History, Restoration and Reinstallation of a Plaster Cast Model
In the crypt of the Bode Museum, the room under the small dome that will form the transition to the Archaeological Promenade in a few years, the Sculpture Collection and the Plaster Moulding Workshop will be showing a jointly created permanent exhibition from autumn 2024.
Image gallery
Teilmodelle vor der Restaurierung in der Modellhalle der Gipsformerei
Fertig restaurierte Teilmodelle
Gussformen der Putti im Formenlager der Gipsformerei
Frisch ergänzte Teilmodelle in der Werkstatt der Gipsformerei
Probeaufbau in der Modellhalle der Gipsformerei
Das Gipsmodell des Taufbeckens kurz nach der Installation im Bode-Museum
Donatello, Putto mit Tamburin, 1429
Ein demontierter Abguss des Taufbeckens im Dachgeschoss des Bode-Museums, 1990er Jahre
Abgüsse der Reliefs und Figuren des Taufbeckens im Verkaufsverzeichnis der Gipsformerei von 1926
Only one object from each of the collections of the two houses make up the exhibits in this small exhibition: the almost forty centimeter tall bronze statuette "Putto with Tambourine" (1429) by Donatello from the Sculpture Collection and the over five and a half meter high plaster model of the baptismal font from Siena, which was created in the plaster moulding workshop in 1876. In a research panorama, not only the shared history of both pieces but also their connections to the history of the Berlin State Museums are revealed.
The baptismal font in the Baptistery of San Giovanni in Siena is a masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance. It was created between 1416 and 1434 by six sculptors, including Donatello. He is the author of several bronzes, including a putto that has been in the sculpture collection of the Berlin State Museums since 1902. Wilhelm Bode discovered it on the London art market after it had been missing from Siena for centuries.
In addition to the bronze statuette, the baptismal font has also left its mark in Berlin in other ways: the plaster cast workshop's collection includes a 59-part plaster model of the monument that was cast in 1876. Shortly before, an Italian plaster caster had spent months taking plaster molds directly from the Sienese baptismal font and sending them to Berlin.
In this way, the Berlin museums acquired plaster casts of over a hundred Italian Renaissance sculptures in the 1870s and 1880s - and the plaster cast workshop acquired a significant stock of molds that are still used today to make casts.
In the second half of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century, plaster casts played an important role in museum presentations. Casts of Italian Renaissance sculptures were presented in the Neues Museum from the 1850s and in five exhibition rooms in the Bode Museum from 1911. Today they are in storage and are being forgotten - wrongly, as this exhibition aims to show.
In the chapel-like crypt of the Bode Museum, Donatello's bronze "Putto with Tambourine" and the monumental plaster model of the baptismal font, which was extensively restored in 2023, meet. Not only the art-historical context of the putto is made tangible, but also a piece of Berlin's museum history.
The plaster model is particularly honored:
The exhibition traces the various facets of its object biography and sheds light on the original cast in Siena as well as the history of the model's creation and use in Berlin. The plaster model appears as a historical work in its own right and makes it clear that casts are always originals themselves.
Publication for the exhibition
An accompanying publication is being published by Schnell + Steiner with contributions by Aurelia Badde, Eckart Marchand, Ricardo Mendonça, Neville Rowley and Veronika Tocha as well as photographs by Fabian Fröhlich that illustrate the restoration of the plaster model and its unique characteristics.
Curatorial team
The exhibition is curated by Neville Rowley and Veronika Tocha.
A permanent exhibition of the Sculpture Collection and the Sculpture Collection of the Berlin State Museums
Additional information
Price info: Museum Island + Panorama: 24,00 €
Price: €12.00
Reduced price: €6.00
Reduced price info: Museum Island + Panorama: 12,00 €
Children and young people up to the age of 18 are admitted free of charge.
