The New International Encyclopædia/Gerhard, Eduard

GERHARD, gĕr′härt, Eduard (1795-1867). A German archæologist. He was born in Posen, and after studying at Breslau and Berlin, he, in 1816, took up his residence at Breslau. The reputation he acquired by his Lectiones Apollonianæ, published in the same year, led soon afterwards to his being appointed professor at the Gymnasium of Posen. On resigning that office in 1819, on account of weakness in the eyes, he traveled in Italy, and in 1822 he took up his residence in Rome, where, with a view of prosecuting his archæological studies, he remained until 1837. In that year he received an appointment as archæologist in the Berlin Museum. In 1844 he became professor in the university and member of the Royal Academy. He died May 12, 1867. During his long stay in Italy he coöperated in Platner's Beschreibung der Stadt Rom, and in 1829 was one of the leading spirits in the foundation of the Instituto di Corrispondenza Archeologica, now the Imperial German Archæological Institute, of which he was vice-secretary. Gerhard's great service to archæological study was in the publication of important groups of monuments, and in promoting an orderly classification. Such a worker was much needed at this time, when the excavations at Vulci and elsewhere in Etruria increased so suddenly the mass of early vases and other small objects. For artistic beauty and style Gerhard had little perception; his interest was largely antiquarian, and it is characteristic of him that he was attracted by the Etruscan art, generally of little interest to the artist. His writings are widely scattered in the volumes of the Archæological Institute, the Berlin Academy, and various periodicals. Many of these are collected in the Gesammelte academische Abhandlungen und kleine Schriften (Berlin, 1866-68). Among his larger works are: Rapporto intorno i vasi Volcenti (1831); Antike Bildwerke (1827-44); Auserlesene griechische Vasenbilder (1839-58), still the best single collection of Greek vases; a publication of selected vases from the Berlin collection Griechische und etruskische Trinkschalen (1843); Etruskische und campanische Vasenbilder (1843); Apulische Vasen (1846); Trinkschalen und Gefässe (1848-50); Etruskische Spiegel, 4 vols. (1843-68), 5th vol. by Klugmann and Körte (1884-97). With Panofka he prepared a catalogue of the Naples Museum in 1828, and in 1836 one of the antiques in the Berlin Museum. Though Gerhard's Griechische Mythologie (1854-55) is still valuable, his mythological work, as well as his interpretation of works of art, suffers from his overestimate of the importance of the mysteries and their symbolism. Consult Jahn, Eduard Gerhard, ein Lebensabriss (Berlin, 1868).