Hans von Marées

[1] In Italy he became friendly with the art theorist Konrad Fiedler, who later became his patron, and the sculptor Adolf von Hildebrand.

In 1873, he decorated the library walls of the newly built German Marine Zoological Institute in Naples, Italy[3] The murals consist of five scenes depicting figures in landscapes, set into a framework of friezes and pilasters designed by Hildebrand.

[4] They have no specific symbolic or mythological scheme, being intended simply to express, in Marées' own words, "the joys of sea and beach life".

[3] The next year, he moved to Florence, where he became acquainted with Anselm Feuerbach and Arnold Böcklin,[1] two leading members of the group of idealist, intellectual artists known as the "German Romans".

[5] He turned increasingly to mythological subjects[1] and developed a complex and individual technique, overpainting tempera with layers of oil and creating a depth of colour quite unlike the muted tones used by his fellow classicist, Feuerbach.