Anselm Feuerbach

Born in Speyer in 1829^[1], Feuerbach trained in Düsseldorf, Munich, and Antwerp before spending decisive years in Rome, where the classical monuments and Renaissance masters he had grown up reading about became directly available. His painting occupies a distinct position in nineteenth-century German^[1] art: not the bombastic medievalism of the Nazarenes, not the genre realism of the Munich school, but something closer to Winckelmann's ideal of noble simplicity and silent greatness, filtered through a specifically Romantic melancholy.

His career took shape partly through the patronage of Count von Schack, who acquired The Garden of Ariosto in 1863^[1]. The painting (102 x 153 cm, now in Munich's Schack-Galerie) depicts the Renaissance poet Ariosto, laurel-crowned in the manner of Dante, strolling among intellectuals and beautiful women before a classical architectural backdrop. It is a meditation on the relationship between poetry, antiquity, and court culture rather than a simple literary illustration. Von Schack's continued support was valuable, but some critics argued that his preference for literary subject matter directed Feuerbach away from avenues that might have secured him a wider reputation.

He died in Venice in 1880^[1]. The Schack-Galerie in Munich, which holds a substantial body of his work, remains the best place to encounter his painting in depth.