Corpse portraits (Menzel)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Adolph Menzel: Corpse of an Officer , 1873; Pencil, 23.8 × 33.3 cm. Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett

Art historical literature refers to a series of pencil drawings that Adolph Menzel made in 1873 after the recovery and opening of coffins from the crypt under the garrison church in Berlin as corpse portraits (also: mummy portraits ) . The drawings show the remains of Prussian officers from the 18th century.

background

Adolph Menzel: crypt under the garrison church in Berlin , 1873; Pencil, 23.8 × 33.2 cm. Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett

Presumably as early as 1705 , a grave vault was laid out under the first garrison church, built by Martin Grünberg under Friedrich I from 1701 to 1703 , intended for the burial of Prussian officers and their relatives. The burial of Major General Daniel von Tettau in 1709 in the crypt is certain . Nothing is known about the whereabouts of those buried here after the church was destroyed by the explosion of the neighboring powder tower in August 1720. Under the second garrison church, which was built in the same place from 1720 to 1722 according to plans by Johann Philipp Gerlach , a crypt was also created from 1723, which was expanded in 1740 and 1768 due to lack of space. When the crypts were closed in 1830, there were around 815 coffins, including those of 15 field marshals and 56 generals. In 1873, at the suggestion of Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm, 555 damaged coffins were mostly reburied in the garrison cemetery on Müllerstrasse . In the summer of 1873 Adolph Menzel was present under the garrison church when the crypt was opened and the coffins were recovered. Some of the bodies found were largely mummified .

The painting

Menzel recorded the situation in the crypt with drawings. He emphasized the impression of the untidy room with the casually piled coffins. Through the incidence of light, he made clear the stairs leading to the exit, which can only be reached past the dead. The sheet from the crypt, which Menzel captured in another drawing from a different perspective, is seen as an “introduction” to the sequence of sheets of corpse portraits.

Corpse of Field Marshal Keith

Body of Field Marshal Keith ; Pencil, 23.8 × 33.2 cm. Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett
Skulls and boots ; Pencil, 23.8 × 33.2 cm. Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett

In 1851 Menzel had painted a portrait of the Prussian Field Marshal James Keith (1696–1758) based on old, idealizing portraits. "This is Keith, I can tell by the similarity," said Menzel when the coffin was opened. The drawing of the physical remains of the field marshal, killed in the Seven Years' War in the Battle of Hochkirch in 1758 , shows the dead with hair on his head and the Order of the Black Eagle on his uniform. The perspective is chosen so that the side of the face with the fatal injury, a shot in the mouth, remains averted. In 1883, Colonel von Prittwitz, who was present at the rescue in the crypt, corrected in a publication the claim that Keith had died of a shot in his "hero's breast". The drawing is labeled: Field Marshal Keith, mummy-like, garrison tomb, nd coffin opening, summer 1873 .

Skull and boots

The dead is not identified. Menzel noted on the lower left: Garrison crypt opened: 1873 . The drawing is aimed at capturing the skull. The shadow cast accentuates the profile with the open mouth, a scarf around the neck is indicated, the rest is only laid out like a sketch. Menzel noted the color details on the uniform: red , blue . A drawing of a boot is set over the edge of the coffin as a meaningful detail ( pointed boots are noted underneath), the uniform trousers inside are held at the base. In many of his sketches Menzel preferred the compilation of details of a scene or an object; this technique allowed him to later recall the connections.

Corpse of an officer

On a sheet of paper with the corpse of an officer from the crypt of the garrison church, on which his boot is sketched on the lower edge, Menzel noted the measurements in feet and inches . Uniform knows Rab: red , he also wrote on the upper edge of the sheet , and in addition: Only the letters Gd v G.1794 on the coffin lid . The corpse looks as if the mummification had shrunk it into its white dress uniform with the red lapels, the borders . Presumably, the dead person is the head of the military department at the General Directorate, Lieutenant General Georg Dietrich von der Groeben , who died in 1794 and was buried in the crypt on July 11, 1794. Menzel's note on the drawing Gd v G reveals this identification when compared with the military church books to. At the bottom left is Menzel's hand the note Garn: Gruft, opened. 1873 .

Keith's hand and legs of Count Truchseß von Waldburg ; Pencil, 23.8 × 33.2 cm. Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett

Keith's hand and the legs of the imperial count

The sheet shows details of two different corpses. At the top left, Field Marshal Keith's mummified hand is held in a side view, noted as Keith's hand , his body is only hinted at in the sleeve that rests next to the uniform jacket shown with a thin line on the upper edge of the sheet . The legs of Count Truchseß von Waldburg are drawn from above, while Menzel Truchseß noted W on the cloth above. Menzel's drawing books are often used to record parts that do not belong together. In the present drawing of the dead, the edges of the coffin, recorded in quick, erratic lines, convey the memory of the untidy state in which the stacked coffins were found.

Body of Count Truchseß von Waldburg

Body of Count Truchseß von Waldburg

Another sheet shows the upper half of the body of Count Truchseß von Waldburg (1714–1748) in his coffin, with a rosary in his hands, as is his head. The officer, who is identical to Truchseß W , whose legs Menzel put into the picture together with the hand of Keith, wears an order as a coat and neck decoration in this drawing, which was wrongly identified as the Iron Cross in 1996 , which means that the deceased was in the wars of liberation 1813 to 1815 should be assigned. This thesis was refuted in 2004, as no Truchseß von Waldburg can be found in the church records, who was buried in the crypt after 1800, and the Iron Cross was not worn as a coat decoration. Instead, the order was identified as the Order of St. John , to which at least one of the four Truchsessen von Waldburg buried in the crypt belonged. Menzel's reference to a red uniform skirt, which the Rittmeister wore as the dress uniform of the officers of the Gens d'Armes regiment, speaks for the imperial count Otto Wilhelm Truchseß Graf zu Waldburg (1714–1748), who was accepted with reservations .

classification

Three fallen soldiers in a barn , 1866; Pencil, watercolor. Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett

The encounter with the dead was not the first of its kind for Adolph Menzel. In mid-July 1866, at the end of the German War in Königinhof near Königgrätz, he had made drawings and watercolors of dead and dying soldiers, including studies of those who had recently fallen who were not laid out but made a temporary bed on straw in a barn. In a letter dated August 2 of the same year, Menzel commented on his impression of "[...] stuck his nose in horror and stench for 14 days". Two days earlier, on July 31, he announced in a less respectful letter the plan to " look at the old Friedlander's laughing face in his coffin at Gitschin ". Menzel's corpse portraits from the crypt of the garrison church show a quick way of working. Despite their objectivity, they each reveal “an intense dialogue with the dead 'model'”.

Provenance

Adolph Menzel recorded the inspection of the vault and the corpses in the open coffins in one of his numerous drawing books, from which the sheets were later removed. The drawings were acquired by the National Gallery in Berlin in 1906 with the estate of Adolph von Menzel, who had died in 1905 ; they had already been shown there in 1905 on the occasion of a memorial exhibition after Menzel's death. A selection from the series of Menzel's corpse portraits was presented in exhibitions in Vienna and Copenhagen in 1985, as well as in Paris , Washington and Berlin in 1996 and 1997. The exact number of sheets that Menzel produced in the tombs in 1873 has not yet been published.

literature

  • Adolph von Menzel 1815-1905. The labyrinth of reality . Cologne 1996, ISBN 3-7701-3704-3
  • Barbara Kündiger: Church and People - outlined and portrayed . In: Barbara Kündiger, Dieter Weigert: The eagle does not give way to the sun - 300 years of the Berlin garrison church . Berlin 2004, pp. 164–168, ISBN 3814801288
  • Jan-Arne Sohns: On the chain of ancestors. Historical reflection in the German historical novel 1870–1880 . Berlin, New York 2004 ISBN 3-1101-8133-9 pp. 1-8

Web links

Commons : Menzel's corpse portraits  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Adolph von Menzel 1815-1905. The labyrinth of reality . Cologne 1996, p. 265
  2. Barbara Kündiger: Die neue Kirche In: The eagle does not give way to the sun [...] (2004), p. 77
  3. Georg Goens: History of the Royal Berlin Garrison Church . Ernst Siegfried Mittler and Son, Berlin 1897, p. 102
  4. Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett (SZ Menzel N 4440)
  5. ^ Andreas Heese: Crypt under the garrison church in Berlin . In: Menzel 1815-1905 (1996), p. 265
  6. Major von Siefart: An experience in the grave vault of the garrison church . In: Mitteilungen für die Geschichte Berlins 1, Berlin 1908; Pp. 134-136.
  7. Jan – Arne Sohns: An der Ketten der Ahnen (2004), p. 5
  8. Andreas Heese: Skull and Boots . In: Menzel 1815-1905 (1996), p. 267
  9. Barbara Kündiger: Church and people - sketched and portrayed . In: The eagle does not give way to the sun [...] (2004), p. 166
  10. Andreas Heese: Keith's hand and legs of Count Truchseß von Waldburg . In: Menzel 1815-1905 (1996), p. 266
  11. Barbara Kündiger: Church and people - sketched and portrayed . In: The eagle does not give way to the sun [...] (2004), p. 165f
  12. ^ Adolph von Menzel 1815-1905. The Labyrinth of Reality (1996), p. 268; the word laugh face could be based on a reading error.
  13. ^ Adolph Menzel Society Berlin: Biography Menzel, 1905
  14. ^ Adolph von Menzel 1815-1905. The labyrinth of reality . Cologne 1996, according to catalog information and p. 266