The sin
|
| The sin |
|---|
| Franz von Stuck , around 1893 |
| Oil painting |
| 94.5 × 59.5 cm |
| New Pinakothek , Munich |
Sin is a painting by Franz von Stuck from 1893. It is one of his best-known pictures and can be assigned to symbolism . It is shown today in Munich's Neue Pinakothek .
background
A forerunner for sin is Stuck's drawing History of the picture portfolio Allegorien und Embleme , published by Gerlach & Schenk in Vienna , from the year 1884. It shows a female figure standing between columns with Doric capitals . Half-columns with Doric capitals also form the sides of the gilded architectural frame for the later painting entitled The Sin of 1893. At that time, the erotic type of woman , the femme fatale , with large eyes, and scarce, fashionable clothing from the late 19th century, emerged seductive pose than Stuck's trademark. But Stuck's works were also caricatured . The draftsman and caricaturist Theo Zasche used sin and other nude pictures of women on an invitation to a Gschnas festival on the occasion of Walpurgis Night in Vienna's Künstlerhaus in 1895. The work became known shortly after its creation, but did not cause a scandal. In 1899 in Vienna it received the “State Gold Medal” intended for foreign artists. In Stuck's villa , which was completed in 1898 , the image has a special meaning. Since 1901 a version of sin with a gold frame has been hanging on a kind of "altar" in Stuck's studio at the time. It was the "spatial and ideal center of the house".
description
The painting has the dimensions 94.5 × 59.5 centimeters and is executed using the painting technique oil on canvas . It has been in the possession of the Pinakothek since 1893. Sin is a hip image from the image detail; the face of the woman is shown as a three-quarter portrait, and the face of the snake as a portrait en face .
Shown is a woman, Anna Maria Brandmaier from Bayerdilling , a childhood sweetheart and model of Franz Stuck, who is in eye contact with the viewer. Her face is shaded, but the pupils of her large, white-highlighted eyes are pointed sideways to the left. The mouth is closed. Compared to the rest of the face, these eyes form a strong contrast between light and dark. The long black hair surrounds the almost white body with its half-visible breasts. The nipples and navel with their points form a triangle stretched downwards in the composition .
Around her body and neck there is an enlarged dark blue snake adorned with light blue patterns, whose head rests on the right shoulder and chest of the woman and also looks directly at the viewer. The snake's head has eyes with highlights and an open mouth with the snake-typical fangs, which is supposed to trigger an association with the danger of the animal for the viewer. The motif of the serpent, in close connection with a woman, relates to the Old Testament sin , and is represented in the Bible in first book of Moses ( Gen 3 EU ). The snake is thus presented in Stuck's picture as a symbol of seduction and danger. To the right above the woman's white body, a picture surface with an orange-colored contrast forms the background, which can be seen as hellfire for those who accept the temptations and sin. In this highlighted area there is also the unmistakable signature of the painter in his typical typeface: FRANZ STVCK. Otherwise the background is strikingly black and has no depth.
The architecturally looking picture frame has a special meaning for the picture. Its purpose was to emphasize the uniqueness of the painting in the mostly overloaded exhibitions at the time and to draw attention to the picture. In addition, the frame bears the title of the picture in a certain contemporary font style: DIE SUENDE . In other versions of the picture, the title is DIE SVENDE , with the V and E appearing as a ligature . Here you can see that Stuck had experience in presenting as a draftsman, graphic artist and illustrator. Stuck saw his craft framework as part of a tactical masterpiece that he not only created in his work, but also built his entire artistic life on it.
Versions
There are 11 other versions of the motif of sin by Franz Stuck as an oil painting with an individually designed gold frame. However, four are missing.
Sensuality as an etching , 1889
Version as an oil painting from around 1897
Sin , version from 1906
Version that was made around 1912
interpretation
According to contemporary interpreters, the picture should show the woman with her allegedly “insatiable sexuality” as the “man's seductress”. Today's interpretations tend to see the backdrop, flatness and shadowiness of the composition in the picture. The snake therefore only presents the female body in order to give it the role of a lure. Anyone who is attracted by it has to fear the hellfire, symbolized in the top right of the picture as an orange-colored surface. Stuck cleverly uses elements of contemporary morality, such as those represented by the Church, to exercise power over the human sex drive. Power over images means having power over people. Stuck uses and reduces the female body as a tool for his own will to power in relation to his career, recognition and material prosperity. Franz von Stuck knew how to market himself excellently in his epoch with pictures such as Die Sünde .
Review and reception
Contemporary viewers saw in the picture, which was a downright cult image in the fin de siècle , a “demonic seductive woman”, “an embodiment of sin, of eroticism”, entirely in the bigoted moral thinking of the male-dominated epoch with its pompous male fantasies, which moved through the entire German culture of that style. Franz von Stuck, ennobled since 1906, was the undisputed "painter prince" in those years, was mostly dominant in exhibitions and was very positively discussed in the newspapers. In later times, the judgment of Franz von Stuck changed - his work and thus also sin , according to modern critics, fell into the realm of the ridiculous and kitschy .
- Report in the FAZ of November 2, 2014 about the auction of a version of sin at Sotheby’s in New York with a negative evaluation of Rose-Maria Gropp's picture
- Website welt.de with a report on the exhibition Sin and Secession - Franz Stuck in Vienna in the Belvedere 2016
- Interview by the Münchner Abendzeitung on December 27, 2012 with Margot Brandlhuber, the curator at the Museum Villa Stuck, about the image's appeal that still exists today
Exhibitions
- 1893 Pinakothek Munich
- 1897 in the Viennese gallery Miethk
- Franz von Stuck, play and sensuality. Middle Rhine Museum Koblenz, June 25 to August 30, 1998
- Franz von Stuck: The miller's son and the myths. December 4, 2008 to March 15, 2009 in the Villa Stuck in Munich
- Sin and Secession: Franz von Stuck in Vienna. Lower Belvedere Vienna, July 1, 2016 to October 9, 2016
literature
- Albert Ritthaler: Sin. In: Klaus Weschenfelder (ed.): Franz von Stuck, play and sensuality. Koblenz 1998, pp. 12-25.
- Thomas Blisniewski: "The naked woman beckons with glowing eyes": 'The Sin' Franz von Stuck in the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum - Foundation Corboud. In: Cologne Museum Bulletin. Issue 1. Cologne 2004, ISSN 0178-4218 , pp. 22-33.
- Wibke Neugebauer: Franz von Stuck: “The Sin”… In: From Böcklin to Kandinsky: Art-technological research on tempera painting in Munich between 1850 and 1914 . Pro Business, 2016, ISBN 978-3-86460-300-6 , pp. 150-151 ( books.google.de ).
- About intoxication and sin - Franz von Stuck and the beginnings of Vienna . In: Fresko Magazin . 2015 ( fresko-magazin.de ).
- Agnes Husslein-Arco, Alexander Klee (Ed.): Sünde and Secession. Franz von Stuck in Vienna. Hirmer, Vienna / Munich 2016, ISBN 978-3-7774-2693-8 .
Web links
- Sin on the Neue Pinakothek website
- Website of the Villa Stuck with a description of the so-called altar in Stuck's studio
Individual evidence
- ↑ https://artinwords.de/franz-von-stuck-suende-und-secession/
- ^ Evening edition of the Pester Lloyd newspaper of May 13, 1899.
- ↑ a b Agnes Husslein-Arco, Alexander Klee (Ed.): Sünde and Secession. Franz von Stuck in Vienna. Pp. 17, 54, 55, 71.
- ↑ Ulrike Voswinckel: It happened in the Villa Stuck: story of the daughter of sin. February 23, 2013, accessed January 13, 2018 .
- ^ Hans Meissner: Franz Stuck. Berlin, Leipzig 1899, p. 31.
- ^ Heinrich Voss: Franz von Stuck 1863–1928. Catalog of works of paintings with an introduction to its symbolism In: Materials on the Art of the Nineteenth Century. Volume 1. Prestel, Munich 1973, ISBN 3-7913-0337-6 , p. 299.
- ↑ Franz von Stuck: 'Sin' - Power and its means (1893). In: Culture magazine Mahogany. (Extensive description and interpretation of the painting).
- ↑ Sin: A Dream . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . November 2, 2014 ( faz.net ).
- ↑ Franz von Stuck: If you want a lot, make it a little humid! In: Die Welt Online . September 12, 2016 ( welt.de ).
- ↑ Christa Sigg: 2013 is the anniversary: Franz von Stuck was born 150 years ago: Nacked, sinful - radical . In: evening newspaper . December 27, 2012 ( abendzeitung-muenchen.de ).
- ^ Rose-Maria Gropp: Exhibition: Franz von Stuck: The miller's son and the myths . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . January 30, 2009 ( faz.net ).