DOI Artikel:
Nowacki, Dariusz: Recenzja: The Munich exhibition of Augsburg goldsmith's art
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20544#0149
Folia Historiae Artium
Seria Nowa, t. 1 (1995)
ISBN 83-86956-05-4
ISSN 0071-6723
Recenzje
Dariusz Nowacki
The Munich exhibition of Augsburg goldsmith’s art
The exhibition “Silber und Gold. Augsburger
Goldschmiedekunst fur die Hófe Europas”,
arranged at the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum in
Munich and open to visitors from 23rd February
until 19th June, was unąuestionably one of the
greatest museum events of 1994. The idea of such
an extensive presentation of court gold- and silver-
ware wrought in the most important and best
studied European centre of goldsmithery of the
modern era was conceived in 1987. A few significant
occurrences of the last ten years or so were largely
responsible for its materialization; these were the
acąuisition for the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum of
133 pieces of the Hildesheimer Tafelservice (1981)
and of the collections of the Princes von Thurn und
Taxis (1993), and above all the setting up in Munich
of the archives of Augsburg goldsmithery, the
nucleus of which is formed by the scientific output
of Helmut Seling, an outstanding investigator of
this problem, madę over to the Bayerisches Mu-
seum.
Several hundred gold- and silversmith’s prod-
ucts dating from the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries,
which were borrowed from morę than 30 European
collections, displayed in 15 rooms and described in
an imposing two-volume catalogue prepared by an
international team of art historians and edited by
Lorenz Seelig — the main author of the exhibition1
— contributed to the event which is surę to be one
of turning points in the studies on modern
European goldsmithing. A scientific session
1 Silber und Gold. Augsburger Goldschmiedekunst fur die Hófe
Europas. Katalog zur gleichnatnigen Ausstellung des Bayerischen
Nationalmuseums, I —■ II, ed. R. Baumstark and L. Seelig,
Miinchen 1994, pp. 613, LXXVI.
corresponding with the subject of the exhibition
was held early in May, its opening coinciding
with the publication of the long-awaited supplement
to the third volume of Helmut Seling’s monumental
study2.
A careful choice of exhibits presented in a dozen
or so thematic groups, generally for the first time
outside their place of storage — mainly the large
group of silverware which the organizers succeeded
in borrowing from the museum Stores of Moscow
and St. Petersburg, so difficult of access, the
accumulation in one place of the scattered pieces
of one set such as, for instance, the presentation of
the Hildesheimer Tafelservice, crowning the ex-
hibition, supplemented by 15 painted court scenes
and portraits — all this determined the exceptional
attractiveness of the display. Especially worth emp-
hasizing are the rigorous subordination to the
exhibits of the well-balanced exhibition design, not
interfering with the viewer’s direct contact with
them, and the careful preparation of the silverware
for display as well as generally the felicitous
disposition of accents. The Iow price (for reason of
promotion) of the editorially attractive catalogue
and at the same time an inadeąuate offer addressed
to those who were not professionally interested in
goldsmithing (the poor ąuality of postcards was
noticeable) madę very many visitors move about
with the catalogue in hand.
To an art historian representing the country
of manifold connections with the Augsburg golds-
2 H. Seling, Die Kunst der Augsburger Goldschmiede
1529—1868. Supplement zu Band III: Meister, Marken,
Beschauzeichen, Munchen 1994 [further on as Seling
1994],
145
Seria Nowa, t. 1 (1995)
ISBN 83-86956-05-4
ISSN 0071-6723
Recenzje
Dariusz Nowacki
The Munich exhibition of Augsburg goldsmith’s art
The exhibition “Silber und Gold. Augsburger
Goldschmiedekunst fur die Hófe Europas”,
arranged at the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum in
Munich and open to visitors from 23rd February
until 19th June, was unąuestionably one of the
greatest museum events of 1994. The idea of such
an extensive presentation of court gold- and silver-
ware wrought in the most important and best
studied European centre of goldsmithery of the
modern era was conceived in 1987. A few significant
occurrences of the last ten years or so were largely
responsible for its materialization; these were the
acąuisition for the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum of
133 pieces of the Hildesheimer Tafelservice (1981)
and of the collections of the Princes von Thurn und
Taxis (1993), and above all the setting up in Munich
of the archives of Augsburg goldsmithery, the
nucleus of which is formed by the scientific output
of Helmut Seling, an outstanding investigator of
this problem, madę over to the Bayerisches Mu-
seum.
Several hundred gold- and silversmith’s prod-
ucts dating from the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries,
which were borrowed from morę than 30 European
collections, displayed in 15 rooms and described in
an imposing two-volume catalogue prepared by an
international team of art historians and edited by
Lorenz Seelig — the main author of the exhibition1
— contributed to the event which is surę to be one
of turning points in the studies on modern
European goldsmithing. A scientific session
1 Silber und Gold. Augsburger Goldschmiedekunst fur die Hófe
Europas. Katalog zur gleichnatnigen Ausstellung des Bayerischen
Nationalmuseums, I —■ II, ed. R. Baumstark and L. Seelig,
Miinchen 1994, pp. 613, LXXVI.
corresponding with the subject of the exhibition
was held early in May, its opening coinciding
with the publication of the long-awaited supplement
to the third volume of Helmut Seling’s monumental
study2.
A careful choice of exhibits presented in a dozen
or so thematic groups, generally for the first time
outside their place of storage — mainly the large
group of silverware which the organizers succeeded
in borrowing from the museum Stores of Moscow
and St. Petersburg, so difficult of access, the
accumulation in one place of the scattered pieces
of one set such as, for instance, the presentation of
the Hildesheimer Tafelservice, crowning the ex-
hibition, supplemented by 15 painted court scenes
and portraits — all this determined the exceptional
attractiveness of the display. Especially worth emp-
hasizing are the rigorous subordination to the
exhibits of the well-balanced exhibition design, not
interfering with the viewer’s direct contact with
them, and the careful preparation of the silverware
for display as well as generally the felicitous
disposition of accents. The Iow price (for reason of
promotion) of the editorially attractive catalogue
and at the same time an inadeąuate offer addressed
to those who were not professionally interested in
goldsmithing (the poor ąuality of postcards was
noticeable) madę very many visitors move about
with the catalogue in hand.
To an art historian representing the country
of manifold connections with the Augsburg golds-
2 H. Seling, Die Kunst der Augsburger Goldschmiede
1529—1868. Supplement zu Band III: Meister, Marken,
Beschauzeichen, Munchen 1994 [further on as Seling
1994],
145