Lilly 

Curator: Standing before us is "Lilly", a striking work by Philipp Otto Runge currently residing here at the Städel Museum. This piece appears to be a print on paper, a study of botanical form rendered in stark contrast. Editor: My first impression is of pure, distilled essence. The negative space really defines the subject. It’s dramatic, almost a little severe, like a botanical specimen under observation. Curator: Indeed. Runge’s focus seems intent on isolating and highlighting the essential characteristics of the lily. Note the deliberate emphasis on line and form. It’s a meticulous arrangement, seemingly less about replicating reality and more about constructing an idealized version of nature. How might this be considered through the framework of early 19th century art practices? Editor: Considering the context, it feels like a response to the burgeoning scientific classifications of the era. Artists weren't just passively depicting the world; they were engaging with this new wave of systematic cataloging and analyzing life. Runge probably had an engagement in those movements as it feels that the piece captures this attempt to scientifically categorize nature, albeit through an artistic lens. Curator: I appreciate that viewpoint. And there’s the interplay between science and symbolism. Lilies themselves have accrued layers of meaning throughout history – purity, hope, even death. Here, stripped of color and rendered so precisely, is the meaning heightened, flattened, or does it invite another reading? Editor: That is the most interesting aspect, the symbolic is there but very latent, somehow is in conflict with the piece technical qualities, a reduction to essence that fights any allegorical burden. The pure contrast recalls photographic negatives; there is something new captured by the means used by the artist in its pursuit to represent something old. Curator: A fitting summary. A negotiation of form and the spirit of nature—both reverent and rigorously examined. Editor: I see a piece of tension between capturing a fleeting natural moment while categorizing and studying the beauty of natural life, beautifully resolved and ready to be studied again by another generations.