The young lady looking towards the viewer is Antonia Wallinger (1823-1893), a celebrated dancer at the Royal Court Theatre in Munich. Joseph Stieler painted her portrait in 1840 on behalf of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, who since 1827 had been engaged in establishing a gallery of beauties modelled on aristocratic collections in Italy and France. The fact that this gallery, formerly located in the Festsaalbau of the Residenz, was open to the public, explains the numerous copies that were made from Stieler’s famous paintings. Among these copies is the present miniature, which may have belonged to an admirer of the dancer. It was painted by an unknown artist who signed with “R. Christ”.
The rectangular canvas with a height of more than 70 centimetres here turns into a considerably smaller painting on an oval support made of ivory, which is adorned with an ornamented copper frame, which in turn is recessed into a frame made of wood or bone. Similar copies were also made of the other beautiful women and frequently appear on the art market. A label on the back of our copy refers to Eduard Pachtmann, who ran a shop for art and luxury goods on Prager Straße at the beginning of the twentieth century.
The creation of Stieler’s portrait of Antonia Wallinger, and probably also of the Dresden copy, coincides with the reign of Otto von Wittelsbach, son of Ludwig I, as King of Greece. This period was associated with an increased interest in the culture of ancient Greece that extended far beyond Bavarian confines. The light, tight-fitting robe, held together with golden brooches at shoulder height, features a meander border, an ornament that stood for youth and renewal. Appropriately, the golden chalice held by the sitter in her left hand can be interpreted as an attribute of Hebe. As the goddess of youth, Hebe’s task was to offer nectar and ambrosia to the gods on Mount Olympus. If Wallinger did not embody the role of Hebe herself, she may have been compared to the daughter of the gods because of her youthful charisma.
Text: Alexander Röstel