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Lot Essay
Born in Vienna, Moritz von Schwind studied at the Academy under Ludwig Schnorr von Carosfeld and Peter von Cornelius. He later worked and travelled extensively throughout Germany before settling in Munich. Over the course of his career, the artist became one of the central figures in German Romanticism, leaving behind an extensive œuvre that found inspiration in myths, literature, and music.
On this sheet are studies for a figure – the man seated at left on the staircase - in one of the artist’s masterpieces, the monumental Singing Contest at the Wartburg in the version made in 1844 for the Städel Museum in Frankfurt (fig. 1; inv. 921, see Moritz von Schwind Meister der Spätromantik, exhib. cat., Karlsruhe, Staatlichen Kunsthalle, Leipzig, Museum der bildenden Künste, 1996, p. 176, under no. 259, ill.). The subject of the painting originates from 13th Century German poetic accounts of the story of a group of six minstrels competing to sing the best praises to the Count and Countess of Thuringia. A tale of revenge, trickery, and demons, the minstrel who wins the contest does so by praising the mysteries of Christianity.
The legend would regain popularity in 19th Century Germany, its most famous interpretation being Richard Wagner's 1845 opera Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf Wartburg (B. Wachinger, Der Sangerstreit auf de Wartburg, Berlin, 2004).
Fig 1. Moritz von Schwind, The Singing Contest at the Wartburg. Städel Museum, Frankfurt.
On this sheet are studies for a figure – the man seated at left on the staircase - in one of the artist’s masterpieces, the monumental Singing Contest at the Wartburg in the version made in 1844 for the Städel Museum in Frankfurt (fig. 1; inv. 921, see Moritz von Schwind Meister der Spätromantik, exhib. cat., Karlsruhe, Staatlichen Kunsthalle, Leipzig, Museum der bildenden Künste, 1996, p. 176, under no. 259, ill.). The subject of the painting originates from 13th Century German poetic accounts of the story of a group of six minstrels competing to sing the best praises to the Count and Countess of Thuringia. A tale of revenge, trickery, and demons, the minstrel who wins the contest does so by praising the mysteries of Christianity.
The legend would regain popularity in 19th Century Germany, its most famous interpretation being Richard Wagner's 1845 opera Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf Wartburg (B. Wachinger, Der Sangerstreit auf de Wartburg, Berlin, 2004).
Fig 1. Moritz von Schwind, The Singing Contest at the Wartburg. Städel Museum, Frankfurt.