Munich - Sculpture Gallery

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Description

(Local Name: Glyptothek) The Glyptothek (from the Greek "glyptik" meaning sculpture, or the art of cutting stone), the oldest museum in Munich, was built between 1816 and 1830 by Leo von Klenze (1784-1864). It houses one of the foremost collections of sculpture in Europe, largely assembled in the early 19th C. by King Ludwig I, a great lover of ancient art. His agents brought back from Egypt, Greece and Italy numerous works of Greek and Roman sculpture, including the fine figures from the pediment of the Temple of Aphaia (ca. 500 B.C.) on the island of Aegina near Athens, excavated in 1811.

Leo von Klenze was commissioned by Ludwig to build a new gallery to accommodate the figures. The result, using plans prepared by Karl von Fischer (1782-1820), was the Glyptothek, one the finest and most celebrated Neo-Classical buildings in Germany. Laid out round a central courtyard, it is fronted by an Ionic portico. The rooms are lit from the courtyard, the exterior walls being windowless, their bareness relieved by eighteen statues in niches. The Glyptothek itself was destroyed by bombing in 1943-44, the interior frescoes by Peter von Cornelius also being lost. But its valuable contents had been removed to places of safety and survived the war undamaged.

After an extended period of rebuilding (rooms remodelled by Josef Wiedemann) the Glyptothek reopened in 1972.

Hobbies & Activities category: Archeological exhibit, museum; Architecture - Roman, Greek, classical; Paintings, art collections; Standalone sculpture, statue or fountain

Sculpture Gallery Highlights

Outstanding Exhibits

Among numerous outstanding exhibits from the period 500 B.C. to A.D. 250 are:

Room I

Sculpture of Homer (antique copy); Early Greek statue of a youth; dedicatory reliefs.

Room II

"Barberinian

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