The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-10-28
German Arr.

about the condition of art in Germany
The Munich school may be li6ened to the Ro-
man school of the middle ages; il has passed |
through successive stages it has drawn the best
talent to itself; Fra Angelica, Perugino Michael |
Angelo, and Raffaele, all painted by turns within
the Vatican. And SO, in Munich, churches and |
palaces have been decorated by Hess and |
Schraudolf the modern representatives of the |
old spiritual school, and by Cornelius, the |
avowed disciple of Michael Angelo. Then fol- |
lowed Director Kaulbach in a style com |
pounded of Raffaelle and Giulio Romano till at |
last we come to Professor Piloty, who seems to
have borrowed historic dignity and dramatic
force from Delaroche, light and shade from Cor
reggie and Rembrandt, and Elusive realism from
the Dutch masters.
Few schools within the period of two genera
tions can boast of talents so distinguished, and
the varied phases assumed are to great extent
illustrated in the several galleries assigned to
Munich. Yet there is q singular paucity of re-
ligious works, of which, indeed the late King
Ludwig gave his subjects surfeit. 1t is evident
that Overlook Hess, and Schraudolf have had
their day. and that young men of promise now
pledge their fortunes to the opposing realistic
and naturalstic party. Munich is passing rapidly
from high art into genre, and accordingly tue
son Of Professor Schraudolf, instead of ded-
eating himself to Annunciations and Nativlties
exhibits "A Girl Playing the Piano Overlook
does not sustain failing cause by single
picture. Thus the credit of the great revival of
Christian art eXtolled by Niebuhr, Bunsen, and
Frederick Schlegel has to be upheld by some
half-dozen works, such as "a Holy Family"
by Professor Ittenbach, one of the
four painters of the frescoes in the
chapel of Remagen; "Christ and his
Apostles by the well-known Professor Steinle,
of Frankfort, ESTHER and Ahasuerus," q poor
production, by Professor Schraudolf of Munich;
and ''The Meeting of Jacob and Rachel"
already exhibited in Paris without reward by
Herr Zurich, of Vienna. These works do not
commend themselves to. the English eye. We
in England little for their merits, and their
defects are peculiarly obnoxious to our tastes.
This German school shuns picturesque treat
meRt striking effect of light and shade, pleas
ing harmony OF color, and 1t seeks recompense
in noble motive, symmetric composition,
generic forms, and passionless placdty. Such
style is certainly not in keeping with the age,
and its i'll estate within the exhibition does not
occasion, even to the German mind, much
regret
But the Germans must have high art of some
sort; if they cannot always produce pictures
great in thought they may at any rate cover
canyasers big in size. 1t must be confessed that
the nation has great power in the way of large
cartoons. German artists have giant IDEAS
which thes express forcibly in form aud in light
and shade; they are mastery draughtsmen. 1t
is true they cannot paint, chiefly because dis
agreeable coloring is part OF their principles.
The cartoons of COrnelus-those, for example,
possessed by Berlin-are not surpassed in the
whole range of art ancient or modern, save by
Raffaelle's design in the Ambrosan Library,
Milan. We had, therefore, hoped to an-
counter works in the exhibition worthy
of q nation of fresco-painters, but we
were disappointed. Strange to say, we
search in vain for followers of Corne-
Illus. This master of design, like his great origi-
nal, Michael Angelo, is apparently doomed to
stand alone; no pupils venture to tread in his
high and perious path. Perhaps genius wild
and daring Fuseli might have scaled with
Cornelius the sky, or brought down fire from
heaven; but no such adventurous spirit now
lives in Germany. Even Director Kaulbach,
who by common consent is one of the greatest
of living artists, seems, now that he rests from
his arduous efforts in Berlin, to be somewhat
less than himSalf His influence is scarcely
felt within the exhibition than that of Cornelius,
yet he gives proof of his unrivalled power of
creation In the large yGt PreteheoHS h SartiGGM
is artifcial; the forms and lines have
the extravaganza OF the horid Renais-
sance: The artist has usually lacked
fortune that mature years do not mitigate excess
of youthful ardor. Some of the romantic COM
positions with which this distinguished painter
has of late amused Aimself-such as the car
toons now before us in illustration of "Romeo
and Juliet" the 'Lohengrn, the 'Nibelungen, "
and 'Tannhauser" have assuredly not the
merit of quietude or retiring modesty. Protes-
sor Kaulbach's romance is not equal to his fun
and satire. We prefer one plate in Reinecke
Fuchs to whole volumes done by academic rule
for the illustration of Goethe and Shakespeare
In Paris the artist gained grand prize by his
cartoon the sage of the Reformation" that
crowning honor has, by not very reasonable
regulation, rendered him ineligible to further
reward in Munich; hence the largest if not the
''the Battle of Salamis" remains without recog
ntion We may mention, as Indications of ma
tional works now in progress in Bavaria, four
immense historic pictures-the Marriage OF
Alexander" by Professor Andreas Muller; "Peri-
ces" by Herr Folsz; ''the Court of Frederic ii
in Palermo" by Professor Ramberg; and the
Coronation of Charles the Great" by Herr
Friedrich Kaulbach the nephew of Doctor Will
liam Kaulbach. These four compositions have
been executed at the command of the King for
the Galleries in the Maximilianeum, that still
unfinished colossus of Munich which crowns the
MaXimiilan Strasse. 1t would seem rs If these
German schools had patent whereby they can
roll out history by the piece; If canvas
and cash granted without stint, they
will fill time and space with any
number of emperors, princes, generals
senators. etc. ADd what seems remarkable il
that these historic panoramas rise aud al
to just about the same level of respectable me
diocrity. German artists are almost too wei
educated; If they thought less of the academ,
they might know more OF nature. 1t was said il
1848 that the revolutions were concocted by pro
fessors, and therefore failed and 1t is startling
fact that forty professors of art exhibit within
these galleries, and whether professors are wort
more in art than in politics 1t were hard to de
eide. Pictures by professors in Munich, like tn
works of Academicians in London, are ofte
sustained more by prescription and protectio
than by merit they apt to be stately an
stoid, lfeless and inane. Thus some of tn
German schools are in danger of dying of dig
nifty
The Exhibition shows that the dead formalisr
! into which German art had been falling find
means of escape in healthful naturalism an
/ vigorous realism Two of the foremost painter
now left to Europe--Professor Piloty of tn
school of Munich, to whom first prize wa