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Treasures of the Pergamon Museum. Pergamon Altar

We visited one of the main centers of attraction for tourists - Museum Island. In the northern part of the Spreeinsel island there are five famous Berlin museums. Among them and Pergamon Museum.

The museum was opened in 1901. But soon it was decided to completely rebuild it. modern building was built in 1910-1930 according to the design of Alfred Messel and Ludwig Hoffmann, primarily for the Pergamon altar discovered by Karl Human. Now in the Pergamon Museum there are collections of three museums: the Antique Collection, the Museum of Islamic Art and the Museum of Western Asia. Every year the Pergamon Museum is visited by more than a million visitors - it is the most popular museum in Germany.

pergamon altar

Western facade of the altar. It is unlikely that it will be possible to photograph it in its entirety in the museum even with a wide-angle lens!

pergamon altar- the famous work of art of the Hellenistic period, one of the most significant monuments of this time that have survived to this day. It was named after the place of its creation - the city of Pergamon in Asia Minor.

The altar was erected in honor of the victory won by the Pergamon king Attalus I over the barbarian Gauls who invaded the country in 228 BC. e. It was after this victory that the Kingdom of Pergamum ceased to obey the Seleucid Empire, and Attalus proclaimed himself an independent king.

Battle with giants

The main theme of the relief images is the battle of the gods with the giants. It is believed that the altar was dedicated to Zeus. But according to the few surviving inscriptions, its belonging cannot be accurately reconstructed.

Nereus, Dorida and the Ocean

Over the past millennia, the altar has been destroyed: its fragments were buried in the ground or built into other structures. In 713 the city was destroyed by the Arabs. When an earthquake hit the city in the Middle Ages, the altar, like many other structures, was buried underground.

In the 19th century, the Turkish government invited German specialists to build roads: from 1867 to 1873, engineer Karl Human was engaged in work in Asia Minor. He discovered that Pergamon had not yet been fully excavated, although the finds may be of extraordinary value. In 1878, the director of the Berlin Museum of Sculpture provided financial support for the excavations, Human received official permission from the Ottoman side, and all the finds became the property of Germany.

Plan-reconstruction of the Pergamon altar

After World War II, the altar, among other valuables, was removed from Berlin by Soviet troops. Since 1945, it has been kept in the Hermitage, where in 1954 a special hall was opened for it, and the altar became available to visitors. But in 1958 the altar was returned to Germany.

In September 2014, the hall with the Pergamon Altar was closed for repairs. It will reopen to the public in 2019.

Ishtar Gate

Ishtar Gate- the eighth gate of the inner city in Babylon. Built in 575 BC. e. by order of King Nebuchadnezzar in the northern part of the city.

The Ishtar Gate is a huge semicircular arch, bounded on the sides by giant walls and overlooking the so-called Processional Road, along which the walls stretched. The gate is dedicated to the goddess Ishtar and built of brick, covered with bright blue, yellow, white and black glaze. The walls of the gate are covered with alternating rows of images of sirrus and bulls. In total, there are about 575 animal images on the gates. The roof and gate doors were made of cedar. Statues of the gods passed through the Ishtar Gate along the Processional Road on New Year's Day.

The reconstruction of the Ishtar Gate and the Processional Road was made in the 1930s in the Pergamon Museum itself from material found by archaeologist Robert Koldewey. Fragments of the gates and lions that adorned the Processional Road are kept in various museums around the world. The Istanbul Archaeological Museum houses bas-reliefs of lions, dragons and bulls. The Detroit Museum of Art has a bas-relief of sirrush. There are bas-reliefs of lions in the Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Oriental Institute in Chicago, the Museum of the Rhode Island School of Design and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

Museum of Islamic Art

IN Museum of Islamic Art presented art Islamic peoples VIII-XIX centuries, who lived in the open spaces from Spain to India. The exhibition is based primarily on the art of Egypt, the Middle East and Iran. Other regions are also represented by important collectibles, such as calligraphy and miniatures from the Mughal era or Sicilian ivory.

The most interesting exhibits are the Frieze from Mshatta, the Aleppo Room, the Dome from the Alhambra, the Mihrab from Kashan, the Mihrab from Konya, as well as numerous carpets with images of dragons and phoenixes.

The address: Berlin, Bodestrasse 1-3.
Working hours: Mon-Sun: 10:00–18:00, Thu: 10:00–20:00.
Tickets: 11 euros (when buying online), 12 euros (at the box office).

You can get to the Pergamon Museum by public transport: metro U-Bahn U6 (stop Friedrichstraße), S-Bahn S1, S2, S25 (Friedrichstraße), S5, S7, S75 (Hackescher Markt); bus TXL (Staatsoper), 100, 200 (Lustgarten); 147 (Friedrichstraße); trams M1, 12 (Am Kupfergraben); M4, M5, M6 (Hackescher Markt).

Gauls (Galatians), who invaded the country in 228 BC. e . It was after this victory that the Kingdom of Pergamon ceased to obey the Seleucid Empire, and Attalus proclaimed himself an independent king. According to another version, it was placed in honor of the victory of Eumenes II, Antiochus III and the Romans over the Galatians in 184 BC. e. , or in honor of the victory of Eumenes II over them in 166 BC.

According to the most common version of dating, the altar was built by Eumenes II between -159 BC. BC e. . (the year of the death of Eumenes). Other options attribute the beginning of construction to a later date - 170 BC. e. . Researchers who believe that the monument was erected in honor of the last of the wars listed above choose the dates 166-156. BC e.

It is traditionally believed that the altar was dedicated to Zeus, among other versions - the dedication to the "twelve Olympians", King Eumenes II, Athena, Athena along with Zeus. According to the few surviving inscriptions, its ownership cannot be accurately reconstructed.

Messages from ancient authors

Of the ancient authors, the Roman writer of the 2nd-3rd centuries briefly mentions the altar of Zeus. Lucius Ampelius in essay "About the Wonders of the World"(lat. Liber memorialis; miracula mundi ): "In Pergamon there is a large marble altar, 40 steps high, with large sculptures depicting gigantomachy."

When an earthquake struck the city in the Middle Ages, the altar, like many other structures, was buried underground.

Altar discovery

“When we climbed, seven huge eagles soared over the acropolis, foreshadowing happiness. They dug up and cleared the first slab. It was a mighty giant on serpentine writhing legs, facing us with a muscular back, his head turned to the left, with a lion's skin on his left hand ... They turn over another plate: the giant falls back onto a rock, lightning pierced his thigh - I feel your closeness, Zeus!

I frantically run around all four plates. I see the third approaching the first: the snake ring of the big giant clearly passes to the slab with the giant who has fallen to his knees... I positively tremble all over. Here's another piece - I scrape the ground with my nails - this is Zeus! The great and wonderful monument was once again presented to the world, all our works were crowned, Athena's group received the most beautiful pandanus...
Deeply shocked, we, three happy people, stood around the precious find, until I sank down on the stove and relieved my soul with large tears of joy.

Carl Humann

In the 19th century the Turkish government invited German specialists to build roads: from to . work in Asia Minor was carried out by the engineer Karl Humann. Previously, he visited ancient Pergamon in the winter - gg. He discovered that Pergamon had not yet been fully excavated, although the finds may be of extraordinary value. Humann had to use all his influence in order to prevent the destruction of part of the open marble ruins in the limestone - gas ovens. But real archaeological excavations required support from Berlin.

Altar in Russia

General characteristics of the structure

The innovation of the creators of the Pergamon Altar was that the altar was turned into an independent architectural structure.

It was erected on a special terrace on the southern slope of the mountain of the acropolis of Pergamon, below the sanctuary of Athena. The altar was almost 25 m lower than the other buildings and was visible from all sides. It offered a beautiful view of the lower city with the temple of the god of healing Asclepius, the sanctuary of the goddess Demeter and other structures.

The altar was intended for worship in the open air. It was a high plinth (36.44 × 34.20 m) raised on a five-level foundation. On one side, the plinth was cut through by a wide open marble staircase 20 m wide, leading to the upper platform of the altar. The upper tier was surrounded by an Ionic portico. Inside the colonnade there was an altar courtyard, where the actual altar was located (3-4 m high). The platform of the second tier was limited with three sides blank walls. The roof of the building was crowned with statues. The whole structure reached a height of about 9 m.

General view of the western facade of the altar.
Exhibition at the Pergamon Museum

Plan-reconstruction of the Pergamon altar. A dotted line separates the western facade, the reconstruction of which can be seen in the museum, and that which has not been restored.

Gigantomachy was a common subject of ancient plastic arts. But this plot was comprehended at the Pergamon court in accordance with political events. The altarpiece reflected the ruling dynasty's perception and the state's official ideology of victory over the Galatians. In addition, the Pergamians perceived this victory deeply symbolically, as the victory of the greatest Greek culture over barbarism.

“The semantic basis of the relief is a clear allegory: the gods personify the world of the Greeks, the giants - the Gauls. The gods embody the idea of a well-organized, orderly state life, the giants embody the unexpired tribal traditions of the aliens, their exceptional militancy and aggressiveness. The allegory of another kind forms the basis of the content of the famous frieze: Zeus, Hercules, Dionysus, Athena are the personification of the dynasty of the Pergamon kings.

In total, the frieze depicts about fifty figures of gods and the same number of giants. The gods are located in the upper part of the frieze, and their opponents are in the lower one, which emphasizes the opposition of the two worlds, the "upper" (divine) and the "lower" (chthonic). The gods are anthropomorphic, the giants retain the features of animals and birds: some of them have snakes instead of legs, wings behind their backs. The names of each of the gods and giants, explaining the images, are neatly carved below the figures on the cornice.

Distribution of gods:

East side (main)- Olympic gods
north side- gods of the night and constellations
West side- deities of the water element
South side- gods of heaven and heavenly bodies

"The Olympians triumph over the forces of the underground elements, but this victory is not for long - the elemental principles threaten to blow up the harmonious, harmonious world."

The most famous reliefs

Illustration	Description	Detail
	"Battle of Zeus with Porphyrion": Zeus is fighting simultaneously with three opponents. Having struck one of them, he prepares to throw his lightning at the leader of the enemies - the snake-headed giant Porfirion.
	"Battle of Athena with Alcyoneus": the goddess with a shield in her hands threw the winged giant Alcyoneus to the ground. The winged goddess of victory Nike rushes towards her to crown her head with a laurel wreath. The giant unsuccessfully tries to free himself from the hand of the goddess.
	"Artemis"

Masters

The sculptural decoration of the altar was made by a group of craftsmen according to a single project. Some names are mentioned - Dionysiades, Orestes, Menekrates, Pyromachus, Isigon, Stratonicus, Antigonus, but it is not possible to attribute any fragment to a specific author. Although some of the sculptors belonged to the classical Athenian school of Phidias, and some were of the local Pergamon style, the whole composition gives a holistic impression.

Until now, there is no unequivocal answer to the question of how the masters worked on the giant frieze. There is no consensus on the extent to which the individual personalities of the masters influenced the appearance of the frieze. There is no doubt that the sketch of the frieze was created by a single artist. Upon close examination of the frieze, coordinated to the smallest detail, it becomes obvious that nothing was left to chance. . Already broken down into struggling groups, it is striking that none of them is similar to the other. Even the hairstyles and shoes of the goddesses do not occur twice. Each of the fighting groups has its own composition. Therefore, the created images themselves rather than the styles of the masters have an individual character.

In the course of the research, differences were established, indicating that several masters worked on the relief, which, however, practically did not affect the consistency of the whole work and its general perception. Masters from different parts of Greece embodied a single project created by the chief master, which is confirmed by the surviving signatures of masters from Athens and Rhodes. The sculptors were allowed to leave their name on the lower plinth of the frieze fragment they made, but these signatures are practically not preserved, which does not allow us to draw a conclusion about the number of craftsmen who worked on the frieze. Only one signature on the southern risalit has been preserved in a condition suitable for identification. Since there was no plinth on this section of the frieze, the name "Theorretos" was carved next to the created deity. By examining the inscription of symbols in the signatures, scientists were able to establish that two generations of sculptors took part in the work - the older and the younger, which makes the consistency of this sculptural work even more appreciated. .

Description of sculptures

“... Under the wheels of Apollo, a crushed giant dies - and words cannot convey that touching and touching expression with which the oncoming death enlightens his heavy features; already one of his hanging, weakened, also dying hand is a miracle of art, which would be worth admiring in order to purposely go to Berlin ...

... All of these - now radiant, now formidable, living, dead, triumphant, perishing figures, these coils of scaly snake rings, these outstretched wings, these eagles, these horses, weapons, shields, these flying clothes, these palm trees and these bodies, the most beautiful human bodies in all positions, bold to the point of improbability, slender to the point of music - all these diverse facial expressions, selfless movements of members, this triumph of malice, and despair, and divine gaiety, and divine cruelty - all this heaven and all this earth - yes it is the world, the whole world, before the revelation of which an involuntary coldness of delight and passionate reverence runs through all the veins.

Ivan Turgenev

The figures are made in very high relief (high relief), they are separated from the background, practically turning into a round sculpture. This type of relief gives deep shadows (contrasting chiaroscuro), making it easy to distinguish all the details. The compositional structure of the frieze is exceptionally complex, plastic motifs are rich and varied. Unusually convex figures are depicted not only in profile (as was customary in relief), but also in the most complex turns, even from the front and from the back.

The figures of gods and giants are presented in the entire height of the frieze, one and a half times higher than human height. Gods and giants are depicted in full growth, many giants have snakes instead of legs. The relief shows huge snakes and predatory animals taking part in the battle. The composition consists of many figures built into groups of opponents colliding in a duel. The movements of groups and characters are directed in different directions, in a certain rhythm, while maintaining the balance of the components on each side of the building. Images also alternate - beautiful goddesses are replaced by scenes of the death of zoomorphic giants.

The conditionality of the depicted scenes is compared with real space: stairs, along which those going to the altar rise, also serve for the participants in the battle, who either "kneel" on them, or "walk" along them. The background between the figures is filled with fluttering fabrics, wings and snake tails. Initially, all figures were painted, many details were gilded. A special compositional technique was used - extremely dense filling of the surface with images that practically do not leave a free background. This is a remarkable feature of the composition of this monument. Throughout the frieze, not a single piece of sculptural space remains that is not involved in the active action of a fierce struggle. With a similar technique, the creators of the altar give the picture of martial arts a universal character. The structure of the composition, in comparison with the classical standard, has changed: the opponents fight so closely that their mass suppresses space, and the figures are intertwined.

Style characteristic

The main feature of this sculpture is extreme vigor and expressiveness.

The reliefs of the Pergamon altar are one of best examples Hellenistic art, which for the sake of these qualities abandoned the tranquility of the classics. “Although battles and skirmishes were a frequent theme in ancient reliefs, they have never been depicted in the same way as on the Pergamon altar - with such a shuddering sense of cataclysm, battles not for life, but for death, where all cosmic forces, all demons of the earth participate and the sky."

“The scene is full of great tension and has no equal in ancient art. The fact that in the IV century. BC e. was only outlined by Scopas as a breakdown of the classical ideal system, here it reaches highest point. The faces distorted by pain, the mournful looks of the vanquished, the piercing flour - everything is now shown with obviousness. Early classical art before Phidias also loved dramatic themes, but there conflicts were not brought to a violent end. The gods, like Myron's Athena, only warned the guilty about the consequences of their disobedience. In the era of Hellenism, they physically deal with the enemy. All their huge bodily energy, superbly conveyed by the sculptors, is directed to the act of punishment.

The masters emphasize the furious pace of events and the energy with which the opponents are fighting: the swift onslaught of the gods and the desperate resistance of the giants. Due to the abundance of details and the density of filling the background with them, the effect of noise that accompanies the battle is created - the rustle of wings, the rustle of snake bodies, the ringing of weapons are felt.

The energy of the images is promoted by the type of relief chosen by the masters - high. Sculptors actively work with a chisel and drill, cutting deeply into the thickness of the marble and creating large differences in planes. Thus, there is a noticeable contrast of illuminated and shaded areas. These light and shadow effects add to the feeling of intense combat.

The peculiarity of the Pergamon altar is a visual transmission of the psychology and mood of those depicted. The delight of the winners and the tragedy of the doomed giants are clearly read. The scenes of death are full of deaf sorrow and genuine despair. All shades of suffering unfold before the viewer. In the plasticity of faces, postures, movements and gestures, a combination of physical pain and deep moral suffering of the vanquished is conveyed.

The Olympian gods no longer bear the stamp of Olympian calm on their faces: the muscles are tense and the eyebrows are furrowed. At the same time, the authors of the reliefs do not abandon the concept of beauty - all participants in the battle are beautiful in face and proportions, there are no scenes that cause horror and disgust. Nevertheless, the harmony of the spirit is already wavering - faces are distorted by suffering, deep shadows of the eye orbits, serpentine strands of hair are visible.

Inner small frieze (history of Telef)

The frieze was dedicated to the life and deeds of Telef, the legendary founder of Pergamon. The rulers of Pergamon revered him as their ancestor.

The inner small frieze of the Pergamon Altar of Zeus (170-160 BC), which does not have the plastic force of a generalized cosmic character, is associated with more specific mythological scenes and tells about the life and fate of Telef, the son of Hercules. It is smaller in size, its figures are calmer, more concentrated, sometimes, which is also characteristic of Hellenism, elegiac; there are elements of the landscape. The surviving fragments depict Hercules wearily leaning on a club, the Greeks are busy building a ship for the travel of the Argonauts. In the plot of the small frieze, the theme of surprise, a favorite in Hellenism, was the effect of Hercules recognizing his son Teleph. So the pathetic regularity of the death of giants and the chance prevailing in the world determined the themes of the two Hellenistic friezes of the altar of Zeus.

Events unfold before the viewer in a continuous sequence of episodes, carefully linked to their surroundings. Thus, this is one of the first examples of the "continuous narrative" that would later become widespread in ancient Roman sculpture. Modeling of figures is moderate, but rich in nuances and shades.

Relationship with other works of art

In many episodes of the altar frieze one can recognize other ancient Greek masterpieces. So, the idealized pose and beauty of Apollo resemble the classic statue known in ancient times by the sculptor Leochar, created 150 years before the Pergamon frieze and preserved to this day in a Roman copy of Apollo Belvedere. The main sculptural group - Zeus and Athena - reminds of how the fighting figures disperse, the image of the duel between Athena and Poseidon on the western pediment of the Parthenon. (These references are not accidental, as Pergamon saw itself as the new Athens.) .

"Laocoon"

The frieze itself influenced later antique work. The most famous example is the Laocoon sculpture group, which, as proved by Bernard Andre, was created twenty years later than the Pergamon high relief. The authors of the sculptural group worked directly in the tradition of the creators of the altar frieze and possibly even participated in the work on it.

Perception in the 20th century

Probably the most obvious example of the reception of the altar was the museum building built for the Pergamon altar. The building, designed by Alfred Messel in - years, is a giant copy of the facade of the altar.

The dissatisfaction of the press and the population was caused by the use of the Pergamon Altar in the campaign to nominate Berlin as the venue for the 2000 Summer Olympics. The Senate of Berlin invited members of the International Olympic Committee to a gala dinner in the artistic setting of the Pergamon Altar. Such a dinner at the Pergamon Altar had already taken place on the eve of the 1936 Olympic Games, to which the members of the Olympic Committee were invited by the Minister of the Interior of National Socialist Germany, Wilhelm Frick. .

It is also mentioned that when creating the Lenin Mausoleum, Shchusev was guided by the forms not only of the pyramid of Djoser and the tomb of Cyrus, but also of the Pergamon altar.

Notes

Pausanias, 5,13,8.
Steven J. Friesen. Satan's Throne, Imperial Cults and the Social Settings of Revelation // Journal for the Study of the New Testament, 27.3, 2005. P. 351-373
Ch. 2. Revelation // Explanatory Bible / Ed. A. P. Lopukhina
Pergamum without an altar Around the world №8 (2599) | August 1990
Carl Humann. pergamon altar

Oleg Patalay (Berlin)

Few of the tourists who have been in Berlin have not visited the Pergamon Altar Museum - the famous Pergamon Museum. This gloomy, majestic building, reminiscent of a Babylonian ziggurat, rises on Bodestrasse (Museum Island), a three-minute walk from the central Unter den Linden boulevard.

The history of this wonderful museum begins in the second half of the nineteenth century, the time of great archaeological discoveries. With the penetration of Europeans into the countries of the East, the world of ancient civilizations opened up to their eyes. Museums aimed at the general public began to be created in the capitals of Europe; collections that were previously in the palaces of the powerful, became publicly available. Berlin is no exception. The finds of Heinrich Schliemann in Mycenae and Troy, the excavations of Professor Ernst Curtius in the legendary Olympia marked the beginning of the development of German archeology, which excited the imagination of not only scientists, but also the general public.

At this time, a young civil engineer from the Palatinate Karl Human (1839-1896) was building roads in Turkey. The work took place not far from Smyrna in the vicinity of the village of Bergama, over which towered a mountain with the ruins of an ancient Byzantine fortress, which once bore the proud Hellenic name Pergamon, which means fortress. When examining it in 1864, Human discovered slabs of an ancient altar embedded in the walls, the altar of Zeus, the famous Pergamon altar, erected in honor of the victory over the tribes of the Celts or Galatians in the second century BC. This altar was mentioned many times by ancient authors. From the moment of this discovery, the whole life of the engineer will be connected with the altar.

On the frieze of the majestic structure, the ancient masters depicted gigantomachy: the battle of the gods of Olympus with giant monsters, the children of the time lord Kron and the goddess of the Earth Gaia.

In the fourth century BC, after the collapse of the empire of Alexander the Great, Pergamon gained independence. Thanks to the far-sighted policy of its rulers, the city eventually became the center of a rather vast kingdom that lay in the west of modern Turkey. He even began to compete with Athens, especially since it was the goddess of courage and wisdom who was chosen as the patroness of the city.

Having fallen into dependence on the Romans, the kings of Pergamum often became victims of the policy of "divide and rule." The last of the rulers of Pergamon, Aristonicus, was strangled in prison, and his treasures passed to the winner. At this time, Pergamum becomes the center of one of the richest Roman provinces of Asia. In the first century BC during civil wars during the siege of Pergamon, most of the famous library (over 2,000 volumes) of the royal Attalid dynasty burned down.

The surviving part of the library was transported by the Romans to Alexandria, and Mark Antony gave it to his beloved Cleopatra.

In the first centuries of our era, fanatical early Christians smashed the faces of the beautiful figures that adorned the large frieze, and the altar itself was dubbed the "throne of Satan." And yet Pergamon remains one of the significant centers of late antiquity. In the second century AD, the greatest doctor of antiquity, one of the founders of medicine, Galen, was born and raised in it.

After the adoption of Christianity by the Roman Empire, the altar finally lost its significance. So he stood until 718 AD, until the Arabs, led by the commander Maslama, attacked Christian Asia Minor. In 1536, under Sultan Orhan, the son of the legendary Osman, the city fell completely under the blows of the Turks. In the city, renamed Bergama, the ruins of the old fortress stood until 1864, when Karl Human appeared in these places. At first, his findings did not arouse much interest in Berlin, because they wanted to have well-preserved, “aesthetic” sculptures, and not “fragments” that no one knows how to put together, and besides, it was not clear where to put them. The new director of the imperial museums, Alexander Kontse, intervened in the matter. He changed the course of events, and in January 1876 the master plan for the excavations at Pergamon was adopted. Human himself, who had completed the road construction and went bankrupt in the emery stone trade, was given a salary. From that moment on, he was finally able to concentrate only on his favorite business - on excavations, which continued under his leadership until 1886.

I.S. Turgenev, visiting Berlin, under the impression of examining the plates brought from Turkey, wrote in March 1880: artists, all true lovers of beauty will have to go to him to worship. Berlin, according to the newspapers, was no longer inferior to Paris and London. Karl Human, in addition to the Order of the Crown of the fourth degree already in his possession, receives the Cross of the Knight of the Imperial House of Hohenzollern. In February 1880, even the Prussian Landtag dedicates its meeting to the excavations in Pergamon. In recognition of Karl Human's merits, the University of Greifswald awards him an honorary doctorate.

In the meantime, attempts were made to reconstruct the frieze and the altar, but it turned out that there was not even room to store boxes with gigantomachia. It was urgent to build a new museum, and in 1902 it was completed. It immediately became clear that there was not enough space in this temporary Pergamon Museum, in addition, there were problems with the foundation of the building, and in 1908 it was demolished. Finally, in 1910, the landmark construction of the new Pergamon Museum began. The construction was carried out according to the project of the famous architect Alfred Messel and was completed only in October 1930.

The size of the building made it possible to recreate the entire western part of the altar of Zeus with a wide marble staircase. The museum, however, was open to the public for only nine years and was closed at the start of World War II. The large frieze was covered with sandbags, and then dismantled and transported to a bunker in the area of the Zoological Gardens, where it remained until the end of the war, along with the treasures of Priam, the bust of Nifertiti and other masterpieces of art. The building of the Pergamon Museum itself was damaged, but not as badly as the burnt-out Old Museum or the destroyed New Museum. At the beginning of 1943, the Soviet academician Igor Grabar, whose youth was spent in Munich, who was well versed in the museum "landscape" of Germany, put forward the idea of compensating for the loss of art objects suffered by the USSR in World War II. The Bureau of Experts, headed by I. Grabar, compiled a list of masterpieces to be exported to the Soviet Union. Number one in it was the Pergamon altar. Already on May 2, 1945, when street fighting was still going on in the city, boxes with gigantomachy were transported to the Prenzlauerberg area, in the future Soviet zone of Berlin. Here they stayed until September 27, 1945, and then they were sent by special train to Leningrad, to the storerooms of the Hermitage. Here plaster copies were removed from the ancient slabs.

Gigantomachia and other trophy masterpieces, on the eve of the tenth anniversary of the victory over Nazism, it was decided to transfer to the government of the GDR. Before being shipped, the slabs of the Pergamon Altar became available to visitors, and many Soviet people, including Anna Akhmatova, were able to admire them. She called the big frieze formidable, tragic, unique.

Meanwhile, the Pergamon Museum itself is being restored, and in 1958 the main part of the exhibits returned to their places. In 1989, together with the whole country, the Berlin museums were "reunited". The era of “relocation” of exhibits from the western part of the city to the eastern part of the city, to their old places, began. This process hardly touched the Pergamon Museum, but it failed to avoid a fundamental restoration.

The old iron structures supporting the large frieze had rusted and threatened to bring down the entire complex; in addition, rust stained the marble, which required cleaning from dirt and deposits. During transportation at the beginning and end of the war, as well as during the return from Leningrad, the plates were scratched in some places.

Restoration work was carried out by Italian masters for almost ten years, from 1994 to June 2004. They were led by the famous "maestro" Silvano Bertolina. Museum Island became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999.

The name of Karl Humanan, who died in 1896 in Turkish Izmir, is today carried by a gymnasium in his native Essen and secondary school in Berlin. His ashes rest in Pergamon (Bergama), on the site of an old Byzantine fortress, where the altar, his altar, stood.

The history of the altar is covered with legends and mysticism. It is alleged that the Pergamon Altar was a place of human sacrifice during antiquity and the early Middle Ages. Probably, architect Aleksey Shchusev took it as a model when designing a temporary wooden mausoleum of Lenin, which stood until 1929, as evidenced by the architect's working sketches. However, this and other similar stories cannot cast a shadow on the great work of ancient masters, and in the Pergamon altar we see, first of all, the altar of Zeus, and not the throne of Satan.

The Pergamon Museum is located at Am Kupfergraben 5, city stop railway Hackescher Markt, tel.: 030 2090 5577.

) built specifically for this purpose.

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Subtitles

I love Greek sculpture. I like the archaic, I like the classics, its restraint and harmony, but, to be honest, I adore Hellenism. And all because of two fragments of a beautiful frieze from Pergamon. In the center of the first fragment - Athena, and the second - Zeus. I can understand why you like these sculptures so much. They combine the most beautiful thing in ancient Greek sculpture - love for the human body, as well as expression and drama, characteristic of the Hellenistic period. Hellenism is the last period, the last phase of Greek art, following the death of Alexander the Great. Alexander was the son of the king of Macedonia, in northern Greece. He managed to subjugate all of Greece, and then captured many lands that went far beyond the Greek borders. Thus, the influence of Greek culture spread over a large area. Yes. Alexander in some way Hellenized these lands, made them Greek. The territory of his empire stretched from ancient Egypt to the border between Persia and India, to the very valley of the Indus. It was a huge area. But after the death of Alexander, the empire was divided among themselves by 4 commanders. One of them once saw a hill near the coast of present-day Turkey. He considered it an advantageous defensive position, and laid the fortress of Pergamon there, which became the center of the Pergamon kingdom. These people built a beautiful altar and created a stunning frieze depicting the battle of the giants with the Olympian gods. A divine battle of unthinkable proportions is unfolding before our eyes. This is a legendary great battle in which the giants fought with the gods for power over the whole world. Let's take a closer look at the frieze. Let's start with the fragment where Athena is in the center. She is elegant and beautiful even in the heat of battle with a cruel giant, with a titan. It is already clear who will win. Athena is in complete control of the situation. She grabbed Alcyoneus by the hair and pulled him out of the ground, depriving him of his strength. On the other side of Athena is the giant's mother. She can do nothing to help him, although she is terribly afraid of what awaits her son. Pay attention to how the sculptor, whoever he was, built the composition. First, my gaze falls on Athena herself - where her head should be. Further, the gaze glides over beautiful hand down, where he is gently intercepted by Alcyoneus. Then her eyes go around his elbow, down his face and down his chest. Then I notice that one of Athena's snakes is biting him on the right side. Then my eyes follow the luxurious curve of the giant's body, moving from the torso to the legs, but slowed down due to the staccato deep folds of the cape belonging to Athena. And from there the gaze passes to the mother of Alcyoneus. It turns out that Athena - a powerful, restrained goddess - is surrounded on both sides by passionate, distraught creatures who are defeated, while Athena is crowned by the winged Nike, who flew in from behind. That is, the figures here appear from different sides: from behind, from below. There are many of them, they are constantly moving, creating an incredible sense of drama. It feels as if the entire marble surface rotates counterclockwise around the shield of Athena in the very center of the composition. Many diagonals give the sculpture dynamism. The high relief creates a great contrast between the light bodies pushed forward and the dark shadows behind them. I am also struck by the complex poses of the figures themselves. Athena moves to the left, but stretches out her hand to the right, Alcyoneus raises his head, arches his shoulders, and his legs are still behind. Here we can safely talk about the virtuoso depiction of the human body. Just imagine how it all looked in colorized form. We often think that Greek sculptures were just wonderful white marble. But we must remember that they were excellently painted. Let's now take a look at the fragment with Zeus in the center. Like Athena, he is in complete control of himself and the situation, although he rushes forward. There is no doubt that he is a winner. The figure of Zeus is incredibly powerful. Take a look at the magnificent bare chest and belly, and the fluttering, almost-fallen drapery that wraps around his legs. And yet Zeus fights not with one, but with three giants at once. Luckily, he is the king of the gods, so he has eagles and lightning bolts to help him. Right. In the upper right corner, you can see how the eagle, the symbol of Zeus, attacks the elder titan. While the eagle distracts him, Zeus can focus on the giant, who is already kneeling at his feet and will soon be defeated. On the other side of Zeus, we see another giant who seems to be sitting on a rock. His thigh was pierced by what looked like a torch. In fact, this is how the Greeks depicted the lightning of Zeus. Oh, it hurts... For sure. In this sculpture there is a sense of heroism and harmony, but at the same time a sense of the moment and a certain excitement that attracts the viewer. You know, the story of gods and giants was very important to the Greeks. It contained a set of symbols that expressed both the fears of the Greeks and their belief that they could conquer chaos. It turns out that this battle is an allegory of the victory of Greek culture over the unknown, over the chaotic forces of nature. Yes, and also the embodiment of military victories over other cultures that the Greeks did not understand and feared. Let's now go up the steps of the altar, to the most sacred part of it, where a fire was burning, supposedly in honor of Zeus, and sacrifices were probably made. You have already mentioned that the figures sometimes almost separate from the wall. I think this is most noticeable when you go up the stairs. In some places, individual figures of this high relief kneel down on the steps of the stairs, literally invading our space. For example, one of the nymphs, whose legs end in a snake's tail, turned it on one of the steps. This is an amazing way to bring sculpture into our world. It turns out that all this drama is unfolding right around us, becoming part of our space. It must have been an amazing sight back then. I wonder how these sculptures ended up here in Berlin? The answer to this question lies in the political ambitions of the then Prussia. Prussia wanted to catch up with France and Britain, and for this they needed, among other things, excellent museums that reflected the culture of past centuries. With their help, one could become the heirs of the great classical tradition, which was so revered in the 19th century. You know, Berlin wanted to become a kind of new Rome. What I especially like about the Pergamon Museum in Berlin is that they didn’t just hang the remains of the friezes on the walls, but instead reconstructed the altar and restored all the friezes they could. And now we can imagine what it is like to be in Pergamum in the III century. BC e. So, we are in the III century. BC e. we are standing on the Acropolis, on a hilltop in the city of Pergamum, about 20 miles from the coast of modern Turkey. We go up the hill and see the altar of Zeus, and around it - a magnificent library, where probably 200,000 scrolls were kept, as well as a military garrison and the royal palace. It turns out that all this drama unfolds right around us, becomes part of our space. Probably in the 2nd century BC e. it was an absolutely amazing sight.

History

It is a memorial monument erected in honor of the victory won by the Pergamon king Attalus I over the barbarian Gauls (Galatians), who invaded the country in 228 BC. e . It was after this victory that the Kingdom of Pergamon ceased to obey the Seleucid Empire, and Attalus proclaimed himself an independent king. According to another version, it was erected in honor of the victory of Eumenes II, Antiochus III and the Romans over the Galatians in 184 BC. e. , or in honor of the victory of Eumenes II over them in 166 BC.

According to the most common version of dating, the altar was built by Eumenes II in the period between -159 AD. BC e. . (the year of the death of Eumenes). Other options attribute the beginning of construction to a later date - 170 BC. e. . Researchers who believe that the monument was erected in honor of the last of the wars listed above choose the dates 166-156. BC e.

Messages from ancient authors

Of the ancient authors, the Roman writer of the 2nd-3rd centuries briefly mentions the altar of Zeus. Lucius Ampelius in the essay "About the Wonders of the World"(lat. Liber memorialis; miracula mundi): "In Pergamon there is a large marble altar, 40 steps high, with large sculptures depicting gigantomachy."

When an earthquake struck the city in the Middle Ages, the altar, like many other structures, was buried underground.

Altar discovery

Carl Human

In the 19th century the Turkish government invited German specialists to build roads: from to . work in Asia Minor was carried out by engineer Karl Human. Previously, he visited ancient Pergamon in the winter - gg. He discovered that Pergamon had not yet been fully excavated, although the finds may be of extraordinary value. Human had to use all his influence in order to prevent the destruction of part of the exposed marble ruins in lime and gas furnaces. But real archaeological excavations required support from Berlin.

Altar in Russia

After World War II, the altar, among other valuables, was removed from Berlin by Soviet troops. Since 1945, it has been kept in the Hermitage, where in 1954 a special room was opened for it, and the altar became available to visitors

General characteristics of the structure

The innovation of the creators of the Pergamon Altar was that the altar was turned into an independent architectural structure.

The altar was intended for worship in the open air. It was a high plinth (36.44 × 34.20 m) raised on a five-level foundation. On one side, the plinth was cut through by a wide open marble staircase 20 m wide, leading to the upper platform of the altar. The upper tier was surrounded by an Ionic portico. Inside the colonnade there was an altar courtyard, where the actual altar was located (3-4 m high). The platform of the second tier was limited on three sides by blank walls. The roof of the building was crowned with statues. The whole structure reached a height of about 9 m.

This building is not an absolutely identical copy of the ancient altar - only the main, western side (with stairs, colonnade, porticos, statues and sculptural frieze) has been recreated, which is, as it were, cut off by the wall of the room. The slabs of the frieze of the other sides of the altar are placed in the same hall near the walls, that is, the altar is, as it were, “turned inside out”.

From the building itself in Pergamon, only the foundation and partly the walls of the basement survived. Archaeologists have found numerous parts of the decor: bases, trunks and capitals of columns, slabs of cornices and ceilings, inscriptions and statues, and most importantly - relief images of both friezes (117 plates). After the delivery of the finds to Germany in the 1880s. For a number of years, painstaking work was carried out in the Berlin Museum to restore several thousand fragments, to determine whether the plates with figures belong to one or another side of the altar, to establish the order of the images (the arrangement of the gods on the frieze had to obey a certain genealogical principle). At the moment, fragments of high reliefs are fixed with metal pins on the base in an order approximately restored by scientists. Large gaps (empty background) are noticeable to the viewer, since many elements were still not found.

The exposition was opened only in 1930, since the construction of the museum, which began in 1910 according to the project of architects A. Messel and L. Hoffmann, was delayed due to the First World War.

Distribution of gods:

East side (main)- Olympic gods
north side- gods of the night and constellations
West side- deities of the water element
South side- gods of heaven and heavenly bodies

"The Olympians triumph over the forces of the underground elements, but this victory is not for long - the elemental principles threaten to blow up the harmonious, harmonious world."

The most famous reliefs

Illustration	Description	Detail
	"Battle of Zeus with Porphyrion": Zeus is fighting simultaneously with three opponents. Having struck one of them, he prepares to throw his lightning at the leader of the enemies - the snake-headed giant Porfirion.
	"Battle of Athena with Alcyoneus": the goddess with a shield in her hands threw the winged giant Alcyoneus to the ground. The winged goddess of victory Nike rushes towards her to crown her head with a laurel wreath. The giant unsuccessfully tries to free himself from the hand of the goddess.
	"Artemis"

Masters

Description of sculptures

Ivan Turgenev

The conventions of the depicted scenes are compared with the real space: the steps of the stairs, along which those going to the altar climb, also serve for the participants in the battle, who either “kneel” on them, or “walk” along them. The background between the figures is filled with fluttering fabrics, wings and snake tails. Initially, all figures were painted, many details were gilded. A special compositional technique was used - extremely dense filling of the surface with images that practically do not leave a free background. This is a remarkable feature of the composition of this monument. Throughout the frieze, not a single piece of sculptural space remains that is not involved in the active action of a fierce struggle. With a similar technique, the creators of the altar give the picture of martial arts a universal character. The structure of the composition, in comparison with the classical standard, has changed: the opponents fight so closely that their mass suppresses space, and the figures are intertwined.

Style characteristic

The main feature of this sculpture is extreme vigor and expressiveness.

The reliefs of the Pergamon altar are one of the best examples of Hellenistic art, which for the sake of these qualities abandoned the tranquility of the classics. “Although battles and skirmishes were a frequent theme in ancient reliefs, they have never been depicted in the same way as on the Pergamon altar - with such a shuddering sense of cataclysm, battles not for life, but for death, where all cosmic forces, all demons of the earth participate and the sky."

“The scene is full of great tension and has no equal in ancient art. The fact that in the IV century. BC e. was only outlined by Scopas as a breakdown of the classical ideal system, here it reaches its highest point. The faces distorted by pain, the mournful looks of the vanquished, the piercing flour - everything is now shown with obviousness. Early classical art before Phidias also loved dramatic themes, but there conflicts were not brought to a violent end. The gods, like Myron's Athena, only warned the guilty about the consequences of their disobedience. In the era of Hellenism, they physically deal with the enemy. All their huge bodily energy, superbly conveyed by the sculptors, is directed to the act of punishment.

Inner small frieze (history of Telef)

Frieze was dedicated to life and deeds Telephos, the legendary founder of Pergamon. The rulers of Pergamon revered him as their ancestor.

The inner small frieze of the Pergamon Altar of Zeus (170-160 BC), which does not have the plastic force of a generalized cosmic character, is associated with more specific mythological scenes and tells about the life and fate of Telef, the son of Hercules. It is smaller in size, its figures are calmer, more concentrated, sometimes, which is also characteristic of Hellenism, elegiac; there are elements of the landscape. In the surviving fragments, Hercules is depicted wearily leaning on a club, the Greeks are busy building a ship for the travel of the Argonauts. In the plot of the small frieze, the theme of surprise, a favorite in Hellenism, was the effect of Hercules recognizing his son Teleph. So the pathetic regularity of the death of giants and the chance prevailing in the world determined the themes of the two Hellenistic friezes of the altar of Zeus.

Events unfold before the viewer in a continuous sequence of episodes, carefully linked to their surroundings. Thus, this is one of the first examples of the "continuous narrative" that would later become widespread in ancient Roman sculpture. Modeling of figures is moderate, but rich in nuances and shades.

Relationship with other works of art

In many episodes of the altar frieze one can recognize other ancient Greek masterpieces. So, idealized pose and beauty