''Early Bourgeois Revolution in Germany'' (), also known as the ''Peasants' War Panorama'' (''Bauernkriegspanorama''), is a monumental painting by the East German painter
Werner Tübke
Werner Tübke (30 July 1929 in Schönebeck, Germany – 27 May 2004 in Leipzig, Germany) was a German painter, best known for his monumental '' Peasants' War Panorama'' located in Bad Frankenhausen
Bad Frankenhausen (officially: Bad Frankenhaus ...
, executed from 1976 to 1987. It spans by is the main attraction of the Panorama Museum, built specifically to house it, in
Bad Frankenhausen
Bad Frankenhausen (officially: Bad Frankenhausen/Kyffhäuser) is a spa town in the German state of Thuringia. It is located at the southern slope of the Kyffhäuser mountain range, on an artificial arm of the Wipper river, a tributary of the Uns ...
,
Thuringia
Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million.
Erfurt is the capital and lar ...
.
Despite being commissioned by the East German government to commemorate the
Battle of Frankenhausen, fought on 15 May 1525 during the
German Peasants' War, the painting is not a typical
battle painting, nor in the style of
socialist realism
Socialist realism is a style of idealized realistic art that was developed in the Soviet Union and was the official style in that country between 1932 and 1988, as well as in other socialist countries after World War II. Socialist realism is c ...
prevalent at the time. Instead, Werner Tübke created an immense allegory of Renaissance society with more than 3000 characters, containing strong fantastical and
surreal elements. The artist named
German Renaissance painters
Albrecht Dürer and
Lucas Cranach the Elder
Lucas Cranach the Elder (german: Lucas Cranach der Ältere ; – 16 October 1553) was a German Renaissance painter and printmaker in woodcut and engraving. He was court painter to the Electors of Saxony for most of his career, and is kno ...
as his most important influences; his style is sometimes also considered as
magical realism
Magical is the adjective for magic. It may also refer to:
* Magical (horse)
Magical (foaled 18 May 2015) is an Irish Thoroughbred racehorse who excelled over middle distances and was rated in the top twenty racehorses in the world in 2018 and ...
.
Creation
The painting was commissioned in 1976 by the Ministry of Culture of East Germany. It was finished in 1987.
The canvas was woven in one piece at the textile factory in