Press Information
Thusnelda Hurries on Ahead of her Husband Hermann. Highlight exhibit for the exhibition “MYTH” arrives at the Lippisches Landesmuseum Detmold
Detmold, 22nd April 2009 About three weeks before the opening of the exhibition “MYTH”, which, from 16th May to 25th October 2009, will spotlight the myth around Arminius, the Germanic peoples and the Varus battle, a quite special highlight exhibit has arrived at the museum: the statue of a barbarian woman in mourning, known since the 19th century as Thusnelda.
The original of the statue has been in front of the Loggia dei Lanzi in Florence for centuries. A plaster copy was made in Rome especially for the exhibition. Dr. Elke Treude, curator of the exhibition “MYTH” emphasised: “We are very pleased that the statue can stay in the museum after the exhibition is over, a great addition to our collections. It means that, thanks to the general support from the NRW-Stiftung, we have the only copy of this famous statue north of the Alps”. The NRW-Stiftung has provided a considerable proportion of the costs involved in making the copy.
The original is from the 2nd century AD. Nowadays, we know that it certainly does not represent Thusnelda, Arminius’ wife, and probably does not even represent a Germanic woman. Presumably the statue was part of a group of captiva Dacians which was erected at the Forum in Trajanus in Rome. There it was to commemorate the victory over this people which settled in today’s Romania.
However, when the statue was discovered in Florence in 1828 the learned of the time were sure that they had encountered Thusnelda in person. This corresponded to the wish to link anonymous, ancient sculptures with historical people and to so give the latter a face. The statue’s gesture of mourning aided its identification, as Thusnelda had after all been abducted by Germanicus a few years after the Varus Battle in advanced pregnancy. She bore Thumelicus, Arminius’ son in Roman captivity. Her husband never saw his wife or his son again.
The plaster copy of the statue – 2,80 m in height and 350 kg in weight – documents in the exhibition “MYTH” the Romans’ image of Germanic people. Their statues of them never represented individuals, but always a particular type of barbarians which also showed Germanic people as defeated inferiors in mourning.
Press Information
Lippisches Landesmuseum Detmold, Ameide 4, 32756 Detmold Tel. 05231 / 9925-0, Fax. 05231 / 9925-25 [email protected], www.imperium-konflikt-mythos.de
Press Contact: Katrin Winter, Tel. 05231 / 992528 [email protected]
The exhibition “MYTH” is sponsored by: The German Federal Republic’s Representative for Culture and Media, the Prime Minister of the Land NRW, the Kreis Lippe, the LWL-Kulturstiftung, the NRW- Stiftung, the Kunststiftung NRW and the Lippische Landes- Brandversicherungsanstalt.