Ex-libris (bookplate)

Vogeler belonged to the Worpswede artist group. He was a well-known Jugendstil illustrator and made more than a hundred ex libris. The ex libris of Bertha Bienert (the wife of a mill-owner from Dresden) is a harmonious composition of different motifs, with poetic sensitivity. One of Vogeler's main ideas was

the return to nature, in a Pantheist spirit. The two sides of the ex libris are bordered by a violet, revealing a window that opens on a lovely garden. There is an open book lying in front of the window. The dark tones of the bottom are in contrast with the bright top, which is enriched with main figure of Michelangelo's main work, the tomb of Lorenzo de Medici in Florence.