Online Encyclopedia

SCHADOW

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 310 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SCHADOW  , a distinguished name in the

annals of German
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art . I . JOHANN GOTTFRIED SCHADOW (1764-1850), sculptor, was born and died in Berlin, where his
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father was a poor tailor . His first teacher was an inferior sculptor, Tassaert, patronized by Frederick the
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Great; the master offered his daughter in
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marriage, but the pupil preferred to elope with a girl to Vienna, and the father-in-law not only condoned the offence but furnished
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money wherewith to visit Italy . Three years' study in Rome formed his style, and in 1788 he returned to Berlin to succeed Tassaert as sculptor to the court and secretary to the Academy . Over
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half a century he produced upwards of two
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hundred
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works, varied in style as in subjects . Among his ambitious efforts are Frederick the Great in
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Stettin, Blucher in
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Rostock and Luther in
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Wittenberg . His portrait statues include Frederick the Great playing the
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flute, and the
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crown-princess Louise and her
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sister . His busts, which reach a
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total of more than one hundred, comprise seventeen
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colossal heads in the Walhalla, Ratisbon; from the
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life were modelled Goethe, Wieland and Fichte . Of church monuments and memorial works
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thirty are enumerated; yet Schadow hardly ranks among Christian sculptors . He is claimed by classicists and idealists: the
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quadriga on the Brandenburger
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Thor and the allegorical
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frieze on the
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facade of the Royal Mint, both in Berlin, are judged among the happiest studies from the antique . Schadow, as director of the Berlin Academy, had great influence .

He wrote on the proportions of the human figure, on

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national
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physiognomy, &c.; and many volumes by himself and others describe and illustrate his method and his
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work . II . His eldest son, RUDOLPH SCHADOW (1786-1822), sculptor, was born in Rome, and had his father at Berlin for his first master . In 1810 he went to Rome and received kindly help from Canova and Thorvaldsen . His talents were versatile; his first
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independent work was a figure of Paris, and it had for its companion a spinning girl . Embracing the
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Roman Catholic faith, he produced statues of John the Baptist and of the Virgin and Child . In England he became known by bas-reliefs executed for the duke of Devonshire and for the
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marquis of Lansdowne . His last composition, commissioned by the king of Prussia, was a colossal
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group, Achilles with the
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Body of Penthesilea; the model, universally admired for its antique character and the largeness of its style, had not been carried out in marble when in 1822 the artist died in Rome . The Prussian consul, General Bartholdi, befriended his young compatriots by giving them a commission to decorate with frescoes a
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room in his house on the Pincian Hill . The artists engaged were Schadow, Cornelius, Overbeck and Veit ; the subject selected was the story of Joseph and his brethren, and two scenes, the Bloody Coat and Joseph in Prison, fell to the lot of Schadow . Schadow was in 1819 appointed professor in the Berlin Academy, and his ability and thorough training gained devoted disciples . To this period belong his pictures for churches .

In 1826 the professor was made director of the

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Dusseldorf Academy . The high and sacred art matured in Rome Schadow transplanted to Dusseldorf ; he re-organized the Academy, which in a few years grew famous as a centre of Christian art to which pupils flocked from all sides . In 1837 the director selected, at request, those of his scholars best qualified to decorate the
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chapel of St Apollinaris on the Rhine with frescoes, which when finished were accepted as the fullest and purest manifestation of the Dusseldorf school on its spiritual side . To 1842 belong the " Wise and Foolish Virgins," in the Stadel Institute,
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Frankfort; this large and important picture is carefully considered and wrought, but lacks power . Schadow's fame indeed rests less on his own creations than on the school he formed . In Dusseldorf a reaction set in against the spiritual and sacerdotal style he had established; and in 1859 the party of
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naturalism, after a severe struggle, drove the director from his chair . Schadow died at Dusseldorf in 1862, and a monument in the platz which bears his name was raised at the jubilee held to commemorate his directorate . (J . B .

End of Article: SCHADOW
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