The meadow fence
The meadow fence is a short story by the Austrian writer Franz Karl Ginzkey that first appeared in 1913. It is an artist novella that revolves around the person of Albrecht Dürer and is set in Nuremberg from 1518 to 1520. The title refers to a copper engraving by Dürer from the year 1518, on which the Madonna can be seen crowned by two angels in an open landscape in front of a wicker fence. Werner Welzig writes in his article about Ginzkey in the New German Biography: With the Dürer novella Der Wiesenzaun (1913), on the other hand, Ginzkey places himself in the ranks of the great German novelists.
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The humanist Willibald Pirckheimer brings his friend, the famous painter Albrecht Dürer, to the house of the former Landsknecht Jörg Graff , whose commander Pirckheimer was in the Swiss Wars. Since Graff saved his daughter from a burning house, he has been blind and hires out his life as a petty singer who, led by his daughter, moves from pub to pub. Pirckheimer repeatedly asserts his influence for Graff. The aging Dürer is very impressed by the beauty and the innocent charm of the young girl and he makes a drawing of her unnoticed. Based on this drawing, he makes an engraving of Our Lady, who is surrounded by many angels. Dürer's wife Agnes suspects that her husband feels more for the girl than for an ordinary model.
Felicitas, that's the name of Graff's daughter, searches several times for the way into Dürer's house. Dürer is also aware that he is strongly attracted to Felicita's beauty. But he promises his wife that there will be nothing more than interest in a beautiful person. When Dürer is staying with Emperor Maximilian in Augsburg , Felicitas learns from one of Dürer's assistants that she was depicted as a Madonna and takes a copy of the picture home with her.
After Dürer returned to Nuremberg, he was invited to dinner by his patron Pirckheimer. On this occasion he shows him a copper engraving that he has created in the meantime. It shows a Madonna in the open landscape, behind whose back a simple willow fence runs. Behind this, the sea can be seen in a greater distance. Pirckheimer immediately recognizes that the Virgin Mary in turn bears the features of Felicitas. But he is alienated by the fence that seems to cut up the picture. Dürer explains to him that he has developed a deep affection for Felicitas, which she reciprocates. But it must not belong to him. In this way he has overcome himself and increased her image to the supernatural, while he has preserved his purity and inner peace. He says to Pirckheimer:
"Because everything heavenly pure and great in art is acquired no other than that a grim fence knows how to separate longing from fulfillment, spirit from flesh, love from lust."
Meanwhile, Felicitas saw herself as Madonna in a dream. In the course of this, however, she loses all heavenly attributes and becomes a simple earthly woman who faces Dürer. Finally all covers fall off her and she shows herself to the artist how God created her. She wakes up excited and sneaks out of the house to go to Dürer. On the way she meets the guy who is just going home from Pirckheimer. When they hug and kiss each other, shouts can be heard. The blind Jörg Graff had woken up in confusion, had not found his daughter and was madly wandering through the house with his old mercenary sword, killing his landlord in the process. Graff flees to a monastery, where he initially finds refuge. The journeyman baker Scherlin, who has long since courted Felicitas but was turned away by her, brings her to his home because she cannot stay in the house of the murdered man. She realizes that he means well with her. After a long, severe fever, she married Scherlin. But the marriage is not happy.
After a year and a half, when Dürer was on a trip to Antwerp with his wife , he received a letter from Pirckheimer, in which the latter informed him that Felicitas had become a victim of the plague that raged in Nuremberg. At the same time, Pirckheimer asks himself: “Were you right with your meadow fence? Have you perhaps not separated love from pleasure a little too strictly? "
expenditure
- The meadow fence . Narrative. Staackmann, Leipzig 1913.
- Selected works in four volumes . Vol. 2 novellas. Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1960.
Dubbing
- Joseph Gustav Mraczek: Madonna at the meadow fence (Mr. Dürer's picture) . Opera in three acts. Libretto by Artur Ostermann (1927) [1]
literature
- Wilhelm Olbrich (ed.): The novelist . The content of German novels and short stories from baroque to naturalism. Part I: Alexis – Hermann Kurz. Anton Hiersemann, Stuttgart 1950, p. 177.
- Helene Hofmann: Franz Karl Ginzkey. The poet's life and work. Univ. Diss., Vienna 1923.
- Robert Hohlbaum : Franz Karl Ginzkey. His life and work. Staackmann, Leipzig 1921.