Bridal procession in spring
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| Bridal procession in spring |
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| Ludwig Richter , 1847 |
| Oil on canvas |
| 93 × 150 cm |
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New Masters Gallery in the Albertinum State Art Collections Dresden |
The Bridal Procession in Spring is a painting by the German painter and graphic artist Ludwig Richter and is located in the Neue Meister gallery in Dresden.
Image description
" Bridal train. Spring landscape. The procession emerges to the right out of the forest, at the head of which, already in the middle of the picture, the bride and groom in old German costume. Children hurrying ahead with wreaths and a puppy have already reached the bridge that leads further to the left across the stream. In the middle distance by a flock of sheep at a sunny height sits a young shepherd blowing the flute; next to him the shepherdess and a shepherd boy. Left distant view up to blue mountains; in front of it a castle. Inscribed on the lower left: L. Richter. 1847 "
This entry in Karl Woermanns's gallery catalog from 1887 can only give a brief overview of the presented scenery.
The bridal procession
The lighting is focused on the bride and groom walking through two gnarled trees that lean towards them. The groom wears a wide-brimmed felt hat in his hand, while on his head he wears a Schapel (hoop-shaped headdress).
To his left is the bride, who is wearing a myrtle wreath as a sign of her virginity. She wears a long pink dress with a train, which she puts on so as not to step on the hem. Both bride and groom wear rose petals on their robes.
Behind the bride and groom run the bride's parents, who have been described several times in the literature as millers. The robe and hat of the handsome miller are also adorned with roses; he carries a tool or a weapon in a case on his belt. The woman, a little hunched over and careworn, wears a rosary over her arm, her headscarf and her clothes do not wear any jewelry. Both of them use walking sticks, whether of their age or their refinement.
The millers are followed by other people from the wedding party, such as a bridesmaid in an unadorned yellow robe and a man in a Tyrolean hat who turns to a woman who is wearing an ivy wreath.
On the tree next to the bridegroom there is a wayside shrine which is decorated with fresh roses and on which a bird, probably a dove, is sitting. Behind the bridal procession, in the forest, you can see the chapel where the wedding ceremony should have taken place. Two birds cavort in the air in front of the chapel.
The children
Some distance in front of the bridal procession, already outside the cone of light, 5 children, 3 girls and 2 boys with a dog pass a bridge that leads over a stream. The bridge is secured on one side with a railing. The girls wear wreaths of myrtle in their hair, the girl hurrying ahead scatters flowers for the bride and groom. A second, older girl is holding a smaller child with one hand and a basket of flowers in the other.
The two boys carry bridal wreaths on long poles, the boy in front is no longer involved and looks in the direction of the creek, where something seems to have caught his attention.
The shepherds
A little way off in a meadow, also outside the cone of light, a group of shepherds is watching the procession. A shepherd is playing on a flute, accompanied by a reclining female figure who is watching the wedding procession with interest. Next to them is a shepherd boy with the shepherd's staff, who, looking up, stretches his arms cheerfully to the sky. He is accompanied by the shepherd dog and a flock of sheep.
The landscape
Behind the group of shepherds the landscape opens up and the view wanders, past the edge of the forest with a leap of deer , over a lovely hilly landscape. On the right, below a castle, the gables and roofs of buildings can be seen, the building called a mill in literature is decorated with a flag.
Origin and meaning
Richter worked on the picture from 1845 to spring 1847.
Neither landscape, nor genre or historical, this painting can hardly be classified in one of the classic genres. According to Heinrich Richter, the son of Ludwig Richter, his father was inspired for this picture by a visit to Richard Wagner's opera Tannhäuser . The statements about the picture handed down by Ludwig Richter himself are rather poor and not very helpful for an interpretation. Only his complaints about the long time he spent working on the "large" [sic!] Picture can be taken as evidence that the artist was intensively concerned with the subject.
In order to understand the meaning of this painting, it is helpful to include the deep religiosity of Ludwig Richter. Richter was a devout Catholic and that
"Endeavor to bring art, or rather landscape painting, into agreement with my inner life, with Christianity,"
was a central point of departure for his painting.
It therefore makes sense to examine the scene, which at first glance is perceived as a Biedermeier , backward- looking idyll, for the content of sacred iconography. The focus can be placed on the explanation of the following picture elements:
- The hat: The hat that the groom wears in his hands hardly matches his costume, it is more reminiscent of the hats that carpenters wear on their travels. He couldn't have carried it on his head either because of the clapboard that adorns him.
- the steep bank: the group of shepherds sits on a steep bank that is dangerously undercut and can break off at any time.
- the water: The stream does not continue below the bridge, there is no longer any watercourse to be seen.
These image attributes can be used as evidence for the thesis that Richter has thematized the entry into paradise with the depicted scene , as the entry of the human race into a landscape as a paradisiacal garden, in the sense of the classic view of Claude Lorrain , Poussin or Joseph Anton Koch .
- The hat can be a reference to Jesus of Nazareth , who learned the trade of carpenter.
- The steep bank and the water have lost their danger in paradise, a place of peace where
“Wolves live with the lambs and leopards lie with the goats. ... cows and bears will go to the pasture so that their young will lie together; and lions will eat straw like oxen. And a baby will enjoy the otter's hole. ... There will be no harm or spoil anywhere. "
This vision of peace may also have been a response of the painter Ludwig Richter to the uprisings of the Vormärz .
Provenance, exhibition and use of motifs
Shortly after the painting was completed, it was acquired by the Lindenau Foundation of the former Saxon State Minister Bernhard von Lindenau and exhibited in the Royal Picture Gallery in Dresden as one of the first works of Saxon contemporary art. In 1854 the picture was shown at the General German Art Exhibition in Munich, and the following year it received a gold medal at the Paris World Exhibition . This event was celebrated by the Dresden artists with a torchlight procession, which also went to the sculptor Ernst Rietschel , who was also honored with the gold medal in Paris.
Engravings and woodcuts similar to the picture were made by the master himself, but also by other artists, for example as an 1867 annual gift for the members of the Saxon Art Association as an engraving by Ludwig Friedrich.
The motif of the children hurrying ahead was used in the prince procession in Dresden as an accompaniment for Ludwig Richter, who is shown in the final group.
For the multi-day anniversary event on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the New School Lotzdorf , today's Ludwig Richter School Oberschule Radeberg , in May 1954, a historical reconstruction of the image of the Bridal procession in spring was carried out in the festival parade, down to the smallest detail .
For the 13th Elbhangfest 2003, the bridal procession was lively recreated in spring .
Web links
- Bridal procession in spring in the online collection of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden
Individual evidence
- ^ Karl Woermann : Catalog of the Royal Picture Gallery in Dresden . General Directorate of the Royal Collections for Art and Science, Dresden 1887 ( Wikisource )
- ^ Karl Josef Friedrich: The paintings of Ludwig Richter. German Association for Art History, Berlin 1937
- ^ A b V. Paul Mohn: Ludwig Richter. Volume XIV of the Artist Monograph series. Velhagen and Klasing, Bielefeld and Leipzig 1896
- ↑ a b c d Gerd Spitzer in: Gerd Spitzer, Ulrich Bischoff (ed.): Ludwig Richter, The painter. Exhibition catalog Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden 2003
- ^ Hans Joachim Neidhardt: Ludwig Richter. Art booklet from the painter and work series. Verlag der Kunst, Dresden 1978
- ↑ taken from: Norbert Schneider: History of landscape painting. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2011
- ↑ Renate Schönfuß-Krause: Lotzdorf has always celebrated its festivities . teamwork-schoenfuss.de , accessed on August 26, 2018
- ↑ Homepage of the Elbhangfest, accessed on January 16, 2012