SISI & LUDWIG II. - EINE SEELENVERWANDTSCHAFT

Museum Pictures of the title collage: Carl Piloty and Franz Adam (horse), the later empress of Austria on horseback, 1853, oil on canvas, Prince Thurn and Taxis Art collection, Regensburg Fedor Dietz, King Ludwig II of Bavaria on horseback, 1866, oil on canvas, Marstallmuseum, Nymphenburg

Sisi, empress of Austria, and Ludwig II, king of Bavaria, were two legendary figures united by a deep friendship, and yet both eventually destined to loneliness. Both raised in highly romantic parental homes, in which folkloristic art was re-discovered and cultivated as a cultural heritage. Sisi's father, Duke Max of Bavaria, enthusiastic dressage rider and zither-player, liked to travel and even merrily played his
instrument on the pyramid of Giza. His own compositions as well as fine contemporary
folk music formed the musical roots of Sisi and Ludwig. Sisi, however, still beguiled by the scent of the rose island, later undertook never-ending journeys as if driven, while Ludwig escaped from the world in Wagner's mysticism.