Ludwig van Beethoven, Denkmal in Wien, Beethovenplatz, Gesamtansicht, 1885 - anonyme Heliogravüre des Kaiserlich-Königlichen Militärgeographischen Instituts nach der Plastik von Caspar von Zumbusch von 1878/1880, erschienen im Verlag der Gesellschaft für Vervielfältigende Kunst, Wien, 1885
Beethoven-Haus Bonn, B 234
© Beethoven-Haus Bonn
digitalarchive@beethoven.de
digitalarchive@beethoven.de
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Uncompromising nature, love of freedom and solitariness - these are the elements that most influenced representations of Beethoven in late Romantic art. This is perhaps best reflected in the memorial which Casper Clemens von Zumbusch created for Vienna in 1878 and which was unveiled two years later. This statue shows Beethoven seated in an attitude which is deliberately reminiscent of Michelangelo Buonarottis' statue of Moses in the "San Pietro in Vincoli" church in Rome. A link is explicitly forged between these two artistic "Titans", who were particularly admired in the nineteenth century.(S.B.)