Embarkation for Kythera
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| Embarkation for Kythera |
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| Jean-Antoine Watteau , 1710 |
| Oil on canvas |
| 43 × 53 cm |
| Städel , Frankfurt am Main |
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| Embarkation for Kythera |
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| Jean-Antoine Watteau , 1717 |
| Oil on canvas |
| 129 × 194 cm |
| Louvre |
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| Embarkation for Kythera |
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| Jean-Antoine Watteau , 1718 |
| Oil on canvas |
| 130 × 192 cm |
| Charlottenburg Palace, Berlin |
Embarkation to Kythera ( French Pèlerinage à l'île de Cythère ) is the title of three paintings by the French painter Jean-Antoine Watteau . The oldest and smallest version was created in 1710 and is located in the Städel , Frankfurt am Main. Seven years later, another version emerged, which is probably the best known. It is now in the Louvre in Paris and was created in 1717 as a belated work by Watteau for admission to the French Academy. The most recent and largest version, which was created in 1717 or 1718, is in Charlottenburg Palace , Berlin. With these so-called “ Fêtes galantes“-Paintings Watteau created a new pictorial tradition, in which Rubens and especially his painting Love Garden were the model. With them, however, Watteau established a pictorial tradition of depicting social life in the garden, which was formative up to the Impressionists.
Image content
All three paintings show an elegant company of young people gathered on a bank as if on a stage. You seem to be waiting; there is no recognizable common act. Jean-Antoine Watteau drew his inspiration from the comedy The Three Cousins by Dancourt , which premiered in Paris in 1700. The verses to which the picture refers are:
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In the oldest version, the focus is on three young women in shiny robes. All three of them keep their eyes down, the middle one tries to pull the others with her to the ship, where she is supported by a young man. The wedding god Hymenaios , who carries a torch in his left hand, hovers in the sky. In the left half expect cupids court society. More in the foreground is a couple with their backs turned to the viewer. With an inviting gesture, the man points to the ship waiting on the left and seems to ask the group of young women, who are still hesitant, to go along with them.
The Paris and Berlin versions are very similar. In the center of these two versions there is a woman dressed in yellow, who looks back longingly while her companion urges the ship to leave. Both paintings show a statue of the goddess of love Venus on a slightly elevated grove on the right. In the Paris version, the rose-wreathed statue is rigid and straight. In the Berlin version, cupids wind a rose garland around the statue, which is shown much more moving here. This statue can be found almost identically in Antoine Watteau's painting Das Liebesfest from 1717.
In the background of all three paintings, in some cases only very faintly indicated, the island of Kythera , a Greek island off the southeastern tip of the Peloponnese . It is the place where Venus is said to have risen ashore from the foam of the sea. Numerous lovers have gathered at this point.
background
In the 18th century, the island of Kythera was considered a realm of love, far from all conflict. Watteau had dealt with the subject for a long time and had only recently submitted a pilgrimage to the island of Kythera at the Academy in Paris. It is therefore controversial whether the leaving of the island of Kythera is not shown here. This is also indicated by the long, backward-looking head of the woman in the center of the picture.
In his essay Watteau's pilgrimage to the island of love, Norbert Elias dealt extensively with the genesis of the painting. The picture inspired Francis Poulenc to compose the Valse Musette of the same name . An explicit reference to the island of love and the undisturbed togetherness there can still be found in Auguste Renoir .
Ownership of the Berlin version
In 1982 it became known that Louis Ferdinand von Prussia wanted to sell the painting for 15 million DM. The then governing mayor Richard von Weizsäcker called on the population to donate five million DM for the purchase of the picture, otherwise the picture could not be kept in Berlin. The requested donations were raised by the newly founded association “Friends of Prussian Palaces and Gardens”, and the painting was acquired by the state in 1983 for 15 million DM - one third each from the federal government, the state and the association. The purchase was controversial. The alternative list for democracy and environmental protection demanded that Prince Louis Ferdinand should donate the work, which Friedrich II had bought in 1763 "from tax money", to the State of Berlin. If he is not ready to do so, the Senate should expropriate for the common good. On the other hand, the chairman of the association “Friends of Prussian Palaces and Gardens” Otto von Simson declared : “Since the prince is asking for a price that is several million below that offered by foreign countries, he faces us not only as a seller, but also as a donor . "
In the book Das Berliner Schloss - The preserved interior: paintings, sculptures, decorative art , published in 2012, the art historian Guido Hinterkeuser claims that the painting was acquired by the Prussian state for 1.8 million Reichsmarks as early as 1926, which was apparently forgotten after the war.
supporting documents
literature
- Norbert Elias : Watteau's pilgrimage to the island of love . Frankfurt / Main: island. ISBN 3-458-34298-2
- Jean-Louis Ferrier: The Adventure of Seeing. An art history in 30 pictures. Munich: Piper Verlag, 1998. ISBN 3-492-04019-5
- Wieland Schmied (Ed.): Harenberg Museum of Painting. 525 masterpieces from seven centuries . Dortmund: Harenberg Lexikon Verlag, 1999. ISBN 3-611-00814-1
- Manfred Wundram : The most famous paintings in the world . Bergisch-Gladbach: Imprimatur Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft, 1976
- Jutta Held: Antoine Watteau - Embarkation for Kythera - Reconciliation of passion and reason . Frankfurt am Main: kunststück, Fischer paperback, 1985, ISBN 3-596-23921-4
Web links
- Video guide for the painting at the artinspector
- cartelfr.louvre.fr (Louvre website, French)
- Website of the Frankfurt Städelmuseum with the version of the picture located there
Individual evidence
- ↑ Wundram: The most famous paintings in the world .
- ↑ Pèlerinage à l'île de Cythère, dit L'Embarquement pour Cythère
- ↑ Sabine Schulze (Ed.): Gardens: Order - Inspiration - Luck , Städel Museum , Frankfurt am Main & Hatje Cantz Verlag, Ostfildern 2006, ISBN 978-3-7757-1870-7 , p. 80
- ↑ Richard Schneider: Appeal for donations: In the head to Kythera . In: The time . September 30, 1983, ISSN 0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed February 2, 2020]).
- ↑ Katharina Wiechers: Pretty best friends. In: Potsdam Latest News. October 29, 2013, accessed February 2, 2020 .
- ↑ dpa: Friends of the Prussian Castles honored. September 23, 2018, archived from the original on February 2, 2020 .
- ^ Hermann Rudolph: It began in Belvedere. In: Der Tagesspiegel. July 12, 2008, accessed February 2, 2020 .
- ↑ Art without a receipt. In: Der Tagesspiegel. November 22, 2012, accessed February 2, 2020 .
- ↑ Jens Bisky: Hohenzollern debate: The Crown Prince and his heirs. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. January 30, 2020, accessed February 7, 2020 .