Ludwig Thiersch was a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 painter

Painting

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...

, primarily of mythological

Greek mythology in western art and literature

With the rediscovery of classical antiquity in Renaissance, the poetry of Ovid became a major influence on the imagination of poets and artists and remained a fundamental influence on the diffusion and perception of Greek mythology through subsequent centuries...

 and religious subjects

Sacred art

Sacred art is imagery intended to uplift the mind to the spiritual. Sacred art involves the ritual and cultic practices and practical and operative aspects of the path of the spiritual realization within the bosom of the tradition in question....

 and especially of ecclesiastical

Ecclesiology

Today, ecclesiology usually refers to the theological study of the Christian church. However when the word was coined in the late 1830s, it was defined as the science of the building and decoration of churches and it is still, though rarely, used in this sense.In its theological sense, ecclesiology...

 art, also influential in Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

.

Early life

Thiersch was born in Munich

Munich

Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

, the son of classicist

Classics

Classics is the branch of the Humanities comprising the languages, literature, philosophy, history, art, archaeology and other culture of the ancient Mediterranean world ; especially Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome during Classical Antiquity Classics (sometimes encompassing Classical Studies or...

 and philhellene

Philhellenism

Philhellenism was an intellectual fashion prominent at the turn of the 19th century, that led Europeans like Lord Byron or Charles Nicolas Fabvier to advocate for Greek independence from the Ottoman Empire...

 Friedrich Thiersch

Friedrich Thiersch

Friedrich Wilhelm Thiersch , was a German classical scholar and educationist.-Biography:He was born at Kirchscheidungen...

, and brother of surgeon Karl Thiersch

Karl Thiersch

Karl Thiersch, also spelled Carl Thiersch , was a German surgeon born in Munich. His father was educationist Friedrich Thiersch, his father-in-law was renowned chemist Justus von Liebig...

 and theologian H. W. J. Thiersch

H. W. J. Thiersch

Heinrich Wilhelm Josias Thiersch , usually known as H. W. J. Thiersch, was a German philologist, theologian, and minister, active in the short-lived Catholic Apostolic Church.-Early life:...

. He attended the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich

Academy of Fine Arts, Munich

The Academy of Fine Arts, Munich was founded 1808 by Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria in Munich as the "Royal Academy of Fine Arts" and is one of the oldest and most significant art academies in Germany...

 to study sculpture

Sculpture

Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...

, but after a few years turned to painting, in which he became a student of Heinrich Maria von Hess

Heinrich Maria von Hess

Heinrich Maria von Hess was a German painter, a member of the Nazarene movement.-Biography:He was born at Düsseldorf and brought up to the profession of art by his father, the engraver Karl Ernst Christoph Hess...

, Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld

Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld

Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld was a German painter.-Biography:Schnorr was born at Leipzig, where he received his earliest instruction from his father Johann Veit Schnorr , a draughtsman, engraver and painter...

, and Karl Schorn

Karl Schorn

Karl Schorn was a German painter and chess master.He was a member of the Berlin Pleiades in the first half of the 19th century.-References:...

. After the Academy, he painted a depiction of Sakuntala

Sakùntala

La leggenda di Sakùntala is a three-act opera by Franco Alfano, who wrote his own libretto, basing his work on Kalidasa's 5th-century BC drama Abhijñānaśākuntalam .-Première, Loss, Reconstruction, Rediscovery:...

 (1848) and a scene of Camisard

Camisard

Camisards were French Protestants of the rugged and isolated Cevennes region of south-central France, who raised an insurrection against the persecutions which followed the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685...

s, and then traveled to Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

, where he sketched scenes from daily Italian life and painted Hiob unter seinen Freunden.

In Athens, 1852–1855

In 1852, he traveled with his father to Athens

Athens

Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

, where he replaced Rafaello Ceccoli at the Athens School of Fine Arts

Athens School of Fine Arts

The Athens School of Fine Arts , is Greece's premier art school whose main objective is to develop the artistic talents of its students.-History:Athens School of Fine Arts was established on 12 January 1837, known as the School for the Arts...

 and became interested in Byzantine art

Byzantine art

Byzantine art is the term commonly used to describe the artistic products of the Byzantine Empire from about the 5th century until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453....

. He painted several fresco

Fresco

Fresco is any of several related mural painting types, executed on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Greek word affresca which derives from the Latin word for "fresh". Frescoes first developed in the ancient world and continued to be popular through the Renaissance...

es in Greek churches, and was at the forefront of a movement to "modernize" Byzantine art by introducing elements from Western art such as naturalistic perspective and anatomy. In this, he is sometimes credited with discovering Byzantine art for the world of modern art, but such reform was controversial in Greece, finding fierce opposition from those opposed to what they saw as attempts to replace longstanding Greek traditions with foreign ones. Several newspaper editorials opposed Thiersch's appointment as Professor, and continued to oppose his receipt of commissions to paint church frescoes. However, Westernizing reforms were favored by the Bavaria

Bavaria

Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...

n monarchy of King Otto

Otto of Greece

Otto, Prince of Bavaria, then Othon, King of Greece was made the first modern King of Greece in 1832 under the Convention of London, whereby Greece became a new independent kingdom under the protection of the Great Powers .The second son of the philhellene King Ludwig I of Bavaria, Otto ascended...

, as well as by Lysandros Kaftantzoglou, a prominent architect and head of the Athens Polytechnic, and so his opponents were largely unsuccessful.

Among Thiersch's pupils during his years in Athens was Nikolaos Gyzis, who would become one of the best-known Greek painters of the 19th century, and who would manage to engage Western traditions while still producing art seen as authentically Greek. Thiersch's most notable fresco in Athens is in the Church of Saint Nikodimos.

Vienna, Rome, Saint Petersburg, Bavaria, and London

Through the rest of his life, Thiersch traveled from city to city, being employed alternately to paint church frescoes and to produce oil painting

Oil painting

Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments that are bound with a medium of drying oil—especially in early modern Europe, linseed oil. Often an oil such as linseed was boiled with a resin such as pine resin or even frankincense; these were called 'varnishes' and were prized for their body...

s for private patrons. His church art is particularly notable, and together with Ludwig Seitz and Jean-Hippolyte Flandrin

Jean-Hippolyte Flandrin

Jean-Hippolyte Flandrin was a 19th-century French painter. His celebrated 1836 work Jeune Homme Nu Assis au Bord de la Mer is in the Louvre.-Early life:...

, he is considered to have led a revival in western European ecclesiastical art.

In 1856, Thiersch was appointed to a position in Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

, where he continued to paint church frescoes. During this period Theophil Freiherr von Hansen

Theophil Freiherr von Hansen

Baron Theophil Edvard von Hansen was a Danish architect who later became an Austrian citizen...

, a Danish-Austrian architect who had also spent time in Greece and taken up an interest in Byzantine art, was rebuilding Vienna's Fleischmarkt Greek Church in a neo-Byzantine

Neo-Byzantine architecture

The Byzantine Revival was an architectural revival movement, most frequently seen in religious, institutional and public buildings. It emerged in 1840s in Western Europe and peaked in the last quarter of 19th century in the Russian Empire; an isolated Neo-Byzantine school was active in Yugoslavia...

 style, and Thiersch was commissioned along with Karl Rahl to supply frescoes for the interior.

Following the position in Vienna, Thiersch was employed in Rome by Simon Sinas

Simon Sinas

- Biography :Simon Sinas was born in 1810 in Vienna. He was of Greek origin, while his family originated from Moscopole. He served as Greek Consul in Vienna, and later as Minister to Austria, the Kingdom of Bavaria, and Germany. The son of Georgios Sinas, also a benefactor and diplomat, Sinas...

, a Greek philanthropist, for whom he produced a number of works on mythological and religious subjects, including Charon als Seelenführer, Bakchos' Einzug in den Hain von Kolonos, and Thetis' Klage um Achilleus.

In 1860, he went to Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...

, where he painted frescoes and icons in the chapels of Grand Duke Nicholas and Grand Duke Michael

Grand Duke Michael Nicolaievich of Russia

Grand Duke Michael Nikolaevich of Russia was the fourth son and seventh child of Tsar Nicholas I of Russia and Charlotte of Prussia...

, and in the Protestant

Protestantism

Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...

 Church of Saint Catherine.

After his return to Germany, Thiersch painted Auferweckung der Tochter des Jairus und Christus in Gethsemane (1866) for the Stiftskirche in Kempten

Kempten im Allgäu

Kempten is the largest town in Allgäu, a region in the south-west of Bavaria, Germany. The population was ca 61,000 in 2006. The area was possibly settled originally by Celts, but was later overtaken by the Romans, who called the town Cambodunum...

, as well as Predigt des Paulus auf dem Areopag, and in the following years a number of other works, including Christus am Teich Bethesda, Ceres, die ihre Tochter sucht, Christus in der Wüste, Alarich in Athen als Sieger gefeiert, and Kreuztragung Christi.

Some years later, Thiersch painted the icons in the iconostasis

Iconostasis

In Eastern Christianity an iconostasis is a wall of icons and religious paintings, separating the nave from the sanctuary in a church. Iconostasis also refers to a portable icon stand that can be placed anywhere within a church...

 of the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of St. Sophia

Saint Sophia (London)

Saint Sophia Cathedral is a Greek Orthodox church on Moscow Road in the Bayswater area of London.It was consecrated as the Church of St Sophia on 5 February 1882 by Antonios, Archbishop of Corfu, as a focus for the prosperous Greek community that had settled in London, particularly around...

 in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 (consecrated 1882).

Sources