Page:Imperialdictiona03eadi Brandeis Vol3b.pdf/191

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
SCH
929
SCH

into the river, whence he was saved by some boatmen. This mournful event rendered it imperative to place him under restraint, and he was accordingly confined in an asylum in Endenich; there, at his request, he was provided with a pianoforte, playing on which he amused himself with most incoherent rhapsodies. He never regained his sanity, save perhaps for the few hours preceding his death, when he recognized the anxious friends who had drawn around him. We cannot contemplate such a close of such a career without a deep sense of melancholy at the painful frustration of powers that were so far above those of average men, as was Schumann's incapacity in his last unhappy condition below them; and while we grieve over his immense fall from intellectuality to imbecility, it seems as if the sorrowful colours of his setting reflected their hues upon everything he touched, and gave the tinge of sadness to all he wrought. Schumann's symphony in B flat was first played at his wife's concert in Leipsic in December, 1841; the overture "Scherzo and Finale" in E was written in that year; the symphony in C was written in 1845-46, that in E flat in 1849, and that in D minor in 1851. His cantata, "Paradise and the Peri," was composed in 1843 at the suggestion of the German translator of Moore's poem, the interpolated passages being written by him at Schumann's request: it was first performed at Leipsic. He wrote also the following cantatas for solo voices, chorus, and orchestra—"Der Rose Pilgerfahrt;" "Hermann und Dorothea;" "Der Königsohn," and "Des Sangers Fluch;" and likewise a mass and a requiem. His opera of "Genoveva" was composed in 1847-48, and performed at Leipsic in 1850, but had only three representations. Its overture, however, is frequently played in the concert-room. His overture and incidental music to Byron's Manfred was written in 1848, and first performed at Weimar in 1852. The epilogue, incidental music for the first part, that for the second part, and overture, for Göthe's Faust, were written at four different periods, the last named being one of his latest productions. He composed overtures to the Braut von Messina and Julius Cæsar. The first movement of his pianoforte concerto was designed as a separate piece in 1841, and the work was subsequently extended into its present form. This was written, like his other concerted pianoforte music, for Madame Schumann to play—namely, the Phantasiestück for pianoforte, violin, and violoncello; and the trios in D minor, in F, and in G minor, the quintet, the quartet, and the two sonatas for pianoforte and violin. The three violin quartets were published in 1841, and besides the works above particularized Schumann wrote many collections of songs, which are characterized by their thoughtful expression; some other instrumental pieces of importance; and a great number of tiny compositions designed for children, among which not a few of his very happiest thoughts are to be found.—G. A. M.

SCHUTZ, Heinrich, a musician, was born in the year 1585 at Kösteritz, a village on the river Elster in Voightland. His grandfather was a privy councillor, and his father a burgomaster of Weissenfels. In 1599 he was introduced to the Count Palatine Moritz at his court of Hesse-Cassel, and was by the direction of that prince instructed in languages and the arts. Having perfected himself in the rudiments of literature, he was admitted into the university of Marburg, and began to study the law. In this he made great proficiency; but his patron, finding that he had an invincible propensity to music, generously offered to take him from the university, and, at his own expense, to place him under the tuition of Gabrielli, at that time a celebrated musician at Venice. Schutz accordingly went to Venice, and continued there until the death of his master in 1612. He then returned to Hesse-Cassel, and the count palatine settled on him an annual pension of two hundred guilders. In 1628, desiring to revisit Italy, he obtained permission for that purpose; and during his abode at Venice, or the year following, he published a collection of motets. He then went to reside at Copenhagen, and in 1642 was made director of music to the king of Denmark. He composed and published many noble works, chiefly consisting of sacred music for voices. He died in Denmark in 1672.—E. F. R.

SCHWANTHALER, Ludwig Michael, an eminent German sculptor, was born at Munich, August 20, 1802. He was the son of Franz Schwanthaler, himself descended from a long line of Tyrolese sculptors, who had established a respectable business in Munich as a monumental sculptor. Ludwig received a classical education; at the proper age entered the Munich Art-academy, where the director, Von Langen, pronounced him destitute of artistic ability; and at the age of nineteen succeeded on his father's death to the management of the family business. He sought, however, to be something more than a mere maker of monuments, and his efforts met with recognition. In 1824 the king, Maximilian, gave him a commission to design a large centre-piece for the table, to be executed in silver, representing the procession of the gods in Olympus. The king died before the work was completed, and its execution was stayed. But the commission had provided Schwanthaler with his opportunity, and henceforth his way was clear. In 1825 he went to Rome, and during the year he stayed there executed several rilievi, chiefly of subjects from the Grecian mythology. He visited Rome a second time in 1832. Schwanthaler was the sculptor whom King Ludwig I. took into his fullest confidence, and by whose advice he was guided in the monumental and sculptural decorations of his capital. The extent of the works he executed for the king is extraordinary, and he was at the same time employed on many important foreign commissions. But in estimating the quantity and also the character of his works, it must be borne in mind, that though the designs were always Schwanthaler's, the carrying of them out was intrusted to scholars and assistants to a degree much beyond what is the practice with sculptors in this country. For the new palace, Munich, he executed several friezes and other rilievi, the subjects being taken from Homer, Æschylus, Euripides, Aristophanes, Pindar, &c., the Greek, and the old German mythologies, and early German history; also for the throne-room twelve colossal bronze statues of the ancestors of the king; others typifying the eight provinces of Bavaria, &c. He also prepared the cartoons for many of the fresco and encaustic paintings. For the front of the Pinacothek he executed twenty-five statues of distinguished painters. For the New Exhibition gallery he modelled an allegory of Bavaria protecting the Arts. The sculpture in the southern pediment of the Walhalla though designed by Rauch was executed by Schwanthaler, whilst that in the northern pediment representing the Hermannschlacht, was both designed and executed by him; by him are also the series of colossal caryatides of the Walkyren. The colossal statues of Christ and the Apostles, and of St. Peter and St. Paul in the Ludwigkirche, are his chief works for ecclesiastical buildings. The colossal statues of Tilly and Wrede in the Hall of the marshals, and Kreitmayr, author of the Bavarian code, in the Promenade, are among his most important portrait-statues. But his crowning labour was the Ruhmeshalle. For the building itself he executed ninety-two metopes, and for the centre of the quadrangle the colossal bronze statue of Bavaria—the last and most ambitious of his works. This immense figure is over fifty-eight feet high; the lion which accompanies her is twenty-nine feet high, and the pedestal is twenty-seven feet high. Bavaria is represented as a maiden holding in her right hand a laurel crown, with the left pressing a sword to her bosom. On the whole it is generally considered to be the noblest modern work of its kind. It was commenced in 1844; but the casting was not completed till 1850, when the sculptor himself was in his grave. Of the works he executed for foreign countries the chief are the magnificent fountain in the Freiung, Vienna; the monumental statues of Göthe at Frankfurt; of Richter at Baireuth; of Mozart at Saltzburg; of the Emperor Rudolph at Speyer cathedral, and a great many more. For private patrons he executed a large number of statues, groups, and rilievi of the deities and heroes of the Grecian mythology; many figures of Teutonic heroes and christian knights; and a very large number of sepulchral effigies, portrait-statues, busts, &c. He held the office of professor of sculpture in the Munich academy from 1835; and for several years before his death was looked up to as the first of the living sculptors of Germany. His industry was untiring, and he is believed to have hastened his death by the great and unceasing labours which his feeble constitution was ill-fitted to sustain. He died at the age of forty-six, on the 17th of November, 1848. He bequeathed his studio, with the models of all his works, to the academy. It is preserved with religious care, various relics of the great artist having been added to the collection; and it forms one of the recognized lions of the German art-capital. The street in which it stands now bears the great sculptor's name. Schwanthaler will undoubtedly take a high place among the modern sculptors of Europe. His works are distinguished by originality, invention, vigour, intelligence. He has the merit of having been one of the first to break away from the rigid