Love vase
Coordinates: 48 ° 46 '45.06 " N , 9 ° 11' 10.17" E
The love vase is a monumental decorative vase in sandstone by Friedrich Distelbarth in the chamber theater wing of the Neue Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart. The vase is constructed like the Medici vase and bears a bas-relief with the allegory of the ages of love.
Overview
| Work title | Love vase |
| Art | monumental decorative vase in the style of the Medici vase |
| motive | Allegory of the ages of love based on a Pompeian wall painting or Thorvaldsen's relief "Kærlighedens Aldre" |
| material | Sandstone |
| Dimensions | Height 208 cm, mouth diameter 155 cm, plinth 95 × 95 cm |
| Year of origin | around 1831 |
| Location | Stuttgart, at the chamber theater wing of the Neue Staatsgalerie |
The love vase, over two meters high, is a decorative vase , ie a vase that serves more representative than practical purposes. Sometimes such vases are referred to as sumptuous vases because of their rich decoration or as colossal or monumental vases because of their size .
Distelbarth borrowed the outer shape and fittings of the vase from the famous Medici vase ( illustration ). According to his own statement, he used a Pompeian wall painting as a template for the picture frieze. Because of its similarity to a work by Thorvaldsen, however, this is unanimously regarded as a model (see iconography ).
Relief. The picture frieze of the relief represents an allegory of the four ages of love (childhood, adolescence, manhood and old age). The main picture shows a cupid distributor who gives away the winged little cupids to the people from a barred cage . She is surrounded by two men, five women or girls and one child who, depending on their age, react curious, hesitant, eager, indifferent or even annoyed when the putti are awarded.
Vase. In terms of type, the vase, which imitates an ancient shape, is a crater , a vessel that was used in ancient times to mix water and wine and therefore had to have a wide opening, comparable to our punch bowls today. The vase is a calyx crater, ie a vase with a belly but no neck, and the handles are attached to the bottom of the basket of the vessel (with other craters on the shoulder, or if this is missing, as with the bell crater, just below the opening).
The goblet wall of the crater is decorated with a bas-relief. It ends in a groove decorated with wine garlands and a protruding lip, which is bordered by an egg stick and a pearl stick. The chalice rests on the bowl-shaped, protruding basket, the bottom of which is decorated with acanthus leaves and flower ornaments and each wears two bearded, curly satyr masks , on whose heads originally the now broken transverse handles were attached. The vase rests on a stand with a fluted, lower conical base, which is separated from the swinging, smooth upper part by a protruding ring. Between the stand and the basket is a drawn-in ring with a wide leaf cover and an egg bar. The stand stands on a square plinth .
Location
In Stuttgart, on the east side of the “culture mile”, between the chamber theater wing of the Neue Staatsgalerie and the House of History, there is a rectangular, gently sloping square. The square is cut through by Eugenstrasse, which joins Konrad-Adenauer-Strasse. A path runs parallel to this that connects the New State Gallery with the House of History. The intersection of the two streets cuts the square into four quadrants . The two quadrants facing the street are filled with water basins with 10 jumping fountains each. The rear quadrants are overgrown with lawn and a work of art is placed in their center, the love vase towards the chamber theater and the sculpture "Points of View" by Tony Cragg at the House of History .
composition
The composition of the relief is divided into seven image fields that follow one another from right to left and are numbered here from 1 to 7. The following figures are included in the image fields:
- the cupid distributor
- the innocent
- the longing
- the lover
- the wife
- the husband
- old man
description
| Field of view | Image detail | description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
The cupid distributor. A young woman in antique clothing sits on a rock and hands out lavishly winged cupids among the men, women and girls standing around. With one arm she holds a naked putto by the little wing and offers it to the longing woman, who expands her arms expectantly to press the god of love to her heart. Other putti have already reached their destination, where the gift is received with joy or displeasure, depending on their age, a putto is already on its way back to its mistress, and in the round cage behind the erotic distributor there are five naked, caged guys romping on hers Waiting for liberation. Her mistress spreads her left arm protectively over her so that the lively little inmates cannot escape prematurely.
The putti cage, the boy and the girl. One of the trapped little fellows holds on to the bars with his hands and pushes his curious head through the bars to observe the goings-on of his mistress. Two other putti kneel on the ground and one sits next to it. All three look in amazement to the right at a little boy who is pulling the covering blanket away from the cage in order to catch a forbidden glimpse of the little givers of joy. An adolescent girl holds the boy by the arm and, enticed by the secret of love, tastes with the other hand the face of a putto who is cheekily peeking out of the cage. |
| Field of view | Image detail | description |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | The innocent. A young girl kneels in front of the cupid distributor. Innocent nudity reveals the delicate figure of an adolescent young woman, only the legs covered by a wrinkled robe. She turns her gaze to the longing woman who is standing behind her and embraces a winged putto in her arms, who holds up one arm to catch his girlfriend's attention. The girl still seems unsure what to do with the naked guy, maybe his gaze is looking for help from the longing, who naturally welcomes her own little friend with open arms. | |
| 3 | The longing. The young woman, in the prime of her youth, is dressed in a floor-length, pleated garment that leaves only arms, neck and feet free. It lies close to the body and, as if it were transparent, emphasizes the feminine shape of the wearer. The top of the dress flutters behind her, underscoring the woman's opposite, roping forward movement. She longingly stretches her arms to the cupid, who the erotic distributor holds out to her and lets her wings fidget. | |
| 4th | The lover. The young woman turns her back on the cupid distributor. She is dressed similarly to the longing woman, but her dress does not radiate the fluttering restlessness like this one, but reflects the calm of a withdrawn woman. She holds her beloved winged god tenderly in her arms and presses him, as if it were her lover, a familiar kiss on his mouth. | |
| 5 | The wife. A middle-aged (perhaps pregnant) woman walks away from the scene of the cupid distribution without looking back. She gathers a corner of her body-length robe with her wrapped right arm to her chest. The dress, which is pulled up around the chest and waist, is only loosely fitting, and the rich drapery hardly suggests the shape of the body, the favor of the opposite sex seems to have become indifferent to the woman. Exhausted from the love and the troubles of pregnancies, she carelessly drags her putto behind her by her wing. The little god of love crosses his arms as if he wanted to close himself off from her, an echo of his mistress' lovelessness. | |
| 6th | The husband. On a low stone block sits a man "in his prime" in a squat position. He stretches his crossed bare legs towards his wife, and leaning forward with his half-bare upper body, he supports his tired, curly haired head with one arm. A naked, winged putto sits "on his neck" and looks expectantly at his wife. Tired of love, the man is burdened with the responsibility of the father of the family, and exhaustion closes his heavy eyelids. | |
| 7th | Old man. An old man with an almost bald head and a beard that flows down to his chest, wrapped in a long robe but with a bare right shoulder and bare feet, leans like a pilgrim on a long staff that is supposed to make the arduous walk easier. With his torso bent forward and his arm stretched out, he tries one last time in his life to catch a love goddess that is flying away from him. But the little boy is too fast for the old man, who has to be content with fond memories instead of the hoped-for joys of love. |
history
1842–1884: Love vase in the courtyard of the Museum of Fine Arts
Distelbarth seems to have created the vase without a special commission. For the picture frieze he created a model, after which the Polish sculptor Karol Ceptowski (1801–1847) executed the bas-relief of the vase (see Ceptowski 1992, pp. 155, 168, 172). After its completion (around 1831), the vase stood in Distelbarth's workshop until the chemist and industrialist Karl von Reichenbach bought it for his wife Friederike Louise nee. Erhard bought. After her death in 1835, he gave the vase that Distelbarth had intended as a fountain vase to the city of Stuttgart, which had it erected in the courtyard of the Museum of Fine Arts (now the Alte Staatsgalerie ) as a “memorial” in 1842 . In 1889 it was replaced by the equestrian statue of Wilhelm I and shipped to the center of a small complex next to the Museum of Fine Arts. In 1958 it had to give way to an interim set for the State Theater and was then pulled out of the sinking again in 1984 after the construction of the New State Gallery and set up at its current location next to the Chamber Theater.
The plinth, the lower part of the foot, parts of the relief and the mouth of the vase are badly battered by weathering, and the handles have broken off. The vase urgently needs to be restored and preserved in order to keep it from further deterioration.
iconography
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Relief. During the excavations in Pompeii and the surrounding area in the 18th century, many colored frescoes were found, including wall paintings with the motif of the cupid sale, for example the fresco “The Cupid Seller” (Fig. 1), which was discovered in Stabiae in 1759 .
The Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen created the much-acclaimed frieze "Kærlighedens Aldre" (The Age of Love or Allegory of the Age of Love, Image 2), in which he took up and modified the motif of the cupid sale. The enterprising cupid saleswoman has become a generous benefactress who gives away the joys of love, who distributes her gifts to different ages, which allegorically represent the "phases of curiosity, longing and fulfillment, but also those of responsibility, weariness and renunciation". The picture frieze was mainly known in the relief version, but was also realized on a Medici vase. Thorvaldsen's biographer Just Matthias Thiele reported on the history of its origins in 1856: “The famous Herculanean painting, the Cupid seller , gave him the first motif; he now wanted to elaborate on the idea. "
Distelbarth, who created his vase about seven years after Thorvaldsen, told the Stuttgart city director von Klett in 1835 that he had the frieze of his vase “based on a painting found in Pompeii: an amorine dealer, the sale of amorines and their effects on them Representing people according to their different ages. "
It can be assumed that Distelbarth and Thorvaldsen worked on the same Pompeian model. The friezes of the two artists largely coincide in structure and figures, except that Figures 2 and 3 in Distelbarth's composition are combined into a single one by Thorvaldsen and that the cupid distributor is represented by Thorvaldsen as a winged psyche.
Image 3: Medici vase, Roman decorative vase in marble (1st century BC), after a copper engraving by Stefano della Bella (1656)
Image 4: Medici vase, ink drawing by Pier Leone Ghezzi (1725)
Image 5: Medici vase (1816) by Nikolaus Friedrich von Thouret, Ludwigsburg, Residenzschloss, marble hall
Vase. Distelbarth borrowed the outer shape and fittings of the vase from the famous Roman Medici vase from the 1st century BC, which was discovered in the 16th century (Fig. 3) and then reproduced again and again in a wide variety of materials and with various modifications (Fig 4). Even today you can still find large decorative garden vases à la Medici or small room vases, often corrupted beyond recognition. Distelbarth was able to orient himself on copperplate engravings in his design, but also inspect replicas of the vase in Stuttgart and Ludwigsburg. The handles of the four identical Medici vases by his Stuttgart colleague and court architect Nikolaus Friedrich von Thouret , which are now in the marble hall of the Ludwigsburg Palace (Fig. 5), are missing, and the rich ornamentation of the basket has been replaced by a simple wreath of leaves. Distelbarth, on the other hand, stuck to the ancient model pretty closely. However, his vase is slightly larger (height 203 cm) than the original (height 173 cm).
reception
Distelbarth's love vase did not attract much public attention, perhaps because it was viewed as an epigone work , perhaps also because it takes much more effort to look at a cyclical picture frieze than a flat relief. After all, shortly after its creation, the love vase received a special mention in the art paper of September 26, 1833, a supplement to the morning paper for educated estates : “In the court sculptor Distelbarth's atelier we saw a“ colossal vase ”, the well-known ancient medical […] modeled and reproduced [...] executed in the most careful and tasteful way. It would have to decorate the pool of a park as desired. ”(Quoted in: Wiemann 1993, p. 388.)
literature
- Jacek Ceptowski: Raeźbiarz Karol Ceptowski (1801-1847) . In: Studia Muzealne , Zeszyt XV, 1992, pp. 153-172 (Polish, German summary).
- Dietrich Gerhardt: Who buys love gods? Metastases of a subject . Berlin 2008, especially Chapter VII. Thorvaldsen , pp. 78–86, and Fig. 1–14.
- Dagmar Grassinger: Roman marble crater . Mainz 1991, especially pages 163–166 (Medici crater).
- Jürgen Hagel: Stuttgart Archive , 8 deliveries, [Braunschweig] 1989–1996, 03.065.
- Jørgen Birkedal Hartmann: Ancient motifs at Thorvaldsen. Studies on the reception of antiquity in classicism . Tübingen 1979, especially pages 171–177, illustrations pages 118–121.
- Georg Christoph Kilian: Le pitture antiche d'Ercolano e contorni , Volume 3, Naples 1762, pp. 37–41.
- Friedrich Noack : Distelbarth, Friedrich . In: Ulrich Thieme (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists from Antiquity to the Present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 9 : Delaulne-Dubois . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1913, p. 331 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
- Just Matthias Thiele: Thorvaldsen's life, according to the handwritten notes, postponed papers and the artist's correspondence. Volume 2, Leipzig 1856, pp. 110-111.
- Dankmar Trier: Distelbarth, Friedrich . In: General Artist Lexicon . The visual artists of all times and peoples (AKL). Volume 28, Saur, Munich a. a. 2000, ISBN 3-598-22768-X , p. 7.
- Wilhelm Waiblinger: Paperback from Italy and Greece to the year 1830. Berlin 1830, pp. 16-19.
- Wilhelm Waiblinger: God Amor [poem]. In: Hanne-Lore von Canitz: Wilhelm Waiblinger's Gesammelte Werke. Volume 7, Hamburg 1839, pp. 275-277 ( books.google.de ).
- Elsbeth Wiemann: The decorative vase based on Thorvaldsen's "Allegory of the Age of Love" by Friedrich Distelbarth. In: Christian von Holst (ed.): Swabian classicism between ideal and reality. Volume 2: Articles. Stuttgart 1993, pp. 385-389.
- Hans Wille: Who buys love gods? In: Low German contributions to art history. Volume 11, 1972, pp. 157-190.
Web links
Footnotes
- ↑ Also known as Medici crater .
- ↑ The little winged cupids are often called Amorinen, Putten (singular: cherub), cherubs or cupids referred.
- ↑ a b Report from the Stuttgart City Director von Klett to the Royal Ministry of the Interior from May 22, 1835, Main State Archives Stuttgart, E 151/01 Bü 2937 No. 27/1.
- ↑ Color illustration of the fresco e.g. B. in Gerhardt 2008 , Figure 1.
- ↑ See Thorvaldsen Museum for illustration .
- ↑ Wiemann 1993 , p. 386.
- ↑ Hartmann 1979 , p. 175.
- ↑ Thiele 1856 , p. 110.