19.11.2019
Bode-Museum
Complementing the edition of his favourite works from the Gemäldegalerie collection, published in 2017, Michael Eissenhauer, director of the Gemäldegalerie and Skulpturensammlung, is now introducing personal highlights from the Bode-Museum in the international Director’s Choice publication series. In addition to masterpieces by Hans Multscher, Peter Vischer, Jean-Baptiste Pigalle and Andrea del Verrocchio, Eissenhauer has also selected a number of his favourite works by lesser-known artists for this new volume, explaining them with some surprising details and exciting background history.
Eissenhauer is grateful for the opportunity this publication provides: “I’m delighted that following on the heels of the volume on the Gemäldegalerie – with its globally significant collection of 13th to 18th-century European painting – we can now shift the focus to its counterpart, the one-of-a-kind collection of the Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst. During my selection, it was particularly important to me to point out revealing correlations that exist between the works. Because the collections at the Gemäldegalerie and the Bode-Museum were originally conceived and shown together as one collection, they often refer to one another.”
Director’s Choice takes a different approach to typical museum guides: It asks directors of renowned international institutions to discuss personal views and what they consider to be the highlights of their own collections, to show their favourite objects, and to elucidate exciting interconnections between works that might not otherwise come to light on a museum visit. So far, editions have been published on the National Gallery, London, the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, The Frick Collection, New York, as well as the National Museum in Warsaw, among others.
The Skulpturensammlung is one of the largest collections of ancient sculpture in the world. Its sculptural works range in date from the early Middle Ages to the late 18th century and originate from the German-speaking countries, France, the Low Countries, Italy, and Spain.
The Museum für Byzantinische Kunst boasts an excellent collection of Late Antique and Byzantine works of art and everyday objects that stem from all over the ancient Mediterranean region. Particular highlights include Late Antique sarcophagi, figurative and ornamental sculpture from the Eastern Roman Empire, and ivory carvings and mosaic icons from post-pharaonic, early Byzantine Egypt.
The new volume Director’s Choice: Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin is published in German, English, French and Russian language editions. It is available at the museum shops of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and online. Scala Arts & Heritage Publishers Ltd., London, Michael Eissenhauer (author/ed.), 80 pages, numerous colour illustrations, soft bound, ISBN 978-1-78551-248-3, price: 9,95 €.