Bonaventure Genelli

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Bonaventura Genelli, 1864. Graphic by Adolf Neumann.
B. Genelli, Jason and Medea steal the Golden Fleece

Bonaventura Genelli (born September 28, 1798 in Berlin , † November 13, 1868 in Weimar ) was a German painter and graphic artist with Italian ancestors.

life and work

Bonaventura Genelli was the first of four sons of the landscape painter Janus Genelli . The Genelli family were friends with Carl von Brühl and went to see him in Seifersdorf (Wachau) . In 1803, Carl von Brühl took over the sponsorship of Bonaventura. He received his first lessons from his father, and from 1814 he attended the Berlin Academy , where he was taught by Gottfried Schadow and Johann Erdmann Hummel , among others . Even Friedrich Bury took there in his stead. But he received the decisive influence from his brilliant uncle, the architect Hans Christian Genelli . He became a draftsman of ancient mythological subjects and a portrait painter.

From 1822 to 1832 he stayed in Rome , where he maintained contacts with the German artists living there and devoted himself to studying ancient poets and Italian Renaissance artists . There he joined Joseph Anton Koch and the painter Müller by name, and Asmus Jakob Carstens became his role model. He soon developed a very significant production force, but did not come to mature creations in excess of the creative spirit, especially since he was opposed to oil painting.

Poseidon kills Ajax the little one , drawing by Bonaventura Genelli

In 1832 an order from Hermann Härtel called him to Leipzig from difficult circumstances , where he was supposed to decorate his Roman house with frescoes of mythological content, but he was not up to the task. He made only twelve spandrel paintings showing love gods at various games, and had only provided sketches for the ceiling of the hall when he split up with the client and interrupted the work.

Nude study

Desperate, Genelli went to Munich in 1836 , where he has lived since then, in order to find artistic commissions. But nothing came of it for many years. He was above all a draftsman; his drawings, some in watercolor and some in pen, found many admirers, but seldom buyers and only filled his own portfolios.

The quarter of a century of his stay in Munich was a gloomy and hard time for him. Later, his illustrations on mythological subjects from classical literature were particularly popular. This is how those cyclical compositions emerged that were later reproduced as engravings: such as the outline drawings for Homer in 48 sheets ( engraved by Hermann Schütz ); the outlines of Dante's “Divine Comedy ” (36 sheets, engraved by Schütz); the life of a witch (10 sheets, engraved by Merz and Gonzenbach , with text by Ulrici); the life of an artist (24 compositions, engraved by Merz, Gonzenbach et al.) and the life of a libertine , the latter repeated several times (lithographed by G. Koch).

The characteristics of these works include a sensuality soaked in the ancient Greek spirit, titanic power, a grandiose, admittedly often bold and extravagant sense of form and a talent for composition that dominates the rhythmic beauty.

The individual sheets were just as numerous, most of which came from his estate to the Vienna academic collection (284 sheets).

It was not until 1859 that he received a call from Grand Duke Karl Alexander to Weimar , where he could practice his art as a freelancer. When he moved to Weimar, his material hardship ended, but mainly his ingenuity as well, because he was now primarily occupied with executing compositions in oil that had already been made for Count Adolf Friedrich von Schack in Munich. Until the end of his life - he died on November 13, 1868 in Weimar - he worked for the count. Genelli was friends with the Italian art historian Giovanni Morelli .

Works

painting

  • Prometheus, 1850, New Museum Weimar
    Wall paintings in the Niobidensaal of the Neues Museum (Berlin) , executed by Wilhelm Peters (around 1850):
  • Robbery of Europe , 1860
  • Heracles Musagetes, singing his deeds before Omphale
  • Abraham, to whom angel announced the birth of Isaac , (1862)
  • Lycurgus, hounded to death by the Bacchantes , (1863)
  • Vision of Ezekiel , (1864)
  • Theater curtain (1864–1866), oil on canvas, 236 × 320.5 cm, Schackgalerie , Munich
  • Bacchus among the Muses , (1868)
  • Bacchus, taking revenge on the pirates , (unfinished)

Illustrations (selection)

Drawings and graphic sequences with mythological and historical themes:

  • Illustrations for Homer , from: Album of German Artists in Original Radirungen. Buddeus, Düsseldorf 1841
  • Jason and Medea steal the Golden Fleece (see also Digisat http://dfg-viewer.de/show )
  • Illustrations for Dante's Divine Comedy . In: Karl Witte (Ed.): Dante Alighieri. The divine comedy . Askanischer Verlag, Berlin 1921 (532 pages).

literature

Web links

Commons : Bonaventura Genelli  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Book "Karl Graf von Brühl and his parents" by Hans Krosigk, 1910 page 182
personal data
SURNAME Genelli, Bonaventure
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter and graphic artist
DATE OF BIRTH September 28, 1798
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH November 13, 1868
Place of death Weimar