LIEZEN-MAYER, Sándor (b. 1839, Győr, d. 1898, München) |
Venus and Tannhäuserc. 1875Oil on canvas, 84 x 55 cm Magyar Nemzeti Galéria, Budapest | ||
Tannhäuser (died after 1265) was a German Minnesänger and poet. He was an active courtier at the court of Frederick II of Austria (1230-1246), and the Codex Manesse (1340) depicts him clad in the Teutonic Order habit, suggesting he might have fought the Fifth Crusade (1213-21) Tannhäuser became the subject of legend, first attested in 1430, propagated in ballads from 1450. The legendary account makes Tannhäuser a knight and poet who found the Venusberg, the subterranean home of Venus, and spent a year there worshipping the goddess. The legend was made famous in modern times through Richard Wagner's three-act opera Tannhäuser, completed in 1845.
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