1868
Dr. Julius Naue (1835-1907)
  Germanischen Heldenkönige der Völkerwanderung
Germanic Hero-Kings of the Great Migration
Villa Lingg, Lindau im Bodensee
   
 
and

Die Geschichte der Völkerwanderung
The Story of the Great Migration
A Picture Cycle by Julius Naue
 
   

See Also: Julius Naue, Lost Masterpieces

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   In 1868,  the wealthy merchant Heinrich Lingg, the brother of the German poet Hermann Lingg [pictured], had returned from America and bought a plot of land in a beautiful bay on Lake Constance near Lindau and built a villa on it. When the building was finished, he privately commissioned the German painter Julius Naue to adorn the principle chamber of Villa Lingg with eight monumental frescoes, each seven feet in height, illustrative of Lingg's popular poem, Die Völkerwanderung (The Migration of Peoples).Hermann Lingg A trip to the old Italian city of Ravenna was planned for the studies necessary for the paintings in the company of Hermann and Heinrich Lingg. The city is particularly strange and alluring for Germans. Here the Cheruscan Arminius son was brought as a prisoner, kings of the Goths and Longobards ruled here, and in Verona the heroic songs of the Migration Period were heard at court. The stories of Alboin and Dietrich von Bern reside there, because Bern was Verona. According to Hermann Lingg's diary, they had a very comfortable stay, visiting old Byzantine churches with their portraits of people, the districts named after the Goth king, his tomb and the remains of his palace. On the way home, they visited Florence, where they admired the galleries, then returned to Germany without further stay. Afterward, Naue remained in Lindau to apply the studies made in Italy to his frescoes in Villa Ling. 

That same year, painter Julius Naue exhibited eight cartoons at an art expo in Munich which were to be painted al fresco in the villa of the merchant Lingg in Lindau. The subject is composed of the most outstanding heroes from the Great Migration. The walls to the hall entrance will be decorated with figures representing Rome (Roma), Germania, and six great Germanic Hero-kings of the Migration period [Die 6 grössten germanischen Heldenkönige der Völkerwanderung], including Alaric at Rome, Odoacer surrendering Ravenna to Theodoric, the Frank  Chlodwig, the Lombard Alboin, Geiserich the King of the Vandals, and other chief personages and events of that era.   These figures with their characteristic emblems stand in round arches around which festoons wind, and show good characterization, Chlodwig and Albion are especially well executed.  Ferdinand Gregorovius, a vistor to the home in late September of 1868 remarked, "Visited the villa of Lingg, a merchant and brother of the poet of Völkerwanderungen. He has some of the barbarian kings of the poem painted in fresco in his room beside the Germania and Roma of which he seems not a little proud." 

Today Villa Lingg, at Schachener Straße 103, Lindau im Bodensee, is described as the former summer residence of the physician Heinrich Lingg, a late classicist cross-gable building after the mid-19th century,  with flat gable roofs projecting on the lakeside, Belvedere structure with tower of stairs; interior frescoes by Julius Naue around 1870; associated greenhouse and octagonal bathing house on the harbor.   So all or some of the frescos are still there. 

 
(Source: Über Land und Meer: allgemeine illustrirte Zeitung 1868).
  
   

1872 Red pencil drawing of Amalasuntha,
Daughter of the East-Gothic King, Theoderich the Great
   Katalog der Internationalen Kunst-Ausstellung zu München, 1879

Eight Cartoons to the Frescos for the Villa Lingg by Lindau:

480. The Mourning Roma
481. The Triumphant Germania
 
 

The 6 Germanic Hero-Kings of the Great Migration:

  
  482. Alarich, King of the West Goths
483. Geiserich, King of the Vandals
484. Chlodwig, King of the Franks
485. Alboin, King of the Lombards
486. Odoaker, King of the Hercules
487. Theodorich, King of the East Goths
 
 

Of the frescoes on a gold background in a hall of the "Villa Seewarte" (aka Villa Lingg) of the Munich merchant Heinrich Lingg near Lindau on Lake Constance.  Dr. Konrad Ritter von Zdekauer in his  Kriegs- und Friedensfahrten, Band 1, (1881) observes: 

 "Here, at the place where the poet Hermann Lingg wrote his mighty epic, 'Der Völkerwanderung' his brother, the art-loving merchant Heinrich Lingg, erected a memorial to this most important of the recent national heroic poems, otherwise only donated through princely patronage. Lingg let Julius Naue, a pupil of Schwind, paint frescos of the most prominent figures of the migration as their subject in the hall of his country house. When you enter through the vestibule, you can see the youthful Germania and the aged Roma which has been overcome, on the walls on both sides of the window. On the opposite side, these figures are aptly pronounced, the painter has based their characterization wholly on the poetry presented with great understanding."  

The main hall contains a row of eight 7 foot high frescos with two great doors as their connecting links , painted gray on gray, with the scenes the "Storming of Rome by Alarich" and the "Surrender of Ravenna from Odoaker to Theodorich".

     Architectural Drawing for Villa Lingg (1868)

The Mourning Roma (Left) and the Triumphant Germania (Right)
The four motifs: Roma, Germania, Odoacer, and Theodoric, each titled and dated 4 June 1867.
   

1. The Mourning Rome
The Story of the Great Migration
 
2. The Triumphant Germania
The Story of the Great Migration
 
Opposite the entrance on the south wall, ones gaze falls on two female figures, the personifications of the then-opposing political, social and cultural realities, the old grieving "Roma" and "Germania", radiant with a youthful freshness and volatility. The aged Roma, with a grief-stricken face, leans with her right hand on a broken pillar shaft, still holding on to the peeled laurel, while the left lies over her mournful head, the crown of the world ruler has fallen from her forehead and lies broken next to the scepter at her feet. How youthful, on the other hand, Germania shines across from her, a graceful, charming figure, her golden head wrapped in oak leaves, her eyes dazzling.
 
Clovis I (Chlodwig)
François-Louis Dejuinne (1786-1844)
 
Albion, King of the Lombards
The Germanic Hero-Kings of the Great Migration

The north wall is occupied by the Franconian Clovis [Chlodwig, Chlodvig] and the Longobard Alboin, along with the Germania, perhaps the best and most characteristic figures of the entire cycle. The seriousness that the figure Clovis exudes is enhanced by the dark, heavy color in which it is painted. On his troubled forehead one can read his many internal struggles.  A luminous figure, on the other hand, is that of the Lombard king, Alboin, who stands in youthful beauty and strength, with a holly wreath wrapped around his head, holding a lyre with his left hand, while his right holds up the fateful cup. At first glance one recognizes the multiple relationships which the artist has expressed, since Rosamunde inadvertantly comes to mind.
 
Alarich, King of the Visigoths
The Story of the Great Migration
 
Geiserich, King of the Vandals
The Germanic Hero-Kings of the Great Migration
 
Then on the west wall the Eastgoth Alarich and the Vandal Geiserich follow, the first in stoic demeanor, the other in violent motion. Alaric has a wolfskin thrown over his shoulders as a mantel, leather hugs his body tightly, and over it his armor. His head, which bears the royal crown, tops a wonderfully powerful figure that leans on his halberd, which appears to have grown out of the ground. Quite different is Geiserich, whose raw Vandal-nature is expressed in the broad structure of his body and his impetuous, passionate mood. His right foot rests on a broken column. In his right hand, he holds a mace raised menacingly, with a wild excitement in his eyes, his whole being breathes obstinacy. His is the barbarianism that resorts to brute force. He wears a long garment with oriental ornamentation, the cloak thrown over it flutters behind him, his head is covered by the Phrygian cap, over it is the crown of Jugurtha —the barbarian on the throne.


 Odoacer at St. Severin
The Story of the Great Migration
 Theodorich, King of the East Goths
The Germanic Hero-Kings of the Great Migration


The final figures of Odoacer, Prince of the Herules, and Theodoric the Great adorn the east wall.  Calmness, prudence, and awareness of his goals and objectives characterize the German prince, who delivered the fatal blow to the long withered Roman power, and initiated German world domination for hundreds of years.  In Theodorich, the legislature appears to be understood by the scroll he holds with its motto: "Qui amat justitiam amat me" ("Who loves me, loves justice"). The individual images are on a gold background with decorations corresponding to the time, executed within Roman arches over which garlands of flowers and fruits are hung. 
 

Albion, King of the Lombards
The Germanic Hero-Kings of the Great Migration

Die Geschichte der Völkerwanderung (1873)
The Story of the Great Migration
A Picture Cycle by Julius Naue
Inspired by Hermann Lingg's Epic: Der Völkerwanderung
    
In the years 1869–71, Julius Naue drew 15 large charcoal cartoons on the history of the the Great Migration
 (reproduced in collotype):
 

Title Page

1. The Mourning Rome (see above)

2. The Triumphant Germania (see above)



3
. Alaric is proclaimed King of the Visigoths in Greece, 398


4. Alaric is buried in Busento and mourned by his people, 410


5. Radegast, Duke of the Vandals, is captured, 407




6. Radegast is imprisoned in Ravenna on the orders of Emperor Honorius, 407




7. The Battle of the Catalan Fields, 451



8. Attila, the King of the Huns, is found choked in blood on the morning of his wedding, 453
Holzschnitt Illustr. Zeitung, 1875.




9. The Germanic princes celebrate the liberation from Attila's yoke at Theudomir in Pannonia
 and greet little Theodoric as King, 455



10. Odoacer at St. Severin, 476



11. Theodoric the Great and the Ostrogoths Entry into Italy, 488




12. Theodoric by the body of Odoacer, who was murdered in anger by him, 493



13. Vitigis his sisters and aunties are brought before the deathly ill Empress Theodora
 as prisoners by Belisarius in Delphi, 537



14. An old sorceress shows Roman warriors the Gothic king Totilas, who fell in battle, 552



15. Tejas is proclaimed king of the Ostrogoths in Italy, 552
See Also
Julius Naue, Lost Masterpieces
 
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