Martin von Wagner Museum

The Martin von Wagner Museum contains the art collection of the University of Würzburg and has been located in the south wing of the Würzburg Residence since 1963. It is among the largest university museums in Europe.

Sign of the Museum
The Würzburg Residence, in which the Museum is located.

History

The collection, founded in 1832 as Ästhetisches Attribut was first substantially extended by the art collection of Johann Martin von Wagner (1777-1858) who was active as an artist and archaeologist and also as artistic agent for the Bavarian King Ludwig I of Bavaria. Because of this, the museum adopted the name of von Wagner. Since 1963 the museum has been located in the south wing of the Würzburg Residence.

Collections

The Museum contains a collection of antiquities, an art gallery and a graphic collection.

Antiquities
Etruscan black figure amphora in the Museum's collection (L 793)

The collection of antiquities includes artworks and antiquities of the Mediterranean from the third century BC until Late Antiquity. Works from Ancient Greece are the focus, but the collection also includes material from Imperial Rome, the Etruscans, Ancient Egypt and Near Eastern cultures (e.g. the Aegean civilizations, Mesopotamia, and Cyprus). The collection of Greek vases is particularly significant - it is among the three largest collections of Greek vases in Germany, containing around five thousand objects and documents Greek pottery from the Mycenaean period through to the Hellenistic period. Important items include the Mamarce Oinochoe, the Four seasons altar of Würzburg and the Brygos Cup of Würzburg.

The art gallery contains German, Dutch and Italian paintings from the fifteenth century to the twentieth century, including pictures by Hans Leonhard Schäufelein, Bartholomäus Spranger, Pieter Claesz, Luca Giordano, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Friedrich Overbeck, Carl Rottmann, Franz von Lenbach, Max Liebermann, August von Brandis and Hans Purrmann. This section also contains the collection of sculpture. Notable among these are works of Tilman Riemenschneider and his school.

Graphic collection

The graphic collection contains some eleven thousand sketches and fourteen thousand prints. These include, among others, copper engravings and woodcuts of Albrecht Dürer, sketches by Federico Barocci and drawings by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and his son Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo.

Bibliography
  • Volker Hoffmann und Konrad Koppe: Martin von Wagner Museum der Universität Würzburg., Gemäldekatalog, Würzburg 1986

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