MAX KLINGER: OPUS II
Rescues of Ovid’s Victims (Print Room)

In 1879, Max Klinger (1857 - 1920) created a cycle of 13 prints entitled Opus II - Rettungen Ovidischer Opfer. For this the artist looked at three stories from Ovid’s Metamorphoses: ‘Pyramus and Thisbe’, ‘Narcissus and Echo’ and ‘Apollo and Daphne’. The special thing about Klinger’s versions is that he gave them an ironic and life-affirming twist, whereas Ovid’s original stories mainly end in death. As the title of the series says, the artist was concerned with rescuing his Ovidian heroes. 

The exhibition at the Wallraf clearly shows how these rescues were performed and what the Opus II, whose first edition was dedicated to the composer Robert Schuhmann, has to do with music and theatre. In addition, Klinger’s new interpretations will be confronted by Ovid pictures from the sixteenth century that highlight the conflicts – where things were really a matter of love and death.