BODE MUSEUM on the MUSEUM ISLAND - BERLIN by Silva Wischeropp

About "BODE MUSEUM on the MUSEUM ISLAND - BERLIN"

by Silva Wischeropp

About the artwork

This urban, architectural cityscape was taken on a sunny spring day in May 2017 with the Nikon D90. The subject shows the Bode Museum on Museum Island on the Spree River in East Berlin.

The Bode Museum in Berlin's Mitte district is part of the Museum Island building ensemble and thus a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Commissioned by Emperor Wilhelm II and built by Ernst von Ihne from 1898 to 1904 in the neo-baroque style as the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum, it houses the sculpture collection and the Museum of Byzantine Art as well as the Coin Cabinet.
The neo-baroque building stands on the north-western tip of the Museum Island, on an irregularly triangular plot of land with an area of 6000 m². The Berlin Flour House was located here from 1824 to 1897, as was the Art Barracks from 1876, where exhibitions of contemporary Berlin artists were held. A 39.50 m high dome made of wood and steel rises above the main structure of the building.
Despite the irregular shape of the site, the architect of the museum building has managed to give the impression of a completely symmetrical and isosceles building, aligned with the semi-circular entrance wing vaulted by a dome, to which bridges lead over the two arms of the Spree.
The building is clad in Rackwitz, Alt-Warthau, Wünschelburg and Friedersdorf sandstone (all formed in the Cretaceous period) from Silesia. A windowed ashlar base and two further storeys divided by Corinthian semi-columns and gabled risalites seem to rise directly from the Spree. Allegories of the arts and famous cities of art crown the attic, created by the sculptors August Vogel and Wilhelm Widemann.