Menu Close

DIALV4-savage-wotan-AH

The unbordered line block reproduction of an intricate pen drawing is printed in black ink and set in portrait orientation. The image depicts a close-up view of five figures from Wagner’s opera, The Reingold, inside a compressed interior space set on a wooden platform. An open doorway on the extreme left reveals an outdoor space; a cloaked arm reaches upwards at the top of the doorway and two hounds stand below, snouts in the air. The leftmost figure stares out the doorway, wearing a crown and robe. To his right, a seated young woman, pouch in her lap, appears to faint. Another woman behind her, wearing an elaborate headdress, holds her up. In front of them, an upended stool and a mallet are in the extreme foreground. Flowering vines appear to flow off of the wooden platform down towards the bottom of the frame. In the centre foreground is Wotan, his face in profile to the right. His right booted foot is propped up on a stool, the other on the ground; his wild hair streams behind him. He bends over his bent knee, looking down at the floor, holding a lance in his right hand. He wears a robe of chain mail, with a horn belted around his waist. To his right, on the extreme right edge of the picture plane, is the draped but otherwise naked Logi, his face turned to the viewer. In his right hand he carries a burning torch, while his left clutches the drapery. His hair stands up on his head in two plumes, echoing the whorls of the flaming torch. He floats just in front of the wooden platform; his feet also appear to be surrounded in flame. Behind his legs, a black raven flies to the right; two more ravens fly towards Logi from behind his hair. On the back wall, above the figures, are two open windows from which two horse heads protrude into the room. At the very top of the image, wooden beams make up the room’s ceiling. Below the image’s border, in the left corner, are the initials “RS” followed by the number “94.”