The Golden Pot[1]
Veronica in The Golden Pot has the strongest position as a Hoffmann heroine: She comes closest to equalling the stature of the male protagonist, Anselmus. The most fleeting comparison of Klenner-Otto’s illustration of Veronica in Veronica and Anselmus with that of the Sandman-heroineswould immediately focus on the disembodied eye. However, in The Golden Pot illustration, which pre-dates the Sandman edition, the context is of the eye as a spy: Klenner-Otto shows Serpentina’s father, the Archivist, watching in the background in those scenes where he is not present in person, thus explaining why he appears to be so uncannily all-knowing. In this illustration Veronica and Anselmus are playing the piano. Not yet introduced as a character, Lindhorst is nevertheless present, and indeed given significant importance, as a huge eye, directing the viewer towards the experience of being watched and of voyeurism, the latter impression being intensified by Veronica’s exposed legs. The eye is also a spider’s web, which introduces the further interpretative connotations of a cunning manipulator and the threat of ensnarement for his prey.[2] In At Deputy Rector Paulmann’s House (Bei Konrektor Paulmann) Lindhorst’s disembodied eye is replaced by his human face in profile, now benevolently keeping an eye on the philistines. As indicated by the disembodied heart, Heerbrandt is attempting to win the affections of the daughter of the house, Veronica, who is an unidentifiable shadowy figure, draped in black and turning away shyly. For Klenner-Otto this is a realistic depiction of the unimportance accorded to a young girl’s wishes within this society (as was also the case with Antonia in Councillor Krespel). On the table is an apple, suggesting temptation, albeit a rather insipid lure, particularly in juxtaposition with two wine glasses, which point forward to the Punch Party (Die Punschgesellschaft) scene. In this illustration Klenner-Otto shows Lindhorst the observer once again in the same position, in profile, but this time in animal form, as a vulture, while the bourgeois males appear as caricatures of themselves.
Klenner-Otto’s Veronica is a very sensuous young woman in the scene with Anselmus and the piano. She is the central focus of observation by the disembodied eye and by Anselmus, who is recognisable only as a male figure staring at her. The link between her sensuality and the piano, representing art, is reminiscent of the portrayal of Antonia in Councillor Krespel. But Veronica is not a creative artist, and this depiction is in complete contrast to the illustration of her at home (At Deputy Rector Paulmann’s house) and to the later illustration, when she meets with the fortune-telling witch on the night of the equinox, Summer Equinox (Die Sommersonnenwende). Although this is an important scene in the ‘Veronica strand’ of Hoffmann’s tale, Klenner-Otto again presents Veronica as an unidentifiable outline, with Liese represented above all by her hands. The central character is the cat, which is a common companion for a witch, but which chiefly reflects the artist’s affection for felines, whether real (Fritzi) or literary (Hoffmann’s Murr).
From this brief overview of how Veronica is drawn, it is clear that she does not have the same importance as an independent character in Klenner-Otto’s graphic story as in Hoffmann’s narrative work. Far more space and importance is accorded by the artist to Anselmus and Lindhorst, and the majority of the illustrations involve both these characters in (literally) some form or other, with a focus on the supernatural, hybrid nature of their person and their world. Human, animal and fantastic beasts are intertwined in settings which juxtapose the bourgeois and the surreal in a way that perfectly fulfils Hoffmann’s brief of ‘a modern fairy tale’ (‘ein Märchen aus der neuen Zeit’). In Anselmus I the hero first encounters the snakes, which seem to grow out of the elder tree. Nature and the supernatural merge as they do for Hoffmann’s Anselmus changing his mind between snakes and the breeze; Klenner-Otto expresses this visually by giving one of the branches a face. In this illustration, as in Hoffmann’s tale, Anselmus is dressed up in his bourgeois Sunday best, with even a top hat and cane. Lindhorst is present as observer in the form of a salamander. In this scene he is small and unimportant in relation to the snakes, which take up all of Anselmus’ attention. He would not be noticed, just as in Hoffmann’s tale Lindhorst is not mentioned. The reader finds out later that he was watching his daughters.
In The Mocking Birds in the Library(Die Spottvögel in der Bibliothek) Anselmus is shown in Lindhorst’s library, on his first visit, being teased by the exotic birds. Serpentina is there, in the background, as yet unseen by Anselmus, who is presented in more work-like garb than his weekend outfit, but who is also shown to be clinging to the impact of his snake experience. We can see inside his body, in the same way as a third-person narrator sees inside his characters’ minds, and his visible heart proves that the emotional euphoria he had when he encountered Serpentina has not subsided. His muscular thighs are also visible, marking him out as a strong hero, but his left leg harbours a face in the same way as the tree branch did in Anselmus I, and this links the character already at this early stage of his journey to the supernatural realm that is opening up to him. What is more, Anselmus’s face consistently sports the features of a cat, rendering him a hybrid being in the same way as Serpentina and Lindhorst. In an alternative portrait, Anselmus II, the feline alter ego is lurking independently in the background. It is the bourgeois Anselmus who is depicted in The Magic Mirror (Der Zauberspiegel), looking into the mind-controlling mirror created by Liese at the equinox. In this close up he is 100% human, as it is this side of his personality which is being controlled through hypnosis. Anselmus also shows a distinct similarity to the artist, and, as with Nathanial in The Sandman, this explains why Klenner-Otto’s hero differs from Hoffmann’s young fresh-faced student.
Lindhorst appears in animal form in Lindhorst, in which he is a salamander in a suit – but one which seems partly made of a very exotic snakeskin. He is surrounded by books, emphasising his learning as a civic archivist. In Lindhorst Visiting his Dragon Relatives (Lindhorst bei der Drachenverwandschaft) he is half human half salamander, facing up to a dragon relative with a very bourgeois umbrella. These illustrations reflect the two sides of the Archivist/Salamander Prince, but the emphasis is clearly on the latter persona, with the former really only present in elements that render the supernatural character eccentric, rather than the bourgeois one (for example in the coffee house scene). In Lindhorst as Vulture (Lindhorst als Geier), however, Lindhorst is a bird of prey, with the last remnant of his human form being his top hat. Here the difference between Klenner-Otto’s and Hoffmann’s interpretation of events is clearest. Hoffmann has his character Anselmus vacillate between seeing a man with long coat tails and a bird taking flight in this key scene, while Klenner-Otto again places Lindhorst more firmly in the supernatural world.
The other supernatural mentor figure is Liese, whom Klenner-Otto presents as a typecast apple-selling crone (The Apple Seller [Das Apfelweiblein] I and II) (with Hoffmann as a passer-by in the latter), and as a witch (Summer Equinox [Die Sommersonnenwende]), and, with Anselmus watching from his prison in the crystal bottle, we witness her in a crazed orgiastic frenzy, her cat observing from the table as she attempts to steal the Golden Pot while ripping pages from Lindhorst’s magic books (The Witch [Die Hexe]). Klenner-Otto uses the swirling pages in this expressionistic scene to illustrate the turmoil the witch unleashes through this act of literary destruction and, metaphorically and more generally, how quickly literature can be abused, as Hoffmann knew well. An initial draft (The Witch [draft] Die Hexe [Entwurf]) was made for this same scene and subsequently rejected by Klenner-Otto, who then moved to the square format and introduced colour. Liese is also present as a teapot when Anselmus is trapped in the bottle (The Fall into the Crystal [Der Fall ins Kristall]) – this is a form she claims she took at Veronica’s tea party, which was interrupted by The Gnome (Das Wichtelmännchen). The bourgeois aspects of Liese’s existence (expressed for example in her office hours) are underplayed by Klenner-Otto in the same way as Lindhorst’s day job and his coffee-house lifestyle.
The alternative girlfriend for Anselmus, Serpentina, is shown as a snake by Klenner-Otto, until the final illustration of Serpentina and Anselmus after the latter has made his choice and they are beginning their life together. Although Hoffmann’s Anselmus ends up in Atlantis, this is a very bourgeois picture and the only one which does not intermingle the human and animal. Rather than Anselmus giving up his student persona, Serpentina has given up her existence as a snake to be a human partner to Anselmus. They even have at least one servant. Compared to previous illustrations Anselmus looks very ‘normal’: He resembles a character from a Jane Austen novel far more than a fairy-tale hero in a mythical world, in other words, he looks like the kind of husband Veronica had been hoping for all along. The towers in the background indicate a bourgeois town, as in Flying Bratwursts and Above the Ground, for example, but the fact that they are distorted may be an indication – albeit the only indication – that this is not Dresden as the Paulmanns and their circle know it.
© Sheila Dickson 2024
[1] This essay was not included in the published version in Literatur für Leser:innen as the illustrations for Der goldene Topf were never published in book form.
[2] See Zinck/Klenner-Otto: Lebensblätter p. 42f. for an interpretation of this illustration.