Press release

True to Life. Veristic and the Engineering of Illusion

1 October 2014 – 1 March 2015 Press preview: Tuesday, 30 September 2014, 11 a.m. Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung

( am Main, 30 September 2014) The Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung dedicates a major special exhibition to the fascinating tradition of (hyper)realistic sculpture. From 1 October 2014 to 1 March 2015, “True to Life. Veristic Sculpture and the Engineering of Illusion” offers mesmerizing insights into the endeavors undertaken by artists of different stylistic epochs throughout more than four thousand years that were aimed at sculptural representations of man which are as faithful as possible. The confrontation of fifty-two works from different centuries conveys a unique and comprehensive impression of this art-historical phenomenon. The visitor will come upon extraordinarily lifelike of an imposing, irritating and at the same time shocking character. The show sheds light on a variety of techniques for ensuring illusionistic effects such as the use of real hair, glass eyes, and lavish painting. The gamut of works on display ranges from Egyptian, Greek and Roman Antiquity and medieval sculptures – such as by Michel Erhart (c. 1440/45–after 1522) – and examples from Renaissance times – like by Guido Mazzoni (c. 1445–1518) – and the Baroque era – by Pedro de Mena (c. 1628–1688), for instance – to feats from the eighteenth century – by Luigi Dardani (1723–1787) a.o. – and – highlighting achievements by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904) and Charles-Henri-Joseph Cordier (1827-1905) – the nineteenth century. Hyperrealistic works by contemporary artists like Duane Hanson (1925–1996), John De Andrea (*1941), or Ron Mueck (*1958) will forge a bridge to the present. The juxtaposition of manifold exhibits from a variety of epochs establishes surprising connections and provides an idea of the technical traditions often passed on throughout millennia which, partly unchanged, are employed by artists to this day. Assembling loans from the Musée du Louvre in Paris, the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, the Museo del Prado , the Kunsthistorisches Museum , or the Egyptian Museum , the exhibition elucidates artists’ global efforts to engineer perfect illusion and create the most true-to-life appearance of the human figure attainable.

The exhibition is sponsored by the Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain and receives additional support from the Hessische Kulturstiftung.

Press release: “True to Life. Veristic Sculpture and the Engineering of Illusion,” Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung, 30 September 2014, page 1 of 5

“The exhibition ‘True to Life’ reveals the timeless fascination with particularly realistic sculptures and the ancient desire to render man’s appearance as lifelike as possible in a both astounding and dramatic manner,” says Max Hollein, Director of the Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung.

The hyperrealistic, deceptively real figures made by contemporary artists like Duane Hanson or John De Andrea strike us because of their overwhelmingly lifelike appearance. The irritatingly illusionistic effects of sculptures are not a new phenomenon, though, but boast a history of 4,500 years. In order to emphasize this context, the show does not present the assembled items in chronological order but rather in an epoch- spanning arrangement amidst the Liebieghaus collection of sculptures which includes nearly all sections of its permanent presentation. Antiquity already saw the use of wigs made from natural hair, clothes tailored from genuine textiles, and decorations which were aimed at rendering figures of the utmost realism. Irrespective of the sculpture’s basic material – be it wood, stone, metal, wax, or synthetic resin – very similar methods are relied on today. The presentation of objects from different times succeeds in tracing an arc from Antiquity to the present day.

The unusual confrontation is pivoted on the question which technical means artists utilized to lend their plastic works as much true-to-life character as possible. This is why the show is organized according to technical procedures, ways and means of the craft, as well as incorporated realities. “By deliberately focusing on technical aspects and the sculptors’ craft methods for producing veristic works, the presentation offers a new and extremely exciting view of a hitherto only little researched field within the history of the art of sculpture,” says Dr. Stefan Roller, curator of the exhibition and Head of the Middle Ages Department of the Liebieghaus collection. The show begins in the rooms of the collection of antiques with the presentation of an unusually tall figure of seventy-one centimeters with movable limbs: while the wooden carved lower part of the Infant Jesus (Landshut, Ursuline Monastery) presumably dates back to the sixteenth century, the upper part is clearly from the Baroque era. Outstandingly true to life, the head is furnished with eyes of white glass, melted-on dark irides, and real hair. This section of the exhibition visualizes both the wealth of materials and the millennia-spanning traditions by juxtaposing the French sculptor Charles-Henri-Joseph Cordier’s (1827–1905) The Jewish Woman of Algiers (c. 1862, , Van Gogh Museum) – which combines such materials as bronze, onyx, enamel, and amethyst – and the French artist Nicolas Cordier’s (1567–1612) Bust of a Black African Woman (Madrid, Museo del Prado) of colored stone dating from about two-hundred and sixty years earlier. These works are again connected with Sumerian and Egyptian sculptures of the Liebieghaus collection – a context relating to the Greek and Roman marble and bronze works from Antiquity with eyes set in. Ariel II (New York, private collection), a female nude of painted bronze by the US sculptor John De Andrea (*1941) from 2011, which strikes us as amazingly real, supplies the link to the present within this selection in the exhibition’s first section.

Press release: “True to Life. Veristic Sculpture and the Engineering of Illusion,” Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung, 30 September 2014, page 2 of 5

In the collection of medieval works the focus is on the mostly very elaborate painting of sculptures. Whether on wood, stone, marble, or bronze, creating an imitation and illusion of human skin ranks among the foremost veristic techniques. The immense significance of painting for the sculptures’ utmost realistic impact is documented by impressive examples such as a drastically painted late medieval limestone head of Christ (Champagne, early sixteenth century; Paris, Louvre), a life-size lamentation group (Netherlands, walnut, c. 1500; Frankfurt am Main, Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung), and a cedarwood Ecce Homo (1679, Valladolid, Museo de Escultura) by the Spanish baroque artist Pedro de Mena (1628– 1688). The original color solution for a bust of Saint Barbara (Frankfurt am Main, Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung) by the wood carver Michel Erhart (c. 1440/45–after 1522) was minutely reconstructed in both technical and optical terms especially for this exhibition by means of scientific material analyses and practical experiments. The reconstruction not only conveys an idea of the surprisingly truthful imitation of the saint’s skin but has also permitted to restore the various applications and the sculpture’s bold colors. Thus, “True to Life. Veristic Sculpture and the Engineering of Illusion” picks up the thematic tread of former presentations at the Liebieghaus such as “Gods in Color. Painted Sculpture of Classical Antiquity” (20o8/2009), “Niclaus Gerhaert. The Medieval Sculptor” (2011/2012), or the recent show “Back to Classic. Ancient Greece reconsidered” (2013), all of which provided essential contributions to investigations into the polychromy of sculptures from Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Both the original and its reconstruction are on display in the show.

Several rooms of the presentation are dedicated to the use of hair applications in different epochs aimed at endowing sculptures with a lifelike appearance: the range of examples spans from late Gothic works (Warsaw, National Museum; Paris, Musée de Cluny) or figures from the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries made of wood, papier mâché, or wax from various public and private collections or in the possession of the Church to several contemporary works. “True to Life” even includes the mask of an Egyptian mummy with a cotton wig from the first century AD (Berlin, Egyptian Museum).

The rooms reserved for the art of Classicism shed light on the manifold use of clay, plaster, and wax and these materials’ astoundingly veristic effects. Since these materials not only offer themselves for free modelling but may also be pressed into forms or be cast in hollow molds, they are particularly suited for impressions or casts of bodies and faces. The traditions prevailing in this sphere to date are strikingly illustrated by means of loaned works by contemporary artists. Lifelike clay pieces by the Italian sculptor Guido Mazzoni (1450–1518), for example, are to be found next to Duane Hanson’s (1925–1996) polyester resin Seated Child (1974, Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen) or the Australian sculptor Ron Mueck’s (*1958) Man in a Sheet (1997, Berlin, private collection) executed in silicone. These works are flanked by wax busts from the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries with almost photographic qualities.

Press release: “True to Life. Veristic Sculpture and the Engineering of Illusion,” Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung, 30 September 2014, page 3 of 5

Viewers have always been enthralled by the phenomenon of deceptively realistic sculptures. Often, this was also the effect desired for the works to be seen in the context of processions or, presented with other figures, as part of altars on special festive occasions. The sculptures were even used as substitutes at times, representing the figures shown. These different functions of the sculptures mostly removed from their original contexts can hardly be ascertained today; the deliberate mise-en-scène and the effects achieved with it were always part of their original intention, though.

While artists have been driven by the desire to make their works look as true to life as possible for centuries, veristic sculpture and its technical execution have only drawn minor interest from art historians until now. The idea of sculpture as pure form decisively determined by the understanding of art in the Italian Renaissance and the aesthetic of Classicism informed by it is rooted in the wrongly supposed whiteness of ancient marble figures. It comes as no surprise then that colored medieval sculptures were systematically discredited in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. A large part of sculptural work, however, has always remained colored and realistic. The advent of waxworks in the course of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries even increased the critical assessment of realistic colored sculptures. Widely employed until the eighteenth century, wax almost completely ceased to be acknowledged as a suitable material for sculptural works in those years. It was only the emergence of contemporary hyperrealistic plastic works and outstanding sculptors who – combining realistic form, colorfulness, and realities – met with wider positive response for the first time again which also attracted more art-historical attention for this millennia-old phenomenon. Not least for this reason, the exhibition strives to present an equally profound and unique selection of veristic sculptures which, with their illusionistic power and manifold techniques, offer a fascinating view of the history and development of sculpture in all its facets.

True to Life. Veristic Sculpture and the Engineering of Illusion

Curator: Dr. Stefan Roller (Head of the Middle Ages Department, Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung) Exhibition architecture: Bach Dolder Architekten, Darmstadt

Catalogue: A comprehensive catalogue to accompany the exhibition will be published by Hirmer. Edited by Stefan Roller, it comprises contributions by , Maraike Bückling, Stefan Roller, and Harald Theiss. German, c. 260 pages, c. 240 color illustrations, museum edition 34.90 euros, trade edition c. 44.90 euros. Further publication: A booklet accompanying the presentation will be available for 7.50 euros. Audio tour: An audio tour of the exhibition is available in German and English. The German version is narrated by the actor Hanns Zischler. 4 euros Social Media: The Städel Museum communicates the show in the social media with the hashtags #diegrosseillusion und #liebieghaus.

Press release: “True to Life. Veristic Sculpture and the Engineering of Illusion,” Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung, 30 September 2014, page 4 of 5

General public tours through the exhibition: Thursdays at 6:00 p.m., Saturdays at 4:00 p.m., and Sundays at 3:00 p.m.; the number of participants is limited; ticket sales at the cashier’s desk start two hours before the beginning of the tour, 5 euros. Accompanying program: Highlights comprise lectures held in the series “Firsthand Knowledge”: Thursday, 11 September 2014, 6:30 p.m., Fascinated with Verism. A Preview of the Exhibition “True to Life,” lecture by Dr. Stefan Roller, Head of the Middle Ages Department of the Liebieghaus; Thursday, 6 November 2014, 7:00 p.m., Dark Middle Ages? – The Color Reconstruction of a Late Gothic Sculpture, lecture by Dipl.-Rest. Harald Theiss, Head of the Restoration Department. The price for the lectures is included in the admission fee; booking required: 069-605098-200 or [email protected]. Further events at www.liebieghaus.de. Special tours by request: +49(0)69-605098-200 or [email protected]

Press preview: Tuesday, 30 September 2014, 11:00 a.m. Venue: Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung, Schaumainkai 71, 60596 Frankfurt am Main Opening hours: Tue, Wed, Fri–Sun 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m., Thur 10:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m.; closed on Mondays Special opening hours: Fri, 3 October 2014: 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.; Wed, 24 December: closed; Thur, 25 December 2014 and Fri, 26 December 2014: 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.; Wed, 31 December 2014: closed; Thur, 1 January 2015: 11:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.

Exhibition dates: 1 October 2014 – 1 March 2015 Information: www.liebieghaus.de, [email protected], phone: +49(0)69-605098-0, fax: +49(0)69-605098-112 Admission: 9 euros, reduced 7 euros, family ticket 16 euros, free admission for children up to twelve years of age Advance booking as of 1 September 2014: tickets.liebieghaus.de

Sponsored by: Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain With additional support from: Hessische Kulturstiftung Media partner: Verkehrsgesellschaft Frankfurt am Main Culture partner: hr2-kultur

Press Office: Axel Braun (Head), Silke Janßen, Karoline Leibfried, Carolyn Meyding, Jannikhe Möller Städel Museum, Dürerstraße 2, 60596 Frankfurt, phone: +49(0)69-605098-234, fax: +49(0)69-605098-188, [email protected]

Press release: “True to Life. Veristic Sculpture and the Engineering of Illusion,” Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung, 30 September 2014, page 5 of 5