Stages of life
Stages of Life is a marble relief in the building at Bahnhofstrasse 3a, Gotha , today the seat of the German Insurance Museum , the Social Court in Gotha and the Thuringian Finance Court , which was created by the Leipzig artist Adolf Lehnert in 1908. He processes motifs from Greek / Roman mythology . The relief is made of Carrara marble . Posture and proportions of the human body correspond to classic models, e.g. B. Apollon (picture with bow and arrow).
The triptych relief in the building's stairwell automatically draws the visitor's gaze. The three parts, worked out by the artist in the neo-renaissance style , represent three stages of life from left to right: childhood and youth - marriage and family - old age and death.
Childhood and adolescence - the left relief
The optical focal point of the work is the mother holding her child in her lap. The ensemble is "guarded" by the self-confident father, armed as a warrior. A little boy hands the child an apple, three graces hover over it like an angel, and a boy sits on the floor on the stairs, reaching for roses. The oil lamp is on a pillar, a winged horse is sitting on it, a fire is burning in the background, and the lyre in the corner probably represents the house music. Behind it lies a distaff and the warrior's shield , decorated with a laurel wreath .
The reference to mythology is evident in this representation of an intact family life: Hera , the wife and sister of Zeus , is represented by the mother. The apple in the boy's hand is sacred to her. The powerful, proud man embodies Ares , the god of war. The roses are sacred to Venus . The Graces embody the three Charites : Euphrosyne ("cheerfulness"), Thalia (also Thaleia , "festive joy ") and Aglaia ("the shiny one"). One of the two boys, presumably the one handing the apple, is the embodiment of Cupid , the god of love. The winged horse is Pegasus , symbol of poetry.
Marriage and family - the middle relief
In the center of the second picture the viewer sees the happily united couple to give nine female figures, e.g. Z. floating like an angel. The couple are on the top of six or seven, already rather desolate steps, the bottom of which are wetted by a liquid flowing from an overturned vase.
Here, too, the reference to mythology is quickly recognized: the nine female figures represent the muses . From right to left: Klio with the roll of paper, Euterpe with the double flute, Melpomene with the sword, Urania with the celestial sphere, Erato with the lyre, as a muse the love poem at the zenith of the work, Polyhymnia (without attribute), Thalia with the mask in her hand, Terpsichore with a rattle or the like, Calliope with a scroll on her knees. The young husband, in the first picture still the boy in his mother's lap, embodies the beautiful Apollo .
Old age and death - the right relief
An old, terminally ill, bearded man lies weak and with his head drooping in front of a tree of life on a lounger. A doctor hands him a bowl of water. At the right edge of the picture, so to speak at the end of the relief, a (life) thread is unwound from a spool, which a young woman is trying to tear. A winged youth hovers over the whole.
The reference to mythology: The doctor is Asclepius , god of healing. Of the three women who hold the thread of life in their hands, the two on the right are two of the three Parzen or Moiren , Klotho and Lachesis , goddesses of fate from Roman / Greek mythology. The third is supposed to represent Atropos , which, according to its task, is supposed to tear the thread of life. The winged youth is representative of Thanatos , the god of death.
photos
The blazing fire
Pegasus on the oil lamp
One of the Fates tries to hold the thread of life
Asklepios hands the old man a bowl of water
Atropos tears the thread of life
Coordinates: 50 ° 56 ′ 35 " N , 10 ° 42 ′ 43.7" E