Ludwig Sussmann-Hellborn: Sleeping Beauty (1878)

(Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany)

A sculpture made by the German artist Ludwig Sussmann-Hellborn (1828-1908). Sleeping Beauty is a fairy tale written various artists, including the French author Charles Perrault (1628 – 1703), the Brothers Grimm, the Italian poet Giambattista Basile (1566-1632) and a 14th century version The various versions differ from each other - the Disney version is a combination of the brothers Grimm and Perrault: a king and queen celebrate the birth of their daughter. Seven fairies are invited to be godmothers to the infant princess. On old fairy however was left out (people thought that she was already dead) and is angry. The old fairy curses the young child that she will be killed one day when she pricks her finger on a spindle of a spinning wheel. A good fairy however changes the curse into that the princess would not die but sleep for 100 years and that she would be awakened by a kiss from a king's son. Although the king removed all the spinning wheels for his kingdom, the princess in the end pricks her finger on a hidden spinning wheel. The good fairy sees that the princess will awaken to distress when she finds herself alone and puts everyone in the kingdom to sleep. After a hundred years a prince comes along, kisses sleeping beauty and marry. In the version of Giambattista Basile the hero rapes the still sleeping princess while in the version of Perrault the mother of the prince was of ogre lineage. Sculpture from 1878.