bronze, sculpture
portrait
sculpture
bronze
figuration
sculpture
symbolism
Dimensions: 63.5 x 53.0 x 40.0 cm
Copyright: Public Domain
Max Klinger's portrait bust captures Friedrich Nietzsche in bronze, the surface worked to a heavy sheen. It’s so somber. You can almost feel Klinger wrestling with the material. The way the light catches on the planes of the face, the deep-set eyes… you can imagine him building up the bronze, bit by bit, trying to capture something of Nietzsche's intensity, maybe even his torment. That mustache! It’s a landscape in itself, a sort of defiant, sculptural form. It makes me think of other artists who were grappling with similar ideas around the turn of the century - Rodin, Munch. They’re all feeling the weight of modernity, the crumbling of old certainties. It feels like Klinger isn't just making a likeness; he's trying to embody Nietzsche's spirit in the very substance of the sculpture. And there it is, that ongoing conversation between artists across time, each one pushing the boundaries of what art can do.
Comments
"A face displaying such boundless and indescribable mental anguish without distortion, without wrinkles, with only the deepest tortured resignation." This is how Klinger described Nietzsche's death mask, from which he created various likenesses of the philosopher. Nietzsche had died in August 1900 in total mental derangement, before the artist was able to meet him. Commissioned by Harry Graf Kessler, Klinger created a representative, stylised marble bust, the bronze version of which was acquired by the Städel in 1910. Through the monumental herm form, Nietzsche became a key figure in the revival of the Greek aesthetic culture of antiquity.
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