Iconography Leo von Klenze’s proposals Leo von Klenze, court architect of Bavarian King Ludwig I, first proposed in 1824 a design for the Bavaria statue in the form of a “Greek
amazon”, his inspiration being such monumental statues as the
Colossus of Rhodes, the
Statue of Zeus at Olympia. and especially
Phidias’
Athena Parthenos, which survived in numerous small Roman copies. After the competition to design the Hall of Fame was decided in favor of Klenze, he drew up several proposals for the Bavaria statue in addition to his detailed drawings of the intended Hall. These sketches show a Bavaria statue influenced by classical representations of an Amazon. She wore a double girdled
chiton and high laced
sandals. With her right hand she crowned a multiheaded
Herma whose four faces symbolize the ideal qualities of a ruler, of a warrior, the arts, and science. In her left hand she held at arm's length at hip level a wreath which she symbolically bestowed on honored personalities. A lion crouched at her left side. With this suggestion Klenze created a new type of national allegory. For a long time previously there had been personifications of Bavaria, but whereas, for example, the attributes of Tellus Bavarica on the Hofgartentempel represented the material wealth of the nation, Klenze gave his Bavaria attributes of culture and statesmanship. Klenze's design reflected a new understanding of the ideal state as virtuous and enlightened, replacing traditional agrarian symbolism. In another proposal dating from 1834, Klenze planned the
Bavaria statue as an exact copy of the
Athena Promachos which once stood in front of the
Acropolis. She was provided with a helmet, shield and raised spear. On May 28, 1837 a contract to produce the
Bavaria statue was signed by Ludwig I, Klenze, the sculptor
Ludwig Michael Schwanthaler and the metal founder Johann Baptist Stiglmaier and his nephew,
Ferdinand von Miller. Ludwig I and the participating artists were certainly aware of the plans for
Arminius statues in
Teutoburg Forest dating from the 1820s, although these were carried out after the Bavaria statue.
Schwanthaler’s proposals In contrast to Klenze, who was influenced by Classical Antiquity, Schwanthaler was a disciple of the Romantic Movement and a member of several Munich medieval circles, all of which were enthusiastic about anything “patriotic” and rejected foreign impulses, especially those from Classical Antiquity. It was apparently part of Ludwig's strategy to combine these contrary artistic conceptions in a single patriotic monument, thereby uniting the opposing camps under one national ideal. His attempt at a synthesis of Classical and Romano-Gothic styles is often referred to in the literature as “Romantic Classicism” or the “Ludovician Style”. At first Schwanthaler adhered to the specifications of Klenze's plan. But he soon began to come up with his own variations of the Bavaria statue. He made the fundamental decision not to follow Classical models but rather to clothe her in a “Germanic” style: her floor length shirt dress was draped in a simpler way, and bound up together with a bearskin it gave the figure a typical “German” character according to Schwanthaler. Schwanthaler went a step further in a plaster model dated 1840. He decorated the head with a wreath of entwined oak leaves, and the wreath in the raised left hand, which in the Klenze version was made of laurel leaves, became another oak leaf wreath, the oak being considered an intrinsically German tree. These modifications to the Bavaria statue occurred at the time of the so-called Rhine Crisis of 1840/41, which involved border disputes between France and the
German Confederation and led to a surge of patriotic outbursts against the “archenemy” France. For Schwanthaler, who was in any case an enthusiastic patriot, this crisis seems to have been the motivation for portraying his Bavaria statue as emphatically fit to fight and armed with a drawn sword. The
Bavaria statue's attributes of bearskin, oak wreath and sword can be relatively easily interpreted as a consequence of the political and art history context of its genesis, but an interpretation of the
lion is more problematic. Although it is natural to regard the animal simply as a symbol of Bavaria, this does not really reflect the intention of Klenze and Schwanthaler. The lion always had a firm place in
heraldry for the rulers of Bavaria, as Counts of the Rhine Palatinate the
House of Wittelsbach had included it in its
coat of arms since the
High Middle Ages. In addition, two rampant lions served as
supporters in the Bavarian coat of arms from the earliest times. The art historian Manfred F. Fischer is, however, of the opinion that the lion next to the
Bavaria statue is not only conceived as Bavaria's heraldic animal, but along with the drawn sword is meant to be a symbol of defensive potential. But the most important attribute of the
Bavaria statue remains the oak-leaf wreath in her left hand. The wreath signifies an honorary award for those whose busts are to be positioned inside the Hall of Fame.
Construction The bronze statue was
sand-cast using a process resulting in four major parts (head, bust, hips, lower half with lion) and a number of smaller pieces which were attached later. Klenze proposed that the huge statue be cast in bronze. Ever since Classical Antiquity this alloy had been an esteemed material, valued for its long-lasting qualities, and Ludwig, who wanted to create an enduring legacy, strongly favored bronze. The king therefore supported the Munich metal founder Johann Baptist Stiglmaier and his nephew Ferdinand von Miller and revived the long tradition of bronze casting in Munich by setting up a new foundry, the Royal Metal Foundry (
Königliche Erzgießerei), which went into operation on Munich's Nymphenburger Strasse in 1825. From the end of 1839 on, Schwanthaler and numerous assistants were engaged in producing a full-sized plaster model of the
Bavaria statue. In 1844 an initial, four meter high auxiliary model had been completed. In late summer 1843 the finished full-size model could be dismantled in preparation for using the pieces as models for the castings. Stiglmaier died before this work could begin in 1844 and Miller took over leadership of the project. On September 11, 1844 the head of the
Bavaria statue was cast using metal from bronze Turkish cannon salvaged from the 1827 naval
Battle of Navarino (modern-day
Pylos on the west coast of the Peloponnese peninsula). These cannon had been sold in Europe as recycling material under the then Greek King Otto, son of Ludwig I, and a number of them had reached Bavaria. In January and March 1845 the arms were cast and on October 11, 1845 the bust. The hip section was cast the following year and in July 1848 the entire upper portion of the statue was finished. The last major casting, for the lower section, took place on December 1, 1849. On March 20, 1848 Ludwig I was forced to abdicate the throne in favor of his son Maximilian, which had consequences for the continuation of the monument project since the
Bavaria statue and the Hall of Honor, as with all of Ludwig's national monuments, were carried out and financed privately. Although Maximilian obligated himself to continue the project, only 9,000 guilders per year were allocated for it in his budget, which was completely inadequate. Miller, who had advanced the costs for the casting from his own resources, got into serious financial difficulties. Only when Ludwig agreed to privately finance the completion of the Bavaria statue could it be finished. In all, the Hall of Fame cost the king 614,000 guilders, the Bavaria statue 286,346 guilders and the property on which they stood 13,784 guilders. Miller was never recompensed for part of the costs, but the beneficial advertising effects for the foundry turned out to be so great that his expenses could be more than recovered from the many orders the company subsequently received, and the later privatized foundry remained in business until up into the 1930s. Over one hundred other major bronze works of art located worldwide were produced in this foundry, including Klenze's
obelisk on Munich's Karolinenplatz,
Bertel Thorvaldsen’s statue of
Friedrich Schiller on Stuttgart’s Schillerplatz, and
Christian Daniel Rauch’s statue of Maximilian I of Bavaria in front of the National Theater in Munich.
Assembly and dedication in 1850 The formal unveiling of the
Bavaria statue was originally planned for the
Oktoberfest in 1850, which would have been the 25th year of Ludwig’s reign. Before any celebrations were held featuring a king who had meanwhile abdicated, government concerns first had to be dispelled that such an event could be interpreted as a demonstration against the ruling monarch, Maximilian II. Between June and August the separate pieces of the
Bavaria statue were transported to the place of installation on especially constructed wagons, each drawn by 20 horses. On August 7, 1850 the last piece, the head, was escorted to the Theresienhöhe in a festive procession through Munich. The official unveiling took place on October 9 after a procession including all involved trades and guilds and, as expected, turned into a tribute for the king who had abdicated. The artists whom the king had greatly supported in the years of his reign and provided with commissions thanks to his extensive construction program paid special homage to Ludwig. After the unveiling of the
Bavaria statue, the speaker for the occasion expressed on behalf of the Munich art world, “the gratitude and praise of the present time and times to come—Bavaria’s bronze oak leaf wreath belongs especially to King Ludwig, patron of the arts” (translation) The Hall of Fame had not been completed at the time of the
Bavaria statue unveiling; scaffolding and wooden roofing obscured large portions of the building. Only in 1853 could it be dedicated as part of a far more modest celebration. ==The
Bavaria ensemble during the
Drittem Reich==