Dance of Death (Egger-Lienz)
Dance of Death is the title of a series of paintings by the Austrian painter Albin Egger-Lienz . Six versions were created between 1906 and 1921, plus a number of drafts and repetitions in oil and casein, studies in charcoal, and prints. All paintings show four armed men in rural-alpine clothing, following a skeleton in the open air. You march to the right. The version from 1908 is also known as The Dance of Death from Anno Nine .
Emergence
The first indication of Egger-Lienz's preoccupation with the dance of death is a letter from Egger to Heinrich Hammer , his future biographer, on May 5, 1906, in which he writes that he will probably do a kind of dance of death . Letters and photographs also show that the first version was made in the summer of 1906 and 1907 in Längenfeld in the Tyrolean Ötztal, where locals were his model. In the course of several overpaintings and variations, he changed the motif many times: the skeleton was stripped of the originally existing habit and received a stick, posture and age of the men were changed. Finally, Egger-Lienz cut up the first version, measuring 220 x 230 centimeters.
For the composition Egger-Lienz was inspired by a bronze relief by Constantin Meunier : The return of the miners . How Egger-Lienz came up with the dance of death motif is still unclear in research. References to a dance of death drama by Egger-Lienz 'later acquaintance Franz Kranewitter are rejected by Uli Wunderlich.
Version from 1908
In 1908 Egger-Lienz repeated the first version using casein technique . It is known as The Dance of Death by Anno Neun and is located in the Austrian Belvedere Gallery . He had an order from the Modern Gallery (forerunner of the Austrian Gallery) to make a painting for the exhibition on the 60th anniversary of the reign of Emperor Franz Joseph , which was to focus on the Tyrolean liberation struggle in 1809. The choice of motif was perceived as a provocation, Egger-Lienz was assumed to have social democratic tendencies. This incident led to the fact that heir to the throne Franz Ferdinand prevented Egger-Lienz's appointment as professor at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna . While the painting was more or less hushed up in Vienna, there was a detailed and sometimes very benevolent reception in Innsbruck, where the 100th anniversary of the wars of liberation were celebrated, as in an article by the local poet Karl Anton Domanig :
“... the artist did not want to portray the Tyroleans' lust for raucousness and the hope of victory, but rather how they face certain death directly. And nobody has cheered and nobody was happy. Now remember the dances of death that the younger Holbein or, more recently, the brilliant Alfred Rethel created. [...] Here at Egger-Lienz, death appears only as an urge, not actually as an overwhelming one. For the men who strode so vigorously have voluntarily dedicated themselves to death; they are representatives of that determined people who defended their most sacred goods to the utmost, sacrificed themselves for God, emperor and fatherland. The horrors of death cloud their senses, but the sense of duty keeps them alive. "
Further versions
Egger-Lienz was valued by the nationalists, and in the early days of the First World War his works were used to furnish tendentious fonts. The dance of death served as the frontispiece of the 1914 war almanac published by Xenien Verlag in Leipzig. This popularization also led to an increased demand for the pictures, so that Egger-Lienz painted at least six copies of the dance of death during the war .
The pictures differ in format, but also in small details: the bone man leans on a spade instead of a stick. The third version from 1914 (M 351, today in the Landesmuseum Klagenfurt) shows the peasants in light jackets following death over a beating bridge.
The sixth version (M 519) from 1921 shows a reduced image section and presses the figures close together, with a wall in the background instead of the otherwise existing sky.
The following table contains the 14 paintings that comprise the complete group of figures (WVZ = number in the catalog raisonné).
| VMS | date | attribute | description | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M 223 | 1906/07 | floor | 1st version, oil on canvas, 220 × 230 cm | Cut into 3 parts in 1908 |
| M 224 | 1906 | Scythe | Draft, oil or tempera | unknown |
| M 225 | 1906 | Scythe | Draft, oil or tempera | unknown |
| M 226 | 1906/08 | floor | 1st version, casein on canvas, 225 × 233 cm | Vienna , Belvedere |
| M 291 | 1910/11 | floor | 1st version, casein on canvas, 226 × 253 cm | Dresden , picture gallery |
| M 348 | 1910/14 | spade | 2nd version, oil on canvas, 96 × 115.5 cm | Innsbruck , State Museum |
| M 349 | 1914 | spade | 2nd version, oil on canvas, 127 × 155 cm | Privately owned |
| M 351 | 1914 | floor | 3rd version, casein on canvas, 243 × 274.5 cm | Klagenfurt , State Museum |
| M 352 | 1915 | spade | 4th version, casein on canvas, 201.5 × 243 cm | Vienna, Leopold Museum |
| M 353 | 1916 | spade | 4th version, casein on canvas, 130 × 165 cm | Privately owned |
| M 354 | 1916 | spade | 4th version, casein on canvas, 130 × 165 cm | Privately owned |
| M 518 | 1921 | spade | 5th version, oil on panel, 129.5 × 151 cm | Private ownership of Rupert-Heinrich Staller |
| M 519 | 1921 | - | 6th version, oil on canvas, 130 × 152 cm | Privately owned |
| M 648 | 1914/15 | floor | 1st version, technique and background unknown | unknown |
In addition, he made partial repetitions: single heads as paintings, in watercolor, pastel and red chalk. In 1923 he also made lithographs.
reception
Maria Hofer composed the symphonic work Totentanz in 1947 based on the painting .
supporting documents
- Uli Wunderlich: Albin Egger-Lienz 'powerful dance of death. In: Leopold Museum (ed.): Albin Egger-Lienz. 1868–1926 exhibition catalog, Christian Brandstätter Verlag, Vienna 2008, 41–54. ISBN 978-3-85033-194-4
Individual evidence
- ↑ quoted from Uli Wunderlich: Albin Egger-Lienz 'powerful dance of death. 2008, p. 44.
- ↑ quoted from Uli Wunderlich: Albin Egger-Lienz 'powerful dance of death. 2008, p. 46.
- ↑ after Uli Wunderlich: Albin Egger-Lienz 'powerful dance of death. 2008, p. 51.
- ↑ Olga Kronsteiner: Record price for Egger-Lienz's dance of death. In: welt.de . June 9, 2006, accessed October 7, 2018 .
- ↑ Thomas Nussbaumer: Bell moid with page head. In: Quart Heft für Kultur Tirol No. 10/07, pp. 27–29 ( online )
literature
- Agnes Hussein-Arco , Helena Pereña , Stephan Koja (eds.): Dance of death: Egger-Lienz and the war. Exhibition catalog, Belvedere, Vienna, 2014, ISBN 978-3-902805-43-0 .