Studio: international art (17.1899)

The Munich Secessionists Exhibition

Munich, as for several years past, its exhibition of
the “ Kiinstlergenossenschaft,” and that of the
“Secession,” in the handsome building opposite
the Glyptothek, in which it has now found a per-
manent home. Of all these the richest, the most
compact, and the most perfect is the exhibition of
the “ Secession ” at Munich. This exhibition
reveals the fact that Munich art is still under the
sway of those two factors which are indispensable
in all healthy development—tradition and pro-
gress. Tradition prevents the tactless adoption
of everything new, simply on account of its new-
ness; progress guards tradition against stagnation,
and obtains for the really gifted of the younger
generation recognition by the older artists.

The display of the Secession is remarkable for
a number of important figure paintings, among
which foremost places are occupied by a large
religious painting by Fritz v. Uhde, Anbetung der

Kdnige, and a picture by Ludwig Herterich,
Ulrich von Hutten. In Herterich’s painting we
see a knight in shining armour, standing with
drawn sword before a life-size figure of the crucified
Saviour, as though mounting guard. As fighting
for Christ, Hutten felt he was fighting the world,
and thus Herterich has painted him. The artist
has not given him the features of his portrait which
has come down to us in numerous works, but has
created a typical figure of a Christian knight, a
Miles christianus, which in the literature of the
Reformation period was generally accepted as the
ideal conception, and has been made illustrious
by Albrecht Diirer in his well-known engraving,
Ritter, Tod und Teufel. We may thus find in
Herterich’s painting a fruitful historic and re-
ligious theme ; but even as a purely artistic creation,
it offers us much to enjoy and admire. The com-
position is of monumental grandeur and simplicity;

“ FRAU MUSICA

180

BY WILHELM VOI.Z