WILPERT, JOSEPH. — Archaeologist, born at Eiglau (Silesia) on 22 August 1857, died at Rome on 10 March 1944, dean of the Protonotaries Apostolic de numero.
Ordained a priest in 1883, he obtained permission to go to Rome as chaplain of S. Maria della Pietà, at the Campo Santo Teutonico, in order to perfect his knowledge of canon law (1884). His visit to the catacombs awakened in him a vocation for Christian archaeology, and G. B. De Rossi directed him toward the study of primitive Christian iconography, making use on several occasions of the drawings of his 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). The underground Rome held no secrets from W., who personally supervised the reproduction of every cemetery fresco, assembling a series of 600 watercolours executed from photographs and not from drawings, as in all preceding works. He began with the ancient representations of consecrated virgins: Die gottgeweihten Jungfrauen in den ersten Jahrhunderten der Kirche (1889); this was followed by the study of the ancient reproductions of the cemetery frescoes: Die Katahombengemälde und ihre alten Kopien (1891), and Ein Cyklus christologischer Ge-
mälde in der Katahombe des hl. Petrus und Marcellius (1891); then came the illustration of the paintings in the so-called Greek Chapel, where he had identified the Fractio panis (double edition, German and French, 1894); Le pitture delle Cappelle, dette dei Sacramenti (1897).
His fundamental work is Le pitture delle catacombe romane (2 vols., text and plates, double edition, Italian and German, Rome and Freiburg im Breisgau 1903). Owing to the accuracy of its description of the frescoes, its study of clothing and gestures, and the fidelity of its reproductions, the work was deservedly appreciated, even though later studies modified some of its datings, which were generally based on those of G. B. De Rossi. The following works were next 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 their mosaic and pictorial cycles [Freiburg im Breisgau 1916]). Finally, I sarcofagi cristiani antichi (5 vols., I and II, Rome 1929; III and IV, Vatican City 1932; V, there 1936).
Of note 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 Katahombe 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 particular importance is La cripta dei Papi e la cappella di S. Cecilia nel cimitero di S. Callisto (double edition, Italian and German, Rome and Freiburg im Breisgau 1910). His identification of the tomb of Damasus gave rise to a controversy between him and O. Marucchi, resulting in his Beiträge zur christlichen Archäologie (in Röm. Quart., 22 [1908], pp. 73–195).
In addition to Römische Quartalschrift, to which he contributed from its first year (1887), he collaborated with: Nuovo bull. di arch. crist., Riv. di arch. crist., Bessarione, L'arte di A. Venturi (in which Storia del vestiario and the studies on the Acheiropoieton and S. Maria Antiqua appeared), Byzant. Zeitschr., Zeitschr. für kath. Theologie, Histor. Jahrbuch, Bull. della Commis. arch. com. di Roma, Studi Romani, Analecto Tarraconensia, etc.; and, as a member since 1892 of the Pont. accad. romana di archcol., he made substantial contributions both to its Atti and to its Rendiconti. Especially worthy of mention is the one in honour 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, a summary of his work, developed in six lectures which he was to have delivered in 1928 at Harvard University. His love for the Roman Faith and its institutions is demonstrated by the series of studies on S. Pietro, 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 also by his work of popular exposition: La fede nella Chiesa nascente, secondo i monumenti dell'arte funeraria antica, Vatican City 1938.