The wise and the foolish virgins (Cornelius)
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| The wise and the foolish virgins |
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| Peter von Cornelius , 1813–1819 |
| Oil on canvas |
| 116 × 155 cm |
| Art Museum, Düsseldorf |
The wise and the foolish virgins is a painting by Peter von Cornelius , who belongs to the Nazarenes . The subject of the painting is the New Testament parable of the wise and foolish virgins . The painting, created between 1813 and 1819, which remained unfinished on the left, was acquired by the Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf in 1861 , where it is still located today.
The parable
In the Gospel of Matthew rendered parable deals with the preparation for the Kingdom of God , the crucial deciding between election and damnation are.
“Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were clever. The foolish took their lamps with them, but no oil, but the wise took, besides the lamps, oil in jugs. When the bridegroom did not come for a long time, they all became tired and fell asleep. In the middle of the night one suddenly heard loud shouts: The bridegroom is coming! Go to meet him! Then the virgins all got up and adjusted their lamps. But the foolish said to the wise: Give us some of your oil, or our lamps will go out. The wise replied to them: Then there is neither enough for us nor for you; go to the dealers and buy what you need. While they were still on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom came; the virgins who were ready went with him into the wedding hall and the door was locked. Later the other virgins also came and shouted: Lord, Lord, open up for us! But he answered them, Amen, I say to you, I do not know you. So be vigilant! For you know neither the day nor the hour. ( Mt 25 : 1-13 EU ) "
Image content
Between 1813 and 1815, Peter von Cornelius planned to depict all Christian parables in one cycle of paintings. The first preliminary drawings for the painting were made in Orvieto, Italy, in 1813 . In the autumn of the same year he began to work in Florence on the version that is now in Düsseldorf. When Cornelius was commissioned to paint the frescoes for Casa Bartholdy in 1816 , work on the painting stalled. In 1819 Cornelius left Rome for Germany. The still unfinished painting remained in Joseph Anton Koch's studio .
Peter von Cornelius interprets the parable here somewhat freely. Matthew reports that Christ tells this parable. However, he does not play an active role in it himself. Here, on the other hand, he is depicted as the bridegroom who appears on a cloud from the gate of paradise. He is surrounded by angels and prophets of the New and Old Testaments. Five women in the foreground are prepared for his arrival; their lamps are lit. In the semi-dark background are the foolish virgins who are desperately trying to buy oil.
classification
The painting is characteristic of the Nazarenes' art movement . Nazarene art is a romantic-religious art movement founded by German artists in Vienna and Rome at the beginning of the 19th century . They had set themselves the goal of renewing art in the spirit of Christianity, using old Italian and German masters as models. Representatives of this style, known as the Nazarenes, were predominantly close to Catholicism . They influenced the art of the entire Romantic period .
The influence of mannerism can be clearly seen in the painting. Some of the saints as well as some of the virgins are painted after Raphael's models . The depiction of Christ as the bridegroom mentioned in the parable occurs here for the first time. The picture inspired Bertel Thorvaldsen , who owned the painting for several years from 1831, to his statue of Christ in the Frauenkirche , Copenhagen, and also influenced the painting of the same name by Friedrich Wilhelm von Schadows , which was created between 1838 and 1848. The Blessing Christ , iconographically a novelty at the time, was one of the most copied statues in Europe in the 19th century and was particularly popular in cemeteries.
In 1891 the Erlöserkirche Bad Kissingen received a glass window, the "Christ window in the choir room". It was made by the Mayer'schen kgl. Hofkunst Anstalt, MUENCHEN, the delivery book from January 1891 (page 143 below) in the company's archive confirms the production of the window "after (a sculpture by) Thorwaldsen".
It can be assumed that other churches also received such windows.
supporting documents
literature
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art: German Masters of the Nineteenth Century: Paintings and Drawings from the Federal Republic of Germany , Harry N. Abrams, New York 1981, ISBN 0-87099-263-5
Single receipts
- ^ The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 84