(Salzburg 1840–1884 Vienna)
Modern Amoretti, triptych, signed on the central panel Hans Makart, oil on canvas, 292 x 167 cm (central panel) and 147 x 236 cm
(side panels) each, framed

Provenance:
Collection of Count János Pálffy-Erdöd (1829-1908), Králova Castle, purchased directly from the artist in 1868;
his heirs;
sale of the Eastern Slovak Museum, Bad Pistyan, 30 June 1924, lots 15 and 16 (only the two side side panels);
art trade Czechoslovakia;
Collection Otokar (born 1882) and Melanie Tuma (born 1885), Prague;
by inheritance to their daughter Adrienne (1914-1994), married name Countess Waldstein-Wartenberg;
in exchange to Countess Marie Bossi-Fedrigotti (née Countess Waldstein-Wartenberg, 1878-1950) and her daughter Countess Marie Trapp, Friedberg Castle, Tyrol;
sold to the Hotel Maria-Theresia, Innsbruck, mid/late 1940s;
purchased by the present owner in 1978.

Catalogued and illustrated in:
Emil Pirchan, Hans Makart, Vienna 1954, ill. 10 (central panel).
Hans Makart, exhibition catalogue, Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, 1972, pp. 37–39, cat. no. 11 with ill;
Gerbert Frodl, Hans Makart. Monographie und Werkverzeichnis, Salzburg 1974, p. 300, cat. no. 94/1–3;
Friedrich von Boetticher, Malerwerke des 19. Jahrhunderts, Hofheim am Taunus 1979, vol. I, 2, p. 957, no. 15;
Hans Makart. Malerfürst, exhibition catalogue, Historisches Museum der Stadt Wien, Vienna 2000, p. 28, no. 1.4.
Makart. Ein Künstler regiert die Stadt, exhibition catalogue, Wien Museum, Vienna 2011, p. 52, ill. 2;
Hans Makart. Maler der Sinne, exhibition catalogue, Belvedere Wien, Vienna 2011, pp. 88-91, pl. 33–35.
Gerbert Frodl, Hans Makart. Werkverzeichnis der Gemälde, Vienna 2013, p. 90, no. 116/1 -3.

Exhibited:
Münchner Kunstausstellung, 1868 “Salonschmuck”;
Allgemeine Kunstausstellung, Vienna, 1868;
Staatliche Kunsthalle, Baden-Baden, 23 June - 17 September 1972;
Das Zeitalter Kaiser Franz Joseph, Niederösterreichische Landesausstellung,
19 May – 28 October 1984, cat. no. 35.1.2
Hans Makart. Malerfürst, Historisches Museum der Stadt Wien,
14 October 2000 – 4 March 2001, cat. no. 1.4;
Hans Makart. Ein Künstler regiert die Stadt, Wien Museum,
9 June – 16 October 2011;
Hans Makart. Maler der Sinne, Belvedere Wien, 9 June – 9 October 2011.

The present lot as a whole has been under cultural protection since 1975.

The three-part painting „Modern Amoretti“, painted by Hans Makart in 1868, is a masterpiece of historism. A native of Salzburg, he was then a student of the famous painter Karl von Piloty in Munich. In many respects, this triptych is an extraordinary piece: even the title alone cries out to be interpreted. At the Munich Kunstverein exhibition in the summer of 1868, the newly completed work was presented under the title „Salonausstattung“. The well-known art critic Friedrich Pecht called it a „children‘s fairy tale“ and shortly thereafter it became widely known as „Modern Amoretti“. The 28-year-old Makart conceived this unusual composition as a feature for his own studio, which at the time existed solely in his imagination. A little later, he incorporated the design into a wall decoration (Fig.) by pasting photos of the „Modern Amoretti“ onto canvas, integrating them into the design and thus giving free rein to his imagination for his future studio.

Amoretti are close relatives of the god of love Eros, the well-known little naked child figure who, armed with bow and arrow, accompanies the goddess Venus and lies in wait for lovers. From antiquity, they have appeared in the visual arts in countless interpretations. In the historism period, i.e. in Hans Makart’s time, their numerous descendants appeared as more or less originally designed embodiments of allegories or simply as content-free decorative elements.
Hans Makart’s “Modern Amoretti” are, however, something unusually new, saying little, but promising much. And it was this vague promise along with the range of possible interpretations that divided the audience into two camps. So what do you see in these three pictures? Groups of, no, not cupids, but of strangely young adults - or strangely old children. They chase and dance along, masked and mostly clothed, with their goal appearing to be the group in the middle of the composition. There, children (nymphs?) carry another child sitting on a kind of throne garlanded with flowers, with the expression of a ruler overwhelmed by the affairs. All this is depicted in the finest manner, with delicious still lifes in the foreground, and the gold background behind the branches of the trees. The triptych is originally a form of religious art, and the gold background was usually reserved for the Sunday side of altar triptychs. Now, suddenly, a young painter has made it his own without qualms and without concerning himself with old meanings. The gold replacing the blue sky could be seen as foreshadowing the Secession. The depictions in the three parts of the triptych are full of sizzling, barely veiled eroticism. Makart’s young mastery is unsurpassed here in terms of painting technique and content. The rabbits at the feet of the weary queen, symbolising fertility, illustrate this abundantly. The unexpectedly huge success of the exhibition in Munich, probably led to a more appropriate, effective title than the original designation as “Salonausstattung”.
How did Makart come upon this theme, which is not really a theme at all? The liberation of art from the constraints of literature and history was in the air, as was the liberation from the conventions of artistic design and from academic constraints. This went hand in hand with a new self-confidence among artists. Signs of the path painting might take were evident in contemporary Munich, where Piloty’s school attracted many young painters. Both this and Hans Makart’s next, more explicitly erotic work, “The Plague in Florence”, which followed after just a few months, expressed the renewal of art so enthusiastically noted by art critics. The success with the public and critics alike, delighted comments on “pure painting”, the magic of colourfulness, and throwing off old fetters earned Makart an appointment in Vienna, where the construction of the Ringstrasse was underway, artists were in high demand, and where his unprecedented career began in 1869.

Dr Gerbert Frodl