Museum of Antiquities in the Schnoor

Tour of the
„Museum of Antiquities in the Schnoor“
Bremen, Marterburg 55-58
The exhibition is the most important private
collection of ancient Greek pottery in Germany
The Art of Classical Greece
The culture of Classical Greece (ca.500 – 320 B.C.), especially its visual language influences European art until today. While
paintings of that era are lost, excavated wine and oil vessels feature drawings of highest artistic quality. Their varied subject
matters provide unique insights into Greek culture and, especially, into Greek mythology.
Over three decades the Foundation Zimmermann acquired many masterpieces of Greek vessels. The leading German art
journal ‚Weltkunst‘ calls the collection „a world class collection of attic fine pottery“.
Attic fine-pottery was highly sought after. Archaeological discoveries show it was exported and traded all over the Mediterranean Sea region. The vases and vessels were used across all classes of society. Many vessels served utilitarian purposes,
while the most exquisite objects were often placed as grave goods in the deceased owner's burial sites. Thus they remained
frequently so well preserved.
The well-known archaeologist and vase-expert Prof. Erika Simon (Würzburg) said:“ No other civilization has utilized fine
ceramic pottery in such abundance for the artistic expression through pictorial decorations. Thousands of painted vases
depict a wealth of mythological, floral, animal and figural motifs and themes that existed in Ancient Greece“.
Room 1 and 2 ( Entrée and Empore) - black-figured vases
The city goddess Athena
Room 1 (Entrée): In Case I you can see fragments of transporting ceramics.
Case II shows the stilistical development of attic pottery from
the geometric era (1000-700 B.C.), over the 7 th century B.C.
with the achivement of the incised-technique of the corinthian
pottery, until black- and red-figured technique in the 6th and
5th century B.C.
The Archaeologist use for all vessels the term vase, which is
italien for vessel.
Beside the staircase are presented two vessels for fetching water (case III and IV).
In Room 2 you can see different drinking-, mixing and stocking vessels in black-figured technic. In the center stands the
Panathenaic prize amphora (case VII). It was the prize by the
athlecic contests of the Panathenaic games in Athens.
Running contest
Several black-figured and red figured vases depicted the adventures of the hero Herakles:
Fight of Herakles against
the centaur Nessos.
Herakles conquers the
lion of Nemea.
Herakles defeats the boar
of Erymanthos.
Apollon and Herakles
battle for the tripod.
In case X Herakles fights against the cretan bull and against a triplet man.
Herakles plays on a cithara.
Room 3 - red-figured vases
In Room 3 are presented red-figured vases with warriors, citizens, womens prepearing wedding and gods, heros and composte beings: Aphrodite, Satyrs, Poseidon, Demeter and Triptolemos etc.
In case XI are several drinking cups of high quality drawing.
Cup of the Triptolemos-Painter
The knave is handing the
warrior the arms
Cup of Makron
Cup of Onesimos
Boozer kneeling in front of
a flute player
Sepherd with herd
Oinochoe of the
Florence Painter
Zeus is hunting
Ganymed
The pride of the musem are the Lekythoi, flavor oil pitchers, which were set up on tombs. (case XII )
Lekyhos of
the Achilleus
Painter:
Zeus with flash
Lekythos of the
Berlin Painter:
Nike brings
the tripod, with
is the prize in
chorus-contests
Neckamphora, already published in the 19.th century for the famous Collection of
the Marquess of Northhampton, decorated with Herakles and Athena (case X )
The firing process (reduction-firing) of red- and black-figure vessels consisted of three stages. The attic clay is very ferreous.
During the first stage, oxiding stage, air was allowed into the kiln, turning the whole vase the colour red. In the second stage,
after closing the kiln completly, the carbon deprived the oxigen of the ferric oxide in the clay. The vase turned black in the
smoky environment. The surface of the portions reserved with slip sintered. In the third stage air was reintroduced into the
kiln by the use of an aperture. The reserved portions remained black, the rest turned to red.
INFORMATION
Black-figured technique:
In black-figured technique figural an ornamental motifs were applied with
a slip that turned black during firing, while the background turned the red
colour of firing clay. Vasepainters articulated detailed forms by incising
the slip and added white and purple enhancements (mixtures of pigment
and clay).
We hope that you will enjoy your visit to our museum.
On behalf of the Foundation
Heidrun und Manfred Zimmermann
Red-figured technique:
In contrast on red-figured vases the background, filled in with a slip, is
black und the silhouettes, which were spared, appear red after firing. At
first the painter depicted with a fine brush the contour of the figures and
ornaments, than painted on the background and afterwards draws the details of the figure. The red-figure technique was invented around 530 B.C.
The innovators recognized the possibilities that came with drawing forms,
rather than laboriously incising them.