Jūliusa Dēringa glezna "Konradīna fon Hoenštaufena sodīšana ar nāvi"
"The Beheading of Conradin of Hohenstaufen" by Julius Döring

Summary/Abstract: The historyl painting "The Beheading of Conradin of Hohenstaufen" (Die Enthauptung Konradins von Hohenstaufen, oil on canvas, 103,1 x 150,1 cm) by Julius Döring (1818-1898) belongs to the collection of the Foreign Art Museum in Riga. It was moved there from Jelgava (Mitau) after the dissolution of the Kurzeme Province Museum (Kurlandisches Provinzialmuseum) and is now on show at the Latvian National Museum of Art to expand the visitor's knowledge of 19th century Baltic art. The process of Döring's time-consuming work on this subject of German medieval history is meticulously documented in his diaries and in the volumes of his extensive manuscript "What I would not like to forget, or Memories of my life" (Was ich nicht gerne vergessen mochte, oder Erinnerungen aus meinem Leben, stored in the Latvian State History Archive, Riga). His records allow us to date the whole course from 1854-1855 when Döring depicted the beheading of Conradin in a drawing and did his first preparatory studies up till 1871, the year of the Riga Art Promotion Society's first public exhibition for which the painting was finished. The work was done in Jelgava where the Dresden-born Döring settled in 1845 and remained for the rest of his long life. Nonetheless it must be seen primarily in the context of impulses he received during his studies at the Dresden Royal Academy of Art (1830-1845), especially in the class of Professor Eduard Bendemann (1811-1889). Since the early 19th century the rising national consciousness in German society and German art inspired romanticised memories of the power and grandeur of the Holy Roman Empire during the reign of the Hohenstaufen dynasty. In the 12th and 13th centuries the area of its influence extended ro Southern Italy and Sicily. Conrad (called Conradin) of Hohenstaufen (Konrad or Konradin von Hohenstaufen, 1252-1268) was the last legitimate heir of the dynasty. Aged sixteen, he went to Italy ro reconquer his father's lands but was defeated and put to death. The empire disintegrated into small and weak feudal states. The lasting negative effects of this disintegration caused people in the early 19th-century to associate the Hohenstaufen legends with the dream of restoring the former power of reunited German states.

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