Still Life With A Beethoven Mask — Josef Jurutka, Painting

Still life with a Beethoven mask

A profound Beethoven life mask crowned with laurel sits amidst symbolic objects in this evocative 1937 still life by Hungarian Impressionist Josef Jurutka, inviting you to explore a masterpiece of musical immortality.


josef jurutka, painting (1880 - 1945)

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German Historical Museum (Berlin, Germany)

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The still life emphasises the metaphysical and superhuman dimensions of the composer. The extinguished candle points to the ephemerality of all earthly things. The life mask of Beethoven on the wall, crowned with a laurel wreath, symbolises the immortality of his music, indicated by the violin and the sheets of music.The painting by Josef Jurutka was shown at the 1939 German Art Exhibition in the Haus der Kunst in Munich. It was one of the two paintings that Adolf Hitler bought for his own collection. For Hitler Beethoven embodied the superiority of German music.