Overview

Reconstructing the lost monuments of Antiquity became, after 1800, a complement to Europe's colonial imagination. Countless archaeologists and architects travelled to the East, excavated extinct cities, and shipped their finds to Europe for display in imperial museums. Antiquity on Display is a critical biography of Berlin's Pergamon Museum and its popular architectural displays: the Great Altar of Pergamon, the Market Gate of Miletus, and the Ishtar Gate of Babylon. In this volume, Bilsel argues that the museum has produced a modern decor, an iconic image, which has replaced the lost antique originals, rather than creating an explicitly hypothetical representation of Antiquity. Addressing the dilemmas raised by the continuing presence of these displays, which embody the distinctive traits of the artistic and ideological programs of the last two centuries, Bilsel questions what the process of reproduction and authentication of Antiquity in the museum tells us about our changing perceptions of historic monuments. Documenting the process through which these imaginative reproductions of architecture were conceived, staged, and came to be perceived as authentic monuments, this volume offers an insight into the history of Berlin's Museum Island and the shifting regimes of the authentic in museum displays from the nineteenth century to the present.

Full Product Details

Author:   Can Bilsel
Publisher:   Oxford University Press
Imprint:   Oxford University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 16.90cm , Height: 2.10cm , Length: 24.00cm
Weight:   0.700kg
ISBN:  

9780199570553

ISBN 10:   0199570558
Pages:   304
Publication Date:   19 July 2012
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

LIST OF FIGURES ; LIST OF PLATES ; INTRODUCTION ; 1. No place like Greece: Berlin s Museum Island and architectures of history ; 2. Reconstructing Pergamon: Antique fragments and modern visions ; 3. Berlin s imperial museum: The problem of style ; 4. Reconstructing Babylon: The return of the archaic ; 5. Architecture in the Museum: Monuments for a Mass Spectacle ; EPILOGUE: REGIMES OF THE AUTHENTIC BIBLIOGRAPHY ; INDEX

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Author Information

<br>Can Bilsel is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Art, Architecture and Art History at the University of San Diego. He is also the founding director of the University of San Diego's Architecture Program.<br>

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