GERMANIC MUSEUM ILLUSTRATES ARTISTIC DEVELOPMENT OF EUROPE SINCE MIDDLE AGES

I am glad to act upon the suggestion, made to me by the CRIMSON to point out briefly a few of the things of particular interest which the Germanic Museum offers to Harvard students.

In the first place, this Museum brings to view in a very striking manner the setting, so to speak, of the artistic development of Europe since the early Middle Ages. The building itself, thanks to the genius of its designer, Professor Bestelmeyer of Berlin, is, without losing thereby its unity of architectural structure, a combination of the three fundamental styles which successively have dominated all European art; the essential forms of the Romanesque, the Gothic, and the Renaissance periods. It thus is more than merely a convenient place for exhibiting individual works of art; it embodies in itself the totality of the manifold art tendencies, typical specimens of which it shelters; it introduces the visitor into the spiritual atmosphere from which the art of the various periods has sprung.

No visitor, on entering this museum, it seems to me, can help being impressed with the austere solemnity of the Romanesque hall, the noble delicacy of the Gothic chapel, or the massive splendor of the Renaissance room, and thereby at once being transported into the very spirit of the most significant stages in the development of European culture. This effect of the building itself is heightened by the large collection of architectural views contained in a suite of smaller rooms, views of mediaeval cathedrals and castles, Renaissance city halls and burgher houses, and Baroque and Rococo mansions and palaces. This museum, therefore, by virtue of the fact that its architectural features are striking illustrations of the spiritual character of past epochs, is of interest not only to the student of architecture, but to the student of history and the student of literature as well, and thus to the large body of students of human civilization.

Secondly, We have purposely limited the collection of objects to casts and other forms of reproduction. For only in this way could we make sure of acquiring nothing but typical specimens, landmarks so to speak in the history of art. I think we have succeeded in this. Nowhere else but in our Museum, not even in Germany, is there to be found such an impressive representation of early German architectural sculpture. Romanesque sculpture and architecture are fully brought to view by the Hildesheim monuments, the Augsburg bronze gates, the Braunsehweig Lion, the Wechselburg pulpit and Crucifixion groups, the Strassburg Death of Mary, the sculptures from Bamberg cathedral, and the wonderful Golden Gate of Freiberg. Of the height of mediaeval sculpture represented in our museum it may suffice to single out the colossal Rood-screen and the twelve statues of Founders of Naumburg cathedral; and here again it may be pointed out that no other museum anywhere contains as full a reproduction of this extraordinary group of monuments. And similar things may be said of our representation of Renaissance and Baroque sculpture. For I know of no other museum which exhibits the work of the great bronze founder Peter Vischer as comprehensively as ours or which, with the exception of the Kaiser Friedrich Museum at Berlin, has like ours a full-size reproduction of Andreas Schlucter's Great Elector, next to Verecchio's Colleoni the most remarkable equestrian statue in Europe. This whole collection of monumental casts, then, in connection with a growing special library on the history of German art, offers an ample and unique opportunity to the student of art for detailed study of particular schools or particular masters. And at the same time it offers very instructive illustrative material for the study of political or literary history.

Thirdly: For the tinting of all these casts in the colors of the originals, we have been very fortunate in securing the services of an accomplished expert, Mr. F. W. Miller of Providence. Mr. Miller has spent nearly two years of painstaking study and experiment on this work. And the result of it has been that even to the eye of the trained observer our collection has all the freshness and glow no less than the timeworn hue of original monuments of antiquity.

In closing, let me express the hope that the time will come when by the side of this Germanic Museum there will arise a museum devoted to the art of the Romance nations, so that a comparative study of the great artistic achievements of Italy, France, and Germany in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance will be possible. Only then will the aims which actuated me in planning the Germanic Museum be fully realized.