The Architecture of the Altes Museum in Schinkel’s Drawings

Abstract

The complete edition of Sammlung Architektonischer Entwürfe, collection of architectural projects by Karl Friederich Schinkel, contains around sixty architectural projects. The publication establishes a kind of balance where the architect orders and classifies a good part of his architectural work. The compendium is, therefore, a document of unquestionable value for those who want to study and delve into the representation systems used by Schinkel to disseminate his work. The Altes Museum project is represented in the collection through plans, several details, and three perspectives. From these perspectives, the one corresponding to the main lobby was selected (plan 43) to make a more detailed study. The analysis starts with an infographic restitution followed by an empirical verification of the drawing process. The interpretive phase reveals an image rich in hues; the drawing seeks to register a series of suggestive spatial relationships at different scales, all of them contained in the museum project: urban, monumental, and architectural scales and even the decorative detail. The image represents a place for contemplation, a framework for the landscape. All this is achieved through graphic operations contained in a careful construction of perspective.