350 PBOCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



apparent joy. Such power to compress miilhtm in parvo the painter 

 has not ; and here we come to the capital mistake of painters Hke Kaul- 

 bacli, wlio endeavor to paint as poets write, and crowd into one com- 

 position a multitude of incidents, expressed by groups and single figures, 

 with but little observance of thoae unities which, however questionable 

 as necessities in poetry and the drama, are indispensable in pictorial art. 

 " Where did all these persons come together ? " said some one to Kaul- 

 bach, while looking at one of his great pictorial histories at Berlin. " In 

 our memory," he answered, thus giving us the clew to his heterogeneous 

 system, which was eclectic in principle, and based upon the strained 

 association of things which, when brought into unwonted companion- 

 ship, obstinately stood apart, and refused to be welded into a harmonious 

 whole. 



As Kaulbach rose in public esteem at IMunich, the breach be- 

 tween him and Cornelius widened, until at last the pupil broke away 

 from his master, and founded an art sect of his own. The Academy 

 proclaimed that in a work of art the idea was all in all ; that color and 

 execution were of comparatively little importance ; and that the true 

 style was to be found in the special forms born of the artist's genius, or, 

 to use a consecrated phrase of a peculiarly Teutonic flavor, that it lay 

 in forms " evolved from the depths of the artist's inner consciousness." 

 The new school professed to take nature as its guide, and to aim at 

 technical perfection. How far it really followed its own doctrines is 

 a question. It was apparently the old battle between the Idealists 

 and the Realists : really, however, these names can hardly be given to 

 either party, so far did they fall short of their res^iective aims. Filled 

 however with the conviction of his special mission, Kaulbach withdrew 

 himself more and more from society, and worked on witli ardor in his 

 studio in the suburb of St. Anne. In 1828 or 1829 he painted the 

 Narrenhaus, which has already been mentioned. Then followed the 

 Battle of the Huns {Hunnen Schlacht), which greatly contributed to 

 his reputation, and which is certainly the most striking of his great 

 works. 



The subject is taken from a mediaival legend, which commemorates 

 the battle between the Huns and Romans before the gates of the Eternal 

 City. The spirits of the dead warriors rise above the battle-field to 

 renew the combat in mid-air. Alaric, standing upon his shield with a 

 torch in his hands, leads on his phantom warriors against the shadowy 

 Roman hosts, who are divided from them by a straggling mass of 

 figures, men and women, Huns and Romans, fighting with all the 

 energy of despair. Below, in the background, the walls and towers 



