In Memory of Theo Faiss
1921 reliefs by English sculptor Edith Maryon
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In Memory of Theo Faiss (German: Im Gedenken an Theo Faiss) is the name of two related 1921 reliefs by the English sculptor Edith Maryon. A close associate of Anthroposophical Society leader Rudolf Steiner, Maryon made the work to commemorate Theo Faiss, a seven-year-old boy who died in an accident in 1914. Faiss had been well liked in Dornach—the centre of the anthroposophical movement, and where the Society was building the Goetheanum as its headquarters. In the years afterwards, Steiner frequently invoked Faiss's death, terming it a voluntary sacrifice that enveloped the Goetheanum with a protective spiritual sheath.
(28.1 in × 13.2 in)
Version 2: 67 cm × 33.5 cm
(26.4 in × 13.2 in)
| In Memory of Theo Faiss | |
|---|---|
| Im Gedenken an Theo Faiss (German) | |
Version 2 in plaster | |
| Artist | Edith Maryon |
| Year | 1921 |
| Medium | Relief in plaster and bronze |
| Dimensions | Version 1: 71.5 cm × 33.5 cm (28.1 in × 13.2 in) Version 2: 67 cm × 33.5 cm (26.4 in × 13.2 in) |
Maryon made two versions of the relief, which are seen in bronze and plaster. Both versions are approximately two feet tall and one foot wide. The central motif in each shows a guardian-angel figure cradling the spirit of Faiss in one arm, with the other arm reaching upwards to higher realms. The first version—as determined based on stylistic features—also includes three figures at the bottom of the relief: Faiss (in corporeal rather than spiritual form), his mother, and, depending on interpretation, either his father or Steiner. In the second version, the bottom area is blank.
Two interpretations of the reliefs have been suggested. In one—posited by Maryon's biographer Rex Raab—they depict the moment of Faiss's sacrificial death. In the other—put forth by the anthroposophist and author Judith von Halle and Steiner scholar Martina Maria Sam—they depict a moment seven years later, when, according to anthroposophical belief, Faiss's karmic protection over the Goetheanum came to its end.
The work is, to Raab, the "true monument" to Faiss and his death; it helps to keep Faiss alive in memory, and serves a dual role as a memento mori. He likewise ascribes to it a documentary value, as a representation of Faiss's karmic sacrifice.
Background
Edith Maryon
Edith Maryon was born in London on 9 February 1872.[1][2] She was educated there and in Geneva, then studied art, including at the Royal College of Art.[3] Between 1899 and 1912, when Maryon was approximately 27 to 40 years old and living in London, she exhibited numerous works, particularly at the Royal Academy of Arts and the Walker Art Gallery.[4]
Maryon was interested in the esoteric at least as early as 1909, and in 1912 visited the anthroposophist Rudolf Steiner for the first time, in Germany.[5][6][7][8] In January 1914, she travelled to Dornach—the place where Steiner had resolved to center the anthroposophical movement, and build the Goetheanum as its central structure.[9][10][11] After a brief return in April to London due to health and finances, Maryon came back to Dornach around June or July.[12][13][14] Over the next decade, until her death in 1924, Maryon rarely left Dornach.[15][13][14] She became a close collaborator of Steiner; among other contributions while there, she was heavily involved in creating both the monumental sculpture The Representative of Humanity, and the eurythmy figures depicting an anthroposophical form of dance.[16]
Theo Faiss
Theo Faiss was born in Brazil on 1 July 1907, as the first of four children of Albert and Ida Faiss.[17][18][19] The parents had lived in Stuttgart in 1904 and knew Steiner from that time; after a stint in southern Brazil from 1905 to 1911, where they ran a nursery, they returned to Europe.[20][17] In the first half of 1913 they settled in Dornach in order to be near an anthroposophical institute, and that October purchased the nursery directly below the grounds of the Goetheanum.[21][17]
By October 1914, Faiss—then seven years old—was well liked and considered to be responsible.[17] His father had been called up to fight for Germany,[22] prompting the younger Faiss to respond that "Now that our father has been called away, I must work especially hard and diligently so I can be a support for my mother".[G 1][24] He had a small wooden cart with which he would sometimes run errands, and Steiner himself would sometimes enlist his help.[17][25] On the afternoon of 7 October, Steiner's housekeeper asked Faiss to pick up groceries from a canteen.[17][26] By dusk, however, he had not returned; a search soon involved much of the town, and came across an overturned furniture wagon.[17][27] Righting the wagon revealed the body of Faiss underneath.[17]
Faiss's body was laid out in a corner of the canteen; Steiner visited daily, each time addressing Faiss as "You dear Sun-Boy, you".[G 2][28][29] Steiner offered a eulogy at the funeral, held on 10 October, and, that evening, gave the first of his five-part lecture series The Dornach Building as a Symbol.[G 3][28] Two months later, Albert Faiss himself died in hospital, having contracted pneumonia and rib inflammation on the battlefield.[25][17][30] Steiner delivered a eulogy on 27 December, stating that the father was "now being welcomed by the soul of the precious child", with whom "we know your soul to be united now".[G 4][32]
Maryon, who had returned to Dornach three or four months earlier, likely experienced these events firsthand.[33] She may also have known Theo Faiss and his mother; during her stay in Dornach at the beginning of the year, too, it is possible she met his father Albert.[34]
Significance
Starting with his eulogy three days after the accident, Steiner repeatedly linked Faiss's death to the anthroposophical movement. The "shocking event",[G 5] he said then, highlighted "how karma and seemingly external coincidence are connected":[G 6] "When human lives are cut short; when people die prematurely; that is, without having experienced the worries and sorrows or the temptations of life; their souls then become forces in the spiritual world. They have a certain relationship to all human life on earth, and their task is to work on those human lives still on earth".[G 7][36] Steiner closed by reading a mantram adapted from one he read in honor of soldiers.[37][38][39]
| Mantram to Faiss[38] | Mantram to Faiss (original German)[37] | Mantram to soldiers[note 1] | Mantram to soldiers (Original German)[41] |
|---|---|---|---|
Spirit of his soul, active guardian, |
Geist seiner Seele, wirkender Wächter, |
Spirits of your souls, active guardians, |
Geister eurer Seelen, wirkende Wächter, |
Similarly, during his evening lecture, Steiner spoke of "a remarkable experience of karma"[G 8] in which Faiss was "summoned back by spiritual powers",[G 9] and added that, however heartrending, "We see clearly that, in order to bring about the fulfillment of this karma, the wagon was led to that spot, and then the wagon was overturned so that the karma of that particular individual might be fulfilled".[G 10][44][45]
Steiner continued to invoke Faiss in later years, referring to him in at least fifteen speeches and lectures.[53][54][55][56][note 3] Steiner described Faiss's death as a karmically voluntary sacrifice that provided a protective spiritual sheath for the Goetheanum, then still under construction.[33] In June 1915, for example, Steiner declared that "since the death of little Theodor Faiss the work has been made possible for me through the mediating forces for inspirations that have been made available by this boy's etheric body which has been enveloping the building".[G 11][88] The building, he added, "has been enveloped to quite a wide extent by the enlarged etheric body of this child as by an aura".[G 12][89] Steiner made a drawing during the lecture, showing what he understood to be the boundaries of this "etheric aura".[G 13][52]
Fire
On the night of New Year's Eve 1922 and morning of New Year's Day 1923, the Goetheanum burned to the ground, possibly due to arson.[90] Anthroposophists have offered a variety of interpretations for why it was able to do so, despite the purported protection provided by Faiss. To Maryon's biographer Rex Raab, Faiss nevertheless "contributed through his sacrifice to the fact that the building, when it fell prey to the flames and dissolved into the Earth’s atmosphere, was able to 'sacrifice' itself in the right way, so as to form, from then on, a special protective sheath for the entire Earth".[G 14][33]
Judith von Halle, by contrast, explains the fire by stating that Faiss's protective sheath had come to an end in October 2021.[91][92] The interpretation relies on Steiner's belief that humans form and develop in seven-year cycles: forming an etheric body over the first seven years, an astral body from seven to fourteen, and the remainder of one's terrestrial being from fourteen to twenty-one.[93][94][95][96][97] To von Halle, Faiss's October 1914 death, shortly after his seventh birthday in July, meant that his etheric body had only just become fully formed.[93][94] In death, as it would have done in life, she states, Faiss's body continued to "age" through his astral cycle, during which time he offered protection to the Goetheanum.[98][94] When Faiss would have turned fourteen in October 1921, von Halle concludes that he passed to the next cycle, and the protection ended.[99][100][94][101]
Description
Maryon created two versions of In Memory of Theo Faiss.[53] Both are dated 1921; based on stylistic characteristics, Raab suggests that the second version is the later of the two.[53]
First version
The first version of the relief is 71.5 cm (28.1 in) tall and 33.5 cm (13.2 in) wide—a slightly elongated double square.[102] It is signed by Maryon and dated 1921; the date is partly damaged, leaving the month illegible.[53] The relief is divided horizontally into three stylistic elements.[103]
The bottom third depicts three individuals, suggested to be either Faiss and his parents, or Faiss, his mother, and Steiner.[104][105] Their upper bodies rise out of a motif that is both plant-like and flame-like.[102] A woman, likely Faiss's mother, is on the right; of the five figures depicted in the relief, hers is the only face that is concave.[104][94] On the left is the figure of a man—possibly Faiss's father or Steiner—with hands clasped to his chest in prayer.[104][105] A third figure, presumably Theo Faiss himself, is in the middle and slightly above them—in physical rather than spiritual form, with outstretched hands.[104][94]
The middle portion of the relief also depicts Theo Faiss, this time in spiritual form.[106] Smaller than the physical Faiss below, the spiritual version is doll-like, and rises upwards.[106] Its head is bowed slightly forward, and its hands are raised; the whole body is held by, and rests against the chest of, a spiritual being, seemingly a guardian angel.[106]
The upper third of the relief shows this guardian angel.[106] One hand cradles the spiritual Faiss; the other gestures upwards, towards higher realms.[106]
Second version
The second version of the relief is a variant of the first.[107] The width is the same—33.5 cm (13.2 in)—but the height, 67 cm (26 in), is slightly shorter, making the work an exact double square.[107] Like the first, it is signed and dated 1921.[53]
The second version contains only the two upper elements of the first: The guardian spirit lifting up the spiritual form of Faiss.[107] These figures appear more relaxed than in the first version.[107] The bottom portion, where the earthly Faiss and his parents were depicted, is absent.[107]
Themes
Two thematic interpretations of In Memory of Theo Faiss have been offered.[108][91][92] In the first, it is related to the moment of Faiss's death.[108][109][110] In the second, it relates to the end of Faiss's spiritual protection over the Goetheanum.[91][92][27]
The first interpretation was put forth by Raab.[108][109][110] According to him, the work depicts the moment of Faiss's sacrificial death and his passage into the spiritual world.[108][109][110] Faiss's outstretched arms suggest that he is ready for sacrifice; he is to be reborn in the spiritual world like a butterfly.[108] His father clasps his arms as if in prayer, meanwhile, as if submitting himself to God's will.[108] The angel figure, for its part, appears as a messenger from heaven sent to retrieve Faiss's soul, just as Mercury guided souls to the underworld.[106] Taken as a whole, under this view the work is the sculptural embodiment of the mantram with which Steiner eulogized Faiss, asking that his soul be entrusted to the spirits.[111]
To von Halle and the Steiner scholar Martina Maria Sam, by contrast, interpret the work as relating to events years later.[91][92][27] To von Halle, it shows the moment seven years after Faiss died, when she states that Faiss passed on to the next seven-year cycle, and his protective sheath over the Goetheanum came to an end.[91][92][100][101] She therefore interprets the work as having been created around what would have been Faiss's fourteenth birthday in October 1921.[92]
To von Halle, furthermore, the concavity of Faiss's mother's face in the first version shows that she is grieving in the earthly sphere.[112][94] Whereas Raab sees Ida Faiss's expression as one of resignation to her fate,[113] von Halle sees it as one of adoration and devout gratitude after having spent seven years spiritually supporting him.[112][105] Also unlike Raab, who sees the male figure on the left as Faiss's father, von Halle identifies it as Steiner—with convex face, operating beyond the threshold of the spirit world—offering his thanks to Faiss, on the one hand, and expressing concern and praying for continued protection, on the other.[114][115] The lack of continued protection, however, is to von Halle why the Goetheanum was able to burn as it did at the end of 1922.[116][100][94][101] Similarly, Sam suggests that the work "is directly connected to the fire".[G 15][27] Stating that Maryon would have designed the work in consultation with Steiner, she suggests that it may represent the "metamorphosis of Theo’s task in an artistic form".[G 16][27]
Beyond the specific event depicted, Raab terms the work the "true monument"[G 17] to Faiss and his death, helping to keep it alive in memory, while serving a dual role as a memento mori.[117] He also states that it has documentary value as a representation of Faiss's karmic sacrifice—something about which there is little recorded.[117]
Provenance
The first version, wrote Raab, "nearly disappeared into oblivion".[G 18][117] It was discovered as thirteen dusty plastic fragments by Emil Estermann; he gave them to A. John Wilkes, an English sculptor who restored many of Maryon's and Steiner's original models and casts around 1965.[118][119] He reassembled the pieces, after which a new cast was made, with the break lines barely visible.[117]
Neither the original nor the mould of the second version is still present in the Goethaneaum's studio.[120] It was unknown to Raab—who had already written the chapter of Maryon's biography discussing the relief—until April 1991.[53] At this point he became aware of a bronze version located in the Netherlands, although the owners (Dr. F. I. Steffelaar-Moulijn and Dr. W Steffelaar) did not know how it ended up there.[121] Raab noted that Maryon's surviving correspondence indicated that she had friendly contacts in the Netherlands, as well as Dutch friends in Dornach, and speculated that it she may have offered it as a gift, such as in exchange for hospitality.[120]
Notes
Notes
- A translation of the original German was published in Steiner 1987b. It has been adjusted here to more closely align with the translation in Steiner 2011 of the mantram to Faiss.[40][38]
- Bau is the Goetheanum; Heizhaus is the boiler house;[46] Haus für Glasfenster is where the glass windows of the Goetheanum were cut;[47][48] Villa Hansi is Steiner's house;[49][26][50] Wald is the forest; and Umgrenzung der Aura is the boundary of the aura.[51] According to Steiner, "It is possible to determine how widely [the aura] extends. If you see the Dornach building (and those who have already seen it are aware of this), it is a circular building with two cupolas. Here we have a boiler house shaped in a particular way in accordance with spiritual-scientific principles, and here we have another house where the glass windows for the building are cut. I might mention, by the way, that somewhere here is the so-called 'Haus Hansi', where we live. Now it is remarkable that this aura of little Theodor Faill envelops the whole building as far as this spot where the wood begins, then past the boiler house and then, after passing directly through this building where the windows are being cut, passes by Haus Hansi without enclosing it. Thus as one enters the building, one actually steps within this etheric aura." (Es ist möglich, wirklich zu bestimmen, wie weit diese Einhüllung geht. Wenn Sie den Dornacher Bau sehen werden — diejenigen, die ihn schon gesehen haben, wissen es —, es ist ein Doppelrundbau (siehe Zeichnung). Hier haben wir ein Heizhaus, in einer besonderen Art nach Grundsätzen der Geisteswissenschaft angelegt, und hier haben wir dann ein anderes Haus angelegt, wo die Glasfenster für den Bau geschliffen werden. Nur nebenbei will ich erwähnen, daß etwa hier das sogenannte «Haus Hansi» ist — das ist das Haus, in dem wir wohnen. Nun ist es merkwürdig, daß bis hier, gegen den Wald hinauf, dann gerade an dem Heizhaus vorbei, mitten durchschneidend diesen Bau, wo die Fenster geschliffen werden, und hier an diesem Haus vorbei, Haus Hansi, dieses nicht einschließend, diese Aura des kleinen Theodor Faiß einhüllt den ganzen Bau. So daß man in der Tat, wenn man den Bau betritt, diese Ätheraura betritt.)[49][52]
- This included the 10 October 1914 eulogy of Theo Faiss;[57][58] that evening's lecture;[59][60] the 27 December 1914 eulogy of Albert Faiss;[61][62] a 6 February 1915 lecture;[63][64] a 7 February 1915 lecture;[65][66] a 14 February 1915 lecture;[67][68] the 19 February 1915 lecture "The Passing of a Human Being through the Gate of Death—a Transformation of Life" (Der Durchgang Des Menschen Durch Die Todespforte – Eine Lebenswandlung);[69][70] the 22 February 1915 lecture "Personal and Supersensible Aspects (Relating to Certain Individuals)" (Persönlich-Übersinnliches);[71][72] the 13 March 1915 lecture "The Entry of the Christ Impulse into Historical Events—The Bridging of the Gulf between the Living and the Dead" (Das Eingreifen Des Christus-Impulses In Das Geschichtliche Geschehen – Die Überbrückung Der Kluft Zwischen Lebenden Und Toten);[73][74] the 7 May 1915 lecture "Cosmic Influences upon the Members of Man's Being – The Occult Foundation of the Christmas Festival – The Significance of Sacrificial Death" (Kosmische Einwirkungen auf die menschlichen Wesensglieder während des Schlafes – Die okkulte Grundlage des Weihnachtsfestes – Der Sinn der Opfertode);[75][76] the 13 May 1915 lecture "The Relationship of the Human Being to the Realms of Nature and the Hierarchies – Spirits of the Ages and Folk-Souls – The Admonishing Voices of the Dead" (Die Beziehung Des Menschen Zu Den Naturreichen Und Den Hierarchien - Zeitgeister Und Volksgeister - Die Mahnenden Stimmen Der Toten);[77][78] the 18 May 1915 lecture "Christ in Relation to Lucifer and Ahriman—The Threefold Nature of this Form" (Christus im Verhältnis zu Luzifer und Ahriman - Die dreifache Wesensgestaltung);[79][80] the 13 June 1915 lecture "Spiritual Science as a Conviction—The Etheric Body as a Reflection of the Universe" (Geisteswissenschaft als Gesinnung - Der Ätherleib als Abspiegelung des Weltenalls);[81][82] the 16 February 1916 lecture "Life Between Death and Rebirth" (Das Leben Zwischen Tod und Neuer Geburt);[83][84] and the 18 February 1916 lecture "The Elements of Our Being between Death and Rebirth" (Die Wesensglieder des Menschen im Leben Zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt).[85][86]
- The label reads "In Memory of Theo Faiss / Edith Maryon / 1921 / Art Collection at the Goetheanum" (Im Gedenken an Theo Faiss / Edith Maryon / 1921 / KUNSTSAMMLUNG AM / GOETHEANUM).
Original German text
- daß Menschenleben, die früh hinweggenommen werden, die nicht die Sorgen und Bekümmernisse, auch nicht die Versuchungen des Lebens durchgemacht haben, daß solche Menschenleben Kräfte in der geistigen Welt sind, die zu dem gesamten Menschenleben in einer gewissen Beziehung stehen, die da sind, um auf diese menschlichen Leben zu wirken[35]
