![Wolfgang Helbig](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/Wolfgang_Helbig.jpg)
Wolfgang Helbig (2 February 1839 – 6 October 1915) was a German classical
archaeologist
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
born in
Dresden
Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...
. He is known for his studies involving the wall paintings of
Campania
Campania (, also , , , ) is an administrative Regions of Italy, region of Italy; most of it is in the south-western portion of the Italian peninsula (with the Tyrrhenian Sea to its west), but it also includes the small Phlegraean Islands and the i ...
(
Pompeii
Pompeii (, ) was an ancient city located in what is now the ''comune'' of Pompei near Naples in the Campania region of Italy. Pompeii, along with Herculaneum and many villas in the surrounding area (e.g. at Boscoreale, Stabiae), was buried ...
).
From 1856 to 1861 he studied
philology
Philology () is the study of language in oral and writing, written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defin ...
and
archaeology
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
at the
University of Göttingen
The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...
, where he became member of
Burschenschaft Hannovera
Burschenschaft Hannovera is the oldest Burschenschaft, a traditional liberal German Student fraternity or student corporation (Studentenverbindung), incorporated in Göttingen in the Revolution year 1848 (May) at the Georg August University of ...
(fraternity), and also at the
University of Bonn
The Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (german: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn) is a public research university located in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the ( en, Rhine U ...
, where he was a student of
Otto Jahn
Otto Jahn (; 16 June 1813, in Kiel – 9 September 1869, in Göttingen), was a German archaeologist, philologist, and writer on art and music.
Biography
After the completion of his university studies at Christian-Albrechts-Universität in Kiel, t ...
,
Friedrich Gottlieb Welcker
Friedrich Gottlieb Welcker (4 November 1784 – 17 December 1868) was a German classical philologist and archaeologist.
Biography
Welcker was born at Grünberg, Hesse-Darmstadt. Having studied classical philology at the University of Giessen ...
and
Friedrich Wilhelm Ritschl
Friedrich Wilhelm Ritschl (6 April 1806 – 9 November 1876) was a German scholar best known for his studies of Plautus.
Biography
Ritschl was born in Großvargula, in present-day Thuringia. His family, in which culture and poverty were hereditar ...
. He received his doctorate at Bonn in 1861 with the thesis "''Questiones scaenicae''". In 1862 he became a member of the
German Archaeological Institute
The German Archaeological Institute (german: Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, ''DAI'') is a research institute in the field of archaeology (and other related fields). The DAI is a "federal agency" under the Federal Foreign Office of Germany ...
(DAI) to
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
. In 1865 he succeeded
Heinrich Brunn
Heinrich Brunn, since 1882 Ritter von Brunn (23 January 1822, Wörlitz – 23 July 1894, Josephstal near Schliersee, Upper Bavaria) was a German archaeologist. He was known for taking a scientific approach in his investigations of classical Greek ...
as second secretary at the DAI, a position he kept until 1887.
Dictionary of Art Historians
Helbig, Wolfgang arl
ARL may refer to:
Military
* US Navy hull classification symbol for repair ship
* Admiralty Research Laboratory, UK
* United States Army Research Laboratory
* ARL 44, a WWII French tank
Organizations
* Aero Research Limited, a UK adhesives compan ...
/ref>
During his career he traveled extensively throughout Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
, Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...
, Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
, France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
and North Africa. Beginning in 1887, he lived in Rome as a private scholar and art dealer
An art dealer is a person or company that buys and sells works of art, or acts as the intermediary between the buyers and sellers of art.
An art dealer in contemporary art typically seeks out various artists to represent, and builds relationshi ...
, and served as a broker of numerous works of art for the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek
The Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek ("ny" means "new" in Danish; "Glyptotek" comes from the Greek root ''glyphein'', to carve, and ''theke'', storing place), commonly known simply as Glyptoteket, is an art museum in Copenhagen, Denmark. The collection ...
in Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
.
In 1887, he presented the for some time controversial Praeneste fibula
, native_name_lang = la
, image = Praeneste fibula.JPG
, image_size =
, alt =
, image2 =
, image2_size =
, alt2 =
, image_caption =
, material = Gold
, s ...
. In 1892, he published the first edition of "''Führer durch die öffentlichen Sammlungen klassischer Altertümer in Rom''", a very popular guide to classical antiquities in Rome.
He died in 1915 in Rome.
Selected publications
* ''Wandgemälde der vom Vesuv verschütteten Städte Kampaniens'' (Murals of the cities of Campania
Campania (, also , , , ) is an administrative Regions of Italy, region of Italy; most of it is in the south-western portion of the Italian peninsula (with the Tyrrhenian Sea to its west), but it also includes the small Phlegraean Islands and the i ...
buried by Vesuvius
Mount Vesuvius ( ; it, Vesuvio ; nap, 'O Vesuvio , also or ; la, Vesuvius , also , or ) is a somma-stratovolcano located on the Gulf of Naples
The Gulf of Naples (), also called the Bay of Naples, is a roughly 15-kilometer-wide (9 ...
), Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...
1868.
* ''Untersuchungen über die Campanische Wandmalerei'' (Studies of Campanian wall painting), Leipzig 1873.
* ''Die Italiker in der Po-Ebene'' (The ancient Italic peoples of the Po River
The Po ( , ; la, Padus or ; Ligurian language (ancient), Ancient Ligurian: or ) is the longest river in Italy. It flows eastward across northern Italy starting from the Cottian Alps. The river's length is either or , if the Maira (river), Mair ...
plain), Leipzig 1879.
* ''Das homerische Epos, aus den Denkmälern erläutert'' (The Homeric epic, explained from the monuments), Leipzig 1884, second edition 1887.
Notes
References
* This article is based on a translation of an equivalent article at the German Wikipedia
The German Wikipedia (german: Deutschsprachige Wikipedia) is the German-language edition of Wikipedia, a free and publicly editable online encyclopedia.
Founded on March 16, 2001, it is the second-oldest Wikipedia (after the English Wikipedia), ...
, whose sources includ
Helbig, Wolfgang
@ NDB/ADB Deutsche Biographie.
1839 births
1915 deaths
Archaeologists from Dresden
People from the Kingdom of Saxony
University of Göttingen alumni
University of Bonn alumni
German art historians
German male non-fiction writers
{{Germany-academic-bio-stub