WILPERT, JOSEPH. - Archaeologist, b. at Eiglau (Silesia) on 22 Aug. 1857, d. in Rome on 10 March 1944, dean of the Protonotaries Apostolic de numero.
Ordained priest in 1883, he obtained permission to go to Rome as chaplain of St. Mary of Mercy, near the Teutonic Cemetery, in order to perfect himself in canon law (1884). A visit to the catacombs awakened in him a vocation for Christian archaeology, and G. B. De Rossi directed him to the study of early Christian iconography, also making use several times of the drawings of the young disciple (Bull. arch. crist., 4th series, 4 [1886], p. 160); 5 [1887], pp. 9, 23; 6 [1889], p. 105; 5th series, 1 [1890], pp. 14, 60, 145). Underground Rome had no secrets for Wilpert, who personally supervised the reproduction of every cemetery fresco, assembling a series of 600 watercolors, executed from photographs and not from drawings, as in all previous works. He began with the ancient representations of the sacred virgins: Die gottgeweihten Jungfrauen in den ersten Jahrhunderten der Kirche (1889), then followed the study of the ancient reproductions of the cemetery frescoes: Die Katakombengemälde und ihre alten Kopien (1891), and Ein Cyklus christologischer Gemälde in der Katakombe des hl. Petrus und Marcellinus (1891); there followed the illustration of the paintings of the so-called Greek Chapel, where he had identified the Fractio panis (double ed., German and French, 1894); Le pitture delle Cappelle, dette dei Sacramenti (1897).
His fundamental work consists of Le pitture delle catacombe romane (2 vols., text and plates, double ed. Italian and German, Rome and Freiburg im Br. 1903). For the accuracy of the description of the frescoes, for the study of clothing and gestures, for the fidelity of the reproductions, the work was deservedly appreciated, even if later studies partly modified some of his datings, generally based on those of G. B. De Rossi. There followed in importance: Die römischen Mosaiken und Malereien der kirchlichen Bauten vom IV. bis XIII. Jahrhundert (4 vols., 2 of text and 2 of plates illustrating the art of the Christian basilicas of Constantinian, post-Constantinian and medieval Rome in its mosaic and pictorial cycles [Freiburg im Br. 1916]). Finally I sarcofagi cristiani antichi (5 vols., I and II, Rome 1929; III and IV, Vatican City 1932; V, ibid. 1936).
Noteworthy are his Topographische Studien über die christlichen Monumente der Appia und der Ardeatina (in Röm. Quart., 15 [1901], pp. 32-49) and Neue Studien zur Katakombe des hl. Kallistus (ibid., pp. 50-69); Zur Entdeckung der «Crypta Damasi» (ibid., 17 [1903], pp. 72-75); La scoperta delle basiliche cimiteriali dei SS. Marco, Marcelliano e Damaso (in Nuovo bull. arch. crist., 9 [1903], pp. 43-58); Scavi nel cimitero dei SS. Marco, Marcelliano e Damaso (ibid., pp. 315-19). Of special importance is La cripta dei Papi e la cappella di S. Cecilia nel cimitero di S. Callisto (double ed., Italian and German, Rome and Freiburg im Br. 1910). Because of his identification of the tomb of Damasus a controversy arose between him and O. Marucchi, whence his Beiträge zur christlichen Archäologie (in Röm. Quart., 22 [1908], pp. 73-195).
Besides contributing to the Römische Quartalschrift, from its very first year (1887), he collaborated with: Nuovo bull. di arch. crist., Riv. di arch. crist., Bessarione, L'arte di A. Venturi (in which appeared Storia del vestiario and the studies on the Acheropita and on S. Maria Antiqua), Byzant. Zeitschr., Zeitschr. für kath. Theologie, Histor. Jahrbuch, Bull. della Commis. arch. com. di Roma, Studi Romani, Analecta Tarraconensia etc. and, as a member from 1892 of the Pont. accad. romana di archeol., he contributed with notable writings both to its Atti and to its Rendiconti; to be noted in a special way is the one in honor of G. B. De Rossi on the Pitture dell'ipogeo di Aurelio Felicissimo presso il viale Manzoni in Roma. His volume: Erlebnisse und Ergebnisse im Dienste der christlichen Archäologie (1930), dedicated to his friend P. Franchi de' Cavalieri, contains, in autobiographical form, the summary of his works, set out in six lectures that he was to have given in 1928 at Harvard University. His love for the Roman Faith and its institutions is demonstrated by the series of studies on St. Peter, from the first, on his bronze statue (1886), to the last (1937): Pietro fondatore della Chiesa di Roma e successore di Cristo come vescovo, secondo le sculture del sarcofago 174 e il Catalogo Filocaliano, and further by his popular work: La fede nella Chiesa nascente, secondo i monumenti dell'arte funeraria antica, Vatican City 1938.
Bibliography2 works
Enrico Josi