The essay refers to Max Klinger’s Beethoven, which is one of the most important sculptures of German art around 1900. On Beethoven’s pedestal is an unrealized writing from Goethe’s Faust II, which focusses on the relationship between art and infirmity. This writing, removed by Klinger, serves as the starting point for the text. The article shows that the sculpture must be understood as a complex reflection on the composer’s deafness, which as an affliction makes the artist’s creative power possible at all.
The argumentation contextualises the sculpture in the Beethoven reception of the 19th century. Both the torso and the relief panels of the throne are analysed. This interpretation of Beethoven references in particular Arthur Schopenhauer’s philosophy as well as Richard Wagner’s essay Beethoven. It becomes evident that Klinger follows a metaphysical understanding of music of the late 19th century and understands the composer as a musician redeemed through art. The affliction of deafness is thereby interpreted as the basis of an art that frees the sufferer from his torment.
Über den Autor: Max Pommer, Städtische Museen Jena
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Empfohlene Zitierweise: Max Pommer: „‚Der Einsamkeiten tiefste schauend unter meinem Fuß …‘? : Max Klingers tauber Beethoven und die erlösende Kraft der Musik, in: Kunst und Gebrechen, hg. v. Hildegard Fraueneder, Manfred Kern und Nora Grundtner, Wien: Sonderzahl 2024 (Figurationen des Übergangs 1), S. 191-222, DOI: 10.25598/transitionen-2024-i_7, <https://transition.hypotheses.org/4770>