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Lot Essay
First conceived in 1893 and 1897, respectively, the following lots epitomize Franz von Stuck's sculptural oeuvre and, coupled with his prolific career as a painter and engraver, solidified von Stuck as a figurehead of the Symbolist art movement and architect of the Munich Secession in 1893.
Amazone is one of von Stuck's most celebrated sculptures and embodies the artist's fascination with both the 'femme fatale' and the Neo-Classical during the final decade of the 19th century. Von Stuck first approached the subject of the Amazonian female warrior through several paintings circa 1897 and, after meticulous drafts and well-documented preparatory sketches, realised the full dramatic potential of his subject as a three-dimensional work of art. As offered here in consecutive lots, Amazone was frequently paired with Verwundeter zentaur (Wounded centaur), both in architectural settings and also in later paintings, for example in his 1912 work Amazone en centaur (illustrated E. Becker, Franz von Stuck (1863-1928): Eros & Pathos, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, 1995, p. 57). Von Stuck's repeated representation of these mythological beasts, specifically a myriad of fauns and centaurs, prompted a Berlin satirical magazine to remark, "O! What happy days these were, when every man still had his horse’s or goat’s legs! Thank you, master-painters, for making these times come alive again” (op. cit. p. 42).
Today a life-size cast of Amazone stands outside the Villa Stuck, Munich, as designed by the artist, and two other casts of the model by the Leyrer foundry like the present lot may be found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (inv. 27.21.7) and a pair with comparable patination is in the Princeton University Art Museum (inv. y1954-74). Together with these examples, the present lots may be dated post-1906 when the artist adopted the honorific 'von' to his signature when von Stuck received the Order of Merit of the Bavarian Crown.
Amazone is one of von Stuck's most celebrated sculptures and embodies the artist's fascination with both the 'femme fatale' and the Neo-Classical during the final decade of the 19th century. Von Stuck first approached the subject of the Amazonian female warrior through several paintings circa 1897 and, after meticulous drafts and well-documented preparatory sketches, realised the full dramatic potential of his subject as a three-dimensional work of art. As offered here in consecutive lots, Amazone was frequently paired with Verwundeter zentaur (Wounded centaur), both in architectural settings and also in later paintings, for example in his 1912 work Amazone en centaur (illustrated E. Becker, Franz von Stuck (1863-1928): Eros & Pathos, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, 1995, p. 57). Von Stuck's repeated representation of these mythological beasts, specifically a myriad of fauns and centaurs, prompted a Berlin satirical magazine to remark, "O! What happy days these were, when every man still had his horse’s or goat’s legs! Thank you, master-painters, for making these times come alive again” (op. cit. p. 42).
Today a life-size cast of Amazone stands outside the Villa Stuck, Munich, as designed by the artist, and two other casts of the model by the Leyrer foundry like the present lot may be found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (inv. 27.21.7) and a pair with comparable patination is in the Princeton University Art Museum (inv. y1954-74). Together with these examples, the present lots may be dated post-1906 when the artist adopted the honorific 'von' to his signature when von Stuck received the Order of Merit of the Bavarian Crown.