Leuckart Certificate (Penelope) 1870 - 1920

Editor: This is "Leuckart Certificate (Penelope)," a drawing and print by Max Klinger, dating sometime between 1870 and 1920. It has this dreamy, almost melancholic atmosphere with a narrative that I can't quite grasp. What do you make of it? Curator: Oh, I adore the languid pose and the raven's brooding presence. This work feels like a peek into Klinger's interior world, wouldn't you agree? A stage set, perhaps, where myth and personal anxieties collide. The tapestry behind Penelope... that’s not just decoration, but a whole other layer of story. Editor: Definitely, that backdrop looks so bizarre. I mean, there is this elephant in the middle. What story is he trying to tell, and how does it all connect? Curator: Think about Penelope herself, eternally waiting, weaving and unweaving. The figures behind her are a kaleidoscope of images. Look closely, and you might see allusions to paradise, maybe even a Fall. What if Klinger is suggesting that Penelope's waiting isn’t noble, but a kind of gilded cage of the mind? And is the raven despair or watchful protection, do you think? Editor: Hmmm... so, is this about more than just the surface narrative then? It is much more psychological. Curator: Exactly. Klinger, like many Symbolists, loved using classical stories as vehicles for exploring much more profound anxieties. It becomes this mirror reflecting the artist's and perhaps our own… longings, and maybe, our entrapments. Editor: Wow. I hadn’t considered that the waiting itself could be the cage. Makes me think differently about the whole myth! Curator: Me too! Art is just amazing, right? Always something more beneath the surface.