“Mors Imperator”: A Satirical Poem (1887)
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An anonymous satire from Kikeriki, the famous Viennese humour magazine, taking her side just days after the Berlin jury rejected Mors Imperator. It skewers the jury's hypocrisy: titillating academic nudes pass, but her memento-mori “naked truth” is banned.
Mors Imperator
Anonymous — Kikeriki, Vienna, 11 August 1887
A picture painted by a gentle hand, not bought with the gold of the great; it shows us “Mors Imperator” — Death, who, mocking all earthly power, settles his account with every one. Yet the gate of Berlin's Art Exhibition stayed shut and barred against it — explain to me the sense of that?
The matter is quite simple, this: they hate the — moral genius. A bathing woman, piquantly placed, a “blissful dream,” a “fairy-tale” — something of the Makart kind has never yet perturbed the jury; on “nakedness” they are keen enough — but on the — “naked truth,” they're not!
Notes & references
Sources for the quotations and allusions — hover the dashed terms above for a quick note. Added by this project; not in the original.
- Makart — Hans Makart (1840–84), the Viennese painter of lush, sensual, decorative canvases and nudes — a byword for opulent, titillating academic art. (Hans Makart)