A New Year's Plaquette (after A Prayer to Light)

A nude youth stands on a shore-like landscape. His outstretched hands beckon our gaze toward a majestic sunrise. This incandescent scene by the German artist Fidus (pseudonym for Hugo Höppener) is a version of his iconic Prayer to the Light (Lichtgebet) motif. The image is also emblematic of the popular Life Reform Movement, launched in nineteenth-century Germany in the wake of rapid industrialization. Fidus’ image emphasizes the Life Reform’s key tenet: society’s physical and mental well-being could be achieved through fitness and communion with nature. Yet for today’s viewer the artist’s impassioned message about revitalizing mankind is undercut by the year prominently featured on the medal—1914 conveys poignant and sinister meaning as the beginning of World War I.