FALKE, Jacob von
Jakob Falke (1825-1897) was a German historian and art critic. He studied Classics and worked first as a teacher. He later became curator of the Museum of Nuremberg and in 1858 was appointed librarian and advisor of the art collection of the Princes of Liechtenstein in Vienna. During the same period, Falke contributed to several art reviews and other publications. He is among the first exponents of the Arts and Crafts movement, and one of the founders of the Vienna Museum of Arts and Crafts (today Vienna Museum for Applied Arts). In 1871 he published the first manual of interior decoration in German, and was knighted in 1874.
His best-known works are the “History of modern taste in art”(“Geschichte des modernen Geschmacks”, 1866), “Contemporary cultural industry...” (“Die Kunstindustrie der Gegenwart...”, 1868) and “Greece and Rome” (“Hellas und Rom”, 1879). The edition presented on the website is a section of the latter work, translated by Nikolaos Politis and published in 1874 as “Greece, the life of the ancient Greeks”.
The first chapter deals with history and political organization. Its sections cover mythical times, the political regimes of Greek cities down to the time of the Persian wars and finally the Macedonian era and the decline of political freedom. The second chapter describes the everyday life of the ancient Greeks, with subjects such as childhood and youth, costume, self-care, women, the household, symposiums, rural life and sports as well as religion. The last chapter is dedicated to Greek art, poetry, prose, and historians, orators and philosophers.
The edition is illustrated with wood engravings of superb quality, which depict works of ancient Greek and Roman art, and imaginary representations of the public and private life of the Greeks, including reproductions of contemporary neoclassical paintings.
Written by Ioli Vingopoulou
FALKE, Jacob von - Piraeus
FALKE, Jacob von - Rest Images
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Diadem from the Treasure of Priam, discovered by Heinrich Schliemann on the site of Troy.
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View of the site of Heinrich Schliemann's excavation at Mycenae. In the foreground, Grave Circle A.
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Depiction of Spartan youth practicing sports at the Gymnasium.
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The Corinthian gulf. On the left, Acrocorinth. On the right, the northern coast of the Peloponnese.
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The Parthenon at the time of Pericles (Imaginary reconstruction).
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Drawing of Roman copy of Kresilas's bust of Pericles, Vatican Museum.
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Imaginary reconstruction of Poros island and the emple of Athena Apatouria.
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Scene from ancient vase showing teacher and pupil at school.
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The tutor from the Niobids complex, Uffizi Gallery, Florence.
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Drawing of woman playing the flute (possibly a courtesan), from ancient vase.
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Young women dancing and playing music (imaginary representation).
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Roman statue of girl playing astragaloi (knucklebones), kept at Altes Museum, Berlin.
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Young women playing on the swing (imaginary representation).
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Statue of the Capitoline Venus type, from the Capitoline Museums.
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Examples of female costume in antiquity, based on extant representations.
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Examples of female costume in antiquity, based on extant representations.
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Self-care implements: Perfume vases, brush, fans and mirror.
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Wedding preparations of Cassandra and Bellerophontes, from ancient vase.
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The flower market of ancient Athens (imaginary representation).
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Greek women doing household tasks, from ancient Greek vases.
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Iphigenia in Tauris, based on the painting by Anselm Feuerbach.
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Aphrodite of Knidus (copy of the sculpture by Praxiteles), Munich Glyptothek.
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Entrance to an ancient Greek house (imaginary reconstruction).
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Atrium of an ancient Greek house, with the statue of Hestia.
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Scene from the Symposium of Plato, after the painting by Anselm Feuerbach.
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Imaginary reconstruction of the Horologion of Andronikos Kyrristos and adjacent area, Athens.
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Imaginary reconstruction of Athens at the age of emperor Hadrian. View from the east.
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View of Athens with Aegina island in the distance, from the Acropolis.
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Reconstruction of ancient Olympia, from drawing by Friedrich Wilhelm von Thiersch.
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Statue of Nike by Paionius, Archaeological Musem of ancient Olympia.
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Statue of Hermes by Praxiteles, Archaeological Musem of ancient Olympia.
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Hellenistic statue of the “praying boy”, Staatliche Museum, Berlin.
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View of the Crissaean plain from Delphi. In the background, the Corinthian gulf and Peloponnese.
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The gorge of the Phaedriades and the Castalian spring, Delphi.
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Drawing of thiasus (Bacchanalian procession), after the Borghese vase, Louvre Museum.
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Imaginary reconstruction of Lesser Propylaea of the temple of Demeter at Eleusis.
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Oxen led to sacrifice, drawing after the reliefs on the northern frieze of the Parthenon.
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Lekythoi (vases for storing oli destined to funerary rituals).
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Drawing of the stele of Mika and Dion from Kerameikos cemetery, Archaeological Museum of Athens.
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Imaginary reconstruction of Dipylon, the entrance to the cemetery of Kerameikos.
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Imaginary reconstruction of the Propylaea of the Acropolis of Athens.
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Imaginary reconstruction of the Erechtheion at the Acropolis of Athens.
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Dione and Aphrodite from the eastern pediment of the Parthenon, today at the British Museum, London.
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Nibe and her youngest daughter from the Niobids complex, Uffizi Gallery, Florence.
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Statue of the “Dying Gaul”, Roman copy of lost Hellenistic original, Capitoline Museums, Rome.
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Detail of the Gigantomachy relief o the Pergamon Altar, today kept at Pergamonmuseum, Berlin.
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Farnese bull, Hellenistic sculpture complex, Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples.
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Venus of Medici, Hellenistic sculpture of Aphrodite, Uffizi Gallery, Florence.
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Statue of seated figure, traditionally called Menander, Vatican Museums, Rome.
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Statue of Posidippus, Roman copy of Hellenistic original, Vatican Museums, Rome.