March, 2005

Celebrating of the 15th anniversary of the reunification of Germany, Germany in Japan 2005/2006. Masterpieces of the Museum Island, Berlin –Visions of the Divine in the Sanctuary of Art–

The Tokyo National Museum, The Asahi Shimbun and TBS are proud to present as one of the highlight cultural events of the “Germany in Japan 2005/2006” celebrations, Masterpieces of the Museum Island, Berlin - Visions of the Divine in the Sanctuary of Art , which will be held at the Heiseikan of the Tokyo National Museum (Ueno Park) from April 5 to June 12, 2005.

The year 2005 is not only the year the governments of Japan and Germany launch the “Germany in Japan 2005/2006” program but it also marks the 15th anniversary of the reunification of Germany. Masterpieces of the Museum Island, Berlin - Visions of the Divine in the Sanctuary of Art exhibition will be the first exhibition in the world to showcase the reunified collection of Berlin’s Museum Island- a World Heritage landmark that is presently undergoing extensive refurbishment and reconstruction.

Head of Queen Tiyi ca.1360BC Raphael(RaffaelloSanzio)

Virgin with Child (the ´Madonna Colonna`) . ca.1508

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Masterpieces of the Museum Island, Berlin

Masterpieces of the world reunite at the World Heritage site, Museum Island-a museum complex, comprised of five museum buildings-Altes Museum, Neues Museum, Altenationalgalerie, Bode Museum and the Pergamon Museum. The Museum Island sits on a sandbank in the Spree River in the former East Berlin. The first public museum – now known as the Altes Museum, or old museum – was completed on the island in 1830 to exhibit collections of the Prussian royal family. The Altes Museum became too small to house the growing collection and a second museum, the Neues Museum (New Museum) was built behind the first followed by the Altenationalgalerie, Bode Museum and lastly the Pergamon Museum, which opened its doors in 1930. In a period of 100 years, spanning from the rule of the Prussian Monarchy to the German Empire, Berlin’s “sanctuary of art” -Museum Island was completed. The Museum Island offered an overview of the artistic heritage of mankind not found even in Paris or London at the time, and Berlin thus won the attention of all of Europe. But as the Nazis gained power in the early 20th century, many of the modern European paintings branded “degenerate art” were confiscated and sold. When World War II broke out the artworks either were relocated to save them from the fires of war or became dispersed. After the war the collections were returned but stored separately in East and West due to the partition of Germany. In November 1989, the Berlin Wall that had divided East and West Germany was torn down. The Federal Republic of Germany was officially founded the following year with Berlin as its capital. After almost half a century of being divided, efforts began to comprehensively unite this great collection. In 1999 plans to refurbish the Museum Island got underway; the same year the landmark was listed as a World Heritage site. Presently the Museum Island project is in progress and is scheduled to be completed in 2015. The rebirth of the Museum Island will once again give the world a “sanctuary of art” –a venue to rival the British Museum and the Louvre.

Masterpieces of the Museum Island, Berlin - Visions of the Divine in the Sanctuary of Art will present approximately 160 selected artworks to convey the essence of the cultural landmark’s future image. The exhibition will unfold by introducing the Altes

Museum which exemplifies the spirit which inspired 閉館中 2006年 改築完成予定 Bode Museum : ボーデ博物館 ＊ビザンチン美術＆中世ヨーロッパ彫刻 the creation of the Museum Island, followed by ＆ヨーロッパ古典絵画＆コインコレクション select artworks from the 10 collections- Pre-history, 開館中 2015年 改築完成予定 Pergamon Museum : ペルガモン博物館 Ancient Egypt, Near Eastern Art, Greek and Roman, ＊ギリシャ・ローマ美術＆古代西アジア美術＆イスラム美術 Islamic Art, Coin Collection, Byzantine Art, 閉館中 2009年 開館予定 Medieval European Sculpture, Old Masters, and Neues Museum : 新博物館 European Modern Art, scheduled to be united on the ＊エジプト美術＆先史美術 museum complex. The artworks, from ancient to modern era, are linked by the underlining theme 2001年開館 Alte Nationalgalerie : 旧国立美術館 “Visions of the Divine”-an artistic journey through ＊ヨーロッパ近代美術 （ドイツ絵画・印象派・彫刻） mankind’s imagery of the divine complimenting the 一部開館 2015年完成予定 Altes Museum : 旧博物館 overall message of celebrating the creation of this ＊ギリシャ・ローマ美術 monumental “sanctuary of art”. Indeed, Masterpieces of the Museum Island, Berlin-Visions of the Divine in the Sanctuary of Art exhibition with its masterpieces, many of them shown for the first time outside Germany, will give us the rare opportunity to preview the rebirth of Berlin’s Museum Island, here in Tokyo, on the special occasion of the “Germany in Japan 2005/2006” celebrations.

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General Information

Masterpieces of the Museum Island, Berlin - Visions of the Divine in the Sanctuary of Art

Period: Tuesday, April 5 - Sunday, June 12, 2005 Venue: Heiseikan, Tokyo National Museum (Ueno Park) Hours: 9:30 am - 5:00 pm Saturdays, Sundays, Holidays until 6:00 pm, Fridays until 8:00 pm (last entry 30 minutes before closing) Closed: Mondays (except for Monday, May 2, 2005 ) Admissions: Adult 1,400 (1300/1200) yen, Student 1,000 (900/800) yen * Prices shown in ( ) indicate advance-discount/group (more than 20 persons) tickets. * Persons with disabilities are allowed free entry with one companion. Valid identification requested upon entry. * Advance tickets are on sale at the Museum ticket office (during museum hours) and the counters of JR East, e-Ticket Pia and other major ticket offices by April 4, 2005 .

Access: 10 minutes walk from JR Ueno Station (Park exit) and Uguisudani Station 15 minutes walk from Keisei Ueno Station and Tokyo Metro Ueno Station and Nezu station.

Organizers: Tokyo National Museum, The Asahi Shimbun, TBS With the Academic Support of: Prussian Cultural Foundation, State Museums of Berlin With the Assistance of: Ministry of Foreign Affairs Japan, Agency for Cultural Affairs, Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Japan, TBS Radio & Communications, Inc. With the Special Sponsorship of: Shinko Securities Co., Ltd. With the Sponsorship of: Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd., Sompo Japan Insurance Inc., Nippon Boehringer Ingelheim Co., Ltd. With the Cooperation of: East Japan Railway Company, The Swatch Group (Japan) KK Glashütte Original, Lufthansa German Airlines, Lufthansa Cargo AG With the Planning Support of: Toei Company Ltd.

General Inquiries: 0570-06-1234(Masterpieces of the Berlin Exhibition Dial, Japanese only) 03-3822-1111(Tokyo National Museum) Exhibition Homepage: http://www.asahi.com/berlin/ (Japanese only), http://www.tbs.co.jp/event/berlin/(Japanese only),http://www.tnm.jp/ Next Venue: Kobe City Museum Saturday, July 9– Monday, October 10, 2005

■■ Media Inquiries (media only)■■

Public Relations and Press Tokyo National Museum 13-9 Ueno Park, Taito-ku, Tokyo 110-8712 TEL：03-3822-1111 FAX：03-3822-0086

3 Masterpieces of the Museum Island, Berlin Highlight of the Exhibition Head of a statue of queen Tiyi 【photo 2】 New Kingdom, Dynasty 18, ca.1360 BC, Height 9.5 cm

Besides the painted bust of Nefertiti this small head of her mother-in-law is one of the great masterpieces of the Egyptian Museum Berlin and of Egyptian sculpture in general. The highly individual features reveal the strong personality of this queen known from many texts, reliefs and statues. The Great Royal Consort of Amenhotep III outlived her husband by at least ten years. This small portrait head reflects the alteration of her official status at the death of the king. An original silver headdress, still visible at the neck and over the forehead, and its rich golden outfit – uraeus snakes and ear-studs – were hidden under a linen wig covered with tiny blue glass beads. Together with the crown, combining cow-horns, sun-disk and falcon-feathers (cf. cat. 10), this headdress is typical for deified queens. With Nefertiti’s accession to the throne of the Great King’s Wife, Tiyi lost her political functions and became a living goddess. The contrast of the realistic face and the solemn insignia makes this head a unique historical document and a great work of art.

Glazed Brick Wall: Striding Lion【photo 6】 ca. 575 BC, Width: 230 cm, height: 107 cm

During the German excavations in Babylon (1899 – 1917) several hundred thousand fragments of colourful glazed bricks were recovered, which were pieced together later to reconstruct the magnificent decorations on Babylonian architecture. The striding lion is a detail of the frieze on the socle of the east wall of the Processional Avenue in Babylon. It led from the north to the city wall and the monumental Ishtar gate, which likewise was decorated in colourful reliefs of wild bulls and dragons. The avenue was flanked by over seven-meter thick walls, which for a length of c. 180 meters were adorned with lion reliefs bordered by rows of rosettes. Processional Avenue and the Ishtar gate were an essential part of the most important religious celebration in Babylon: the New Year festival which celebrated the beginning of spring. Cultic processions with the imperial deities passed along the street and through the colorfully embellished city gate into the main temple of the city. The magnificent ornamentation of the walls was symbol of the power and might of the metropolis of Babylon. The lion is the sacred animal of Ishtar, the goddess of love and of war, the wild bull at the gate embodies Adad, god of weather, and the dragon represents Marduk, the chief deity of Babylon. It is well imaginable that this was a place that enjoyed the special protection of the Babylonian trio of deities. This can be perceived in the official name of the avenue, adorned with c. 120 striding lions: “Aj-ibur-šapu” or “Enemy have no stand”.

Portrait of Cleopatra VII. 【photo 7】 ca.40 BC , Marble , H.29.5cm

No other queen of Egypt has ever been thus famous from antiquity until today as the last one, Cleopatra VII. Born in 69 BC, she stepped on the throne being only 17 and than tried to save the leading power of the Near East for more than thousand years from being captured by the uprising Imperium Romanum. Although she could win the great Gaius Julius Caesar in 48 BC and Marc Antony in 41 BC, she finally lost in the battle against Octavian Augustus near Actium on 2. September 31 and committed suicide in her palace at Alexandria in August 30 BC. 4 Masterpieces of the Museum Island, Berlin

Sandro Botticelli Venus 【photo 10】 ca.1485 , Tempera on canvas, 158 x 68.5 cm (without frame)

Facing the viewer, the nude figure is silhouetted against a dark background. The statuaric appearance of the body is emphasized by the stone basement and by the figure’s classical pose, the so-called contraposto. In fact, the artist refers to an antique Venus-statue – a type known as Venus Pudica, the shy or ashamed Venus (the goddess tries to hide her nakedness with her hands, using her long hair like a drapery). A classical statue of Venus Pudica is recorded by a written source as being in a Florentine private residence already in the 14th century. This antique statue might have served Botticelli as a model. He introduced this classical example with slight modifications in several of his allegorical compositions. The subject of Venus, because of the many connotations of the goddess, was extraordinarily in demand in 15th century Tuscany. In the neo-platonic writings of the time, Venus is regarded as an image of the soul, thus representing divine beauty and love. It probably decorated a private chamber in the palazzo of a Florentine noble family; several authors of the 16th century record a great number of Botticelli’s female nudes in Florentine domiciles.

Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio) Virgin with Child (the “Madonna Colonna”) 【photo 11】 ca.1508, 78.9 x 58.2 cm

Painted towards the end of Raphael’s stay in Florence, that is 1508, this Virgin with Child is the latest one among five paintings by Raphael, which are the property of the Gemäldegalerie. Perfectly consistent to the somewhat relaxed and protomanneristic atmosphere shown by this masterpiece formerly in the Salviati collection in Florence, is the so-called “Large Tempi Madonna” of the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., which in fact is signed and dated 1508. Both pictures share a similar domestic intimacy, enhanced by the liberty taken by the Child in touching her Mother’s garment over the breast. In that very year 1508, we could not yet make a point for the birth in Tuscany of the anticlassical tendency called Mannerism. Nevertheless, a glorious specimen like Berlin’s “Madonna Colonna” anticipate in part this very peculiar approach to external as well as psychological reality (the Child), without denying the strong influence which still at this date Donatello’s reliefs could communicate. A short break Raphael leaving to Rome where he was meant to create the fresco masterpieces which established his renown as genius of the High-Renaissance.

Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn Jacob’s fight with the Angel 【photo 12】 ca.1660, Canvas, 140.1 x 120.0 cm

The painting depicts the biblical episode of Jacob who, on the way back to his brother Esau, encounters a man with whom he has to wrestle all night (Genesis 32). Even though the man sprain Jacob’s hip, he is unable to bear Jacob down. Only in the dawn he reveals himself as an angel sent to Jacob by godfather. When the angel will leave, Jacob says to him: “I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.” Rembrandt gives in his painting an impression of both the struggle and the angel’s blessing. He showsthe angel’s left hand bringing Jacob’s hip out of joint and at the same times a bright light and a mellifluous 5 Masterpieces of the Museum Island, Berlin smile on the angel’s head to insinuate the heavenly blessing. Even if we don’t know the primary destination of the painting, we have to assume that it was dedicated for a taller room. The shallow figures seen from below make clear that the painting has to be beheld from a distance.

Casper David Friedrich The Solitary Tree 【photo 13】 1822, Oil on canvas, Height: 55cm, width: 71cm

In 1822, the Berlin banker Joachim Heinrich Wagner, whose art collection was to become the base of the National Gallery (Nationalgalerie) in Berlin, asked Casper David Friedrich to paint a diptych of the times of the day. Friedrich chose a wide field with trees, villages and lakes, which stretches towards a mountain range at the back, as the landscape of the morning. A monumental oak tree offering a shady resting place to the shepherd is placed in the middle of this scenery, growing beside a lake in which reflects the sky. Its majestic trunk had endured all weathers, but the ends of the branches are dying. Above this huge tree cumuli are building up, towards which the branches seem to reach out and into. The oak tree as a nature element symbolizes life force and strength, yet its dying branches are suggestive of a world beyond. As it stands deeply rooted in the earth and simultaneously reaches up into the sky, it becomes a link between heaven and earth.

Edouard Manet In the Conservatory【photo 15】 1878/79, Oil on canvas, height: 115cm, width: 150cm

The acquisition of this painting sparked a new revival and inspiration of the National Gallery (Nationalgalerie) after decades of stagnation. But the royalty greeted these new French paintings with skepticism and in 1904 it was still target of verbal abuse as an immoral and indecent work at the Prussian parliament. The conservatory as a space, with its heated glass structure and lush tropical plants, transmitted an erotic atmosphere, which was also the scene of such actions in many novels written in those days. Yet in this painting, not much is happening: a woman is sitting on a bench, a man is standing behind her leaning over. The symbol-laden pair of hands is situated exactly in the middle. Her hand is relaxed and hanging down, whilst his hand obviously belongs to the more active one of them two. The two hands that are so close to one another will nevertheless not touch each other, the cigarette alone already prevents this. Manet chose his own friends, the married couple Guillemet, who ran a fashion shop in the rue Saint-Honore in Paris, as his models.

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