3-085-094 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

The Arts Being Introduced to Germany by Christianity, 1834-1836. Religion is represented by the pious female figure in the middle of the picture. With reference to the Bible, she breathes life into the three sister arts Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in the background and into Poetry, Music and Chivalry in the foreground on the left. The figures on the right edge of the picture observe the scene reverently as they wait to be converted by the sermon of St Boniface. An aged bard, symbolising the heathen cult, is bending low over his harp at front right. His position in the shadows and the broken strings of his instrument show that the end of his era has come.