Outside Florence, the Bode-Museum in Berlin is one of the few places where the art of Donatello (ca. 1386-1466), the most important sculptor of the Florentine Renaissance before Michelangelo, is so thoroughly represented. Besides acclaimed works in marble, terracotta, and bronze by the artist’s own hands, the Sculpture Collection of the Berlin Museums is rich in less studied works, which, if not all autograph, at least reflect Donatello’s inventions. This abundance is chiefly due to the tireless activity of Wilhelm von Bode (1845-1929), the great curator and later director of the Berlin Museums in whose honour the Bode-Museum is named. When Bode was alive, Berlin was an undisputed centre of Donatello’s scholarship. Starting in 1933, this pre-eminence has been lost: the Nazi era, WWII, and the post-war era with the division of Berlin have cast a shadow of oblivion on many of the relevant works in the collection. Some of them were caught in fires in May 1945, including acclaimed masterpieces of the artist; other works were put in storage where too few specialists came to study them. The moment has come to shed new light on this collection as an ensemble as well as to highlight the qualities of many works that have been neglected so far. An international symposium, with contributions from renowned Donatello specialists, seems a fitting way to do so.

It is particularly relevant to combine this re-evaluation of the place of Donatello in the Berlin Museums with a scholarly discussion around the exhibition, organized by the Bode-Museum, that runs until 27 September 2015: “The Lost Museum. The Berlin Sculpture and Painting Collections 70 Years after World War II.” While one section of the exhibition is dedicated to Donatello, the problems addressed by the symposium go far beyond just this artist’s case: the dispersal of thousands of works of art from 1945 onwards, restitutions in the 1950s, and severe damage to some works raise complex issues of memory, restoration, and identity that will be at the centre of the talks. It is even hoped that some of the works, presumed lost for seven decades, will resurface one day.

The symposium is organized by Julien Chapuis, deputy director of the Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst and curator of the exhibition “The Lost Museum”, and Neville Rowley, research fellow at the Bode-Museum and author of a forthcoming online catalogue of the works by Donatello in the Berlin Museums collection.

PROGRAM

17. September 2015 / DONATELLO UND BERLIN

  • 9.30
  • Begrüßung: Michael Eissenhauer (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin)
  • Einführung: Julien Chapuis / Neville Rowley (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin)
  • Moderation: Neville Rowley
  • 10.00 Giancarlo Gentilini (Università degli Studi di Perugia): Rilievi donatelliani eccentrici di metà Quattrocento nel Bode-Museum
  • 10.30 Laura Cavazzini (Università degli Studi di Trento): Attorno a Donatello: trittico berlinese
  • 11.00 Aldo Galli (Università degli Studi di Trento): Sugli stucchi e le terrecotte di primo Quattrocento nelle collezioni di Berlino
  • 11.30 – 12.00 Pause
  • 12.00 Francesco Caglioti (Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II): Donatello und Wilhelm Bode
  • 13.00 – 14.30 Mittagspause
  • Moderation: Julien Chapuis
  • 14.30 Volker Krahn (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin): „Ein Blick in Donatellos Werkstatt“. Berliner Bronzen – Wilhelm von Bode und die Zuschreibungsfragen
  • 15.00 Philippe Malgouyres (Musée du Louvre, Paris): Donatello et les petits bronzes, une intersection difficile
  • 15.30 – 16.00 Pause
  • 16.00 Neville Rowley (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin): Donatello in Berlin: nicht nur die „Pazzi Madonna“
  • 16.30 Vasily Rastorguev (The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow): Die „verschwundenen“ Werke von Donatello


18. September 2015 / DAS VERSCHWUNDENE MUSEUM

  • 10.00
  • Begrüßung: Hermann Parzinger (Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz)
  • Einführung und Moderation:
  • Britta Kaiser-Schuster (Deutsch-Russischer Museumsdialog)
  • 10.30 Konstantin Akinsha (Universität Erfurt): The Never Ending Story. Soviet/Russian Policy towards Cultural Trophies of World War II
  • 11.00 Regine Dehnel (Deutsch-Russischer Museumsdialog): Was geschah im Flakbunker Friedrichshain im Mai 1945?
  • 11.30 – 12.00 Pause
  • 12.00 Petra Winter (Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin): „Gegen Brandbomben ist der Altar verhältnismässig gut gesichert.“ Die Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin in der Kriegs- und Nachkriegszeit
  • 12.30 Anna Aponasenko (The State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg): „Verlagerte Kunst“: die Besonderheiten russischer Dokumentation und Forschungsprobleme der Provenienz des Museumsobjektes
  • 13.00 - 14.30 Mittagspause
  • Moderation: Bernd Wolfgang Lindemann (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin)
  • 14.30 Guillaume Nicoud (École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris): Paris, Berlin, Leningrad : le long voyage du Napoléon de Chaudet du Musée de l’Ermitage
  • 15.00 Bénédicte Savoy (Technische-Universität, Berlin): Bewegte Bilder. Kunstraub im Film. Zwischen Dokumentation und Fiktion 1945-2015
  • 15.30 Julien Chapuis (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin): DAS VERSCHWUNDENE MUSEUM: aus einer Ausstellung lernen

No registration is required; participation is free of charge.

The conference language will be German, selected sessions are held in Italian and French - Simultaneous translation in English.

Contact: Diana Fleischer ([email protected])