King Frederik V's Acquisitions of ancient Sculpture for the Royal Academy of fine Arts in Copenhagen in, The Past in the Present the national museum of denmark (original) (raw)
… , Nation-Building and Change. NaMu IV, …, 2008
MA Dissertation, University of Manchester - A.H. Kyd Prize for Highest Overall MA Mark within the CAHAE Department, 2023
The approach to ancient Egyptian statuary is often focused on individual examples, typological studies, or art historical considerations, admittedly hindered by the lack of evidence inherent to looted antiquities. In contrast, statues from the New Kingdom artists’ village of Deir el-Medina come with an exceptionally rich archaeological context, and yet, its globally dispersed corpus has not been consolidated, let alone analysed as a whole. This pilot study focus on museum statues representing private individuals from the village, complete and from secured or probable provenance, to advance the understanding of the private statuary practice in Deir el-Medina’s environment by regrouping and recontextualising the artefacts. It demonstrates how fruitful a holistic contextual approach—examining archaeological, visual, and textual evidence beyond the analysis of the corpus—is to reveal what three-dimensional representations the artisans desired for themselves, how they conceptualised, produced, and used them, and why they did so: What? The constituted corpus of 41 statues reveals extraordinary variety and creativity in rapidly evolving types, monuments of all sizes realised in dominantly local materials, techniques and styles emphasised by a rather conventional iconography, and remarkably multifaceted inscriptions. How? As artists, the villagers conceptualised statues holistically, and if they did not realise the monuments themselves, they chose colleagues for their particular craft, and sometimes family relations, to produce artworks which could be exchanged in economic transactions and used in various, increasingly public, thought-out settings. Why? The artists designed statues not only for their religious effect, but also for social affirmation, artistic positioning among peers. They innovated, because they could—and wanted others to know, in their time and in the future. If the results underline how particular statue conceptualisation among artists may have been, they also provide insights into commission, production, transaction, use, and reuse which should be transferable to other statues and sites.
CLARA
Small funerary statuettes shaped as mummiform figurines are among the most common ancient Egyptian artefacts to be found in museums of cultural history worldwide. The Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo (MCH) is no exception. The present article explores the biographies of material culture, materiality, objectification and shifts in meaning. It probes the many ways small artefacts, often categorized as ‘minor art objects’ of no importance, provide us with valuable insights into ancient Egyptian beliefs, society and culture. Selecting a few pieces from different periods, it delves into the multi-layered narratives and intersecting storylines where the objects’ biographies are tied to a web of relations across time and space as well as to the history of the ancient Egyptian collection at the MCH. The article discusses questions related to museological and heritage management, and addresses ethical issues concerning the provenance and ownership of archaeological artefacts i...
Go Figure!: Creating Intertwined Worlds in the Scandinavian Late Iron Age (AD 550–1050)
2010
This paper discusses Scandinavian gold foil figures from the early part of the Late Iron Age (AD 550–1050). The author presents two major points of interest that have been neglected in previous research. The first highlights how the manipulations the figures have undergone must be taken into consideration, which is accomplished with the help of theatre theory, semiotics and anthropology. The second places an emphasis on how the context from which the figures have been retrieved must be analysed. Consequently, from the example of a ceremonial building at Uppåkra, Sweden, it is contended that the figures were made by artisans/smiths that, apart from expertly making the figures, also acted as ritual specialists when the structure was built or inaugurated. As such, they were responsible for depositing specific figures in particular, designated and pivotal places that needed protection or other ritual treatment. The gold foil figures further highlight the intertwinement between subject and object, human and nonhuman, as well as between the divine and the mundane. Therefore they contributesignificantly to discussions on materiality.
Egyptology in the Periphery. Valdemar Schmidt and the making of Egyptology in Denmark 1872–1925
LUP Student Papers, 2019
Egyptology in the 19th and early 20th centuries developed simultaneously with increased imperial presence in Egypt by the European imperial powers, which would have influence on how the discipline was practised. The history of Egyptology has for this reason primarily focused on the big four – Great Britain, France, Germany and USA – and on Egypt itself. The aim of this study is to examine how Egyptology was established and practised in a non-imperial Scandinavian country – Denmark. Through the agency of Valdemar Schmidt, the initiator of the Egyptology at the University of Copenhagen, I ask the following 3 questions; (1) How did Valdemar Schmidt practise Egyptology? (2) What was his working relation to Egypt and the rest of Europe? (3) Are there any changes over time, and if so, what were they? Several results can be shown. First, I argue that Schmidt, as the first academic Egyptologist in Denmark, was profoundly influenced by prehistoric archaeology and comparative linguistics, both with Danish roots in the first half of the 19th century. This affected his scientific views in that he believed in using a quantity of sources, even those which many would regard as trivial in order to reconstruct the past. This focus on the small and trivial has previously been attributed to William Matthew Flinders Petrie at least 15 years after Schmidt, and it has been proposed he had done so as for practical purposes as it was easier to take smaller objects out of Egypt and distribute between the subscribers. I argue, in the case of Schmidt, that the way he practised Egyptology was in many ways unpractical and costly, indicating he was more shaped by the scientific ideals of the national context he worked in. I show how most of the primary and secondary sources needed for his practise were not found in Denmark but were spread in several collections and libraries all over the world. Schmidt spent a large part of his career travelling to museums and studying museum objects to acquire knowledge which he later would communicate to a Danish audience through his many public lectures. I also argue his museum studies should be regarded as fieldwork as he was on a time constrain and tried to make the most of the time he had by, for example, travel at night and never eating anything during the museums opening hours. In the case of Egyptology, I show how Denmark could be considered belonging to a European periphery. It was hard to get access to books and materials needed. Much of Schmidt´s practise therefore aimed to upheave this sense of periphery and create a milieu in Denmark where Egyptology could be studied. I also argue that Schmidt initially did not consider Egypt itself central to his practise compared to several European museums. This would eventually change as he got involved in the antiquities trade around 1890. The outbreak of the World War I affected his practise inasmuch he was cut off from access to the European museums and libraries that he needed for his studies. From this I argue Danish Egyptology relied on access to Europe to be able to function. World War I also broke down the ideals of scientific universalism in the warring countries, but as an Egyptologist from a neutral country, Schmidt still regarded international cooperation crucial and expected everything to turn back to normal as soon as the war was over. Finally, I show how Egyptology in Denmark was not a financially rewarding career. Even with state support, Schmidt had to spend much of his own money on the acquisition of source material and publishing.
Art/ifacts and ArtWorks in the Ancient World, 2021
This essay addresses key issues relating to the classification, analysis, and (mis-)representation of the types of ancient and non-Western things. It explores how and why, and through what processes and with what implications, some ancient and non-Western things have been selected as “authentic art” objects and others relegated to “mere artifacts.” It examines the manner and locations in which such things are typically displayed or experienced, as well as the effects of physical and other frameworks on how we reconstruct—or, arguably, construct—the civilizations to which such things belong(ed). It also examines how we define, understand, and apply (and with what consequences) terms such as art and artifact; Western and non-Western; and thing, object, and work. Issues of space, time, and context, and the ways in which these intersect with matter, recur throughout. The essay concludes with an investigation of whether the locus of a thing’s (and specifically an artwork’s) authenticity and identity must reside in its matter or whether it might reside instead in the thing’s action and use in rather than against time—even to the point of being changed and, ultimately, used up. What if a thing’s identity depends not on removal from or denial of time but rather on the full acceptance of it and its consequences?
The Birth of the Museum in the Nordic Countries. Kunstkammer Museology and Museography
Nordic Museology, 2018
The article positions early modern collecting in relation to wider cultures of knowledge production by using perspectives from the history of knowledge, memory studies, and recent studies of Kunstkammern. Some twenty-five years after the reawakened interest in early modern collections the author revisits the question if the museum in the Nordic countries was born in the mid-seventeenth century and asks if collections became museums and a museum culture was established with the appearance of, one, museography, theories and methods of classification and display, two, museology, a science or profession of museum organisation and management, and, three, designated, purpose-built architecture and furniture. The first part brings into play exemplary scholarly and monarchical collectors that contributed to the development of museography and museology. The second part addresses seventeenth-century museography by introducing two acts of knowledge production and retention in the Kunstkammern – asking questions and selecting and ordering. Finally, the author discusses the findings in relation to arguments for placing the museum’s birth in the decades around 1800.
Viking Art in the Church. A Scandinavian Casket in San Isidoro de León, Spain.
Vikings in the Mediterranean: Proceedings of an International Conference Co-organized by the Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish Institutes at Athens, Athens, 27-30 November 2019, 2023
The origins and presence of a Scandinavian style box in the Basilica of San Isidoro of León, northwest Spain, have been incognito for decades. This casket in question is a cylindrical container made in deer antler, with two metal-alloy lids covering both ends of the cylinder. It is because of its decorative style that one can recognize its Viking Age Scandinavian origins. On the other hand, the historical events that brought it to the city of León are still a mystery. Viking raids are known in the Iberian coasts from different textual sources, but there are few mentions of peaceful encounters. In this chapter, I take a biographical approach to the casket, seeking to answer questions about its context in regard to both its origin and final destination. With the help of place- names and textual evidence, I will reinforce earlier hypotheses and link them with Scandinavians taking part in the Reconquista repopulation strategies and political affairs of the kingdom of León mentioned in 10th and 11th textual sources. Was the box sent by a Danish monarch? Was there a collaboration between the Leonese monarchy and Scandinavians at the service of Knut the Great? Furthermore, a previously unexplored 16th century inventory of the relics in the church of San Isidoro will provide additional clues about the contents of the box. Could the Beato Nicolao relics mentioned in this inventory be the same Saint Nicholas of Myra, whose relic cult was spread by Italo-Normans to the Mediterranean during 11th century?
E M Kavaler -- Sixteenth-Century Netherlandish Sculpture. A Recovery NKJ 67.pdf
Netherlanders produced enormously rich and varied sculpture in the sixteenth century. Indeed, Low Countries sculpture likely enjoyed a higher reputation than painting for most of the century, especially in other lands. 1 There were remarkable individuals involved in its production. Jacques Dubroeucq , court artist to Mary of Hungary, carved the statues and reliefs for the jubé of St. Waudru at Mons -notable examples of narrative design, the vogue for Roman antiquity, and the awareness of artistic developments in other regions of Europe (fig. 1). 2 The tomb sculpture of Cornelis Floris (1514-1575) became paradigmatic for funerary monuments across much of northern Europe (fig. ). 3 As Kristoffer Neville and Cynthia Osiecki discuss in this volume, his manner was so widely emulated that the term 'Floris style' has become something of a cliché in discussions of art around the Baltic.