In addition to some early landscapes and numerous portraits, the painter's oeuvre is notable primarily for mythological and symbolic themes.Īround 1890, Von Stuck turned to sculpture and produced a number of statues and statuettes. His sitters' regal poses elevate them above the mundane, making them sublime and timeless. The drawings he did for the portfolio 'Allegorien und Embleme' ('Allegories and Emblems'), published by Gerlach and Schenk in Vienna, made his reputation as an outstanding draughtsman as early as 1882.Īwarded the gold medal for the painting "Die Wächter des Paradieses" ("The Guardians of Paradise) at the Annual Exhibition at the Munich Glass Palace in 1889, Von Stuck devoted himself entirely to painting, becoming a portraitist who was much in demand. Von Stuck attended the Munich School for the Applied Arts after secondary school, transferring in 1881 to the "Königliche Akademie der bildenden Künste" (Royal Academy for the Fine Arts). From 1878 to 1881 he attended the Kunstgewerbeschule in Munich, where he received particular encouragement from Ferdinand Barth (1842–92). ![]() He was noted for his treatment of erotic and comic aspects of mythological themes.Īs a child he quickly became a gifted caricaturist. These decorative elements, combined with a closely cropped composition and a background simplified into three distinct areas of colour, result in a powerful image which pushes man and beast into the foreground the viewer is confronted with an instantly recognizable yet powerfully symbolic image which has as much resonance today as it did for the audience for whom it was originally intended.This Website is Best Viewed Using Firefoxįranz Von Stuck was am influential German Symbolist/Art Nouveau painter, sculptor, engraver, and architect born at Tettenweis near Griesbach in Lower Bavaria, Germany, the son of a miller. Hercules mimics the pose of the warrior in the sculpture, which was itself derived from numerous charcoal Academic drawings made by the artist in preparation for his project (fig.2). The voluted frame balances and softens the rigid pose of Hercules, and echoes the sinuous and stylized form of the serpents. Here the drama of the subject is balanced by a decorative effect achieved through the artist's use of striking, almost artificial, blues and greens, and by a choice of frame which, as in most of von Stuck's paintings, is integral to the entire work. Von Stuck was an artist who blended his knowledge of sculpture, furniture design, the applied arts and painting to create objects that were profoundly decorative and heavily stylized. The appeal of this extraordinary painting to modern sensibilities lies primarily in its aesthetic qualities. ![]() Even in my religious pictures I try to bring out the universal human element.' Asked by a journalist which area of work intrigued him most, Stuck replied: 'My aim is to glorify male strength and female softness. Von Stuck typically found these themes in Greek mythology, an iconography he turned to not so much as part of a national call to reclaim a lost Arcadia, but generally to convey in a modern idiom the same universal themes they originally aimed to express. In addition to its specific political message, Hercules and the Hydra fits into a wider European artistic context, notably a monumental movement which glorified concepts such as perseverance, courage and strength. ![]() Like the athletic Hercules, the Wagnerian Siegfried of the Nibelungen saga symbolised courage and strength.' (exh. As Edwin Becker explains 'It was intended as a direct appeal for Germany to be defended tooth and nail against the surrounding countries and was adopted in all sectors of society.later, when it became clear that Germany was going to lose the war, it was renamed 'Siegrfried'. ![]() 1), the title of which refers to a motto introduced by the Kaiser, Wilhelm II, at the beginning of the First World War. The genesis of this painting is linked directly to one of von Stuck's most famous sculptures, Feinde Ringsum ( Enemies all around, fig. It is also one of the few works by the artist to have explicitly political overtones. One of the most important of Franz von Stuck's paintings, Hercules and the Hydra bears all the hallmarks for which the artist is most famed: it combines a mythological motif, a powerful, sculptural human form, with a profoundly decorative quality.
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