DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62133#0250
234 AN ART-STUDENT IN MUNICH.
as exclusively of modern schools, as the Old Pinakothek is
of the old.
Seven designs for the south facade of the New Pinako-
thek are now complete, and the frescoes are in progress.
The centre composition represents King Ludwig as descend-
ing from his throne, and receiving with a gracious wel-
come various artists and lovers of art, who approach him
with chef-d’oeuvres both ancient and modern. Classic,
Egyptian, mediaeval, all are welcome to enrich the
galleries and palaces of his art-city.
It would seem no easy task to adapt our modern costume
to the poetical necessities of colossal figures. Looking at
these designs, however, one is inclined to await a happy
result. Kaulbach has preserved the individual charac-
teristics both of the men and of the age which he has
poui’trayed, and yet there is no want of dignity.
One could have wished that the genius of so great a
man as Kaulbach should have had some more congenial
subject entrusted to it, for a series of great public works,
in the city of his home, than the illustration of an almost
personal theme; for Kaulbach’s true path lies among the
highest regions of the ideal.
Yet, even working upon this task, his genius has burst
forth in many a beautiful and poetic touch, contrasting
wonderfully with the vein of genial humour and keen
satire running through the whole series; as characteristic
of the man as in his spirit of tenderness, grace, and beauty.
The first in order of this series—though not the first
completed—is the design upon which the painter is now
at work. It is an allegorical representation of the tri-
umph of knowledge and modern taste over the formalities
and stagnation of what the Germans designate the
“ Zopf-Zeit, or Pigtail-age. Kaulbach’s peculiar spirit
of humour and satire, to which I have just referred, and of
which his designs to “ Reineke Fuchs ” are a striking ex-
as exclusively of modern schools, as the Old Pinakothek is
of the old.
Seven designs for the south facade of the New Pinako-
thek are now complete, and the frescoes are in progress.
The centre composition represents King Ludwig as descend-
ing from his throne, and receiving with a gracious wel-
come various artists and lovers of art, who approach him
with chef-d’oeuvres both ancient and modern. Classic,
Egyptian, mediaeval, all are welcome to enrich the
galleries and palaces of his art-city.
It would seem no easy task to adapt our modern costume
to the poetical necessities of colossal figures. Looking at
these designs, however, one is inclined to await a happy
result. Kaulbach has preserved the individual charac-
teristics both of the men and of the age which he has
poui’trayed, and yet there is no want of dignity.
One could have wished that the genius of so great a
man as Kaulbach should have had some more congenial
subject entrusted to it, for a series of great public works,
in the city of his home, than the illustration of an almost
personal theme; for Kaulbach’s true path lies among the
highest regions of the ideal.
Yet, even working upon this task, his genius has burst
forth in many a beautiful and poetic touch, contrasting
wonderfully with the vein of genial humour and keen
satire running through the whole series; as characteristic
of the man as in his spirit of tenderness, grace, and beauty.
The first in order of this series—though not the first
completed—is the design upon which the painter is now
at work. It is an allegorical representation of the tri-
umph of knowledge and modern taste over the formalities
and stagnation of what the Germans designate the
“ Zopf-Zeit, or Pigtail-age. Kaulbach’s peculiar spirit
of humour and satire, to which I have just referred, and of
which his designs to “ Reineke Fuchs ” are a striking ex-