August Kestner

George Christian August Kestner ( born November 28, 1777 Hannover, † March 5, 1853 in Rome ) was a German jurist, diplomat, researcher, author, archaeologist, artist and art collector.

Life

The Kestner family belonged in the 18th and 19th centuries, the so-called Pretty families. August was the son of Johann Christian Kestner officials and his wife Charlotte Buff. In his mother Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was unlucky in love and it was later The Sorrows of Young Werther. His nephew was Hermann Kestner, of following the will of his uncle 's art collection August Kestner's of Hanover donated and thus laid the foundation for the Kestner Museum.

Kestner studied in the years 1796-1799 at the University of Göttingen Jura. Immediately after finishing his studies, he was appointed as a judge at the High Court hearing Hanover.

1803 Kestner was appointed in the civil service to the Privy office secretary. As such he made in the years 1818-1849 career, including as Minister Resident and Chargé in Rome and Naples. He was also a diplomat Hanoverian ambassador to the Holy See in Rome. He also representing the interests of the British kingdom because of the British and Hanoverian kingdom was ruled at that time in personal union. Kestner is thus considered first ambassador of the United Kingdom at the Vatican. In 1846 he was a member of the Hanoverian Association of Artists. As an art lover, he collected Egyptian and Greco-Roman cabaret. The " Instituto di Corrispondenza Archaeological ", the later German Archaeological Institute, in 1829 co-founded by him. In 1838 he was appointed as Secretary to the Head of the Institute.

After his retirement from government service Kestner lived until his death on March 5, 1853 continued in Rome. Buried he is on the Cimitero acattolico at the Pyramid of Cestius. On this same cemetery he had in 1830 provided for the funeral of Augustus von Goethe, the poet 's son, whose father had put his mistress Lotte Kestner's mother at the center of his novel The Sorrows of Young Werther.

In 1889, resulting Kestner- Museum (since 2007 August Kestner Museum ) in Hannover was named after him, as an essential part of the foundation stock of Kestner comes, as the Kunstverein Kestner Gesellschaft in Hannover.

Writings (selection )

  • Roman studies. Berlin, Decker 1850
  • Sulla. A tragedy in 5 lifts. Hanover, tooth 1855
  • About the imitation in painting. Frankfurt q.s. 1818
  • Essay on the question: Who owns the art?. Berlin, Reimer 1830
  • Overbeck 's work and word. An essay by a Roman art lovers in terms of Overbeck 's explanation of his contained in the Städel Art Institute Image: Triumph of Religion in the Arts. Frankfurt q.s. 1841
  • With Emil Brown: Twelve Greek bas-reliefs from the Palazzo Spada invention, the Capitoline Museum and Villa Albani. Rome, Salviucci 1845
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