Abstract

The analysis of the restoration carried out on the Acropolis of Athens between 1834 and 1875 offers the opportunity to evaluate the inferences of law and artistic taste on the reconstruction of one of the most famous monuments in the world. The ethical and aesthetic ambiguities of this early work are outlined through the study of Leo von Klenze’s memoranda on the refurbishment of the Acropolis temples, and the first laws on the protection of the Greek heritage issued by the Bavarian rulers in 1834 and 1837. In particular, the discussion will consider Klenze’s guidelines in relation to his conceptual inconsistencies about Romanticism and Neoclassicism, and within the implications – both juridical and aesthetic – of the edicts issued on the safeguard of antiquity in Greece. As will be argued, this early restoration not only would transform the Acropolis historical profile, but also affect the later refurbishment completed on the site in the twentieth century.

Highlights

  • The works of restoration carried out on the Acropolis of Athens between 1834 and 1875 should be understood in connection to the liberation of Greece from the four-century long Ottoman domination and the subsequent establishment of the Bavarian court to its government in 1833

  • The first refurbishment of the ancient temples of the Acropolis was inaugurated in accordance with the guidelines provided in the so-called memoranda on the preservation of the Greek monuments, which were submitted by the renowned architect Leo von Klenze to the Bavarian king Otto von Wittelsbach soon after they had arrived both to Athens

  • The crucial inconsistencies which characterised the first restoration of the Acropolis temples are explained on the background of the political disagreements of the Greek nationalists and the Bavarian officers working within the local archaeological administration

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Summary

Chiara Mannoni

The case of the Acropolis of Athens in the 19th century. Legislation on the heritage protection and restoration of antiquity

Introduction
The edit on the heritage protection and the first restoration
Notes on the later Acropolis restoration
Full Text
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