MENZEL, Adolph von
(b. 1815, Breslau, d. 1905, Berlin)

Studio Interior with Casts

1852
Oil on paper mounted on board, 61 x 44 cm
Nationalgalerie, Berlin

Stressing the hairsbreadth separating illusion from reality, and the power of metamorphoses, Menzel's haunting Studio Interior with Casts endows the plasters with a sinister life of their own; the casts seem more real than the nearby skull or dissected hand at the centre.