All Forms ART OF ANTIQUITY AND of Love ENLIGHTENED COLLECTING Path 3 – Male homosexual collectors are the focus of the third path 1 2 François Duquesnoy (1597–1643) Edmé Bouchardon (1698–1762) Antinous Belvedere, first half of the 17th c. Baron Phlipp von Stosch, 1727 Bronze, 31,5 x 13,5 x 9 cm Marble, 85 x 65 x 34 cm Inv. Nr. 1/94 Inv. Nr. M 204, Property of the Kaiser Friedrich Museumsverein © Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst © Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin / Jörg P. Anders and Antje Voigt der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin / Jörg P. Anders Unlike in the Christian societies of of both an intellectual and sexual of the temples that were dedicated the Middle Ages and the early mod- nature. The publicly celebrated love to the emperor. In addition, he had ern period, which judged homosex- of the Roman emperor Hadrian (76– Antinous’ image reproduced hun- uality as unnatural, in antiquity same- 138 AD) for the young Antinous dreds of times, whether chiselled in sex love (between men) met with (ca. 110–130 AD) is legendary: after stone, cast in bronze, or minted on greater tolerance and sometimes the latter drowned under tragic coins. In later centuries these images even approval. This was especially circumstances during a boating of Antinous were in high demand true for friendships between young excursion on the Nile, Hadrian had among collectors and lovers of fine men and older mentors, which were his lover venerated as a god in several art, particularly in the 18th century, 19 THE SECOND GLANCE PATH 3 ART OF ANTIQUITY AND ENLIGHTENED COLLECTING when the excavations of the ancient homoerotic friendship. His affinity monuments in Herculaneum and towards his own gender was present Pompeii aroused a great enthusiasm throughout his life and was no secret for antiquity among intellectuals to his close friends, although the and art lovers. baron did not act on it openly. Furthermore, many of the artists of When Philipp von Stosch, shortly that era taught themselves using the before his death, met Johann Joachim antique statues and their proportions, Winckelmann (1717–1768), who which were considered ideal. Among nowadays is considered the father of them was the Flemish sculptor modern archaeology and art histo- François Duquesnoy (1597–1643), ry, he commissioned him to prepare whose bronze Antinous figure is in a catalogue of his famous collection the Bode Museum (fig. 1). For this of antique engraved gemstones. work, the artist used the famous However, the work (»Description antique marble sculpture known as des pierres gravées du feu Baron de »Antinous of Belvedere« (Vatican Stosch«, 1760) was only completed Museum; today identified as Hermes, thanks to a commission by Stosch’s Inv. Nr. 907) as his model. As a result, nephew and sole heir, Heinrich the beautiful young man became Wilhelm Muzel-Stosch (1723–1782), one of the most well-known personi- who, like his late uncle, was a life- 3 fications of Roman antiquity even to long bachelor and probably also had Egypt (Alexandria) this day and additionally became in same-sex attractions. Most notably, Torso of Emperor Statue, 4th c. modern times a figure representing his correspondence with his friend Red Egyptian porphyry, an era and social order in which Winckelmann, in which both men 96 x ca. 45 x ca. 36 cm homoerotic relationships, under discreetly exchanged views on their Inv. Nr. 6128 © Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzan‑ certain circumstances, could exist erotic inclinations, supports this tinische Kunst der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin / openly and even gain societal assumption. In their rhapsodies over Jürgen Liepe acceptance. antique works of art and the socie- ties that produced them, the two One of the 18th century art lovers could speak relatively freely about was the antiquarian and antiquities the topic; this took place within a collector Philipp von Stosch (1691– fusion of aesthetic, intellectual, and 1757), who had been named a baron erotic attraction to the sculptures of by the Holy Roman and German antique heroes and youths. Shortly emperor Charles VI (1685–1740) for after Winckelmann’s death in 1767, his diplomatic services. He spent Heinrich von Stosch was already the second half of his life in Italy, striving to publish their correspond- first in Rome and later in Florence, ence. This fact can also be consid- where he made a name for himself ered evidence that the nephew, like as an art connoisseur and collector. his uncle before him, did not cate- The portrait bust of Stosch that the gorically keep his sexual preference French sculptor Edmé Bouchardon a secret. (1698–1762) made during his ten years in Rome shows the baron, appropri- This relative freedom did not, how- ately enough, with the bearing and ever, apply to the Prussian king garb of a Roman emperor and thus Frederick II (1712–1786), who ac- and Winckelmann or even his reflected Stosch’s intellectual frame quired the famous Stosch gem collec- younger brother Heinrich (1726– of reference (fig. 2, compare fig. 3). tion for the Prussian court in 1764 1802), whose love for the army officer One might as well suspect that antiq- and thus laid the foundation for the Christian Ludwig von Kaphengst uity was also attractive for Stosch Berlin antiquities collection. Unlike (1740–1800) was an open secret, because it celebrated the ideal of his aesthetic contemporaries Stosch Frederick, as the future king and 20 THE SECOND GLANCE PATH 3 ART OF ANTIQUITY AND ENLIGHTENED COLLECTING commander of the Prussian troops in time of war, had to fulfil the societal and dynastic expectations that were thrust upon him. These demands were reflected in most of the portrayals of the Prussian king, for example in Johann Gottfried Schad- ow’s larger-than-life marble sculp- ture in the small dome of the Bode Museum (fig. 4), which shows him in the pose of a stern general. However, it is very probable that Frederick was homosexual. There were no children from his marriage with Elisabeth Christine von Braun- schweig-Wolfenbüttel-Bevern (1715– 1797), the couple always living separately. Instead, Frederick main- tained particularly intimate rela- tionships with certain men in his court, which was especially a thorn in the side of his father, Frederick William I (1688–1740), known as the »Soldier King«. The pivotal episode of the dysfunctional relationship between father and son can be considered the execution – carried out in front of Frederick – of his boyhood friend Hans Hermann von Katte (1704–1730), who was involved in the attempt of the artistically inclined crown prince to escape from his father’s harsh discipline. The fact that this text deals with exclusively male art lovers and collec- tors is no accident. On the one hand, today we barely have any information about female intellec- tuals and art lovers of the pre-Mod- ern era. In contrast to the men, they remained in the background be- cause of their societal status, which led to any traces of their contribu- tions disappearing over time. On 4 the other hand, antiquity, because Franz Tübbecke (1856–1937) of the explicitly masculine homoe- Frederick the Great, 1904 rotic and aesthetic idealisation of (copy from an original by Johann Gottfried Schadow) the male form in the 18th century, Marble, 253 x 105 x 82 cm primarily provided a frame of Inv. Nr. 2829 © Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin / reference for gay male love. Antje Voigt 21.