Attributed To Hugo Höppener, Dit Fidus - Illumination Of The Antiphone Jugendstil

Illumination of the Antiphone, Theotokos to the Messiah, surrounded by four thuriferous angels Gouache on parchment with a gold background Around 1900 Inscription at the bottom O oriens, splendor lucis aeternae, et sol iustitiae: veni, et illumina sedentes in tenebris et umbra mortis * Illustrator, painter and book publisher, Hugo Höppener went down to posterity as an illuminated illuminator. Son of parents who were confectioners and pastry chefs in Lübeck, he demonstrated very early a talent as a painter and a rich imagination. Accepted in the competition for the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich in 1887, he quickly met the “apostle of nature” the painter Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach (1851 – 1913). Young Hugo then chose to abandon his studies in order to join the mystical community founded by the latter whom he chose as his spiritual master. Located in the countryside south of Munich, on the banks of the Isar, Höppener then grew her hair, became vegetarian and wore woolen clothes. Sentenced to eight days in prison for public nudity, the young artist decided to serve this sentence in place of his elder, which earned him the nickname Fidus – the faithful one – from Diefenbach. Between 1892 and 1903, Fidus set up his studio in Berlin and frequented the Russian esoteric and theosophical circles of Helena Blavatsky, who influenced his iconographic repertoire. If Fidus' work is characterized in part by motifs of naked human figures in natural settings, he is also fond of light and the heroic ideal, both in Theosophical and Christian symbolism. His illustrations have been published in numerous magazines, books and other printed materials. His most famous work, The Prayer to the Light, became an icon of the Lebensreform movement. Like the Hippies in the 1960s in the United States, this pioneering movement born in Switzerland and Germany at the end of the 19th century criticized urbanization and modern industrialization: its slogan was that of a return to nature. Our precious gouache on parchment with a gold background echoes both Western medieval illuminations and Byzantine religious canons, interpreting the liturgical words of the Orthodox Antiphone inscribed in Latin at the bottom of the composition which can be translated as follows: * Orient, splendor of the eternal light, and sun of righteousness, come and enlighten those who languish in darkness and in the shadow of death. The German artist takes us into a subtle religious syncretism characteristic of his sensitivity and Jugendstil style.