these cut-outs are intended to enliven the related to performed and imagined devotional practices the other headings also listed to explain the complexity book’s presentation, but the practice renders these (Joanna Cannon). For the most part, the volume is well of the image concerned. In many cases, it must have images all but worthless as photographic records. illustrated, making the arguments accessible to readers been difficult to decide under which main heading Malafarina’s text offers a compressed and largely less familiar with the material. individual items should be placed. uncontroversial synthesis of the comprehensive textual LUCY DONKIN
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Konrad Witz. Le Maître-Autel de la Cathédrale de Genève. buildings and display, the protagonists, and the interna- Each of the nine chapters is concerned with artefacts Histoire, Conservation et Restauration. By Frédéric tional reform movement of 1900 and later. from a different group or island and starts with a general Elsig, Cäsar Menz et al. 214 pp. incl. 184 col. ills. A volume such as this risks unevenness and even essay on the material culture of the group, followed by (Editions Slatkine, Geneva, 2013), CHF59. ISBN randomness, and some of the papers, while arguably descriptive accounts of the hundred or so works of art, 978–2–8321–0573–3. interesting to a local audience, have a limited significance. each illustrated with a fine full-page colour photograph. The earliest critical appraisal of the painted wings But overall the case is well made. Germany constantly These present the artefacts as they might be seen in a surviving from the high altarpiece of St Peter at Geneva emerges as a leader, influencing Britain in the earlier, gallery; several skirt cloths are presented sideways. Cathedral, whose central corpus was destroyed during and the United States in the later, nineteenth century Images showing similar objects in context add another the Reformation, is that of the English grand tourist and into the twentieth (through such figures as William dimension. The chapters on Mentawai, Nias, Southeast William Bromley (1663–1732), who visited Geneva in Valentiner, pupil of Bode turned American museum Maluku, Sulawesi, Sumba and Flores, and the Batak of 1689: ‘In the Arsenal they shew, for the absurdity of director), enjoying a rewarding but fraught professional Sumatra include a variety of object types; the chapter on them, two pictures that were Altar pieces in this City relationship with France during the Second Empire, Lampung deals exclusively with ‘ship cloths’. A section before the Reformation; one represents Christ (a Child) and even during the early years of the Third Reich by Vernon Kedit in the chapter on Borneo devoted to in his Mother’s Arms, and S. Peter presenting his cautiously participating in international discussions. Iban textiles is especially informative, the only part of successor to him’. Bromley was only able to view the Among the most rewarding essays are Stefanie Heraus’s the book written by an author from the culture he is gilded inner faces of these double-sided wings, each account of top lighting in eighteenth-century Kassel; describing. c.150 by 170 cm., depicting The Adoration of the Magi Lieske Tibbe’s account of Marius Vachon, an authority For readers who are not already familiar with the and The presentation of Cardinal François de Metz to the on the industrial museum in France in the 1890s and region and its artistic traditions it is quite a hefty tome. Virgin and Child. He would doubtless have been more later; and Thomas Adams’s analysis of the efforts of the Many of the traditions mentioned in the essays are not impressed had he been able to see their exterior faces, New York plutocracy to establish European-inspired represented in the collection, which may make them with representations of The miraculous draught of fishes museums. This is not only a narrative of friendship and hard to follow. But for those who are already enthusi- and The liberation of St Peter. The former is one of the collaboration: a thread that runs through the book is asts for this type of art, the book introduces a substantial most remarkable northern landscapes of the fifteenth competition and mutual suspicion. collection of new and striking examples, with expert century, and is celebrated for its realistic representation One of the most important aspects of international anthropological commentary. of Lake Geneva with Mont Blanc in the distance. As culture has been the temporary exhibition, whether in FIONA KERLOGUE is related in a Latin inscription on the bottom of its the form of the great world fairs of the late nineteenth frame, the wings were painted by Konrad Witz in 1444: century or as twentieth-century academic and block- ‘hoc opus pinxit magister conradus sapientis de basilea m. cccc. buster events. For museums, such exhibitions have been Contemporary Iranian Art: From the Street to the Studio. By xliiii’. of huge, and often fundamental, importance. Although Talinn Grigor. 293 pp. incl. 164 col. + 10 b. & w. Witz was a major figure from the first generation of the Great Exhibition of 1851 and the 1881 Spanish and ills. (Reaktion Books, London, 2014), £25. ISBN German artists acquainted with the new realist style of Portuguese Ornamental Art Exhibition at South Kens- 978–1–78023–270–6. the Netherlands. Probably from Rottweil in Baden- ington are mentioned, this is a field that regrettably the This book is a social history of Iranian art since the Württemberg, he is documented at Basel from 1434 and present volume hardly addresses. 1979 revolution, which provides incisive insight into died between 1445 and 1447. The wings from the high Austerely produced, with few illustrations but copious the socio-political conditions that have shaped works altarpiece of St Peter are his last documented works, and and valuable footnotes, this is a publication for the of art made by Iranians inside and outside the country since 1910 have been displayed in the Musée d’Art et scholar, the first in a series to be named ‘Contact Zones’. during that period. As well as critically examining the d’Histoire in Geneva. GILES WATERFIELD relationship between artists and the repressive Iranian This book is a collaborative work by eleven authors, state, it also brilliantly undermines many incorrect the product of a long-term programme of conservation assumptions that plague their reception in the West. and research. It meticulously records the documented Eyes of the Ancestors: The Arts of Island Southeast Asia at The book’s thirty-five-year time span might arguably history and critical reception of the wings, damage they the Dallas Museum of Art. Edited by Reimar Schefold. undermine its claim to focus on ‘contemporary’ art, but suffered during the Reformation, evidence of earlier 334 pp. incl. 220 col. + 64 b. & w. ills. (Yale Univer- this longer view provides a useful context for current restorations in 1835 and 1915–17, the recent programme sity Press, New Haven and London, 2013), £45. practice. Unfortunately, the author often fails to suc- of conservation in 2011–12, and materials and tech- ISBN 978–0–3001–8495–2. cessfully mesh her highly astute contextual comments niques including under-drawing, pigments, the binding Western interest in the artefacts of traditional societies with an analysis of Iranian works themselves. This is medium, gilding and methods of depicting brocade. in Africa, Oceania, North America and island Southeast partly a symptom of the book’s broad overview format, This is followed by an art-historical assessment of the Asia began with early voyages of discovery and continued which makes it very difficult to strike an effective balance place of the wings in Witz’s œuvre, his relationship to with collections made by traders, colonial officers and between the general and the specific. Nonetheless, the Early Netherlandish ‘ars nova’, artistic originality and missionaries. By the nineteenth century the attraction of actual discussion of Iranian art is often frustrating, often workshop, the iconography of the altarpiece, its com- foreign lands associated with Romanticism led artists devolving into strings of names and thin, disconnected mission, likely location in the cathedral, topographical and connoisseurs to admire what they saw as simpler, commentaries on works. references in The miraculous draught of fishes and the purer forms, especially in sculpted artefacts. Those who Grigor convincingly argues that recent Iranian art broader art-historical context. Especially welcome are rejected the type of Western art which strove to imitate can broadly be divided into three categories; the street the numerous colour photographs, X-radiograph images the superficial appearance of reality, especially those in (largely meaning state-funded mural projects and archi- and other details, which reveal the extent of damage and the ‘Primitivism’ movement, drew inspiration from tecture), the studio, and ‘exile’ (the work of the Iranian restorations and indicate how Witz depicted such such works. Galleries and individuals made collections diaspora). The first of these is covered most effectively, remarkable pictorial effects as cast shadows, the reflec- of this ‘tribal art’; and the market for such objects con- through an engaging explanation of mural painting’s tive surfaces of pearls and transparent bubbles on the tinues to thrive. role in the formation and consolidation of the official surface of Lake Geneva. This volume is concerned with one such collection, image of the Islamic Republic of Iran and a clear MARK EVANS which consists of material from parts of island Southeast chronology of its evolution alongside changing cultural Asia in the collections of the Dallas Museum of Art. It policies. The chapter on the studio gives an illuminating does not include works by Southeast Asian artists work- argument about the link between the making of private The Museum is Open: Towards a Transnational History of ing in more modern styles, nor does it include examples art and the consolidation of property rights in 1990s Museums 1750–1940. Edited by Andrea Meyer and from Bali, Java or the Philippines. Most pieces date from Iran, and helpfully outlines institutional factors in the Bénédicte Savoy. 266 pp. incl. 27 ills. (De Gruyter, the nineteenth century, and most are the types of artefact contemporary scene. However, it fails to link these Berlin, 2013), €79.95. ISBN 978–3–11–029880–1. which are no longer used within contemporary Southeast ideas meaningfully with the works themselves. The final Largely the proceedings of a conference held at the Asian society. It is a book aimed at those whose interest chapter discusses Iranians’ varying responses to diasporic Technische Universität Berlin in 2012, this instructive in Southeast Asian art is retrospective, and confined to identity in a highly nuanced manner. It also helpfully volume addresses the transnational nature of art museums work from those outer islands which were relatively criticises the way that Western markets encourage artists (of all descriptions, including collections of casts and remote from external influence. to produce stereotyped self-representations, including industrial art), primarily in Europe but also in the United Reimar Schefold’s introduction makes this focus images of veiled women and Persian calligraphy, rather States and North Africa, between the emergence of any clear: as he admits, ‘the majority of Indonesia’s artistic than reflecting the everyday concerns that engage institution that could be recognised as an art museum traditions described here are features of the past’. The people within the country. Although the author and the outbreak of the Second World War. Taking the works are now ‘appreciated as “art” by audiences that provides some more detailed analyses of works in this line that scholarship on the theme has tended to assess are far removed from their time, place and original chapter, towards the end it again becomes a jumbled museums primarily as national and self-glorifying insti- cultural context’. The perspective is a sometimes collection of references. Overall, especially given the tutions, the editors argue that the study of transnational uneasy mix of anthropology and art history, but most paucity of literature in the field, this book should be relations between museums is equally instructive and, of the contributors are experts in their field, elucidating recommended as a significant contribution, but the with the exception of recent works such as Carole the significance the works would have had in their author’s inability to link her shrewd social observations Paul’s The First Modern Museums of Art (2012), has original environment. Most also discuss the consider- with the aesthetics of Iranian art means that her task received little attention. The essays are divided into var- able social and material changes in the societies whose remains unfinished. ious themes, notably collections, the design of museum heritage is presented here. DAVID HODGE
424 june 2015 • clvii • the burlington magazine A. Meyer u.a. (Hrsg.): The Museum is Open 2014-3-104
Meyer, Andrea; Savoy, Bénédicte (Hrsg.): The Brusius. Es scheint, dass hier kurz in Verges- Museum is Open. Towards a Transnational His- senheit geraten ist, worum es überhaupt im tory of Museums 1750–1940. Berlin: de Gruy- universellen Sammelwesen wie in der Wis- ter 2014. ISBN: 978-3-11-029880-2; VI, 266 S.; senschaft des 19. Jahrhundert im Wesentli- 27 Abb. chen ging. War man doch vor allem darauf aus, die Welt unter neuen wissenschaftlichen Rezensiert von: Elsa van Wezel, Institut für Standards zu vermessen, in der Hoffnung so Museumsforschung, Berlin auch das Rätsel des Ursprungs der Mensch- heit zu lösen. Dazu sammelte man Hinwei- Das Museum war, wie die Herausgeberin- se aus aller Welt, aber natürlich besonders nen dieses Bandes in ihrem mit Ausführun- gerne auch aus dem „Heiligen Land“. Man gen zur Methodik umfassenden Vorwort zu wusste ganz genau – auch wenn man viel- Recht bemerken, schon immer eine Institu- leicht Objekte oder Schriftzüge nicht sofort zu tion grenzübergreifender Verbindungen. War deuten wusste –, dass alles aus dieser Regi- doch die Kunst selbst, ihre Produktion, aber on letztendlich von größter Bedeutung für die eben auch ihre Präsentation stets ein trans- Lösung des Haupträtsels sein konnte. Wenn nationales Geschäft. So konnten in ihrer Be- es also in den zeitgenössischen Berichten, die schreibung die inter- (offiziell zwischenstaat- Brusius anführt, heißt, die Briten sind in Ni- lichen) oder transnationalen Querverbindun- nive dabei „to dug up their own past“, dann gen oft gar nicht ignoriert werden. Hier ließ ist damit nicht gemeint, dass sie Mesopotami- man sich doch immer gern transnational in- en markieren wollten als ein Ort „where the spirieren. Es wurde nie mit Scheuklappen ge- British had at one time been“ (S. 28), sondern, arbeitet. Nicht einmal dann, als es im 19. dass sie dabei waren ihre eigene biblische Ge- Jahrhundert darum ging, besonders „natio- schichte auszugraben. Es wurde sozusagen nal“ zu scheinen. Da bekam zum Beispiel die nach dem historischen Beweis (oder Gegenbe- National Gallery in London (1833–38) einen weis) des Göttlichen gesucht. Dabei standen griechischen Tempelgiebel, sah die National- sie in ständiger Konkurrenz zu Frankreich. galerie in Berlin (1866–76) wie ein römisch- Wurden die spektakulären Fundstücken, die klassizistischer Tempelbau aus und das Na- der französische Konsul in Mosul, Paul-Emile tional Museum in Stockholm (1848–66) wie Botta 1842–1844 in Khorsabad ausgegraben ein italienischer Renaissancepalast.1 Künstler, hatte, schon ab 1847 im Louvre gezeigt.2 So Architekten, Sammler und andere Kunstlie- kamen die Funde von Henry Layard aus Nim- bende sind auf Reisen gegangen oder haben rud und Ninive direkt ins British Museum. Es sich informiert, um sich von anderen beleh- wird sicher so gewesen sein, dass die riesigen ren zu lassen oder um sich von den ande- assyrischen Skulpturen den Menschen, auch ren abzusetzen, aber stets um dadurch selbst die Ausgräber selbst in Erstaunen versetzten „besser“ zu werden. Die Begrifflichkeiten, mit und ihnen anfangs rätselhaft vorkamen, das denen diese Geschichten bislang beschrieben stellte jedoch gleichzeitig ein Teil des Reizes wurden, waren jedoch andere wie „Nachah- dieser Objekte dar. mung“, „Inspiration“, „Einfluss“ und es wur- de nicht, wie in diesem Sammelband, von ei- 1 Vergleiche auch den evaluierenden Bericht: Debora ner explizit transnationalen Perspektive aus- J. Meijers / Ellinoor Bergvelt / Lieske Tibbe / Elsa van Wezel, National Museums and National Identiy, gegangen. Im Vergleich zu den 17 Vorträ- seen from an International and Comparative Perspec- gen auf der internationalen Tagung „Transna- tive, c. 1760–1918, 23. Januar 2012,
© H-Net, Clio-online, and the author, all rights reserved. Was uns die Autorin am Anfang ihrer Ge- neue Maßstäbe setzten sollte. schichte mit der Anekdote über den Mann Die Beiträge von Bénédicte Savoy, Sabine aus dem Iran sagen will, der 2009 in der Bri- Skott und Alessandra Galizzi Kroegel zeigen tish Library Seiten aus wertvollen, alten per- sehr schön, wie transnationale Inspiration ei- sischen Büchern herausgeschnitten hatte und nerseits dazu führen kann, so nahe wie mög- deshalb wegen Vandalismus bestraft wurde, lich an seinem Vorbild dranzubleiben, so dass bleibt, sowohl für sich genommen wie im Zu- in Moskau um 1900 Iwan Zwetajev darauf sammenhang mit dem weiteren Text, schlei- aus war, das Puschkin Museum ähnlich wie erhaft. Sie gibt zwar an, diese Tat nicht gut das Albertinum in Dresden zu gestalten. An- zu heißen, jedoch will sie zu bedenken ge- dererseits leitete Guglielmo Pacchioni in den ben, ob nicht der Iraner die Seiten bloß zu- 1930er-Jahren in Italien daraus eine ganz ei- rückholen wollte – „repatriating“ – in den ei- gene Interpretation vom „Modernen Muse- genen kulturellen Kontext? Dies trifft jedoch um“ ab. Ohne großartig international vernetzt meines Erachtens nicht zu, steckte er sie doch zu sein, seine Kenntnisse vor allem aus der nur in „less valuable copies of the same books relativ jungen Zeitschrift des Internationalen in his private collection“ (S. 19); somit hol- Museums Office (IMO; Vorläufer von ICOM) te er sie lediglich zu sich nach Hause. Statt „Mouseion“ beziehend, schaffte es der Kunst- darauf hinzuweisen, dass kein Museumsob- historiker Pacchioni, eine Museumsreform in jekt, Archiv- oder Bibliotheksdokument, auch Italien anzuregen, die wiederum inspirierend nicht mit den „besten Absichten“ und/oder sein sollte für Nachkriegsmuseumsgestalter Argumenten mutwillig zerstört werden darf, wie die Architekten Franco Albini und Car- meint Brusius, dass hiermit vor allen Dingen lo Scarpa. Wenn man sich die Abbildung von die Mehrdeutigkeit eines Objektes angedeutet Pacchionis Einrichtung des Musei Civici in werde (S. 20). Pesaro von 1936 anschaut (S. 97, Abb. 12), hat Hiernach nimmt das Buch Fahrt auf mit man tatsächlich den Eindruck, schon in den zwei interessanten Beiträgen zu den beiden 1960er-Jahren zu sein. wichtigsten Reproduktionsverfahren des 19. Der museale Kulturtransfer verlief oft auch Jahrhunderts: dem Gipsabguss und der Foto- zirkulär, wie Thomas Adams Beitrag zur Ent- grafie. Die neue technische Erfindung der Fo- stehungsgeschichte des Metropolitan Muse- tografie entwickelte sich, wie sich herausstell- um of Art in New York und der Aufsatz te, zusätzlich schon bald zu einem idealen In- von Roland Cvetkovski zum russischen Ma- strument der Museumsdokumentation sowie ler, Kunstkritiker, Museumsdirektor und Re- der Popularisierung der Museumsbestände. staurator Igor Grabar wunderbar darlegen. Im Beitrag von Stefanie Heraeus wird zwar Das bei längerem Aufenthalt von der west- plausibel dargestellt, dass die Beleuchtung in europäischen Museumswelt Gelernte wurde der Kasseler Gemäldegalerie von 1750 auf die der Situation zu Hause angepasst, wodurch der Galerie vom Palais Royal in Paris zurück- umgekehrt neue Ideen an Europa zurückge- zuführen ist. Nicht glaubhaft dagegen wirkt liefert werden konnten. Adams weist dabei die Behauptung, dass diese sich zu einem auf den interessanten Unterschied hin, dass neuen Galerietypus entwickelte und bestim- für die Amerikaner Ende des 19. Jahrhun- mend werden sollte für die Museumsarchi- derts der Kunst- beziehungsweise Museums- tektur des 19. Jahrhunderts. Dabei erwähnt verein als Instrument der sozialen Auszeich- sie selbst die in dieser Hinsicht entscheiden- nung galt, während ihre deutschen Vorbil- de Differenz zwischen dieser Galerie des 18. der auf bürgerliche Emanzipation abzielten, Jahrhunderts, mit ihren hoch in der Seiten- umgekehrt die amerikanischen Museen spä- wand platzierten „Mezzanine“-Fenstern, bei ter jedoch beispielhaft in ihrem Umgang mit denen das Licht eben noch nicht direkt von Kindern und mit ihren pädagogischen Pro- der Decke kam (S. 68) und den danach im 19. grammen wirkten. Igor Grabar, dessen Be- Jahrhundert üblichen großen Museumssälen wunderung für die westeuropäische Kunst mit Oberlicht. Es war wohl Leo von Klenze seinen Einsatz für die Anerkennung der eige- mit seinem Entwurf für die Alte Pinakothek in nen russischen Kunst nicht schmälerte, konn- München, der für diesen Museumstyp dann te sich in den 1920er-Jahren mit seiner Ex-
© H-Net, Clio-online, and the author, all rights reserved. A. Meyer u.a. (Hrsg.): The Museum is Open 2014-3-104 pertise zur sowjetischen Restaurierungspro- litischen Gründen schon unerwünscht war, blematik in Westeuropa Gehör verschaffen. den Kontakt zu den deutschen Museumskol- Sowohl der Aufsatz von Arnaud Bertinet legen nicht abreißen zu lassen. Stellt sich die als auch der von Lieske Tibbe stellen dar, Frage, inwiefern die indirekte Teilnahme im dass französische Museen (der Louvre, das Vorfeld der internationalen Konferenz in Ma- Luxembourg, das Versailles Museum, Mu- drid (1934) zum Thema ‚Muséographie‘ „apo- sée de Cluny) lange Zeit in vielerlei Hinsicht litisch“ genannt werden kann (S. 215). War sie als beispielhaft angesehen und deshalb gern nicht gerade ein stiller Protest gegen das offi- aus dem Ausland um Rat gebeten wurden. zielle Teilnahmeverbot? Sie wurden jedoch spätestens ab 1870 wegen Gerade mit den drei letzten Aufsätzen ist mangelnder Reformen von Museen in Lon- man als Leser froh, dass überhaupt Informa- don, Berlin und Wien aus dieser Rolle ver- tionen über Museen aus solchen Gegenden drängt. wie Portugal, Türkei und Afrika zu uns drin- Anhand der beratenden Rolle von Gustav gen. Die zwei Museumsprojekte in Afrika, die Waagen 1853 für die Reorganisation der Na- Bärbel Küster vorstellt, illustrieren, wie wenig tional Gallery in London und der praktischen beide eigentlich mit den früheren Kolonien zu Tätigkeit von Wilhelm Valentiner plus der tun hatten. Das Museum auf La Réunion war Beratung von Wilhelm Bode 1908–1914 im eher ein Protestmuseum gegen die damali- Metropolitan Museum in New York zeigen ge offizielle französische Museumspolitik. Es Susanna Avery-Quash und Alan Crookham wurden dort ab 1913 hauptsächlich zeitgenös- beziehungsweise Xavier-Pol Tilliette konkret sische französische Künstler ausgestellt, unter auf, wie damalige Berliner Museumskonzep- anderem von Post-Impressionisten und Fau- tionen ihren Weg ins Ausland fanden. Da- visten, die in Frankreich selber zu der Zeit bei bleibt die Darstellung der Position der ve- wenig Möglichkeiten bekamen an die Öffent- hementen Gegner von Charles Eastlake recht lichkeit zu gelangen. Hauptziel war es, den vage. Abgesehen davon, dass es heißt, der Einwohnern der Insel westliche(!) Kultur bei- Künstler John Morris Moore und der Samm- zubringen. Das nationale Museum der schö- ler William Coningham verteidigten den „Sta- nen Künste in Algier wurde 1908 sogar di- tus Quo“, kann man nicht genau herauslesen, rekt als französisches Museum in der Provinz wie dieser denn damals ausgesehen hat. Auf nach dem Vorbild des Musée du Luxembourg jeden Fall hatten es Valentiner und Bode in in Paris behandelt, was man heutzutage eine New York leichter, da sie dort als Kunst- und Dependance nennen würde. Um Afrika oder Museumsexperten angesehen und respektiert afrikanische Kunst und Kultur ging es in kei- wurden. Beide gerieten dabei in die etwas nem dieser beiden Fälle. doppeldeutige Situation einerseits die Ameri- Zum Schluss noch ein Wort zu den Abbil- kaner in ihrer Sammeltätigkeit zu unterstüt- dungen in diesem Band. Bedauerlicherwei- zen und in ihrer „hinterherhinkenden“ ästhe- se haben sie etwas zu wenig Aufmerksam- tischen Bildung zu unterrichten, anderseits keit bekommen und/oder hat dafür das Bud- sie als Konkurrenten auf dem Kunstmarkt als get nicht gereicht. Sehr schade ist es, wenn Bedrohung zu empfinden und vor ihnen zu sogar drei Autoren bei ihrem Thema ganz warnen. auf Abbildungen verzichten. An der Stelle, Über die deutsche Zeitschrift Museums- wo zum Beispiel Ayse Koksal zum archäo- kunde (1905–1924) und die hier oben schon logischen Museum in Istanbul erklärt, dass erwähnte Zeitschrift Mouseion (1927–1946) das Gebäude „reminiscent of Karl Friedrich des International Museums Office gelang es Schinkel’s Altes Museum“ (S. 238–239) ist, am Anfang des 20. Jahrhunderts, die Museen wäre dazu eine Abbildung sehr willkommen auf praktischer wie theoretischer Ebene stär- gewesen, hätte sie uns doch das Transnationa- ker transnational miteinander zu vernetzen. le auf einen Blick verständlich machen kön- So schaffte es der (seit 1931) Leiter der IMO, nen. Alles in allem liegt die besondere Qua- Euripide Foundoukidis, sogar in der Zeit, in lität dieses abwechslungsreichen Bandes vol- der eine direkte internationale Zusammenar- ler unterschiedlichster Informationen darin, beit von offizieller deutscher Seite aus po- dass er als Ansporn gelten kann, weiterhin
© H-Net, Clio-online, and the author, all rights reserved. aus dieser besonders fruchtbaren, transnatio- nalen Perspektive heraus bislang wenig oder noch gar nicht beleuchtete Stellen der Muse- umslandschaft ins Licht zu rücken.
HistLit 2014-3-104 / Elsa van Wezel über Meyer, Andrea; Savoy, Bénédicte (Hrsg.): The Museum is Open. Towards a Transnational His- tory of Museums 1750–1940. Berlin 2014, in: H- Soz-Kult 12.08.2014.
© H-Net, Clio-online, and the author, all rights reserved.