The artist I selected was Franz von Stuck who was a german who was a painter, sculpter, engraver and architect. Franz von Stuck was born in Tettenweis but later moved to Munich where he remained for the rest of his life. He began his artistic career in cartoons but later moved to painting where he received awards for his works. His style mainly focused in mythology. Many of his works were very large including the piece i picked as well as had high focus in the frames they were kept in which were designed and built by Franz himself.
The work I decided to select just stood out to me not only in how great and large the painting was but also in name. The painting is titled “Inferno” and just as the name suggests refers to the literature written by Dante Alighieri titled Dantes Inferno. The painting itself portrays symbols of the underworld such as dark colors, snakes, demons and a fiery pit.
The information described by the painting summary suggests that the poses are strikingly modern. The painting seemed very progressive with the women on the right being of no clothing and very detailed. The painting seemed to be non traditional and classical in nature and was painted during the modernist era. It also was about the religion and perhaps trying to break traditional beliefs or ideas of the church by portraying demons and a fiery pit.
My encounter of this work was being walking aimlessly around the large museum trying to find the modernist section as well as taking in the sites of the other sections. Eventually I came across the room which I believe to be the start of the modern art section although I am not entirely sure. The first painting that caught my eye was this one and the main thing that made me take a second look at it was the title of the paining “Inferno”. Which was highlighted by being underneath the paining and engraved in the beautiful gold hand crafted frame. I immediately thought maybe its based on Dante’s Inferno and after reading the description and taking another good look at the painting it was indeed true based on the same work of literature and I decided that this was going to be the piece I would write on. The title of the painting was surprisingly the main thing that drew me to this piece and after that it was probably its grandeur as if it were a small piece i might have missed the title and painting completely.
My only question about the painting itself would be why the female on the right was portrayed with no clothing and how he thinks that it ties in with the piece itself.
Richard, Isn’t it funny how once we saw that first reference to Dante’s Inferno, other references to The Inferno keep popping up? I don’t know much about von Stuck, so I would be curious to learn more about him. You haven’t included the date he made this work. Do you know when it was painted? On the one hand, there are a lot of things about the subject and the composition that seem fairly traditional; on the other hand, there may be other elements of the painting that exhibit the experimental qualities associated with Modernism. The presence of a nude figure is actually fairly traditional – particularly in paintings of a religious nature, so that wouldn’t in itself be something I would describe as specifically “modernist.”