Masterpieces of Italian Architecture – Past and Present. Images from the "Photo archive of the destroyed Italian artworks" of the "Deutscher Militärischer Kunstschutz" in Italy are presented along current streetviews
After the Allies had landed on Sicily in July 1943 and Mussolini was imprisoned, German troops occupied Italy and installed a general agent of the German Reich as well as the regime of the Repubblica Sociale Italiana. Similar to occupied France, a department for "Art, Archive and Library Protection" of the German military administration was set up in the autumn of 1943, according to the Hague Conventions.
In the offices of Rome and Florence, later Milan and finally Fasano del Garda, German art historians including Hans Gerhard Evers, Werner Haftmann, Ludwig Heinrich Heydenreich, Leo Bruhns, Otto Lehmann-Brockhaus, Leopold Reidemeister and Herbert Siebenhüner worked for the Department of Art Protection. Her field of activity included the documentation of buildings that should be protected, the advising of the Italian authorities on protection measures, the erection of protective structures and the organization of the removal of objects of art into depots. In this context, prohibitions were also imposed on the occupancy of buildings by the own troops. During 1944, the photographic documentation of the damage caused by allied air raids forms the centre of the German activities.
This exhibit presents exemplary pieces of the approx. 2,400 prints that are kept in the photo study collection of the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte. This convolute can be identified with the "photo archive of destroyed works of art" which was assembled the Kunstschutz in Italy in 1944 and 1945. The photographs document the safeguarding activities of the German and Italian art protection units, but especially the damage or destruction of buildings by allied air raids. This visual evidence was used to illustrate propaganda booklets. Some copies of these books are available in the library of the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte.
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The photo archive of the Kunstschutz was established by Ludwig Heinrich Heydenreich. After the death of Friedrich Kriegbaum (who fell victim to the first British air attack on Florence on the 25th of September, 1943), Heydenreich was appointed acting director of the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz. Because of this function, he also became responsible for art protection in Tuscany. After the evacuation of Florence and the storage of the institute's stock in Germany, his office moved to the Deutsches Institut in Milan, where he worked from summer 1944 onwards. In October 1944 Heydenreich himself transported the photo archive from Milan to a safe deposit at the estate of the Egyptologist Friedrich Wilhelm von Bissing (1873-1956). Here, the archive was discovered by American troops and, in 1948, handed over to the newly founded Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte by the Central Collecting Point.
In the photo study collection of the Zentralinstitut the prints were integrated step-by-step into the topographical section of the so-called "Abbildsammlung", but without documenting their provenance, i.e. the German art protection in Italy. This is all the more surprising – or rather not – as Ludwig Heinrich Heydenreich, the main creator of this particular collection, had by then been appointed founding director of the ZI.
It was only in 2003 when Ralf Peters, staff member of the photo library, accidentally discovered a convolute of photographs from the same source. This discovery prompted the Zentralinstitut to research the provenance of the material and to reconstruct the archive. The selection of photographs in this exhibit is small but representative for the archive. It combines the historical photos of the archive with today's views of the objects based on Google Streetview technology. A complete publication of the "Archives of the Destroyed Artworks of Italy" is planned as part of our cooperation.
Ancona, Duomo di San Ciriaco (late 11th and early 12th century)
Protection measures at the High Altar with the Arca di San Donato.
Bologna, Chiesa del Sacro Cuore (built between 1901-1912) The destroyed church after the bombing of Bologna on 12.9.1943.
Ferrara, San Benedetto (built between 1496 and 1554) The church was destroyed in 1944.
Florence, Galleria dell'Accademia, Galleria dei Prigioni and Tribuna
The walled sculptures of Michelangelo, in the center the Statue of the "David". The sculpture on the left side is a copy after the "Dying Slave" of Michelangelo in the Louvre.
Foligno, Palazzo Trinci (built between 1389 and 1411)
Genoa, Accademia Ligustica di Belle Arti (built between 1826 and 1831) The rooms of the Biblioteca Berio, destroyed in 1942, with propaganda posters against the Allies.
Genoa, Cathedral Fragment of an Annunciation, destroyed on 2.9.1941
Genoa, Ospedale Pammatone (1758-80), destroyed on 22.10.1942, with propaganda posters against the Allies.
Genoa, San Donato (early 12th and 13th century) the destroyed church, destructions on 6.11.1942 and 13.8.1944, with propaganda posters against the Allies.
Genoa, San Pietro in Banchi (1572-1582) the destroyed facade and nave.
Genoa, Santissima Annunziata del Vastato (around 1506-1520 and 1584-1625) the nave, destroyed in the years 1942, 1943 and 1944.
Genoa, Santissima Annunziata del Vastato (around 1506-20 and 1584-1625) Destroyed Sculptures.
Milan, Cathedral, Destroyed sculptures from the facade.
In the midst, "Devil under the feet of Job" from Carlo Simonetta. This photo was used for the cover of the propaganda-book "La Guerra contro l'arte" (1944).
Milan, Convent Santa Maria delle Grazie (1490-1497).
The monastery courtyard (Chiostro dei Morti), the refectory with Leonardo's Last Supper behind a protective wall, destroyed between the 12th and 16th of August 1943.
Milan, Museo Poldi Pezzoli (1848-1859) the roof construction, destroyed on 13.8.1943.
Milan, Ospedale Maggiore 'Ca Granda' (built in 1456) Main building, facade to the large courtyard, destroyed on 16.8.1943.
Milan, Palazzo Reale (built after 1452, rebuilt 1771-1799) Hall of Caryatids, destroyed by air raid in August 1943.
Milan, Pinacoteca di Brera (beginning of the 17th century) the Napoleonic Halls, destroyed on 8.8.1943.
Milan, San Pietro in Gessate (1460-1476) the building, destroyed at the end of 1943.
Milan, Sant'Ambrogio (1098-1128) North west side, destroyed in 1943.
Milan, Teatro alla Scala (1776-1778) Auditorium after the destruction on 14./15.8.1943.
Padua, Chiesa degli Eremitani, tomb of Marco Benavidio (c. 1546)
Padua, San Benedetto (started in 1195) interior of the church, destroyed on 11.3.1944.
Parma, Palazzo della Pilotta, Teatro Farnese (1617-1618) The interior of the building, destroyed on 13.5.1944.
Rimini, Chiesa di San Girolamo (1626-1638) Debris of the building after the bombings of the 24.3.1943.
Rimini, Teatro Vittorio Emanuele II, 'Teatro Amintore Galli' (started in 1857) the stage building into the auditorium after the air raid in December 1943.
Turin, Chiesa del Carmine (1732-1736) Choir with main altar, destroyed on 8.8.1943.
Turin, Santa Teresa (1642-1674) the organ gallery, destroyed on 13.7.1943.
Turin, San Gioacchino (started in 1876) the nave into the choir, destroyed on 13.7.1943.
Treviso, Tempio Votivo di Santa Maria Ausiliatrice, (memorial for the fallen soldiers of the First World War), erected 1923. the sanctuary, destroyed on 7.4.1944.
Historical photographs: Photo archive of the destroyed Italian artworks, 1943-1944.
Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, Photothek
Conference Papers: Christian Fuhrmeister, Johannes Griebel, Stephan Klingen und Ralf Peters (Hrsg.): Kunsthistoriker im Krieg. Deutscher Militärischer Kunstschutz in Italien 1943-1945. Köln, Weimar, Wien: Böhlau 2012 (Veröffentlichungen des Zentralinstituts für Kunstgeschichte in München, Bd. 29)
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