September 14, 2024
The Berlin museums don’t open until 10 am so Aimee and I take our morning walk east across the Spree River and then up the bank. Near St Nicholas Church, the oldest in Berlin, we run across an impressive statue of St George slaying the Dragon. Just north is the Marx-Engels Forum containing a statue of these two German philosophers who got so much wrong and caused the world too much trouble. Humorously we met several Chinese taking lots of photos. I am guessing they are employees of the nearby Communist Chinese Embassy.
Across the street is Alexanderplatz with a Neptune fountain and the Berlin TV Tower. This 1200-foot structure was an icon of East Berlin and can be seen for miles. I used it as a homing beacon on my venture across the Iron Curtain many years ago. Walking north we passed the old Berlin Palace to Museum Island.
We entered the Altes or Old Museum. It was the first built almost 200 years ago and has a broad Neoclassical facade, two lion hunter statues and an enormous granite bowl.
The archeology collection starts with Greek culture. Early statues were stiff-looking like the Egyptian versions they probably copied. As Greece flourished and expanded east onto the Turkish coast, and west into southern Italy and Sicily, their sculpture became lifelike and much admired.
Much of their creativity apparently came from Symposiums. This was their word for male drinking parties. The ubiquitous Kraters and Amphora would be filled with a wine and water mixture and ladled out generously. Women attended for entertainment only. The pottery was highly decorated.
Our visit to the Greek wing ended at the central rotunda ringed with statues of Greek gods, goddesses and heroes.
The next section is on the Etruscans, an early civilization of Italy centered around present-day Tuscany that would be subsumed by the Romans. Their culture would be greatly influenced by the contact with the Greeks. The Etruscans are a mysterious culture mostly known for their painted sarcophagi that seem to have come off an assembly line. This museum nicely has some other artifacts like jewelry.
The Romans famously were enamored by the Greeks and copied their culture almost wholesale, adopting their religion, just changing some of the names of the gods. Fortunately for us they copied their statues on a mass scale giving us a rich history of Greek sculpture. Most Greek sculptures on display are likely a Roman copy.
Romans usually cremated their deceased and interned the ashes in a small urn. It wasn’t until much later in the period of Imperial Rome (2nd century) that they started burying the bodies in the decorative stone sarcophagi that I love. The Romans must have deployed an army of sculptors to carve these detailed facades.
The other Roman art I find fascinating is from Egypt. Here they had to adapt to local practice. The result was painted portraits atop mummified remains. The paintings are amazingly realistic giving a detailed look into the diverse ethnic makeup, their clothing, and even their jewelry.
Whereas Greek sculpture tended to display an idealized representation, Roman sculpture, especially the head, is amazingly realistic. That makes it easy to identify the person being portrayed. Romans copied these statues and portrait busts in an assembly line.
One interesting find was an entire room full of silverware. Surprisingly this horde was found in Germany outside of Roman control. It surely was stolen, carried away and buried, never to be retrieved.
Like the Naples museum, there is a small room devoted to Roman erotic art, which they obviously loved. Some of the pieces make me laugh out loud. Besides wall art, every Roman must have carried an erotic charm around with them. Aimee spent a little too much time in this room.
We had lunch outside the museum eating Thai food at a Chinese restaurant. It wasn't too bad.
When I visited East Berlin in 1984, I made a point of visiting the Pergamon Museum. Seeing the large-scale Pergamon Altar and Ishtar Gate was a highlight of my visit. Sadly this amazing collection is closed for a years-long renovation. Instead a Panorama was painted to satisfy the curious. Aimee and I are not impressed. Pergamon was an ancient Greek city on the Turkish coast. It became rich producing writing material made from animal skins. The word Parchment is derived from this city name.
We finished our Museum Island visit at the Bode Museum. This one is housed in a cool looking building on the northern tip.
Surprisingly the first floor is almost exclusively religious art. It makes sense. Artists have to follow the money and the Catholic Church held the purse strings. Plus in olden times, there were churches everywhere that needed decoration. Triptychs in wood were the most common. Some were painted. While the majority look mass-produced or created by amateurs, a few are stunning showing great craftsmanship and creativity. Some artists devoted their life to their creations. Unfortunately the best are behind reflective glass.
Aimee and I were both amused and happy to find a Byzantine mosaic piece from Ravenna, Italy in the collection.
The upper floor of the museum had a mish-mash of religious and secular art and coins. Running through the collection, it is obvious art comes in many flavors, forms, and mediums from intricate ivory carvings, to wood, gold, stone, and porcelain. It is not just oil painting. Also artists are not all created equal, or I just don’t appreciate some. For me, I only find a small fraction interesting, which means walking by lots of stuff I don’t appreciate. Most museums could use more filtering of their collections.
One piece nicely described Aimee’s view of the last two days of marathon museum going. A Screaming woman!
On the way back to our hotel we stopped at the German History Museum. We find it also closed for renovation. That seems to be a common theme in Berlin. We see construction cranes everywhere. Instead the museum has a special exhibit in a new I.M Pei wing called 'Roads Not Taken' or ‘What if’. It takes a handful of pivotal events in German history and supposes the outcome if only different choices had been made. Sadly Germans have often been unlucky and made a lot of bad decisions. One sculpture called ‘Mourning Germania’ sums up the exhibit.
For dinner we had Potato soup and salad at our nearby German restaurant. Tasty!
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