Page 78 - Gallery 19C Nazarenes Catalogues

2 9 PROVENANCE Sale, Bolland & Marotz, Bremen, LITERATURE Börsch-Supan 1976, 90
25–26 October 1996, lot 628.
Grewe 1997, 13
Friedrich Wilhelm Schadow Princess Marianne of Sale, Bolland & Marotz, Bremen, “Inventory of Paintings owned by Grewe 1998, vol. 2, no. 16, 36.
GER M AN, 1788–1862 Prussia, Berlin 25 June 2011, lot 589 Prince Wilhelm of Prussia (1851); Grewe 2017, no. 22, 56–57
Thence by descent to her
house,” Inventarium des Corps 1851
SAINT GEORGE SLAYING THE DRAGON daughter Elisabeth of Prussia Galerie Volker Westphal, (Gemälde), Inventarium des Corps
Berlin, 2011
around 1820/1821 Thence by descent to her son, Private Collection, Germany des Logis und der Etablissements der
oil on copper Prince Heinrich von Hessen und (acquired from the above) Hofhaltung Sr. Königl. Hoheit des
45 ³/₄ by 39 ³/₄ in. (116 by 101 cm) bei Rhein (1838–1900) Hochseligen Prinzen Wilhelm, Berlin,
Thence by descent to his wife, Kunkel Fine Art, Munich, 2021 October 1851 (Großherzogliches
Emilie (Milena) Hržić Topuska, Private Collection, California Familienarchiv Darmstadt,
Freifrau von Dornberg, then (acquired at the above sale) Hessen-Homburg,
Baronin von Bassus (1868–1961) Box 10 b)
(and sold, Henrici, Berlin, 1929,
lot 221, Pl. 11)

When Wilhelm Schadow (1788–1862) returned to Berlin in 1819, he had Not surprisingly, the work’s patrons, Prince Wilhelm of Prussia (1783– 9c). Not surprisingly when Schadow himself was knighted in 1843, he
made a name for himself as a member of the rebellious Lukasbund and 1851) and his wife, Princess Marianne (1785–1846), were as illustrious adopted the knightly saint as part of his coat of arms (Cat. 9d). Appearing
a painter of the famous Casa Bartholdy frescoes (see Fig. 8). But coming as the object was luxurious. Commissioned in the early 1820s, the fire on the Royal fire screen, the motif thus assumed a highly allegorical
home was not easy. In 1814, he had converted to Catholicism, and in a screen occupied a prominent place in couple’s apartments located in the meaning: Just like Saint George holds back the flames, the Hohenzollern
country as aggressively Protestant as Prussia, this matter of the heart— Hohenzollern’s city palace in Berlin (Cat. 9b). Its theme and style were hold back the blaze of modern threats, whether in form of Napoleon, the
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as Schadow saw it—came close to treason. Fortunately, some of his most part of a carefully curated total work of art dominated by one figure then “French Antichrist,” or unbelief and revolutionary unrest. As such, Saint
powerful patrons came to his rescue, not least Princess Marianne of Prussia venerated across Europe as artistic ideal and idol: Raphael (1483–1520). George Slaying a Dragon embodied the aesthetic ideals and moral values
(1785–1846), who at the time was furbishing her Berlin apartments with The couple’s so-called “Green Room” boasted several Raphael copies, of the Royal House of Prussia, which were Schadow’s values as well.
exclusive art and artifacts. Among the many precious objects, one stood most notably—above the sofa—a Madonna alla Sedia and partial copies of
out: a large-size fireplace screen with the image of St. George Slaying the Dragon the famous Sistine Madonna. These canvases not only reflected the era’s Cat. 9a Raphael, Saint George and the Dragon, 1505, oil on panel,
at the center flanked by two panels, now lost, with Saint Barbara and Saint rampant Raphael-cult and fascination with copies after the old masters, 25.5 × 29.4, Louvre, Paris
Cecilia. The composition itself recalls Raphael’s famous St. George of 1505, which, as highly prized collector items, played a vital role in the period’s
which, housed in Paris since 1665, was well-known through reproductions collecting practices and aristocratic self-representation. They particularly Cat. 9b Anonymous German artist, Green Room in the Apartment of Prince
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(Cat. 9a). In the act of emulation, however, Saint George tripled in size paid homage to the role assigned to Raphael as the “alter ego” of the Wilhelm and Princess Marianne, before 1840, pencil/cover colors,
and gained its typical Nazarene abstracted look: from the crystalline Royal House of Hohenzollern. The Prussian Royal family revered the 17.4 × 25.9 cm, Schloss Wolfsgarten bei Langen, Hessische Hausstiftung.
airlessness and pure local colors to the enigmatic stillness of an otherwise Renaissance master as a man who had created a visual universe that Cat. 9c Franz Pforr, Saint George and the Dragon, c. 1811,
highly dramatic scene now strangely frozen in mid-air. While the landscape could (and should!) shape the mind of its 19 -century audience: an art oil on panel, 28 × 21 cm, Städel Museum, Frankfurt.
th
breathes nature closely observed, the horse and its rider live off a willful of beauty rooted in a purified spirituality that was morally uplifting
artifice. Its fairy-tale aura is heightened by the colors’ stunning luminosity, and thus a much-needed defense against the period’s alleged cultural Cat. 9d Anonymous, Coat of Arms, detail from Letter of Nobility for the
a luminosity created by the support’s unusual material—copper—and decline. Believing in their Gottesgnadentum (the divine right to rule), the Director of the Art Academy in Düsseldorf Friedrich Wilhelm Schadow, 1858,
its ability to reflect light back through the carefully built-up layers of Hohenzollern saw in Raphael more than merely a great artist; he was a pen and watercolor on paper, 41 × 31 cm, Stadtmuseum Düsseldorf.
pigments. Once illuminated, the enamel-like surface begins to glow as if moral and aesthetic compass. Looking at Raphael thus presented a vital
animated by an interior light. In the original setting, with the flickering element of self-formation, and Schadow could not have agreed more. ¹ See also Grewe 2017, Fig. 17, 58.
light of the burning fireplace and surrounding candles, the effect must ² Voermann 2012.
have been quite magical. This was thus more than an objet d’art. Originally If the turn to Raphael was driven by educational deliberations and
ensconced in a massive, gilded wood encasing, the work’s large dimensions an aspiration for character-formation, the motif of Saint George was
and elaborate frame suggest truly artistic ambitions. Not coincidentally, specifically chosen for its political connotations as a symbol of
the panel’s function indeed changed in its ensuing collection-history, when anti-Napoleonic (and subsequently anti-revolutionary) resistance.
the large centerpiece was repurposed as a fully autonomous, self-standing This interpretation had already guided his representation by the Lukasbund,
piece meant to be displayed in the manner of an individual painting. which Wilhelm Schadow had joined in 1813 during his Italian studies (Cat.

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