3-091-771 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

The Arts Being Introduced to Germany by Christianity, c1855. Alternative title: The introduction of the arts to Germany through Christianity. In the view of the Nazarene Philipp Veit, who was appointed director of the Städelsches Kunstinstitut in Frankfurt in 1830, the art of the future should be based entirely on the Christian Middle Ages. Religion is represented by the pious female figure with glowing halo and cross. 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 centre. Others 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 in the foreground. His position in the shadows and the broken strings of his instrument show that the end of his era has come. On the left are wheat sheaves and bunches of grapes symbolising the holy sacrament.