Battle of the Amazons

Feuerbach's 'Battle of the Amazons' of 1870, now in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg, is among his most ambitious multi-figure compositions, painted at a moment of intense activity and personal frustration. In 1870 Feuerbach submitted a proposal for decorative ceiling paintings for the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, where he had been appointed professor; the large-scale battle composition reflects his ambitions for monumental history painting. The Amazon battle was one of the great subjects of classical Greek art — the Amazonomachy, battle between Greeks and Amazons, decorated the metopes of the Parthenon and the shield of the Athena Parthenos — and carried resonances of civilization defeating barbarism in the Greek self-understanding. Feuerbach approached the subject through his characteristic lens of classical decorum and melancholy beauty: his Amazons are not savage opponents but tragic figures whose defeat carries the pathos of noble courage overcome.

Multi-figure battle compositions present the most demanding organizational challenges in painting: the interaction of many bodies in violent action must be simultaneously legible and dynamic. Feuerbach organizes such compositions through clear tonal contrasts and spatial layering, drawing on his.