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Lot Essay
This monumental allegory, which is almost identical to a another work now in the Louvre, exemplifies all the luxuriance and splendour for which Hans Makart had become famous in Belle-Epoque Vienna. Indeed, to call it an allegory would be to over-emphasise its symbolic content, for it is rather the theme of abundance and plenty which caught Makart's imagination. None of the figures correspond to conventional figures of mythology which traditionally would have been employed to signify such a theme; gone is the Cornucopie, here replaced by the lusciously overflowing yet more realistic bowls and baskets of fruit which litter the forest ground. The central figure is not clad in the classical garb that usually denotes the goddess of plenty, but instead appears to be very much the earthly mother, suckling one of her children while clasping the other in her arms.
The figures on the left of the image recall the figures on the right-hand panel of another painting by Makart, Moderne Amoretten (1868) which, as the title suggests, were intended to be modern versions of putti. Their clothes are taken from the Roccoco period, a period which, in spirit at least, had many affinities with the art of Hans Makart.
Vienna at the time was experiencing a considerable economic boom, following the events of the 1848 revolution. One of the consquences of this boom was the creation of the Ringstrasse, the magnificent street along which the Opera and various museums were erected, together with splendid aristocratic palaces. With a reborn self-confidence, these palaces were now being decorated in a style befitting the exuberance of the period. The Louvre version of Makart's Abundantia, which consists of two large paintings (die Gaben der Erde and die Gaben des Meeres), was originally commissioned by the Count Hoyos, for the dining room of his Vienna town Palais, which itself was situated close to the Ringstrasse.
The figures on the left of the image recall the figures on the right-hand panel of another painting by Makart, Moderne Amoretten (1868) which, as the title suggests, were intended to be modern versions of putti. Their clothes are taken from the Roccoco period, a period which, in spirit at least, had many affinities with the art of Hans Makart.
Vienna at the time was experiencing a considerable economic boom, following the events of the 1848 revolution. One of the consquences of this boom was the creation of the Ringstrasse, the magnificent street along which the Opera and various museums were erected, together with splendid aristocratic palaces. With a reborn self-confidence, these palaces were now being decorated in a style befitting the exuberance of the period. The Louvre version of Makart's Abundantia, which consists of two large paintings (die Gaben der Erde and die Gaben des Meeres), was originally commissioned by the Count Hoyos, for the dining room of his Vienna town Palais, which itself was situated close to the Ringstrasse.