Ludwig Thiersch

Ludwig Thiersch (April 12, 1825 in Munich – May 10, 1909[1]) was a German painter, primarily of mythological and religious subjects and especially of ecclesiastical art, also influential in Greece.

[1][2] He painted several frescoes in Greek churches, and was at the forefront of a movement to "modernize" Byzantine art by introducing elements from post-Renaissance such as naturalistic perspective and anatomy.

However, natural-perspective reforms were favored by the Bavarian monarchy of King Otto, as well as by Lysandros Kaftanzoglou, a prominent architect and head of the Athens Polytechnic, and so his opponents were largely unsuccessful.

[1] During this period Theophil Freiherr von Hansen, a Danish-Austrian architect who had also spent time in Greece and taken up an interest in Byzantine art, was rebuilding Vienna's Fleischmarkt Greek Church in a neo-Byzantine style, and Thiersch was commissioned along with Karl Rahl to supply frescoes for the interior.

[8] Following the position in Vienna, Thiersch was employed in Rome by Simon Sinas, a Greek philanthropist, for whom he produced a number of works on mythological and religious subjects, including Charon als Seelenführer, Bakchos' Einzug in den Hain von Kolonos, and Thetis' Klage um Achilleus.