The Battle of Cordoba

Rethel’s Charles Cycle for the Aachen City Hall, the place where the former Carolingian Imperial Palace stood, is considered a masterpiece of monumental painting in the Düsseldorf School of Painting. In 1839, Rethel won the competition held by the Düsseldorfer Kunstverein. Key stages in the life of Charlemagne were to be presented “in historical and symbolic views” with reference to “the City of Aachen as his favourite residence”. Rethel completed four of the eight frescos before going mad in 1853. His pupil Joseph Kehren completed the cycle. The five oil sketches in the Düsseldorf Collection attest to the frescos that have only in part been preserved. Rethel set himself the goal of depicting Charlemagne as a Christian hero and the “permeation of the state with Christian principles” to ward off any “heathen nature”. The hero storming forwards, breaking the Muslims’ banner, is followed by the Christian army with a bishop. Charlemagne’s victory over the Saracens was understood as the salvation of Catholic Spain from its Islamicization. (Bettina Baumgärtel)