Carl Blümel (archaeologist)

Carl Blümel (13 April 1893 – 10 November 1976) was a German sculptor and classical archaeologist.

Biography

Carl Blümel was born in Berlin. He grew up in a Catholic home as the son of grammar school teacher Anton Blümel and his wife Maria. He graduated from Luisenstädtisches Gymnasium in 1911. He then studied classical archaeology, philology and art history at Berlin University. His teachers included Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff and Georg Loeschcke. He took part in the First World War and was awarded the House Order of Hohenzollern as an officer. It was only after the end of the Second World War that the trained sculptor turned to the study of antiquity.

In 1922, Carl Blümel completed his doctorate under Ferdinand Noack with the thesis Der Fries des Tempels der Athena Nike and received a travel grant from the German Archaeological Institute in 1924/25. From 1927 he worked at the Collection of Classical Antiquities of the National Museums in Berlin, where he was appointed curator in 1929 and professor in 1935. In 1947, Blümel finally took over the management of the Berlin Collection of Classical Antiquities, a position he held until his retirement in 1961.

As a trained sculptor, his work had a particular influence on his preoccupation with ancient sculptural techniques. This had a particular impact on the debate surrounding the Hermes of Olympia, in which he argued that the figure was of Greek and not Roman origin. He justified this not only with stylistic-critical arguments, but also with the traces of technical processing on the sculpture.

His first work Greek Sculptor's Labour was published in 1927 and his 1940 work Greek Sculptors at Work made him known to a wider public.

Carl Blümel is buried in the Blümel family grave in the churchyard of St Michael's parish on Hermannstraße in Berlin-Neukölln.

Works

• Der Fries des Tempels der Athena Nike (1923; dissertation)
• Griechische Bildhauerarbeit (1927)
• Katalog der Sammlung antiker Skulpturen (1928–1933; 6 volumes)
• Griechische Bildhauer an der Arbeit (1940)
• Der Hermes eines Praxiteles (1948)
• Phidiasische Reliefs und Parthenonfries (1957)
• Die archaisch-griechischen Skulpturen der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin (1963)
• Die klassisch-griechischen Skulpturen der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin (1966)

External links

• Works by Carl Blümel at German National Library