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19/5/2015

Heroic and Idyllic

Neue Pinakothek, Munich

The Neue Pinakothek has an outstanding collection of paintings evoking Italy’s legendary status as a focus of romantic yearning. Many of the paintings were acquired for the collection by its founder, King Ludwig I. Since last year, the Neue Pinakothek has also held an important collection of early photographs of Italian scenes: some 9700 images in all, dating from the period between 1846 and 1900, which were purchased from Dietmar Siegert by the Pinakotheks-Verein, with the support from the Ernst von Siemens Kunststiftung and the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe, and presented to the museum on permanent loan. Now the exhibition ‘Heroic and Idyllic’ offers an insight into the wealth of this newly acquired collection, with a display of around 100 selected images by the most famous photographers.

Photography and painting have had a lasting impact on the perception of Italy since the 19th century. Painters travelled to Italy to make sketches and paintings of its southern landscapes and folk traditions. Photographers followed their example, but they quickly opened up new areas of interest, such as photographs of historic monuments and contemporary events. Foreign travellers explored the famous landscapes, art treasures and historic sites in ever-growing numbers, and what had once been the Grand Tour of the privileged classes developed into modern tourism. Travellers provided both patrons and a viewing public for painters and photographers.

The introductory part of the exhibition explains, by way of select examples, the characteristics and compositional techniques of early photography in Italy. The early days in Rome are documented by some of the first photographs ever taken there, including some by Calvert Richard Jones. Key types of photographic image are then explored, such as nature photography, studies of clouds, photographs of sculpture and genre scenes. Compositional techniques such as tonal gradation, perspective and reflected light are explained and illustrated by outstanding examples.

The tour then leads on through five galleries of the Neue Pinakothek – from the Nazarenes to the so-called ‘Deutsch-Römer’ – where selected photographs are displayed alongside paintings from the collection. Seen in this context, similarities and differences emerge. In the area of landscape painting, the ‘heroic’ landscapes of Joseph Anton Koch and Johann Christian Reinhart, in which the Italian countryside is interpreted through the lens of the ‘sublime’, are juxtaposed with large-format photographs by James Anderson and James MacPherson, whose images of waterfalls, rocks and ancient ruins capture a similar sense of lofty nobility.

In the gallery devoted to the ‘Deutsch-Römer’, where Arnold Böcklin’s paintings conjure up the Arcadian idyll, visitors can see the sensitive nature studies of Giacomo Caneva and Carlo Baldassare Simelli and the sentimental evocation of ancient Italy in the photographs of Wilhelm von Gloeden and Wilhelm Plüschow.

In the area of genre scenes, the paintings of Friedrich Overbeck and Wilhelm von Schadow are paired up with early photographs by Giacomo Caneva and Enrico Béguin, whose female models exude the same aura of innocence and naturalness as the female figures of the Nazarenes. In the gallery devoted to German history paintings, on the other hand, the juxtaposition produces quite a different result. While the large canvases by Wilhelm von Kaulbach and Carl Theodor von Piloty portray events from ancient Roman history as scenes of high drama, the photographs, by contrast, capture moments of authenticity. Stefano Lecchi and Luigi Sacchi depict the war theatres of the Risorgimento, documenting the most momentous events in the history of Italy during this period, in subtle and moving images.

A visit to the Neue Pinakothek over the next few months, therefore, not only offers an insight into the history of the perception of Italy in photography and painting, but also into the relationship between two sister arts, one of which, painting, has always enjoyed recognition, while the other, photography, was only accorded full validation as an artistic medium in the 20th century.

Image: Robert MacPherson, The Cascata delle Marmore near Terni, c. 1858, albumen print, 42.2 x 31.3 cm
© Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen/The Dietmar Siegert Collection

Press Contact: presse@pinakothek.de

Opening: 20 May 2015 19:00

Neue Pinakothek
Barer Strassee 29, Munich

Opening Hours:
Daily except TUE 10.00 a.m. - 6.00 p.m.
WED 10.00 a.m. - 8.00 p.m.

Admission:
Permanent exhibition
7 euros | reduced 5 euros
Sunday admission 1 euro

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