Bode Museum

☝️What can you actually see at the Bode Museum? 🧐🤔 - ☝️Was kann man eigentlich alles im Bode-Museum sehen? 🧐🤔 - ☝️¿Qué se puede ver en el Museo Bode?🧐🤔 📷 Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Bode-Museum. #bodemuseum #arthistory #museumisland #berlintrip #museumsinsel

🪻 SPRINGTIME 🪻 It’s always a joy to discover how you see the Bode-Museum—from unexpected perspectives, through hidden frames, and now beneath cascades of blooming wisteria. 💜 🪻🪻🪻🪻🪻🪻🪻🪻🪻🪻🪻🪻🪻🪻🪻🪻🪻🪻 📸 @mess_with_coffee

Herzliche Einladung zur Eröffnung der Sonderausstellung im Ikonenmuseum in Frankfurt am 12. Mai, 19 Uhr: IKONEN AUF DEM WEG - SCHÄTZE AUS DEM BODE-MUSEUM BERLIN Ikonen sind portable Medien des Glaubens. Zum Schutz werden sie auf Reisen mitgetragen oder wechseln zwischen Museen. Ihre Wege spiegeln Religionen, Politik und Gesellschaft. Die Ausstellung zeigt Ikonen vom 15.—18. Jahrhundert aus der italo-byzantinischen, griechischen, russischen, syrischen und koptischen Tradition. Seit 1821 zusammengetragen, sind sie Teil einer der ältesten Ikonensammlungen, des Museums für Byzantinische Kunst im Bode-Museum. Die Stationen werden sichtbar durch rückseitige Siegel und Notizen: Sammlungspraktiken, Auslagerungen, Central Collecting Point, Teilung Deutschlands und Kooperationen nach der Wiedervereinigung. Einige selten sichtbare Rückseiten sind zu entdecken! Dies ist Auftakt für ihren nächsten Weg zurück nach Berlin in ein Forschungsprojekt über verdeckte Malschichten, Bedingungen von Erwerb und Besitz. Die Ausstellung würdigt unsere fast 30-Jährige Zusammenarbeit: @bode.museum @staatlichemuseenzuberlin & @ikonenmuseum.frankfurt @museumangewandtekunst / Join us for the opening at Ikonenmuseum Frankfurt on 12 May at 7 pm: ICONS ON THE MOVE — TREASURES FROM THE BODE-MUSEUM BERLIN Icons are portable media of devotion. For protection, they are carried along on journeys or moved between museums. Their paths reflect religions and politics. This exhibition shows icons from the 15th—18th centuries of Italo-Byzantine, Greek, Russian, Syrian, and Coptic traditions. They are part of one of the oldest icon collections, compiled since 1821, now Museum of Byzantine Art at the Bode Museum. Routes are inscribed on the sacred artworks through stamps or notes on their backs: They tell of collection practices, relocations, Central Collecting Point, division of Germany, and collaborations following it’s reunification. Some rarely seen backs are to be discovered. This marks the beginning of their next journey back to Berlin into research on hidden layers, acquisition and ownership. Collaboration: #BodeMuseumBerlin & #IkonenmuseumFrankfurt #MuseumAngewandteKunst Grafik: Jasmin Kress

⏳ FINAL CHANCE ⏳ Only a few days remain before our exhibition celebrating the return of the Maria lactans from the Oppenheim collection closes on 10 May—and with it the opportunity to encounter one of its most remarkable works in a different light. This standing Madonna was by far the most precious of the three sculptures sold by Benoit Oppenheim to the Berlin museums in 1920. At first glance, her pose already stands out: Mary seems almost to bend her knees, as if gently lowering herself to make it easier for the Child to reach her breast. What unfolds is an intimate exchange—mother and child locked in eye contact, their hands working together to reveal the source of nourishment. Move slightly to the right, and the perspective changes: the exposed breast is no longer directed solely toward the Child, but toward us. In that moment, the viewer is drawn into the scene, becoming a participant in the act of giving. Around 1500, such imagery was not merely tender—it was theological. The Maria lactans offered a form of mystical participation, allowing believers to imagine themselves as recipients of divine grace through Mary’s milk. This idea resonates with the exhibition’s central object, a Swabian Maria lactans that once contained a relic of the Virgin’s milk. A quiet gesture—charged with meaning. 🍼🍼🍼🍼🍼🍼🍼🍼🍼🍼🍼🍼🍼🍼🍼🍼🍼🍼 Standing Maria lactans Northern Netherlands (?) c. 1510 Oakwood Inv. 7963 📸 Mika Wißkirchen ✍️ Tobias Kunz

BODE ON TOUR | #1 In this ongoing segment, we follow works of art from the Bode-Museum on loan in exhibitions around the world. In HAAR – MACHT – LUST at the Kunsthalle München, hair is everywhere. Our striking bronze statuette of a wild man with a club (c. 1520–30) is no exception. Covered from head to toe in thick, curling hair, he embodies one of the most tantalising figures of early modern imagination: the wild man. Its maker, Paulus Vischer, belonged to the famous Nuremberg family of bronze founders. While the workshop is best known for monumental commissions such as the shrine of Saint Sebaldus, works like this reveal a different side: small-scale bronzes, technically brilliant and full of wit, produced for a learned, humanist clientele. Here, hair is not just texture—it is meaning. It marks the wild man as other: uncivilised, untamed, outside society. And yet, the meticulous modelling of each strand transforms this supposedly primitive being into a highly refined object—one that would have been admired precisely for the tension it embodies. 🦱🦱🦱🦱🦱🦱🦱🦱🦱🦱🦱🦱🦱🦱🦱🦱🦱🦱 Paulus Vischer “Wilder Mann” mit Keule c. 1520–30 Bronze Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst Inv. 8403 📸 Alexander Röstel

FINAL COUNTDOWN ⏳ Our exhibition celebrating the return of a masterpiece from the collection of Benoit Oppenheim ends next week — and with it the rare chance to encounter some spectacular works in a new light. Among them: this quietly powerful Apostle Simon, carved in Lübeck around 1395/1400. Once part of the great altarpiece of Saint Nicholas in Mölln, it is the only surviving figure to retain its largely original polychromy—a rare witness to the colour and presence medieval sculpture once possessed. For Oppenheim, this work held special significance. He placed it prominently in his villa in Tiergarten—a deliberate choice: In an age that often favoured the expressive drama of late Gothic art, he singled out this restrained, introspective figure from northern Germany. Around 1900, Lübeck—former capital of the Hanseatic League—was seen as a symbol of a distinct, almost idealised German cultural identity. After entering the Berlin collections in 1928, the sculpture was on loan in Lübeck for many years. Only in 2025 did it return to Berlin—carefully restored by our colleague Marion Böhl and now, for the first time in over a century, back on view at the Bode-Museum. Don’t miss the chance to see it (Room 220). 🪚🪚🪚🪚🪚🪚🪚🪚🪚🪚🪚🪚🪚🪚🪚🪚🪚🪚 Apostel Simon aus der Möllner Nikolaikirche Lübeck, um 1395/1400, Eichenholz, weitgehend originale Farbfassung Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst Inv.-Nr. 8408 ✍️ Tobias Kunz & Alexander Röstel 📸 Mika Wißkirchen

SALUS PUBLICA After the failed assassination of Lorenzo de’ Medici during the Pazzi Conspiracy in 1478, Florence was plunged into crisis. The violent reprisals that followed needed justification—and this is where the medal seen here speaks. Salus publica—“the welfare of the state”—is a loaded term drawn from Roman political thought. Placed next to Lorenzo’s portrait, it makes a bold claim: his survival is the survival of Florence and his actions serve the common good. In this way, private vengeance is reframed as public necessity—and Lorenzo himself emerges as the indispensable guarantor of the republic. A small object, but powerful political messaging - it is on view in our current exhibition on the Pazzi Conspiracy at the Bode-Museum. 🪙🪙🪙🪙🪙🪙🪙🪙🪙🪙🪙🪙🪙🪙🪙🪙 Bertoldo di Giovanni Die Pazzi-Verschwörung Medaille Bronze: 6,6 cm (Durchmesser) Münzkabinett Inv. 18216319 (📸 Alexander Röstel)

AMBITION IN SHADOW Captured in the fading light of evening, this bust evokes a life lived in the penumbra of power and intrigue. The sitter has been identified as Laudivio Zacchia (1565–1637), a cardinal whose path to prominence was far from conventional. Widowed, he entered the Church relatively late, rising rapidly within the Curia under Pope Urban VIII. Yet his name is also linked to the factional politics of the papal court, where ambition could easily turn into conspiracy. Contemporary sources suggest that he was, at least at one point, considered in schemes to unseat the pope—a reminder of how precarious authority could be in seventeenth-century Rome. He also played a role in one of the defining episodes of early modern science: the trial of Galileo Galilei in 1633. Notably, Zacchia was among the few cardinals who did not sign the final condemnation—a silence that has invited speculation ever since. His portrait has been attributed to Alessandro Algardi, one of the greatest sculptors of the Roman Baroque. Algardi’s restrained naturalism renders the sitter with striking immediacy, while the enveloping drapery and the deep shadows lend him an air of gravity. 🌘🌘🌘🌘🌘🌘🌘🌘🌘🌘🌘🌘🌘🌘🌘🌘🌘🌘 Alessandro Algardi (attr.), Portrait (said to be) of Laudivio Zacchia c. 1625-35 Marble: 89 x 69 x 29 cm Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst, inv. 2765 (📸 Alexander Röstel)

DAMNATIO MEMORIAE – ANCIENT CANCEL CULTURE A marble portrait of a member of the imperial family—but something is off ... At first glance, the surface looks unfinished: rough tool marks, an oddly flattened face. And yet, details such as the hair, the pupils, and parts of the cheeks are carefully worked. What we are seeing is not an abandoned sculpture, but a deliberate act of erasure. In antiquity, disgraced individuals could be subjected to damnatio memoriae—the “condemnation of memory”. Their images were defaced, their names removed, their presence systematically erased from public life. Portraits like this one were often recarved or destroyed, transforming honour into oblivion. Here, however, the process was interrupted. The original likeness was partially erased, but never fully replaced—leaving behind a rare and striking document of this practice. Rather than a finished image, we are confronted with its disappearance. ⚒️⚒️⚒️⚒️⚒️⚒️⚒️⚒️⚒️⚒️⚒️⚒️⚒️⚒️⚒️⚒️⚒️⚒️ Unknown sculptor Head of a member of the imperial family Early 4th century Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst, Inv. 4694 (📸 & ✍️: Ferdinand Linsmann)

FINAL COUNTDOWN ⏳ Our exhibition celebrating the return of a masterpiece from the collection of Benoit Oppenheim is coming to a close — on May 3rd. It's a rare opportunity to encounter not only our latest acquisition, but also works from our permanent collection in a new light — including the so-called “Madonna Oppenheim”: Shortly after its acquisition, the eminent art historian Wilhelm Vöge gave the sculpture the name by which it is still known today. This regal figure was among the highlights of Oppenheim’s celebrated collection and was prominently displayed in the billiard room of his villa in Tiergarten — a testament to its importance. In 1923, Oppenheim sold the Madonna to James Simon, who generously donated it to the Berlin museums. The sculpture follows a type developed in the Parisian courtly milieu — one that otherwise survives almost exclusively in stone. Its exceptional status is further underscored by a remarkable discovery: relics from the Holy Land were found within the head only a few years ago, attesting to the veneration it already enjoyed at the time of its creation. 👑👑👑👑👑👑👑👑👑👑👑👑👑👑👑👑👑👑 Bereits kurz nach ihrer Erwerbung durch Benoit Oppenheim verlieh ihr Wilhelm Vöge, einer der bedeutendsten deutschen Kunsthistoriker seiner Zeit, den Titel „Madonna Oppenheim“. Die königliche Figur war vielleicht das herausragendste unter den vielen Spitzenstücken der Sammlung. Ihre prominente Aufstellung in der Ecke des Billardsaals der Villa Oppenheim trug dieser Bedeutung Rechnung. 1923 verkaufte Oppenheim sie an James Simon, der sie den Berliner Museen schenkte. Die Madonna folgt einem in der Pariser Hofkunst entwickelten Typ, der sich ansonsten nur in Stein erhalten hat. In ihrem Kopf wurden vor einigen Jahren Reliquien aus dem Heiligen Land gefunden, die ihre große Wertschätzung bereits zu ihrer Entstehungszeit belegen. „Madonna Oppenheim“ Ile-de-France (Paris?) um 1330/40 Nussbaumholz, teilweise originale Farbfassung noch bis zum 3. Mai zu sehen in der Ausstellung: Zurück in Berlin Eine Marienbüste und die Sammlung Benoit Oppenheim Raum 220 (✍️ Tobias Kunz) (📸 Mika Wißkirchen)

ANTIQUITY, RESTORED ✨ At first glance, this sculpture in the Bode-Museum recalls the famous Barberini Faun in Munich’s Glyptothek. But it is more than a copy. This terracotta was made in 1799 by Vincenzo Pacetti, the sculptor-restorer who at that very moment was also working on the ancient original in Rome. When the Barberini Faun briefly entered Pacetti’s possession, he reworked its already much-restored missing parts — above all the right leg — sharpening the sensual, expansive pose for which the statue is now famous. The Berlin model captures that remarkable moment. It shows the Faun not simply as an ancient masterpiece, but as a work filtered through eighteenth-century restoration, collecting, and artistic imagination. Pacetti was not only preserving antiquity: he was actively reshaping how it would be seen. That the original was temporarily owned by Pacetti himself before the sale was annulled makes this object even more fascinating. Pacetti also owned a vast number of drawings that form the core of Berlin’s @kupferstichkabinett . (📸 Alexander Röstel)

NICE TO HAVE THEM BACK Two remarkable works have recently returned on display. The portrait of Ranuccio Farnese, recently on view at the @buceriuskunstforum in Hamburg, is a copy after a celebrated prototype by Titian (today in the @ngadc in Washington). It captures the poised self-awareness of the twelve-year-old noble with striking immediacy. The Holy Family is a rare and fascinating work attributed to Pontormo, who is celebrated above all as a painter. This terracotta sculpture can be linked to his hand, based on a drawing by the artist in the @museelouvre that corresponds strikingly to this group. Even Giorgio Vasari notes in his biography of Pontormo that the artist also worked in clay. The sculpture was recently treated by Paul Hofmann, our Head of Conservation, allowing its delicate modelling to be appreciated anew. We’re delighted to welcome both works back in Room 239, where they can once again be seen in dialogue with other works of the Italian Mannerism. 👦🏻👦🏻👦🏻👦🏻👦🏻👦🏻👦🏻👦🏻👦🏻👦🏻👦🏻👦🏻👦🏻👦🏻👦🏻👦🏻👦🏻 WIEDERSEHEN MACHT FREUDE Zwei herausragende Werke sind kürzlich wieder in die Dauerausstellung zurückgekehrt. Das Porträt des jungen Ranuccio Farnese, zuletzt im @buceriuskunstforum in Hamburg ausgestellt, ist eine Kopie nach einem berühmten Vorbild von Tizian (heute in der @ngadc in Washington). Es vermittelt die Selbstgewissheit des zwölfjährigen Adligen auf eindrucksvolle Weise. Die Heilige Familie ist ein faszinierendes Werk, das Pontormo zugeschrieben wird, der vor allem als Maler bekannt ist. Die Terrakotta-Skulptur lässt sich anhand einer Zeichnung des Künstlers im @museelouvre , die auffallend genau mit der Gruppe übereinstimmt, mit seinem Werk in Verbindung bringen. Bereits Giorgio Vasari berichtet in seiner Vita, dass Pontormo auch in Ton arbeitete. Die Skulptur wurde kürzlich von Paul Hofmann, unserem Leiter der Restaurierungsabteilung, behandelt, wodurch ihre feine Modellierung nun wieder besonders gut zur Geltung kommt. Wir freuen uns sehr, beide Werke wieder in Raum 239 begrüßen zu dürfen, wo sie nun erneut im Dialog mit anderen Arbeiten des italienischen Manierismus stehen. (📸 Alexander Röstel)