Wolfgang Helbig (2 February 1839 – 6 October 1915) was a German classical archaeologist 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 ...

. He is known for his studies involving the wall paintings of

Campania (man), it, Campana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demog ...

( Pompeii). From 1856 to 1861 he studied

philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...

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 landsca ...

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 (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 ...

, 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, ...

, Friedrich Gottlieb Welcker and Friedrich Wilhelm Ritschl. 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 Gree ...

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 comp ...

/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 ...

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 ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

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 relationsh ...

, 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 ...

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

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 in Campania, Italy, about east of Naples and a short distance from the shore. It is one of ...

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 ...

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 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, 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