THE BEHEADING OF CONRADIN OF HOHENSTAUFEN BY JULIUS DORING (Juliusa Deringa glezna Konradina fon Hoenstaufena sodisana ar navi)

The history painting 'The Beheading of Conradin of Hohenstaufen' (Die Enthauptung Konradins von Hohenstaufen, oil on canvas, 103,1 x 150,1 cm) by Julius Doring (1818-1898) belongs to the collection of the Foreign Art Museum in Riga. It was moved there from Jelgava (Mitau) after the dissolution of the Kurzeme Province Museum (Kurlandisches Provinzialmuseum) and is now on show at the Latvian National Museum of Art to expand the visitor's knowledge of 19th century Baltic art. The work was done in Jelgava where the Dresden-born Doring settled in 1845 and remained for the rest of his long life. Nonetheless it must be seen primarily in the context of impulses he received during his studies at the Dresden Royal Academy of Art (1830-1845), especially in the class of Professor Eduard Bendemann (1811-1889). Since the early 19th century the rising national consciousness in German society and German art inspired romanticised memories of the power and grandeur of the Holy Roman Empire during the reign of the Hohenstaufen dynasty. In the 12th and 13th centuries the area of its influence extended to Southern Italy and Sicily. Conrad (called Conradin) of Hohenstaufen (Konrad or Konradin von Hohenstaufen, 1252-1268) was the last legitimate heir of the dynasty. Aged sixteen, he went to Italy to re-conquer his father's lands but was defeated and put to death. The empire disintegrated into small and weak feudal states. The lasting negative effects of this disintegration caused people in the early 19th-century to associate the Hohenstaufen