(Friedrich) Max Müller

Müller, Friedrich (Kreuznach, 1749-1825, Rome), who usually called himself Maler Müller, developed a double talent, for painting and literature. The son of an innkeeper, who died early, he attracted attention by his drawings and was apprenticed in 1767 to the court painter at Zweibrücken, passing into the service of the Duke of Pfalz-Zweibrücken. He fell into disfavour, probably because he got an unmarried girl into trouble, left Zweibrücken and lived in Mannheim from 1774 to 1778, where he enjoyed the protection of the Elector Karl Theodor and the patronage of Goethe.

In Mannheim Müller's poetic talents awakened, and within a short time he wrote a number of works of diverse character. These include biblical idylls (Der erschlagene Abel, 1775, and Adams erstes Erwachen und erste seelige Nächte, 1778), classical idylls (Der Satyr Mopsus, Bacchidon und Milon, and Der Faun, all 1775), and, above all, his Palatine idylls (Pfälzische Idyllen) Die Schaaf-Schur (1775) and Das Nußkernen (1811), which infuse a robust realism into an idealizing form. These works are in prose, which varies from the ecstatic to the rhythmic. The patriotic prose poem Kreuznach (1778) was described as a hymn (see Hymne). His diffuse play Golo und Genoveva was begun at this time, and two scenes were published in 1776, but it was not finished until 1781 and not published until 1811. Müller's interest in Faust was first apparent in Situation aus Fausts Leben (1776), and his Fausts Leben dramatisiert was published in 1778 Niobe. Ein lyrisches (musikalisches) Drama appeared in the same year. Müller also wrote a number of poems in these years, of which Soldatenabschied (‘Heute scheid'; ich, heute wandr' ich’) and Die Zeugen (‘Du grün bewachs';nes Thal’) are the best known.

In 1778, with the financial assistance of the Elector and of Duke Karl August of Saxe-Weimar and of Goethe, Müller went to Rome to advance his skill in painting. He never returned. He was converted to Roman Catholicism in 1781 (it has alternatively been suggested that the conversion took place secretly before his departure), and the alienation produced at home by this change of front was augmented by the receipt of boldly executed paintings lacking in harmony and finish. Müller made his living in Rome, partly by his painting, but mainly by acting as a guide to visitors. He also wrote art criticism, and one of his essays was published in 1797 in Schiller's Die Horen. From 1806, when he was granted the status of court painter by the Munich court, a small pension helped a little. In the year of his death appeared an opera, Adonis, but other late writings are as yet unpublished, including two satirical plays.

Müller's works were published by L. Tieck and others as Schriften (3 vols., 1811, repr. 1982). A selection entitled Maler Müllers Werke, ed. M. Oeser, appeared 1916-18 (2 vols.; a popular edition, Volksausgabe, 2 vols. in one, 1918), and the complete Idyllen (3 vols.), ed. O. Heuer, 1914. A two-volume edition, Dichtungen, by H. Hettner (1868) was reissued in 1968. Müller's artistic œuvre includes religious and classical pictures and vigorous engravings of animals and landscapes.

German historian of religion and pioneering scholar of the comparative study of religion. After completing a doctorate in Leipzig in 1843 he studied Sanskrit and philosophy in Berlin before moving to Paris and finally Oxford. He edited the series Sacred Books of the East and began the series Sacred Books of the Buddhists in 1895. He made a translation of the Dhammapada from Pāli, but regarded Buddhism as negative and pessimistic. He was a strong supporter of the ‘solar myth’ school, according to which gods and heroes were understood as personifications of natural phenomena. This and others of his theories, such that India was the original home of humanity, have since been discredited. His legacy as a promoter of the study of Indian religion, however, has been great.

Quotes:

"No burden is so heavy for a man to bear as a succession of happy days."

"Language is the Rubicon that divides man from beast."