Destroy the Copy – Plaster Cast Collections in the 19th–20th Centuries: Demolition, Defacement, Disposal in Europe and BeyondAnnetta Alexandridis, Lorenz Winkler-Horaček Based on two international conferences held at Cornell University and the Freie Universität of Berlin in 2010 and 2015, this volume is the first ever to explicitly address the destruction of plaster cast collections of ancient Mediterranean and Western sculpture. Focusing on Europe, the Americas, and Japan, art historians, archaeologists and a literary scholar discuss how different museum and academic traditions – national as well as disciplinary –, notions of value and authenticity, or colonialism impacted the fate of collections. The texts offer detailed documentation of degrees of destruction by spectacular acts of defacement, demolition, discarding, or neglect. They also shed light on the accompanying discourses regarding aesthetic ideals, political ideologies, educational and scholarly practices, or race. With destruction being understood as a critical part of reception, the histories of cast collections defy the traditional, homogenous narrative of rise and decline. Their diverse histories provide critical evidence for rethinking the use and display of plaster cast collections in the contemporary moment. |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 19 | |
| 25 | |
| 51 | |
Plaster Casts and Modernity in Art Education in Japan | 77 |
Art vs Archaeology vs Anthropology | 103 |
The Plaster Cast Collection at the National Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian Institution | 109 |
UC Berkeleys Plaster Casts | 131 |
Keep the Copy Die GipsabgussSammlung der Kunsthalle im sog Hamburger FaksimileStreit | 313 |
Versuch einer Rekonstruktion | 329 |
From Veneration to Destruction Defacement and Disposal | 349 |
Replication of Scottish Early Medieval Sculpture as a Case Study on the Fragility of Value | 375 |
V Revolution and Iconoclasm | 401 |
Destruction of Plaster Casts in Workshops and Collections of Important French Institutions in the 19th and 20th Centuries | 407 |
Between Destruction and Abandonment | 435 |
The History and Destruction of the Plaster Casts of the National College of Art and Design of Ireland | 455 |
Museum of Ancient Art or White Elephant? The Battle Collection of Plaster Casts at the University of Texas at Austin | 151 |
The Henry W Sage Collection of Casts at Cornell University | 175 |
Classical Casts at the British Museum | 201 |
III The Contingencies of Value | 221 |
The Fate of Cast Collections in the 18th and 19th Centuries | 225 |
The Destruction of Plaster Casts in Geneva | 239 |
Die AbgussSammlungen im Museum Fridericianum und in der Gemäldegalerie Kassel | 261 |
Gipsabgüsse in Jenaer und Wiener Antikensammlungen im 20 Jahrhundert | 285 |
IV The Contingencies of Authenticity | 309 |
The Changing Role of Plaster Casts at The Maryland Institute | 469 |
VI Envois | 491 |
Destroy the Copy? Destroy the Copy A History of Nonappreciation | 527 |
About the Authors | 585 |
Indices | 589 |
| 595 | |
| 601 | |