Berlin, Altes Museum

When the Altes Museum was founded at the beginning of the nineteenth century, many people believed in Winckelmann’s theory that only the ancient Greeks had been able to create truly great art, and that the only way for artists to become equally great was to emulate them. If a nation wanted to inspire its subjects with great works of beauty, it needed a good museum, something comparable to the Vatican. The British managed to obtain the Elgin Marbles, the French were proud of their Venus of Milo, and the Prussians got the Altes Museum.

The architect, the great Karl Friedrich Schinkel, designed a building that opened itself to the visitors as a Greek stoa, but in fact was a Pantheon-like round room surrounded by two stories of rectangular rooms. This was to be the place where Prussia educated its artists – and it was a success, because within a generation, the Alte Nationalgalerie had been added, where nineteenth century artists showed how they had taken inspiration from the Greek classics. Later, the Pergamon-Museum was added, with finds from the Ottoman Empire; the Bode Museum has a Byzantine and Medieval collection; and the Neues Museum contained everything else – Egypt and the prae- and protohistory of Europe.

The Altes Museum is still a splendid, traditional museum of classical art. I was lucky, because when I visited the place last month, the Greek department on the lower floor was still open, and I could see everything from Cycladic idols to the hellentistic Prometheus group. The collection also contains statues and weapons, vases, and so on. This time, I could visit the newly reopened upper floor, where I saw famous busts of Caesar, Cleopatra, and Caracalla. The Hildesheim Silver Treasury now has a very large display. I really loved the new Etruscan department.

Other museums in Berlin may be more interesting; personally, I am always impressed by everything related to the Wall and during this visit I was especially surprised by a tour though the “Berliner Unterwelten”. However, the Altes Museum is easily the most beautiful museum in Berlin.

This museum was visited in 2010.

59 pictures related to this museum

Cumae, Relief with an Amazon	Faustina I (Berlin)	Hildesheim Silver Treasure, Cybele	Capua, Etruscan Ritual Calendar
Rhodes, Statue of a praying man	Gerasa, Thucydides	Pergamon Altar, General view	Priene, Alexander
Perseus	Tarentum, Pendant (Nike)	Tarentum, Statue of a boy in mourning	Gerasa, Mosaic of Clio
Capua-Curti, Acroterion	Caesar (Berlin)	Attalus I Soter	Volsinii, Campo della Fiera, Three-headed demon
Vulci, Egyptian pyxis	Julia Domna, Septimius Severus, Geta (erased), and Caracalla	Vulci, Head of a sphinx	Portait of a Roman lady, third quarter of the first century BCE
Caere, Etruscan antefix (silenus)	Hildesheim Silver Treasure, Minerva	Parthian mounted archer	Samos, Temple of Hera, Statue of a warrior
Clusium, Etruscan relief with dancers	Palmyra, Tombstone of Tamma and Šabhei	Caracalla	Rome, Herm with portraits of Seneca and Socrates
Rome, Via Appia, Relief of P. Aiedius Amphio and Aiedia	Priene, Pan	Volterra, Cinerary chest, Dragging of Dirce (based on Euripides' Antiope)	Alexander the Great with a lion's skin
Priene, Inscription, honoring three arbiters	Vulci, Achilles and Patroclus (Sosias Painter)	Magnesia on the Meander, Portrait of Agrippa	Cumae, Relief of a group of soldiers
Toulouse, Athlete	Cumae, Relief of a hero, riding a horse	Coin of Mithridates VI Eupator of Pontus.	Pergamon, Temple of Athena, Propylaea
Constantius I Chlorus	Pergamon, Prometheus Group	Cumae, Priest of Isis	Coin of Vitellius
Spherical perfume bottle	Crispina	Domitian	Capua-Curti, Antefix (Silenus)
Sparta-Magoula, Relief of a young hero	Cleopatra VII Philopator	Priene, House 33A, Aphrodite	Gallienus
Cameo of Alexander and Olympias	Tarentum, Head of young man	Pergamon, Theater, Attalus III Philometor	Campana plate with a Nilotic scene
Rome, Via Appia, Sarcophagus of Dionysus and Ariadne (found near the Mausoleum of Caecilia Metella)	Faustina II (Berlin)	Coin of Antiochus VI Dionysus