Raffael and Dürer on the Throne of Art

The transparent painting Raffael and Dürer at the Throne of Art is a work by the German-Roman Adam Eberle (1804–1832). It was destroyed and is only preserved for posterity by the copy of Johann Philipp Walters. The banner was the last part of a seven-part picture cycle that was specially made for a festival in honor of Dürer that took place in Nuremberg in 1828 . Various artists worked on it. It is the central painting of the seven and shows a Nazarene apotheosis of Raphael and Dürer . The two most prominent style models of the Nazarenes were thus connected to one another.

Image content

In contrast to the other of the seven banners, which show real historical events from Dürer's life, this painting transparency does not make any realistic claims.

In the middle of the picture it shows art as a personified girl, in antique clothing and a laurel wreath on her head, which is framed by a halo. She sits high above the ground on a throne adorned with many ornaments. Raphael is standing on her right, in a three-quarter profile, who grips his chest with his left hand and extends his hand with his left Dürer on the other side of the picture. Dürer, also in three-quarter profile, is shown standing like Raphael and with a Nazarene haircut and a laurel wreath in his hair. The personified art notes the names of the two artists kneeling in front of it on a stone tablet and thus makes them immortal and preserved for posterity forever. Behind each of the artists are four other people, of whom only those of Michael Wohlgemut , behind Dürer and Perugino behind Raffael can be identified as such. Eberle took over the idea of Friedrich Overbeck to depict the cities in which Dürer and Raffael mainly worked behind them as an abbreviation. The St. Peter's Basilica in Rome and the Nuremberg Castle are clearly recognizable. The schematic structure of the banner is reminiscent of the Italian image type of the so-called Sacra (Santa) Conversazione .

Under the painting there was originally a predella , which was painted based on an idea by Ferdinand Fellner . Like the banner, it was destroyed and is therefore difficult to understand in its entirety. It had a complicated allegory on the subject , in which the genius of Raphael, with a bird of paradise behind him, is picking flowers in a meadow, while on the right the genius of Dürer was symbolized by an owl and the saying pray and work .

background

The pictorial program of the Transparenten cycle from 1828 was intended to reproduce only real events from Dürer's life. However, this fourth picture, with a symbolized apotheosis of Raphael and Dürer, broke away from this biographical approach. This was mainly due to the demand of the Nazarene Peter von Cornelius , who instead of a studio scene, demanded a representation with "higher (m) poetic swing". In addition, Cornelius continued to raise the question of how Raffael could be absent from a celebration of the glorification of Dürer and then proposed a similar scheme that was first used by Friedrich Overbeck (1810) and then Franz Pforr (1817), namely a kind of “Dürer apotheosis “At the side of Raphael, before the throne of the personified art. Overbeck and Pforr developed this basic scheme, based on WH Wackenroder's vision in his heart pouring of an art-loving monastery brother “. . . and see! There stood the apart from everyone, Raffael and Albrecht Dürer hand in hand “for an earlier Dürer festival in the Villa Schultheiss in Rome in 1818. Dürer and Raffael functioned as ideal artists for the Nazarenes, who were apparently considered archetypes to symbolize their own values. Namely a renewal of art in the sense of Catholic Christianity , with the old Italian master Raffael and German master Albrecht Dürer serving as models.

literature

Hübner, Christine / Thimann, Michael (ed.): Mortal gods. Raffael and Dürer in the Art of German Romanticism. Göttingen 2015.
Lindemann, Bernd Wolfgang: The Sacra Conversazione. In: Gemäldegalerie Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (ed.): Un San Bastiano che par non li manchi se non il solo respiro. Paris Bordon's Berlin Altarpiece in Context (Pictures in Focus). Berlin 2007, pp. 9-13.
Mende, Matthias: The banners of the Nuremberg Dürer celebration of 1828. A contribution to the Dürer adoration of Romanticism. In: Anzeiger des Germanisches Nationalmuseum. Nuremberg 1971.

Individual evidence

^ Announcements of the Association for the History of the City of Nuremberg, Volume 95. 2008. P. 292 , accessed on March 9, 2020 .
↑ Bernd Lindemann: The Sacra Conversazione . In: Gemäldegalerie Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (ed.): Un San Bastiano che par non li manchi se non il solo respiro. Paris Bordon's Berlin Altarpiece in Context (Pictures in Focus) . Berlin 2007.
^ ^A ^b Matthias Mende: The banners of the Nuremberg Dürer celebration of 1828. A contribution to the adoration of Dürer in Romanticism. May 22, 2017, accessed January 28, 2020 .
↑ Thimann, Michael, Hübner, Christine ,: Mortal gods Raffael and Dürer in the art of German romanticism . Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg, Kr Fulda 2015, ISBN 978-3-7319-0198-3 .

[1] Announcements of the Association for the History of the City of Nuremberg, Volume 95. 2008. P. 292 , accessed on March 9, 2020 .

[2] Bernd Lindemann: The Sacra Conversazione . In: Gemäldegalerie Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (ed.): Un San Bastiano che par non li manchi se non il solo respiro. Paris Bordon's Berlin Altarpiece in Context (Pictures in Focus) . Berlin 2007.

[:0-3] A ^b Matthias Mende: The banners of the Nuremberg Dürer celebration of 1828. A contribution to the adoration of Dürer in Romanticism. May 22, 2017, accessed January 28, 2020 .

[4] Thimann, Michael, Hübner, Christine ,: Mortal gods Raffael and Dürer in the art of German romanticism . Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg, Kr Fulda 2015, ISBN 978-3-7319-0198-3 .