In addition to mythological figures such as Helen, Phryne or the Amazon, in the present work Franz Stuck takes on another literary female figure with a story that revolves around love and seduction. Monna Vanna - old Italian dialect for Madonna Giovanna - is the wife of Prince Guido Colonna of Pisa, which was besieged by the Florentines and their condottiere Prinzivalli in the 15th century . In order to save the city, she fulfills his condition and enters the enemy’s camp naked wearing only a coat and shoes. The condottiere, however, has other intentions, as she is his childhood sweetheart. The dramatic climax of the story, when she is about to take off her coat and give herself up, is resolved when the condottiere prevents her from doing so and both spend the night in intimate conversation. Thus Monna Vanna, like the biblical Judith, whom Stuck also included in his repertoire of motifs, is transformed into a heroine who conquers the man through her beauty and sensuality. The drama by the Belgian symbolist poet Maurice Maeterlinck premiered to great acclaim throughout Europe in 1902, in Germany at the Schauspielhaus in Munich (today the Kammerspiele), starring Eleonora Duse. An opera adaptation followed in 1909, and several films were also made, including one shot in Munich with the well-known Munich actress Lee Parry (Mathilde Benz) as Monna Vanna in 1922. Stuck gives the character a Renaissance hairstyle, the kind that Giovanna Tornabuoni has in the late 15th century paintings by Domenico Ghirlandaio at the end of the 15th century. Stuck also painted her as a Florentine in the portrait of Olga Lindpainter as early as in 1901. Along with antiquity, Renaissance and its great painters served Stuck as main source of inspiration. The wide coat, pleated at the back, also refers to Renaissance clothing, but its ankle length to the fashion of the 1920s. Stuck chooses the central moment of unveiling, which the viewer awaits with anticipation, in which Monna Vanna lets the coat slide off her shoulders in an elegant movement. The symmetrical structure of the figure with the elongated body, enveloped in the coat, appears more compact and concentrated than, for example, the "Dancers" that were created in the previous century. The moving forms of Art Nouveau have since evolved into geometric, less expansive forms. Calm and static, suggesting a forward stride with only a slightly raised leg, Stuck focused on subtle movement and the balance of voluminous forms. Designed for a hieratic frontal view, his later sculptures thus have a relief-like appearance and suggest a placement close to the wall, as Stuck placed them in niches or on mantelpieces at his own villa. As a sculpture, Monna Vanna became an elegant ornament at Bohemian salons. [KT]