DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21832#0030
Milena Melfi
Old meets New.
antiquity. This was not the case in earlier periods: at the time of the first opening
of the University Galleries in 1845, the Museum hosted ancient sculptures together
with casts, and its architecture made large use of casts from the antique.
Charles Cockerell, the architect entrusted with the realization of a project for the new
museum, had travelled to Greece with some of the most famous German archaeolo-
gists of the time. In 1811 he participated in the excavations of the temple of Aphaia
at Aegina, where the famous pedimental sculptures, now kept in the Glyptothek
at Munich, were discovered. In the Peloponnese he was part of the expedition
that explored the temple of Apollo at Bassae, ancient Figalia, where he personally
removed the twenty-three slabs from the Ionic cella frieze, later bought at auction by
the British Museum in 1815. For the University Galleries Cockerell designed a scheme
with two large projecting wings and a recessed centre in a grand neoclassical style
(fig. 8). He also marked out the entire ground floor as a museum for ancient sculpture
by using plaster casts. Plaster casts of the Parthenon frieze were set high on the walls
of the West wing (today the Museum shop) while copies of the Bassae frieze decorated
the great staircase (fig. 9). He also created a great niche facing the entrance, where
casts of Apollo and the Muses, a group found in Tivoli, provided the ornamentation
(fig. 10). These casts were donated to the University, together with many others, by the
Duncan brothers, gentlemen scholars who had made the Grand Tour and brought
home expensive souvenirs. They reflected contemporary taste for beautiful statues
of highly decorative value, whose size and shape suited public space.
Fig. 10. Cockerell's great
niche, opposite
the entrance of the
University Galleries.
Drawing
by J. Fisher (ca. 1 860)
29
Old meets New.
antiquity. This was not the case in earlier periods: at the time of the first opening
of the University Galleries in 1845, the Museum hosted ancient sculptures together
with casts, and its architecture made large use of casts from the antique.
Charles Cockerell, the architect entrusted with the realization of a project for the new
museum, had travelled to Greece with some of the most famous German archaeolo-
gists of the time. In 1811 he participated in the excavations of the temple of Aphaia
at Aegina, where the famous pedimental sculptures, now kept in the Glyptothek
at Munich, were discovered. In the Peloponnese he was part of the expedition
that explored the temple of Apollo at Bassae, ancient Figalia, where he personally
removed the twenty-three slabs from the Ionic cella frieze, later bought at auction by
the British Museum in 1815. For the University Galleries Cockerell designed a scheme
with two large projecting wings and a recessed centre in a grand neoclassical style
(fig. 8). He also marked out the entire ground floor as a museum for ancient sculpture
by using plaster casts. Plaster casts of the Parthenon frieze were set high on the walls
of the West wing (today the Museum shop) while copies of the Bassae frieze decorated
the great staircase (fig. 9). He also created a great niche facing the entrance, where
casts of Apollo and the Muses, a group found in Tivoli, provided the ornamentation
(fig. 10). These casts were donated to the University, together with many others, by the
Duncan brothers, gentlemen scholars who had made the Grand Tour and brought
home expensive souvenirs. They reflected contemporary taste for beautiful statues
of highly decorative value, whose size and shape suited public space.
Fig. 10. Cockerell's great
niche, opposite
the entrance of the
University Galleries.
Drawing
by J. Fisher (ca. 1 860)
29