Germania (Philipp Veit)

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Germania by Philipp Veit at the Städel Art Institute
Italia , the side image opposite Germania

The Germania is a painting that Philipp Veit created between 1834 and 1836. The Germania is a woman of Germany in the then outline of the German Confederation represents. The painting is one of two side images of a large mural “Introduction of the Arts in Germany through Christianity”. The other side picture shows the Italia , the national allegory of Italy . The fresco with the dimensions 285 × 192 cm, which was transferred to canvas, is in the Städelsche Kunstinstitut in Frankfurt am Main.

Veit belonged to the artistic circle of the Nazarenes , a conservative Catholic group. She glorified the German Middle Ages . His national allegory of Germania should therefore not necessarily be seen as the embodiment of the then current nation-state debate. Rather, it stands for the medieval empire, the secular protective power of the arts. The Italia symbolizes the papacy as the spiritual protective power.

The picture stands for a “current, romantic-retrospective national consciousness”, according to Rainer Schoch. The coat of arms of the electors and the opened golden bull refer to the medieval German constitution. In addition to the imperial sword of Charlemagne and the coat of arms with the double-headed eagle, the imperial crown is also a symbol of the old empire , which perished in 1806. Germania is sitting in front of an oak trunk in a romantic Rhine landscape , the (unfinished) Cologne Cathedral stands for spiritual power, the castles for secular power.

Another “Germania” painting is often ascribed to Philipp Veit: the picture that hung in the Paulskirche in Frankfurt in 1848 and 1849 when the German National Assembly was meeting there. This Germania in the Paulskirche could have come from other painters, but it was obviously influenced by Veit's earlier Germania.

supporting documents

  1. ↑ See Rainer Schoch: Dispute about Germania. Comments on 'Germania' from the Paulskirche . In: Germanisches Nationalmuseum (Ed.): 1848: The Europe of Images. Volume II: Michels March . Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg 1998, pp. 89–102, here p. 94.
  2. ^ Rainer Schoch: Dispute about Germania. Comments on 'Germania' from the Paulskirche . In: Germanisches Nationalmuseum (Ed.): 1848: The Europe of Images. Volume II: Michels March . Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg 1998, pp. 89-102, here pp. 94/95.
  3. ^ Rainer Schoch: Dispute about Germania. Comments on 'Germania' from the Paulskirche . In: Germanisches Nationalmuseum (Ed.): 1848: The Europe of Images. Volume II: Michels March . Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg 1998, pp. 89–102, here p. 91.