Dantes Plads 7
Tel. 33 41 81 41
Open: Tue- Sun
Closed:
Jan 1, Jun 5, Dec 24, 25
Busses: 1A, 2A, 15, 33, 65E
The Glyptoteket (Gr. glyptos, carving or sculpture and theke, a
place where something is assembled/arranged) is a museum.
The
founder of Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, brewer Carl Jacobsen (1842-1914),
was a passionate art collector who collected antique and modern art
from all over the world. At first, his large and magnificent art
collection was intended for himself and the home in Valby. However,
it quickly became clear that the home in Valby could not accommodate
Jacobsen's entire collection, since he continued to collect art
objects with the same fervor as when he started. He therefore moved
the collection in 1882 to the old Glyptothek on Carlsberg, right
next to his brewery, where it was opened to the public on 5 November
1882. Brewer Carl Jacobsen donated his collection to the Danish
people in 1888 with the aim that the Danish state was to set up the
collection in a building in Copenhagen. The new location required a
new name, and thus the collection came to be called "New Carlsberg
Glyptotek". The first building of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek on
Dantes Plads, the Dahlerup building, was inaugurated in 1897. The Ny
Carlsberg Glyptotek has since been expanded in 1906, 1996 and 2006.
It was very important to brewer Carl Jacobsen that the New Carlsberg
Glyptotek was not only experienced as an elevated and magnificent temple
of art, but that the building itself took the visitors' breath away and
that it had a breathtaking atmosphere. This meant that Carl Jacobsen
wanted the building to radiate a consistent aesthetic feeling that
visitors could feel. This feeling has been maintained throughout Ny
Carlsberg Glyptotek's building, despite several extensions over time.
Dahlerup Building
Vilhelm Dahlerup's building is the oldest part
of the Glyptoteket, which was inaugurated on 1 May 1897.
The
building consists of a three-winged horseshoe-shaped complex. Its roof
covering consists of glass and copper, and the building itself is made
of red brick. The facade facing Dante's Square has clear references to
the Venetian palace architecture from the Renaissance; a harmonious
sequence of large, column-supported niches flanks the entrance area in
three logwork, behind which rises the dome of the Winter Garden.
The vestibule is lavishly decorated with a coffered ceiling, marble
columns and is clearly influenced by Renaissance art. The vestibule
gives access to two side light rooms, where you can see French and
Danish sculpture. The foyer's staircase encircles the Winter Garden and
leads to the Golden Age Collection. These stairwells are lined with
marble slabs and the ceiling is decorated with stained glass with flower
vines and butterflies, allowing natural daylight to seep in.
Kampmann's Building
Hack Kampmann's building was inaugurated on 27
June 1906.
When Carl and Otilla donated their antique collection
to the Danish people in 1888, the collection had become so large that a
whole new building had to be built to house the collection. For this
purpose, an architectural competition was announced, which was won by
Hack Kampmann (1856-1920).
The Kampmann building has its own
facade to the southwest, which must reflect the antique content.
Tranquility, monumentality and ancient architectural forms therefore
characterize the exterior of the building. On top of the building's
facade is a step pyramid, on which stands a gilded bronze copy of a
classical Athena statue.
Kampmann's building is four-winged and
on two floors, which faces the older Dahlerup building. The four wings
lie symmetrically around an extension of the central axis in Dahlerup's
building. As required by brewer Jacobsen, Kampmann's building is lit
only through skylights or large side windows.
The winter garden
was originally designed by Dahlerup, but was first built with Kampmann's
building. Carl Jacobsen's idea behind the Winter Garden was to give
visitors a place to rest during their visit. At the same time that the
art could be experienced in more unconventional surroundings.
The
transition from the Winter Garden to the Festival Hall and the sculpture
halls on the mezzanine floor is via a stairwell that opens into
Løvehallen, the vestibule of the Antiksamlingen. From here you can
access both the Egyptian and antique collections, whose rooms have
vaulted ceilings, red terrazzo floors and supporting granite pillars.
Strict axiality and symmetry are pervasive in all the halls, all of
which have mosaic-ornamented terrazzo floors and ceilings with stucco
decoration. However, each floor has its own character, which is
expressed through changing room sizes, colors and decorative motifs.
One of the antiquities collection's most spectacular rooms is the
Festhalle, the model of which is a late-classical Greek temple complex.
The facility consists of a large rectangular square with colonnades on
three sides. The temple's facade forms the fourth and last side, on
which is written "Carl and Otilla Jacobsen". Between the Ionic marble
columns stand Roman sculptures. The floors are covered with tiles of
colored/variegated marble, and inside the temple's vestibule are pillars
of polished granite.
Henning Larsen's building was inaugurated on 27 June 1996.
In
1992, the Danish architect Henning Larsen won the competition for an
extension to the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek. The new building was necessary
to give the French Painting Collection and parts of the Egyptian
Collection a climatically adjustable area, and to ensure the
preservation of the artefacts. Furthermore, it was important to ensure
that the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek could have an exhibition building that
meets the high standards that art institutions worldwide require in
connection with lending works.
You have access to Larsen's
building from Vinterhaven via a glass corridor that leads up to
Kampmann's antique rooms. The three-storey high building is surrounded
by a wide, open and gently rising staircase. This staircase gives access
to all the halls, and ends in a roof terrace. All exhibition halls are
only lit artificially to protect the works as much as possible. The
floors in the French Painting Rooms are made of white Italian marble.
On the ground floor and first floor, but separate from the French
painting collection, are the new Egyptian rooms, which can be accessed
via the Kampmann building. One of the rooms replicates the descent of
the pyramids into the dark and mysterious burial chambers, and is built
with black granite floors.
Project 2006
The Carlsberg
Foundation and the New Carlsberg Foundation generously donated DKK 100
million to the museum New Carlsberg Glyptotek. in 2004 to rebuild the
museum. This happened on the occasion of the Kampmann building's 100th
anniversary in 2006, when the extension to the museum was inaugurated.
They wanted to improve the access conditions with Dissing+Weitling
as architects, who designed a large foyer under Dahlerup's building with
ticketing, cloakroom, toilets, etc., which can be accessed via four new
granite stairs from the Forehall. In Kampmann's building, the former
Etruscan collection has been completely renovated and is now called the
"Mediterranean Horizon". The other assembly rooms in Dahlerup's and
Kampmann's buildings have also been renovated, and the majority painted
in colors inspired from 1897/1906.
Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek's collection contains more than 10,000 objects
with the main emphasis on ancient cultures around the Mediterranean as
well as Danish and French art from the 19th and 20th centuries.
The Ancient Collection
New Carlsberg Glyptotek has the largest
antiquities collection in the Nordics. This collection is arranged in
two parallel courses. In rooms 19-25 in Larsen's building, the
"Mediterranean horizon" shows the history from the beginning in the
Middle East around 6,000 years BC, through Greece, Etruria and the Roman
Empire to the 5th century AD. Halls 1-18 exhibit sculptures from ancient
Egypt, Palmyra, Greece and the Roman Empire.
The Egyptian
Collection
The Egyptian people mastered producing beautiful, durable
and useful art which has since then become a recognized style. They
became the teachers of the Greeks and Romans, who both took cues from
the art of the Egyptians and incorporated them into their own artistic
corpus. From here, the legacy passed on to later Europe, where the
features can still be identified to this day. The New Carlsberg
Glyptotek's Egyptian Collection gives the viewer a unique opportunity to
visit the source of art and thereby see the beginnings of European art.
In halls 1-4 you can experience the magnificent Pharaonic Egypt with
the main emphasis on large sculptures. These halls hold more than 300
exhibits from all over Egypt from 3,000 BC. to 75 AD New Carlsberg
Glyptotek has many large objects from Ancient Egypt, and has, among
other things, the double statue of King Ramses II and the god Ptah.
Furthermore, you can also experience smaller statues, such as a statue
of "A man in prayer", a double statue of "A mother and her son", as well
as statues of gods and goddesses.
The exhibition also gives the
viewer the opportunity to experience statues and objects from ancient
Nubia, which for some periods was under Egyptian rule. Nubia was heavily
influenced by Egyptian religion and art throughout the country's
lifetime, which has resulted in many stone statues as well as bronze
statuettes with Egyptian characteristics.
On floor 2, the
exhibition is structured like an Egyptian tomb. New Carlsberg Glyptotek
has copied a descent into an Egyptian burial chamber, and the museum's
mummies and mummy coffins are thus exhibited in a tomb-like atmosphere.
In the other halls you can also see stelae, complete burial sets,
burial models, jewellery, statues of gods and kings as well as objects
from the Amarna period. The museum also exhibits objects and statuettes
of gods made of clay, faience and bronze.
One of the most unique
objects in the exhibition is a bronze statue of Seth, which is otherwise
rarely seen depicted in statue form.
The Roman and Greek
Collection
Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek's large collection of marble
sculptures is of international format. The creation of the collection is
due to brewer Carl Jacobsen's great interest in the production of the
human body, which came to its finest expression in the ancient world
through ancient sculpture. The development and history of the sculpture
can be experienced in all its stages in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek's
Roman and Greek Collection, where the development and image of the human
figure are at the center.
In halls 6-18, you can experience more
than 800 Roman and Greek objects on display, which date to the time
period approx. 600 BC – 500 AD Here you can experience beautiful
sculptures of gods, goddesses and heroes, emperor portraits, tomb
reliefs, vases and votive offerings.
New Carlsberg Glyptotek is
currently working on a project which examines the color of the ancient
sculptures. The museum offers its visitors a unique opportunity to
experience what the sculptures of antiquity really looked like when the
original, white sculptures stand side by side with their painted copy.
The most magnificent room in this collection is the Ballroom, which
was created from a late-classical Greek temple complex. The visitors are
thereby given the opportunity to step several thousand years back in
time and experience the art in its natural surroundings. The large, open
rectangular square faces the front of the temple, on which the name of
the museum's founders "Carl & Otilla Jacobsen" is written. On the other
three sides of the square, there is a covered colonnade with ancient
Roman art between the columns. This space surrounds the visitor in an
antique and breathtaking sphere that can only be experienced in very few
places.
New Carlsberg Glyptotek has the largest Palmyrene
collection outside the Middle East with its 100 busts, of which approx.
20 are exhibited. The exhibition covers the period 113-250 AD. Palmyra
eventually became a Roman province and the city was destroyed when it
rebelled against the Roman Empire. One of the main works of the
collection is "Beauty from Palmyra", on which you can still see paint,
and which was once decorated with inlaid colored glass and semi-precious
stones. One of the collection's many busts is a tomb bust of an unknown
man, who has been depicted with a camel in the background. This suggests
that he may have been the owner of a camel caravan or he may have been
one of the few merchants who traveled around with the caravans himself.
In a world with permeable borders, trade and migration became a
central part of the social order. Raw materials, faith in the divine and
trade goods were transported over great distances – from Afghanistan to
Spain. The "Mediterranean horizon" exhibition area in rooms 19-25
illuminates how Egyptians and Babylonians, Phoenicians and Greeks,
Etruscans and Romans related to everyday life, gods, life and not least
death.
The "Mediterranean horizon" has more than 1,400 objects on
display. The exhibition reviews history in the years 6,000 BC. - 400 AD,
and gives a broad overview of the different cultures around the
Mediterranean, i.a. the Greeks, Romans, Assyrians & Etruscans.
The exhibition starts in Mesopotamia with the Assyrians and Babylonians,
where you get an insight into their magnificent culture. You can see
everything from everyday objects and sculptures to large reliefs of
kings and gods, as well as reliefs from the Ishtar Gate and the
Processional Way in Babylon. Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek is one of the only
museums that has a specimen of all three types of animal reliefs; a bull
and a dragon from the Ishtar gate and a lion from the processional road.
The exhibition then leads the viewer to ancient Egyptian culture,
where i.a. various statuettes and reliefs are on display. Then you come
to the Etruscan collection, where you can experience sarcophagi, vases,
urns, portraits, a copy of an Etruscan temple, a reconstruction of a
princely tomb from Colle del Forno dated to the 6th century BC, and
copies of tomb paintings. The main work in the Etruscan collection is
without a doubt the large parade car on display in room 21. It is very
well preserved. Plates for a chariot, harness for the horses, pieces of
the wheels and their mounting parts, as well as shields and spears, all
made of beautiful metal work, have been found.
After this, you
are led through the Roman and Greek culture, where, among other things,
jewelery, tombstones, glass vases, statues of gods, portraits, coins and
sarcophagi are on display. The exhibition ends in room 25 with a summary
of the cultures around the Mediterranean via various objects, as well as
a few objects from Palmyra (modern Syria).
The Modern Collection consists of two collections, both of which
contain painting and sculpture; the Danish and the French Collection.
Rooms 28-32, 41-45 & 48-55 are dedicated to Danish painting and
sculpture. The special focus of the collection is the many works from
the Danish Golden Age, approx. 1800-1850, by i.a. C. W. Eckersberg,
Christen Købke, Johan Thomas Lundbye and Vilhelm Hammershøi.
French sculpture can be experienced in rooms 33-37 & 46 with the main
emphasis on works by Auguste Rodin, while French painting with a focus
on impressionism in particular is shown in rooms 56-66. Here, over 40
works by Paul Gauguin are exhibited, as well as works by Claude Monet,
Edgar Degas, Vincent van Gogh & Paul Cézanne.
The Danish Painting
and Sculpture Collection
New Carlsberg Glyptotek's Danish Sculpture
Collection dates from the years after 1850, and can be experienced in
rooms 31-32 and 41-45.
Founder of Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, brewer
Jacobsen (1842-1914) was interested in contemporary sculpture and
therefore wanted his Glyptotek to exhibit sculptures from the best
sculptors of the time. This meant that Jacobsen began to collect works
created by Thorvaldsen's pupils Freund, Bissen and Jerichau.
The
collection reflects the sculptors' search for new ideals and standards
for both motif and form treatment in the sculpture.
The Nordic
mythology and biblical morals are retold by human bodies made of clay,
plaster, wood and metal, which, among other things, can be seen in H. E.
Freund's "Loki" or "Odin". This is in stark contrast to the portrayals
of social realism.
The form and content of the sculptures
approach each other in symbolism with depictions of human destinies
shaped in the poses of the sculpture. Modern sculpture in Denmark
heralds its beginnings with angry bodies, expressive faces and sensual
nudity.
In rooms 28-30 and 48-55, visitors can experience the
Danish Painting Collection with a focus on works from the Danish Golden
Age, approx. 1800-1860. The period is called the "Golden Age", as it
portrays a brilliant period in the history of Danish art.
New
Carlsberg Glyptotek's collection is of high quality with works such as
Constantin Hansen's "Resting model", C. W. Eckersberg's "Portræt af
Thorvaldsen", Wilhelm Bendz's "Tobaksselskab", P. C. Skovgaard's
"Bøgeskov i May", J. Th. Lundbye "Sjællandsk landscape" and Christen
Købke's "Party outside the Northern castle gate". "Study of a nude
woman" are 4 portraits by W. Marstrand, C. Hansen, C. Købke and C. W.
Eckersberg, respectively, who all paint the same motif. This study gives
the viewer a unique insight into the artists' various techniques, and at
the same time makes it possible to compare the artists' differences and
similarities.
The exhibition sheds light on a unique era in
Danish painting, which was initially based on an interest in ancient art
and culture. This interest was common to all of Europe at this time.
Inspiration came first from trips to Italy and later to Greece. From
approx. 1840 Danish art changed its role and character, and now
reproduces the national romantic ideas via landscape painting, in which
particular focus is placed on the Danish country, people and history.
Carl Jacobsen had a weakness for French painting and sculpture, and
his magnificent collection can be experienced in rooms 33-37, 46 &
56-66.
Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek's French Sculpture Collection
covers the period 1820-1900, which is exhibited in rooms 33-37. The
exhibition focuses on the period around the "Modern Breakthrough",
approx. 1870-1890. In this period, many different artistic ideals
influence each other in the sculpture. In the past, the sculptures
depicted biblical and mythical subjects, but in this period the
sculpture depicts the present and its people. The inspiration is still
drawn from ancient Greek and Roman sculpture, but is now crossed with
new possibilities.
New Carlsberg Glyptotek's collection ranges
from light salon sculptures to Meunier's worker realism, and also
includes works by Carpeaux and Degas.
The collection contains
many works by the artist Auguste Rodin, who was a friend of Ny Carlsberg
Glyptotek's founder Carl Jacobsen. One of the collection's main works is
Rodin's "Citizens from Calais" from 1884-1885. This sculpture is a copy
of the original statue which stands in the square in the city of Calais.
Jacobsen wanted to include this sculpture in his collection, but when it
was not for sale, he had Rodin make a copy of the sculpture for his
collection at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek. Another major work in the
collection is Edgar Degas' bronze statue of "Dancer with ballet skirt -
fourteen years". You can also experience the artist's 73 other bronze
statues in this one at the Glyptoteket.
The sculptors combined
the traditional motifs with the poetic thoughts of the period.
Sculptures of human bodies weighed down by grief, slavery and fear of
God reflect the hard existence of ordinary people in the 1800s, while
sculptures of closely intertwined couples show the time's penchant for
tales of eroticism and distant, mysterious worlds.
Ny Carlsberg
Glyptotek's French Painting Collection contains over 200 exhibited
works, and dates from 1820-1875.
Delacroix, David and Manet
played decisive roles in the development of French painting in the first
half of the 19th century. New Carlsberg Glyptotek owns several major
works from the period, and can thereby help shed light on the great
development in French art during this period.
Painting in the
first half of the 19th century can be divided into two major trends: a
neoclassical tradition with tight lines and careful drawing (J.-L.
David) - and an expressive, 'romantic' use of color (E. Delacroix).
Several art movements arose in parallel in the search for a new way
of seeing the world also in painting: naturalism, the Barbizon school
and realism. During the 1860s, these trends helped shape the development
of Impressionism.
New Carlsberg Glyptotek's French Painting
Collection contains works by many different artists. The visitor can,
among other things, experience Edgar Degas' "Toilet after the bath",
Édouard Monet's "The Absinthe Drinker", Paul Gauguin's "Tahiti Woman
with a Flower in Her Hair", Claude Monet's "Shadows on the Sea" and
Vincent van Gogh's "Landscape from Saint Rémy" are also part of New
Carlsberg Glyptotek's collection, all of which can be experienced in
rooms 56-66 in the beautiful, white Larsen building.
(1897-1914) Carl Jacobsen
(1914-1925) Helge Jacobsen
(1926-1943) Frederik Poulsen
(1943-1970) Vagn Poulsen
(1970-1978)
Mogens Gjødesen
(1978-1998) Flemming Johansen
(1998-2001) Søren
Dietz
(2002-2017) Flemming Friborg
(2017-2020) Christine Buhl
Andersen
(2020-now) Gertrud Hvidberg-Hansen