Around 1820, the so-called "Germanic-Slavic Antiquities" were removed from the royal curiosities cabinet (Kunstkammer) and housed in Monbijou Palace as the Museum for National Antiquities (Museum für Vaterländische Alterthümer). As the collections regularly expanded with the addition of new categories (paintings, jewelry, porcelain), the German emperor Wilhelm I finally made the palace with its 42 rooms accessible to the public as the "Hohenzollern Museum" in 1877. It was considered to be on the one hand an educational institution of cultural history, and on the other hand a place for the Hohenzollern dynasty to celebrate its own history and significance.
So I'm going to guess that that's when the death mask appeared. This image shows the floorplan, and room 35 is FW, so that's probably when and where his death mask got added.
As to its survival...open question!
World War II brought this state of affairs to an end. Large parts of the collections had been evacuated, and after the war were looted and brought to the Soviet Union and other places.
I really just want someone to have taken a picture, before it disappeared or was destroyed. I've seen pictures of lots of things that haven't survived! So far Google is failing me, though. Though that may be my fault, due to lack of time.
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timeasmymeasure
Re: FW death mask
Date: 2021-02-18 01:20 pm (UTC)Around 1820, the so-called "Germanic-Slavic Antiquities" were removed from the royal curiosities cabinet (Kunstkammer) and housed in Monbijou Palace as the Museum for National Antiquities (Museum für Vaterländische Alterthümer). As the collections regularly expanded with the addition of new categories (paintings, jewelry, porcelain), the German emperor Wilhelm I finally made the palace with its 42 rooms accessible to the public as the "Hohenzollern Museum" in 1877. It was considered to be on the one hand an educational institution of cultural history, and on the other hand a place for the Hohenzollern dynasty to celebrate its own history and significance.
So I'm going to guess that that's when the death mask appeared. This image shows the floorplan, and room 35 is FW, so that's probably when and where his death mask got added.
As to its survival...open question!
World War II brought this state of affairs to an end. Large parts of the collections had been evacuated, and after the war were looted and brought to the Soviet Union and other places.
I really just want someone to have taken a picture, before it disappeared or was destroyed. I've seen pictures of lots of things that haven't survived! So far Google is failing me, though. Though that may be my fault, due to lack of time.
Re: FW death mask
Date: 2021-02-18 04:29 pm (UTC)... man, that took some research. I found a couple other books that had it, but none of them with a google books preview. Archive.org FTW.
Re: FW death mask
Date: 2021-02-18 04:30 pm (UTC)Re: FW death mask
Date: 2021-02-18 04:33 pm (UTC)Re: FW death mask
Date: 2021-02-21 12:09 am (UTC)Re: FW death mask
Date: 2021-02-21 12:12 am (UTC)