George Minne and his kneeling youths (2)

(Below biography extracts are from Helke Lauwaert work.)

''With the Fountain with Kneeling Youths, Minne established his name abroad, thanks to Van de Velde and Meier-Graefe, specifically in Austria and Germany. He first presented the Fountain with the five identical youths for exhibition in 1899 in Brussels at La Libre Esthéthique. After this, the work is to be seen in an altered form at the exhibitions in Vienna, Budapest and Venice.

At the Wiener Secession of 1900, Minne is one of the main artists in the exhibition and in addition to the plaster model of The Fountain are also 12 sculptures by Minne to be seen, in plaster, marble, bronze and wood, in addition to one woodcut. With his delicate, inwardly turning youthful figures, Minne closely adhered to the Jugendstil and the art-nouveau aesthetic of the fin de siècle in Vienna. His influence on artists such as Gustav Klimt (1862-1918), Oskar Kokoschka (1886-1980) and Egon Schiele (1890-1918) and later also on Wilhelm Lehmbruck (1881-1919) is unmistakable."
                              

Wilhelm Lehmbruck, 'Head of a girl, turning', 1913 - Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent.

             
"In the appreciation of Minne by the Viennese avant-garde, the Jewish mecenas and industrialist Fritz Waerndorfer played an important role. In addition to works by Klimt, Jan Toorop (1859-1928)and Aubrey Beardsley (1872-1898), he possessed at the time the largest private collection of sculptures by Minne, plus a sketchbook of the artist. The sketchbook dates from ca. 1883-1888 and is now found in the Albertina in Vienna.

From 1900 on until World War I, Minne would be represented nearly annually at exhibitions in Germany: Berlin, Munich, Mannheim, Weimar and Dusseldorf. In leading, German newspapers such as Pan and Die Kunst, photos of his work appeared, through which his recognition abroad grew. With the help of Henry Van de Velde, the German industrial and mecenas Karl Ernst Osthaus gave Minne a project in 1900 for the Folkwang Museum in Hagen (now in the like-named Museum in Essen) to produce a marble version of the Fountain with Kneeling Youths. ''

2 Kneeling Young Men by George Minne, during Manheim Art exhibition, 1907

                                       
"After the war, Minne gave lessons at the Academy of Ghent for a year. The fame that he had gained before the war in his own country has not diminished. In 1930, the first published monograph on him by Leo Van Puyvelde appears, supplemented with a catalog of his oeuvre. On 25 April 1931, Minne is given the title of baron. Various official projects, such as the Queen Astrid Memorial in Antwerp, were entrusted to him. Minne remained active as a sculptor and drawer.
George Minne died on 18 February 1941 at the age of 74. A Woman and Child by his own hand adorns his grave in Sint-Martens-Latem. Also, in the same year a retrospective exhibition of his work was held in the Palace of Fine Arts in Brussels.''
            
Video : The link below allows you to see several of George Minne drawings and sculptures.
George Minne video                                  
 

George Minne and his kneeling youths (1)

George Minne, Belgian sculptor, contemporary of Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt, was close from my grand father. I became aware of George Minne work and his kneeling naked young men thanks to my father. Although I would not classify this sculptor in the 'gay world', some of his sculpting work, which got international recognition, could be of interest by his strong ability to express a fragile masculine beauty with his famous naked kneeling young men sculptures, as seen below.

Detail - Fountain with Kneeling boys - Brussels, Belgium- Picture by Martin Beek

All biography extracts are strongly inspired from Helke Lauwaert excellent work (Art historian, she also wrote a book about Theo Van Rysselbergue).

George Minne was born in Ghent, Belgium, on 30 August, 1866 as the son of an architect. We do not know a lot about Minne's childhood years. He got a strict discipline at school, this may have given him his introverted nature. He did many drawings, and aged 13, he left the primary school and went to the Academy of Fine Arts of Ghent.

Aged 17, George Minne decided to take painting lessons at the Academy of Fine Arts of Ghent. His parents did not agree with this choice, and forced him to start architecture lessons which was supposed to provide more financial stability, and with a better social image. But George Minne quickly went back to his artistic inclination. As a student, he met the painter Valerius De Sadeleer who became a friend. 

George Minne



Three years later, aged 20, he left the Academy and got a working artist studio in the old centre of Ghent. The artist developed a very expressive, direct, simple language. And as he became friend with key French speaking symbolists writers from Ghent, like Maurice Maeterlinck, they influenced each other and Minne started an ever more introverted kind of sculpture.
                                        

Minne first exhibition happened when he was 23, at the Tri-Annual Salon of Ghent. He presented two sculptures. One is shown below, called "Small Injured Figure". It was the first example of the sculptor's solitary naked youth with spread legs.This exhibition gave him very positive support from Emile Verhaeren in the leading art newspaper L'Art Moderne.

Minne liked Auguste Rodin style, and reportedly wanted to work with him, but it is said that Rodin, seeing some of Minne's work, mentioned he could not further teach the young artist any more.
Minne moved to Brussels end of 1895, were he started an exceptionally creative period, with for example the below sculptures.

The Prodigal Son, 1896

Man With a Waterskin, 1897, Museum of fine Arts, Ghent, Belgium.

His 'chef d'œuvre' is considered to be the 'Fountain with kneeling youths' from which many versions exist and were created (in plaster, bronze, stone). The first work was done in 1898.

George Minne - Fountain with kneeling boys

Fine Arts Museum - Ghent, Belgium

George Minne - Fontaine aux Agenouillés 1898 - Brussels, Belgium

Detail from George Minne - Fountain with Kneeling Boys - Brussels, Belgium

In Brussels he met famous people from the art world, like Henry Van de Velde one of the founder of the Art Nouveau in Belgium, he also met the sculptor Constantin Meunier, and the art critic and art nouveau expert Julius Meier-Graefe, who would play an important role in Minne's reputation abroad as we will see in our next post.
                                     

Ganymède, the cutest youg man on Earth (3) and contemporary media

Ganymede rapt has been depicted in many contemporary design, has been used as cover of books, in advertising, on lithographs etc. Here is a short selection.

Below is the Budweiser advertising of 1906, based on the engraving from the German illustrator Frank Kirchbach (1892).

Kenneth G. Kendall, from USA, was a sculptor and painter. He did some lithographs.
As he was also an actor in Hollywood, he used another actor, Steve Reeves, as model to do his Ganymede rapt drawing and lithograph seen below, in 1952.

Pierre & Gilles, famous artists from Paris, France, whose work has recently (Sept 2013-Jan 2014) been depicted, among others, during the Male art exhibition 'Masculin - Masculin' in the Orsay Museum, have created a serie of 3 drawings/paintings illustrating Ganymede's myth, as seen below.

(And it is also one of their work 'Mercure' which was choosen as the exhibition catalogue main cover illustration.) 

 

Pierre & Gilles website with their work, exhibitions etc. can be seen here.

 

 

In the USA, Philip Gladstone, illustrator and sculptor from Philadelphia, created the below 'rapt from Ganymede' in 2006. His website is here.

Ganymede, the cutest young man on Earth (2) other sculptures types, mosaic, etc.

Ganymede, and his rapt by Zeus, was often represented in the arts, through sculptures as we have seen earlier, and with other media as well. So below are some of these various depictions, in bas-reliefs, mosaic, paintings, drawings. The next post will show Ganymede used in more contemporary media.

Hebe gives the cup and pitcher to Ganymede - Bas-relief by Thorvaldsen - 1833
Thorvaldsen Museum - Copenhagen
 

Ganymede feeding the eagle - Hermitage Museum - St Petersburg -
Picture by S Sosnovskiy 

 

Ganymedes & the Eagle, Greco-Roman fresco
C3rd A.D., Kato Paphos Archaeological Park

 

Zeus & Ganymède, by Eucharidès, V^e c. BC, Metropolitan Museum, NYC.



Ganymede by Rubens - Schwartzenberg Palace, Vienna, Austria.



Wall decoration at Hamburger Kunsthalle - Germany

Drawing by Michelangelo Buonarotti - Collection Her Majesty Queen Elisabeth II

Drawing by Michelangelo Buonarotti - Collection Her Majesty Queen Elisabeth II

 

                     

Ganymede, the cutest young man on Earth (1) sculptures

Ganymede was known to be the most handsome young man on Earth. Several stories circulate about Ganymede myth, they usually converge on the fact he was very handsome, like a Young God, and Zeus felt in love with him the day he saw him playing on the fields of Troy and Mount Ida.



Sculpture from Ernst Seger, Germany - Hearst Estate - San Simeon - California.
Picture from Saint Plan



Sculpture by Thorvaldsen -Minneapolis Institute of Arts

Thorvaldsen sculpture - Copenhagen

                    
Reportedly Zeus transformed himself into an eagle, and grabbed the boy. The two arrived fast to Mount Olympus. ''The eagle folded his wings, shook himself once and turned back into a god. He took Ganymede to bed and then appointed him cup bearer.''

Sculpture from Benvenuto Cellini - Florence - Italy

Sculpture by Adamo Tadolini 1788 -1868 in Hermitage Museum - St Petersburg.
Photo by Ayir Heklai.

Same - detail

                                 

Sculpture by Pierre Julien 1731-1804 Louvre Museum - Paris.
Picture by K. Ignatidis

Ganymede's father, Tros, cried endless tears after the loss of his son, not knowing what happened. Zeus was moved by his pain, and sent down Hermes as messenger, who let Tros know his boy was now among the gods, immortal and forever young. Zeus gave Tros in exchange for his son two beautiful and strong white horses able to walk on water, the very same that carry the immortals. Tros’ heart was filled with joy and he drove his new horses as fast as the wind.

 

''Zeus, grateful for Ganymede’s love, made a place for him among the stars as Aquarius – the Water Bearer. There he still stands, smiling, pouring nectar and shielded to this day by the wing of the Eagle constellation.''



Burkli Platz - Zurich - Switzerland. Hermann Hubacher

 Ganymede's sculptures

Several sculptures were made to glorify or illustrate the love between Zeus and Ganymede, or Ganymede's rapt, by famous sculptors like Michelangelo or Cellini. 

Benvenuto Cellini - Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence - Italy.

 

Benvenuto Cellini - Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence - Italy

 

Hermitage Museum - St Petersburg

In Italy, some sculptures can be seen at the Vatican museum, at the Uffizzi in Florence, and at the archeological museum of Naples. Other sculptures are in various Europe's museums, like St Petersburg Hermitage, or Copenhagen, or Louvre in Paris.

At the Archeological Museum of Naples

Found in the remains of a villa Via Prenestina - Rome - Italy 

 

Other art media

Ganymede is also represented on other media by famous ancient artists (Le Titien, Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Rubens) as well as contemporary (Pierre & Gilles and others) and this will be the subject of another post. In litterature, the myth is mentioned by Virgile, Plato, Ovide, and more recently by Goethe, Cavafy. 

An extensive collection of Ganymede's portraits, drawings, engravings, and sculptures can be seen here.   http://gayekfansi.blogspot.com/2011/08/blog-post_31.html?zx=11813a29d6afba63

The Apoxyomenos from Croatia

 

Discovered in 1996 by an amateur scuba diver, 45 meters below the surface, it took three years to successfully take the statue out of the water, near the Croatian island of Losinj / Vele Orjule, in the Adriatic Sea, thanks to the Croatian archeologists together with specialists from the Opificio delle Pietre Dure in Florence, Italy.

The Croatian Apoxyomenos is a bronze statue dating back to the 2nd century BC. It is considered one of the few great works of ancient bronze that has ever been fully recovered.

 

After seven years of conservation and restoration, the work, marked as an Underwater Heritage Site by UNESCO, was exceptionnally presented during 3 months at the Louvre Parius Museum early 2013.

 

600 years BC, Greeks knew how to cast bronze, and used it a lot for their statues. Most of these sculptures, mentioned by the writers from that era, disappeared, as bronze was reused to produce coins, plates, arms, Tools. This Croatian statue is therefore a rare testimony about their art.



Close to 2 meters high( 1.92m), with red cupper inserted for the lips and tits,  this statue is an 'apoxyomenos', which in old greek means an athlete, busy cleaning his body with a 'strigile', a metallic scraper, in order to remove the mixture of oïl and sand and sweat that sticks to his skin. Athletes of Antiquity exercising naked and outdoor coated their body of an oïl, which, during the athletic exercises, mixed with the sand of the palaestra.





The moment chosen by the artist is the one that occurred after the exercise : the head of the athlete down to the hands betrays a specific gesture. This subtle composition allows the observer to enter within the privacy of a gyum scene, and allows us to understand how the ancient sculptors were keen observers of male nudity.

picture Marie Lan Nguyen

 This statue was only displayed twice abroad : in Florence in 2006, and Paris in 2012/2013.

 



From research undertaken so far it is presumed that the statue was part of a Roman cargo ship, which sailed to large northern cities, uch as Aquileia, Ravenna or Pula, or to a refine place outside 
 cities, such as a luxury villa on the island of Veli Brijuni in the bay Verige.



Videos:
Videos of this discovery can be seen here and here. The Louvre Museum ceremony, with both French and English parts, explaining this discovery and the larger context, is to be seen here.