Wily Pogany, Illustrations to Wagner's "Parsifal"

The opera Parsifal, loosely based on a medieval epic poem, was the work that enraged Nietzsche so much he denounced Richard Wagner as a fraud and cut off all ties with him. 

It tells the story of the knights who guard the Holy Grail, who are in bad shape when the story begins. Their king is dying and their castle is besieged by an evil sorceror whose main mode of attack is to send a crew of beautiful, wicked women to seduce the knights away from the virture necessary to their callling. As their virtue falters, their king's illness worsens and everything is dire.

A mysterious boy then appears who, it turns out, was raised alone in the forest by his mother – that is, away from the corruption of human society. This is Parsifal. 

His virtue is such that he waves off all attempts at seduction, waves off another attempt by the leader of the wicked women to get his pity by whining about the curse they are under, then somehow acquires the Holy Lance that pierced Christ's side and uses it to banish the sorceror and heal the dying Grail King. Angels sing Halleluja.

Yeah, Nietzsche was right about the plot.

But some people love the music, and Wily Pogany still did wonderful things in his illustrations, drawn in 1912.

More Pogany here.