Dance of Death from the Year 1809 – Works – Sammlung Online

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Der Totentanz von Anno Neun

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Dance of Death from the Year 1809
Totentanz vom Jahre 1809
Date1908

Künstler*in Albin Egger-Lienz (1868 Stribach – 1926 St. Justina bei Bozen/ Bolzano)

ULAN

Object typePainting
MediumCasein on canvas
Dimensions
225 × 251 cm
SignatureSign. und dat. links unten: A. EGGER-LIENZ / 1908; bez. links unten: DER TOTENTANZ VON / AN̅O NEUN
Inventory number883
Locations Derzeit nicht ausgestellt
The work of the East Tyrolean painter Albin Egger-Lienz is permeated with existential questions concerning life and death. Dance of Death from the Year 1809, a painting based on the 1809 war of liberation in Tyrol, was commissioned by the Modern Gallery, the predecessor institution of today’s Belvedere. This patriotic subject matter had been stipulated by the Acquisitions Committee in preparation for the celebrations marking the sixty-year jubilee of Emperor Franz Joseph’s coronation. But Egger-Lienz was still allowed artistic freedom. Instead of lauding the Tyrolean freedom fighters who, in loyalty to the emperor, rebelled against the Bavarian and Napoleonic troops, Egger-Lienz created a grim symbol of war: Four armed peasants are being led into battle by Death.