- External URL
- Creation
-
- Current Holder(s)
-
Holder (Definite): Naturhistorisches Museum der Burgergemeinde Bern
- No links match your filters. Clear Filters
-
Currently held by Naturhistorisches Museum der Burgergemeinde Bern
Description:In 'A Dog of Myth and Matter', Thorsen highlights that 'The museum in Bern had in many ways tried to punctuate the popular image of the Saint Bernard with a liquor barrel around its neck and to tell a counter-story, in which Barry is presented as an extraordinarily clever dog that always ranged the mountains in company with a monk or mountain guide' (145)
-
Cited by Liv Emma Thorsen, 'A Dog of Myth and Matter: Barry the Saint Bernard in Bern', in Thorsen et. al., Animals on Display (2013), pp. 128-149.
Description:Thorsen claims that 'Barry's biography as a museum object can be conveyed along two lines, one following his hide, a second following his skull. Together they lead to the scientific construction of the historical dog made in 2000 by curator and archeozoologist Marc Nussbaumer, taxidermist Christoph Meier, and scientific illustrator Niklaus Heeb. Barry's skin had already been stuffed three times: immediately after the dog died in 1814, once more in 1826, and again in 1923. No picture survives of the first mount that was to be seen in the Museum der Naturgeschichte Helvetiens, the natural cabinet that predated the foundation of Naturhistorisches Museum der Burgergemeinde Bern in 1832. A new preparation was made in 1826 by technical assistant Hans Caspar Rohrdorf, showing Barry in a humble position that could be interpreted as representing the dog's devotion to humans.' (140)
'By 1923, the stuffed Barry had badly deteriorated... The hide was cracking and the body was collapsing... Taxidermist Georg Ruprecht made a "new" Barry in 1923 and mounted the skin using the dermoplastic method in which the skin was arranged on a life-true mannequin... But Ruprecht had no pictures of Barry for a model. The only remains of the dog were the skin, skull, and perhaps some parts of the skeleton. Instead of using the bone material to settle the proportions of the historic dog, Ruprecht remodeled the dog according to the standards of the Saint Bernard breed that had been constructed after Barry's lifetime... In the 1920s, a perfect Saint Bernard was to express benevolence, dignity, intelligence, strength, and endurance. The ideal head was large, massive, and the stop was abrupt and well-defined, the muzzle straight from nose to stop. The forelegs were to be of good lengthm perfectly straight and strong in bone, and the hind legs muscular. The head was given most attention and the highest points in the ring. The Barry we see today reflects this aesthetic.
Conversely, Ruprecht's mount resembles a painting from about 1695 og a hospice dog with a clearly defined stop... Ruprecht neglected Barry's skull but paid homage to both the hospice dogs and tot he Saint Bernard standards that favoured heavy, broad heads and long legs. Thus the new Barry anchored the breed standards to the history of the famous rescue dogs, rather than the reverse. This Barry is still to be seen in the museum's entrance hall. He holds his head in an upright, alert position, as if he is looking for rough weather and snowslides, and his posture performs a very different "dogness" compared to that of the old, humble Barry.' (141-143)
'Barry's bicentenial anniversary was celebrated by reconstructing him once more - but this time only on paper. By using the skull as the basis for a model of his head, scrutinizing the hide to find the right proportions, studying the photograph of Barry before Ruprecht had mounted him, and looking for differences in the texture of his coat, the historic Barry was reconstructed on paper. The research team discovered that not only had the head been modeled with a stop, but the distance between the eyes had also been broadened to make it more massive. The "Elbogenschwiele" - the wear of the coat on the elbows - had been placed too high on the legs. This means that the mount from 1923 is about ten centimeters taller than Barry had been, making the dog nearly as tall as he is long, proportions that are absent in all dog breeds.' (143-144)