Artemis Selene relief
The Artemis Selene Relief , also Artemis Relief , is a high relief by Friedrich Distelbarth (1768–1836) at Rosenstein Castle in Stuttgart, which shows the nightfall with the moon goddess Artemis / Selene .
| Work title | Artemis Selene relief |
| Artist | Friedrich Distelbarth |
| Art | High relief |
| motive | Allegory of the approaching night |
| material | Sandstone |
| Dimensions | Height 2.38 m, width 12.06 m |
| Year of origin | 1830 |
| Location | Stuttgart, Rosenstein Castle, gable field at the main entrance |
description
The sandstone relief represents the nightfall, symbolized by the moon goddess Artemis / Selene , who hurries to her lover Endymion, and her daughter Ersa , the goddess of dew. Both are surrounded by a mother with her sleeping children, a sleeping young field worker, the state patroness Württembergia and the slumbering hunter Endymion, who is equipping two nymphs with a canopy of leaves.
The name Artemis-Selene-Relief comes from the main motif of the relief with the goddess Artemis or Selene. Artemis, usually known as the goddess of the hunt, was also revered as the goddess of the moon and was often equated with the goddess of the moon Selene.
Distelbarth created the relief in 1830 based on a design by the painter Johann Friedrich Dieterich . It was built into the gable of the southwest main entrance, which forms a flat triangle with a height of 2.38 meters and a width of 12.06 meters.
Note: The gable of the portico on the morning side of the palace bears the Helios relief by the Stuttgart sculptor Ludwig Mack with the sun god Helios, who lights up the day.
Location
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The Rosenstein Castle, built in neoclassical style by the Italian architect Giovanni Salucci, “forms an elongated square. The whole is cut through by a higher central building, so it has 5 wings. The central building with the connected wings forms the two main facades towards Stuttgart [south-west] and towards Cannstatt or the Neckar [north-east], in the middle of which a protruding portico with 6 columns forms the main entrances. " |
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The artistic program of the two main porticos is closely related to their spatial location (see map on the left). The portico on the morning side of the palace bears the Helios relief by the Stuttgart sculptor Ludwig Mack with the sun god Helios, who lights up the day. The portico on the evening side with the entrance to the Museum Schloss Rosenstein has the Artemis Selene relief in the gable, to which the arrow in the picture above points, with the approaching goddess of the moon. |
composition
The composition of the relief is divided into eight image fields, which are numbered from 1 to 8 in the illustration above. The following figures are included in the image fields:
- the hunter Endymion with his dog
- two nymphs
- the state patroness Württembergia
- Putti and lion head
- the moon goddess Artemis / Selene on her two-horse chariot
- the dew goddess Ersa
- sleeping mother with two sleeping children
- sleeping field worker
history
The Rosenstein castle was 1822-1830 on behalf of Württemberg King Wilhelm I to plans by the Italian architect Giovanni Salucci in neoclassical built style. The two main gable fields were to be decorated with reliefs based on designs by the painter Johann Friedrich Dieterich . In 1826 a royal decree was issued to the two sculptors Distelbarth and Mack to create the six plaster molds for the reliefs for a fee of 4,000 guilders each over a period of two years. The design should be made of cast iron, but a variant in sandstone or stucco was also discussed. In 1827 the king decided to use local sandstone. This work was also assigned to the two sculptors for a fee of 5800 guilders each and a period of four years was set for completion.
The southwestern Artemis Selene relief was made by Friedrich Distelbarth, the northeastern Helios relief by Ludwig Mack. Before the inauguration of the castle in 1830, the gable fields were temporarily filled with stucco casts. After the inauguration, the casts were not immediately exchanged for the stone reliefs that were now completed, but only in 1835.
The sandstone of the reliefs has withstood almost two centuries well. A wire netting was meanwhile stretched in front of the reliefs to protect them from pigeons.
reception
The Distelbarth high relief seems (like its counterpart, the Helios relief) to have been discussed only by two contemporaries (Grüneisen and Seyffer), who both saw the relief on the ground before it was built into the gable field. The lack of attention is probably due to the fact that the relief was installed high up in the air, where it is easy to overlook it and details are difficult to see, perhaps also due to the artist's unknown nature.
Ernst Eberhard Friedrich von Seyffer , the director of the Royal Building and Gardening Directorate in Stuttgart, limited himself in Seyffer 1830 to the description of the two reliefs. Carl Grüneisen, editor of the Morgenblatt for educated estates , praised the relief in 1830: “This successful composition produces a highly satisfying effect.” And: “In the three-dimensional execution by the chisel of the court sculptor Distelbarth, the whole thing is deliberately flatter held, as with Mack, and looks great with almost always good lighting and adequate space to view on the spot. ”( Grüneisen , page 290).
iconography
In his design for the Artemis Selene relief, Johann Friedrich Dieterich was able to fall back on at least two groups of motifs that were already known in antiquity.
Selene and Endymion. “Selene fell in love with Endymion. She put him in a cave on Mount Latmos in Caria. There Selene, with the help of Zeus, let him fall into an eternal sleep in order to save him from death and thereby give him eternal youth. ”(See Endymion ). The sleeping lover and the nightly visit of Selene was a common motif in the fine arts and popular with the Romans as a symbol of eternal sleep as a sarcophagus relief (see Koortbojian ).
Württembergia. The enthroned, motherly woman with the cornucopia in her arms goes back to the motif of the enthroned goddess of fortune Fortuna , who pours her wealth over the people with the cornucopia. The motif was often used in statuettes that served as votive offerings and were widespread in the Roman Empire.
Details
Center
| Field of view | description |
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The moon goddess Artemis / Selene on her two-horse chariot. The main motif of the relief shows in the middle of the gable field, under the roof ridge, the moon goddess Artemis / Selene, who rushes up from the right on a two-horse chariot to embrace her lover Endymion and leads the night up to the already slumbering people. The two galloping, unharnessed horses rear up and brake in front of the state patroness Württembergia ( image field 3 ), with their front hooves almost trampling the small child ( image field 4 ) who is pawing the lion's head.
The floor-length, pleated robe of the diadem-wreathed Artemis / Selene only leaves arms, neck and feet free. It lies close to the body and emphasizes the lush and tall figure of the goddess, who stands as if striding in her chariot, and, bending back slightly, swings up the veil with her left arm in a high arc, which the night wind blows into the shape of a crescent moon. With her outstretched right arm she holds the torch in the air, with which she illuminates the night and outshines the stars of the sky. |
Left half of the picture
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Endymion the hunter with his dog. In the acute angle of the left gable corner, the beautiful Endymion, with curly hair and a short tunic , lies casually on a cloth-covered kline . The spearhead that protrudes behind his head and the dog, also lying on the ground with the ears raised on his left, identify him as a hunter. Artemis / Selene, his lover, “let him fall into an eternal sleep with the help of Zeus in order to save him from death and thereby give him eternal youth. Every night she came to him in the cave. They had fifty daughters ”(see Endymion ). The two nymphs ( field 2 ) on his left are preparing a protective roof made of oak tree branches. | |
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The two nymphs. Two curly, foliage-wreathed, naked nymphs pull the branches of an oak tree down to create a protective arbor for the beautiful hunter Endymion, ready to receive the eagerly awaited, beloved Artemis / Selene. The left nymph, whose lower body is covered by one of the legs of the Endymion, seems to be gazing pensively into the distance, while she reaches into her face with her arm bent. The other, whose legs are hidden behind a stone wall, reaches over her with arms stretched out to grab two oak branches and pensively gazes into space. | |
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The state patroness Württembergia. To the right of the sleeping Endymion and the two nymphs and in the face of Artemis / Selene rushing up in a chariot , the personified patroness Württembergia is enthroned as serious and dignified as a matron , facing the beholder. In her left hand she is holding a huge, spirally fluted cornucopia filled with fruit, pine cones and grapes, testifying to the country's overflowing wealth. Over the floor-length undergarment, she wears a cloak-like wrap that melts into rich folds over her lap, chest and arm. The curly head is crowned by a stylized bushel , a symbol of the fertility of the land.
Four putti , symbolizing their country children, happily crowd around the country mother. With her right arm she embraces one of the two naked putti, who huddle against her lap and offer her flowers and ears of wheat. On her left a naked putto, turned away from her, leans casually on her legs. One does not know whether the high-spirited boy wants to worship the grapes in his raised hand of Württembergia or whether he would boastfully show them to his buddy, the only clothed child of the four country children, who may put an arm on his thigh, but not at all looks at him because he is busy stroking the mane of a lion's head ( image field 4 ). |
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Putti and lion head. The clad putto to the left of the country's mother ( image field 3 ) places his right hand confidentially on the thigh of his comrade, with the left he pats the lion's mighty mane of curly hair. This also stands as a symbol for Württemberg, on whose coat of arms the lion was emblazoned in three copies. |
Right half of the picture
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The dew goddess Ersa. Ersa, the youthful goddess of dew and daughter of Artemis / Selene, flies after her mother like a floating angel under the star-wreathed sky, just touching the ground with her right foot. Pushing diagonally upwards and forwards, its shape cleverly nestles into the inclination of the gable.
Almost frontally facing the viewer, she stretches her bare arms over her head, holding the tumbler in one hand, which she pours over the earth. The wafer-thin, transparent garment melts into many folds and flutters around the whole figure with an endlessly long tip like an aureole . Note: In Seyffer 1831 , page 30, it says: “behind her [Artemis / Selene] the Thau floats in female youth”. It is obvious that the two dew goddesses Ersa and Herse can only mean Ersa, Selene's daughter. By the way, Ernst Eberhard Friedrich Seyffer, the author of Seyffer 1831 , was director of the Royal Building and Gardening Directorate in Stuttgart and received his information about the relief directly from Dieterich and Distelbarth. |
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Sleeping mother with two sleeping children. A young mother with shoulder-length hair and a bare torso is crouching with bent knees on a low seat, holding a naked baby on her lap, which she clasps protectively with her left arm and presses against her. She bends her head with the closed lids down to the child and hugs her face tenderly against the slumbering child's head.
Across from her crouches a half-grown, sleeping child with curly hair and a short robe, which trustingly hugs its head on its mother's knees. The group of three envelops part of the maternal robe like a protective cloak, a touching symbol of the close bond between the mother and her children. |
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Sleeping field worker. In the acute angle of the right-hand gable corner, a half-naked, crouching young woman crouches next to a bundle of ears of corn under the sloping roof. Surprised by the night in the field, she sank to the ground and hides her tired face behind the outstretched left arm that holds the wrinkled end of her robe. |
literature
- Unpublished documents: Ludwigsburg, State Archives, E 21 Bü 264.
- Herbert Fecker : Stuttgart. The castles and their gardens . Stuttgart 1992.
- Karl Grüneisen: About the works of art of the royal country house Rosenstein near Stuttgart . In: Morgenblatt for educated estates, Kunst-Blatt , 1830 No. 73, 289–291.
- Rotraud Harling and Manfred Warth: Castle and Park Rosenstein , Stuttgart 1993.
- Michael Koortbojian: Myth, Meaning, and Memory on Roman Sarcophagi , University of California Press 1995 Digitized
- Ernst Eberhard Friedrich von Seyffer: The royal country house Rosenstein . In: Württemberg year books for patriotic history, geography, statistics and topography , 1830, 307–360.
- Ernst Eberhard Friedrich von Seyffer: Description of the royal country house Rosenstein . Stuttgart 1831, p. 27–30 ( online in Google Book Search).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Seyffer 1830 , page 331.
- ↑ Dimensions in feet according to Seyffer 1831 , page 29, converted into meters (1 foot = 0.286 meters).
- ↑ Seyffer 1831 , pp. 27–29 (spelling adjusted, omissions not marked).
- ↑ Unpublished Documents No. 1–2.
- ↑ Unpublished documents No. 1, Appendix 4, No. 10 and 12. The fee included costs for laborers, tools and the construction of a correspondingly large studio, so that only 1160 guilders were left for the sculptors.
- ↑ See Fecker , pp. 87–88.
- ↑ The Helios relief on the other side of the castle shows the god of the Neckar, also with an overflowing cornucopia.
- ↑ Ludwigsburg, State Archives, E 21 Bü 264, No. 1 and 9, agree with Stuttgart, Main State Archives, E 14 Bü 192, No. 37 (without enclosures) and 45, respectively.
Coordinates: 48 ° 48 ′ 1.29 " N , 9 ° 12 ′ 20.73" E