1829-1838

Night

German, 1802 - 1871

The art-loving king Ludwig I of Bavaria awarded Peter von Cornelius the commission to design the frescos for the galleries of the Glyptothek, Munich’s new sculpture museum for Greek and Roman classical antiquities. This engraving of Night reproduces one of Cornelius’s four triangular spandrels in the vaulted ceiling of the Room of the Gods (Göttersaal), each representing one of the four times of day. The Latin text engraved in the upper corners describes the central panel: Nox per coelum transvehitur / Sedente utrimque eius sobole (Night rides across the sky / with her offspring seated on either side).