Vienna’s Beethoven Monument

In 1871 a committee of members of the Society of Friends of Music was assembled to oversee the creation of Vienna’s first Beethoven monument. Needing to raise funds for the statue, the committee turned to Franz Liszt, who had been instrumental in raising funds for the Beethoven statue in Bonn inaugurated in 1845. At first Liszt refused to help, writing, “if already they are thinking of honoring the Art by another embellishment of one of Vienna’s public squares, wouldn’t there be a better way to do it than to erect a statue of Beethoven in the style of the town of Bonn and 30 years later?” Once his favored sculptor Kaspar Clemens Zumbusch was selected in a competition, however, Liszt’s resistance faded, and he performed Beethoven’s works in the gala benefit concert of 1877. Funds raised, Zumbusch was able to complete his monument by 1880. Although he had at initially presented a design for a solitary Beethoven unaccompanied by music allegories, the final twenty-two foot high work presents a superhuman figure. Placed beneath the sculpture on the left side is a large statue of the bound Prometheus, suffering under the vulture’s daily attack. On the right is a figure of Nike offering her victory crown to the god-like figure who brought not fire but music to humankind. In the words of art historian Alessandra Comini, “the two noble (larger-than-life) pediment figures represent the supposed poles of Beethoven’s music and of Beethoven’s life: struggle and triumph, suffering and victory.” At the base of the monument nine putti represent both the nine completed symphonies and the different aspects of Beethoven’s music: heroic, pastoral, elegiac, tragic, idyllic, painful, pastoral.

Treasure 11

 

Also on display:

Zumbusch Bronze Maquette of Beethoven

Bronze maquette of the Beethoven monument in Vienna by Kaspar Clemens Zumbusch (1830-1915), signed and dated 1877 with Kunst Erzgiesserei Foundry mark

Gift of Tressie Campen, Ira Brilliant, and the American Beethoven Society, 2004

Hand-colored wood engraving of Die Enthüllung des Beethoven-Denkmals in Wien(The Unveiling of the Beethoven Monument in Vienna) by Vincenz Katzler, 1880

Gift of the American Beethoven Society, 2010
See entry with more details and downloadable image in the Beethoven Gateway