[By Alexander Frippel, 1789. Modelled from the life when Goethe was in his prime. It was done at Rome, by order of the Prince Waldeck, in whose castle at Aroldsen the original exists. Goethe at that time allowed his hair to grow in all its natural luxuriance. “I remember him well,” says a distinguished friend and countryman of his; “he was then as handsome as Apollo.”]
337A. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Poet.
[This bust is by Rauch, from the marble, dated 1820. It was a commission from the Grand Duke of Saxe Weimar, and occupies its place in his palace.]
337B. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Poet.
[This bust is from the colossal statue, the work of Steinhauser, executed by order of the Grand Duchess of Saxe Weimar.]
338. Friedrich Christoph von Schiller. Poet.
[Born at Marbach, in Germany, 1759. Died at Weimar, 1805. Aged 46.]
According to the Germans, Schiller stands second in the list of their great poets, Goethe being the first; but in the esteem of the rest of the world, Schiller is pre-eminently the greatest of German poets. In universality, breadth and power, his genius yields to that of his illustrious rival; but in delicacy of perception, refinement of feeling, intense sympathy with the passions he represents, exquisite purity of thought and diction, and in the treatment of ideal beauty, he is without a competitor in his own country. His manifest delight in the delineation of pure and generous characters is not the least grateful of his excellences. His poetry is the bright intellectual reflexion of his own chastened spirit, as the writings of Goethe constitute the masculine and mighty expression of his essentially sensual nature. The German stage was formed by Schiller, whose later tragedies gave to the drama of his country a rank that it had never held before. At the outset of his career Schiller studied law, then medicine; and whilst his own tastes would have led him to the pastoral office, he found himself, at the age of 30, appointed to the Chair of History at Jena. His acknowledged greatest work is the tragedy of “Wallenstein.” He died of consumption, and was buried with public honours. He conferred dignity upon the literature of his country, and helped, more than any other man of his time, to bring it abreast of the poetry of other nations; but the originality, beauty, and force of his productions are not more worthy of contemplation, than the aspiring grandeur and nobility of his moral character. He was the friend and pupil of Goethe. The teacher was the more consummate artist, the disciple was the purer man. Schiller exalts our idea of humanity, Goethe lowers it.
[By Dannecker. Marble. 1805. The original was bequeathed by the artist to King William of Würtemberg, who presented it to the Museum at Stuttgart.]
338A. Friedrich Christoph von Schiller. Poet.