Italia and Germania
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| Italia and Germania |
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| Friedrich Overbeck , 1811-28 |
| Oil on canvas |
| 94.4 x 104.7 cm |
| New Pinakothek gallery |
Italia and Germania is an allegorical painting by the painter Friedrich Overbeck from 1828, which is supposed to symbolize the friendship between these countries or cultural regions through personifications of Italy ( Italia ) and Germany ( Germania ) in the form of women inclined to one another.
In terms of art history, the painting can be assigned to the Nazarenes style. The original picture is exhibited in the Neue Pinakothek in Munich. Other versions can be found in the Georg Schäfer Collection in Schweinfurt and in the New Masters Gallery in Dresden.
Historical-political context
At the time the painting was made, both “Italy” and “Germany” were merely cultural and geographical umbrella terms for politically fragmented regions in Central and Southern Europe divided into various principalities (cf. Deutscher Bund and Risorgimento ), each about half a century later were to become political entities in the nation states of the Kingdom of Italy (1861) and the German Empire (1871) during the 1860s and 1870s .
description
The picture shows two women sitting on a terrace bench in front of a landscape. The left has dark hair and a laurel wreath, while the blonde hair of the right is wreathed with flowers. The women are friendly to one another, hold hands.
On the left the view goes into a typical Italian landscape with a rocky coast, while on the right a Gothic towering German city can be seen.
Further background
The picture pays homage to Overbeck's close friendship with the Frankfurt painter Franz Pforr , who died in Albano Laziale at the age of 24 , and is based on his drawing “Allegory of Friendship” and his text as well as the painting “ Sulamith and Maria”.
Franz Pforr: Allegory of Friendship (1808)
Franz Pforr: Sulamith and Maria
Friedrich Overbeck Italia and Germania ( Georg Schäfer Collection in Schweinfurt)
Friedrich Overbeck: Study on Italia and Germania (Münchner Karton)
Copy or second version
Another version of the picture has been in the Neue Meister gallery in Dresden since 1952 . It is seen in the literature either as a handwritten replica or (today mostly) as a copy by Overbeck friend Theodor Rehbenitz .
Copy by Theodor Rehbenitz in Dresden
Further reception of the motif
In the old Städel Art Institute of Frankfurt has Philipp Veit on the order of the local administration in 1834 a mural of Italia and Germania created and assigned to two screens in 1877 and isolated it.
Left side image Italia
Right side picture Germania
swell
Franz Pforr: The book Sulamith and Maria in: Der Wagen 1927, p. 51-58.
literature
- Wieland Schmied in collaboration with Tilmann Buddensieg, Andreas Franzke and Walter Grasskamp (eds.): “Harenberg Museum of Painting. 525 masterpieces from seven centuries ” . Dortmund: Harenberg Lexikon Verlag, 1999. ISBN 3-611-00814-1
- Exhibition catalog “Italia and Germania” of the State Graphic Collection Munich, Neue Pinakothek M., February 20 - April 14, 2002: “Johann Friedrich Overbeck - Italia and Germania” . Munich, 2002. ISSN 0941-7036 (PATRIMONIA 224)
Web links
- Picture description at www.viaggio-in-germania.de
- Image examination by Uli Schuster in 2003 in an advanced course in art education
- Information from the Neue Pinakothek on Italia and Germania
Individual evidence
- ↑ picture at zeno.org
- ↑ See the discussion in the Lübeck catalog 1989, p. 145