Studio Wall

Once in 1852, and again in 1872, Menzel depicted the red-painted wall of his studio with plaster casts hanging on it. In both pictures light comes from below, apparently breathing disturbing life into the objects. In the second, larger version (Hamburg Kunsthalle), the death masks dominate while in the earlier version it is the casts of limbs, and although these are taken from live models, their fragmentation and proximity to a skull and a skinned hand make them seem more like parts from a corpse. Menzel has consciously excluded those classical casts that are part of the study program in any art academy: the palette at the lower edge of the picture reads much like a signature below an allegorical declaration of allegiance to the study of nature itself.