/internal/media/dispatcher/59345/fullDance of Death from the Year 1809Totentanz vom Jahre 18091908[Albin Egger-Lienz]Albin Egger-LienzCasein on canvasThe 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. Paintinghttps://sammlungtest.belvedere.at/objects/6649/rdf