FEUERBACH, Anselm Friedrich
(b. 1829, Speyer, d.1880, Venezia)

Platonic Banquet

1873
Oil on canvas, 400 x 750 cm
Nationalgalerie, Berlin

This painting is the second, far more ornate, version of the artist's Platonic Banquet; the earlier canvas is in Karslruhe. This is a major example of his monumental manner. The handsomely patterned, tapestry-like enclosure reinforces the powerful figure groupings within. Its design comes close to the goals of the many new German schools for applied design, founded at a time of burgeoning industrial manufacture.