RE: Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2000 23:10:08 -0500
From: Mark Darrall <mdarrall@xxxxxxxxxx>
"The one I'm thinking of is "behind"
the museum (north side?), if memory serves, as though to connect the
Altes
Museum to another building."
Mark
this sounds like the compound "behind" the Altes, to the Northwest.
which is not directly connected to the Altes (although Schinkel's master
plan for Museum Island shows a second story walkway over the road
separating the two complexes). (Since the longitudinal axis of Museum
Island runs roughly Northwest to Southeast, we may say that Northwest is
"behind".) There are two other museums connected to and in that
compound, or courtyard. THe one most southerly and most directly behind
the Altes is the Nueus Museum, scheduled for demolition because it is in
such bad shape from the War. The other museum is a copy of the Parthenon
set upon a high plinth. It is surrounded on two sides by an elegant
"Schinkelesque" arcade, rather middeling in size compared to Italian
Renaissance arcades in Balogna. This arcade looks to be part of the
Altes when seen from Karl Liebknecht Strassa (which is the extension of
Unter den Linden at the bend over the bridge on the Spree canal).
This, by the way, is an interesting perspective, down the unnamed street
to the Northeast of the Altes (passing, as it does, infront of the
Dome). The point of the Parthenon museum, called the Nationalgalerie, is
for it to be seen sitting atop the arcade you have described. Thus, this
arcade seems to be the base, or plinth, upon which the Nationalgalerie
sits; but it is not. It is just a nice little perspectival device.
The Nationalgalerie is occupied, but under repairs when I was there in
the Spring of 1990. But more architecturally significant is the exterior
stair-platform which leads to this smaller museum. It is the reverse of
Schinkel's stair and srairhall for the Altes. The arcade around the
Nationalgalerie and connected to the Neues Museum is really well
proportioned and designed, but it has been badly treated by the Marxist
Regime. Where it has been repaired, it has also been filled in many of
its bays for storage sheds. That is, the normally open bays of an arcade
are now too often plastered over, solidly, from column to column. Ah,
the pragmatics of Marxism -- reminds me of the public attitude in
Dallas.
(By the way, Schinkel was not the architect for the Neues Museum or the
Nationalgalerie; who they were, I do not recall; the Neues Museum has no
architectural significance.)
To my mind, the Altes is not so much a museum as it is the excuse to
have a beautiful, long, gallery of a porch stretching across the rear
side of the Lustgarten (the platz upon which both the Altes and the Dome
front). And if that lovely porch has any excuse for being, itss
functionality is not to front for a museum so much as it serves as the
field of force through which one must pass -- after climbing a fine set
of public steps -- to achieve entry to one of the World's most elegant
stair halls.
Thus, for me, the rooms of the Altes behind the stair hall are nother
more than a nicely domed cetnral space which serves as an excuse for
ascending in a great stair hall.
Also, it is in this sense that the Nationalgalerie's external stair is
in opposition. And while this smaller museum's stair is not so
beautifully done as its opposite, nevertheless, if one visits the Altes,
it would be a sin not to have a look at little step brother too.
Rick McBride
From: Mark Darrall <mdarrall@xxxxxxxxxx>
"The one I'm thinking of is "behind"
the museum (north side?), if memory serves, as though to connect the
Altes
Museum to another building."
Mark
this sounds like the compound "behind" the Altes, to the Northwest.
which is not directly connected to the Altes (although Schinkel's master
plan for Museum Island shows a second story walkway over the road
separating the two complexes). (Since the longitudinal axis of Museum
Island runs roughly Northwest to Southeast, we may say that Northwest is
"behind".) There are two other museums connected to and in that
compound, or courtyard. THe one most southerly and most directly behind
the Altes is the Nueus Museum, scheduled for demolition because it is in
such bad shape from the War. The other museum is a copy of the Parthenon
set upon a high plinth. It is surrounded on two sides by an elegant
"Schinkelesque" arcade, rather middeling in size compared to Italian
Renaissance arcades in Balogna. This arcade looks to be part of the
Altes when seen from Karl Liebknecht Strassa (which is the extension of
Unter den Linden at the bend over the bridge on the Spree canal).
This, by the way, is an interesting perspective, down the unnamed street
to the Northeast of the Altes (passing, as it does, infront of the
Dome). The point of the Parthenon museum, called the Nationalgalerie, is
for it to be seen sitting atop the arcade you have described. Thus, this
arcade seems to be the base, or plinth, upon which the Nationalgalerie
sits; but it is not. It is just a nice little perspectival device.
The Nationalgalerie is occupied, but under repairs when I was there in
the Spring of 1990. But more architecturally significant is the exterior
stair-platform which leads to this smaller museum. It is the reverse of
Schinkel's stair and srairhall for the Altes. The arcade around the
Nationalgalerie and connected to the Neues Museum is really well
proportioned and designed, but it has been badly treated by the Marxist
Regime. Where it has been repaired, it has also been filled in many of
its bays for storage sheds. That is, the normally open bays of an arcade
are now too often plastered over, solidly, from column to column. Ah,
the pragmatics of Marxism -- reminds me of the public attitude in
Dallas.
(By the way, Schinkel was not the architect for the Neues Museum or the
Nationalgalerie; who they were, I do not recall; the Neues Museum has no
architectural significance.)
To my mind, the Altes is not so much a museum as it is the excuse to
have a beautiful, long, gallery of a porch stretching across the rear
side of the Lustgarten (the platz upon which both the Altes and the Dome
front). And if that lovely porch has any excuse for being, itss
functionality is not to front for a museum so much as it serves as the
field of force through which one must pass -- after climbing a fine set
of public steps -- to achieve entry to one of the World's most elegant
stair halls.
Thus, for me, the rooms of the Altes behind the stair hall are nother
more than a nicely domed cetnral space which serves as an excuse for
ascending in a great stair hall.
Also, it is in this sense that the Nationalgalerie's external stair is
in opposition. And while this smaller museum's stair is not so
beautifully done as its opposite, nevertheless, if one visits the Altes,
it would be a sin not to have a look at little step brother too.
Rick McBride