Julia Kardon
H Band Vienna
3/11/04
Art and Literature Prehistory
In
all early cities, the first sign of self-awareness and settlement is the growth
of arts. This growth is usually
characterized by what the people are exposed to in their other aspects of life:
economic class, politics, location, etc.
In early Vienna, the growth
of arts are directly linked to such factors as religion and the government:
before the 1860s, all paintings were religious portrayals, landscapes, or
commissioned portraits. In
literature, the writing was dominated by religious treatises, and historical
documents, although there were some individuals who wrote plays and novels that
survived the strict censorship of the 19th century. This censorship, primarily instigated by Prince
Metternich (who virtually ruled Austria from 1814 to 1848) imposed harsh
regulations on the press and all published literature.[1] Similarly, when the Catholics
were the majority in Austria in the middle of the Renaissance, painting became
very unpopular as it was believed that even religious art could endanger
religion, as the worship from the subject could shift from worship to the
artist. However, it is not
only what was happening in the city that served to influence the arts in Vienna-
many famous authors and painters would travel to Austria, and almost every
painter or writer from Vienna had also been heavily affected with the works of
the Germans, Italians, French, and Dutch (as well as certain individuals from
other countries, like Hans Christian Anderson). In fact, Vienna was even a major city of growth in her
earlier years whose art certainly set the stage for the more central European
cities, the city itself a European hodgepodgery, of sorts. Sadly, though, the sculpture, paintings
and literature all share the common themes of stunted development and
restrictionÐ in the end, it was the influence of the Church, literal location
of the artists, and dominating politicians who really produced the majority of
the art.
True
for almost any European city before the 1830, Christianity played one of the most important roles in how
art and writing developed. Austria
was vastly Christian, and because the printing press was not invented until
(circa) 1450, intuitively, art
before then was one of the few ways to bring Christianity to the public. Indeed, all the paintings and
sculptures surviving from that era are religious ones, with nothing unusually
or uniquely Austrian about them,
many of them unsigned by their artists so as to emphasize the importance
of the Christian symbolism and not of the artist. The talent, however, behind the sculptures was significant:
beautifully created gold figurines and altar pieces survive in almost every
Cathedral and date from before the 1400s.
One altar piece, called the Wilten Chalice, was created before 1250
C.E., yet contains more intricate designs and concentrated effort than similar
pieces from nearly anywhere else on the continent.[2] The religious statuettes and
figurines found from the Romanesque period through the Gothic period also have
a delicate realism to them, free of the often stiff and primitive statues found
in other regions. This influence
is slightly Asian, which most ViennaÕs surrounding powers (more Western of
Austria, the European Christians there had little influence outside of themselves)
were not able to enjoy. Thise
unique quality is one reason that makes Vienna an early center for the
Renaissance, where painters from all over Europe came to enhance there own
skills- the delicate curves and arches visible in Viennese religious paintings
is unique to the time, and helps to greatly influence the way the human anatomy
is painted.[3] In the world of sculpture too,
Vienna had a magnificent background with sculptors like Georg Donner whose
sometimes twenty feet statues of saints still exist in front of cathedrals.[4] However, by the middle of the
Renaissance, the flip-flopping
power between the Protestants and the Catholics has moved the Catholic interest
in Vienna away to Italy, and Viennese art suffers greatly. Because Protestants feared so heavily
that religious art would devalue the ability to worship religion, their
churches were less ornate and commissioned no painters and sculptors to adorn
their walls. The artistic mind was
thus turned towards literature, when unknown priests and monks would design
bibles or put their effort into creating elaborate sermons (although very few
documents have survived from Vienna at this time).
After
the Church, the next most important (or perhaps, indeed, the most important) influence on
Viennese painting is that of the physical location of Austria. For example, let us look at the
Austrian painter Master of HeiligenkreuzÕs ÒAnnunciationÓ c. 1410 (below, left)
and Austrian Wolf HuberÕs ÒThe Capture of ChristÓ c. 1520 (below, right). Both of these paintings share a
clear Hungarian- Turkish influence- the shapes of the faces are not that of
Aryan blonds from further Northwest, but instead are longer and darker. Beyond that, one can see that even from
an architectural standpoint, the ÒAnnunciationÓ carries a sloping, Turkish
window, and the sort of symbols in the background walls expected to find more
in Asian or Middle-East art than in art from a standard European city. Though
the painting below of Huber lacks a formal background, the fighters all have
bohemian characteristics and weapons- very thick hands and legs, feathered
helmets, etc. While obviously the
paintings also carry influences of Spanish and Italian art at the time (such as
the placement of the figures) there is a unique and often overlooked feeling of
the
Middle East or of Hungary, which was just becoming an
important part of Austria at the time.
A
bit after these paintings were
created, the full effects of the Renaissance were blooming in Vienna and with
its superior techniques comes the vibrancy and prominance of the
landscapes. Painters like
Georg WaldmŸler (landscape of his above) sought to depict
the breath-taking beauty of Austrian vistas and make them more accessible to
the world. He and his
contemporaries including Friedrich Gauermann began to paint outdoors, some of
the first painters to ever take their work out into the world they were
painting.[5] Much of the landscape art
belongs to the Biedermeier period in Vienna, a period which bonded artists to
the physical world in which they lived and gave religious and spiritual value
to flowers, mountains, and landscapes as a whole. The Biedermeier was also indicative of the rise of the
Bourgeoisie, and landscapes were as popular as portraits but generally cheaper-
the sort of art that was created with an audience of more than just the
aristocracy. Landscapes were still very popular, even if slightly cheaper, and
these paintings helped to inspire a nationalist pride in Austria, this
tradition still present in Austrian art today.
Politics
are partly to responsible for nationalist paintings as well, but politics play
in art has extended past nationalist inspiration to that of much larger
proportions. The influence on
Viennese art seems to shift in time periods when it was unfavorable to
affiliate with certain countries.
Almost all the paintings and sculptures created in the time of Emperor
Ferdinand II, for example, lacks the influence of the French, which seems
natural as there were frequent wars with the French Empire during his
reign. The opposite is also true,
however, for when Jacob Seisenegger was appointed court painter to Ferdinand,
he was commissioned to paint a life size portrait of Emperor Charles V, which
brough Viennese influence under the public eye of Europe. Seisenegger emboddied certain
characterstics of Viennese art, such as the slight contrasts of colors and carefully
chosen positions and props (he is featured with a very large hunting dog,
considered at the time to mean wealth).[6] Other artists, such as the
painter Martin van Meytens, portrayed the Hapsburgs (the Royal family) through
two rulers, depicting them with extreme elegance and wealth. Unfortunately, the literature that has
survived because of politics is very slight in comparison to the art. Prince Metternich who was the last
(unofficial) ruler before 1848 had created such strict censorship laws that
only official newspapers are archived in Austria, and many books that were
banned or unpublished remain lost altogether. Franz Grillparzer was one of the few Viennese writers who
stayed in Austria through out his whole life, yet he was very depressed until
his death because the restrictions of his work. Frustrated by failures and bans, Grillparzer had no luck
when he turned to historical documents, either.[7] Adalbert Stifter, a poet,
remained very publicized (despite an only middling quality) because of his very
close affinity to the royal family and his own personal wealth.[8] Although some writers of the very
late 18th and early 19th century did not have close ties to royalty or the
aristocracy, there work was only allowed to become popular because of its lack
of serious social critique- popular playwright Ferdinand Raimund wrote mainly
plays about fairy tales and magic, where Johann Nestory, a popular author,
wrote comedies with little serious content.[9] Even still, their popularity can
also be attributed to the growing bourgeosie, whose interests were able to
support them despite criticism from the aristocracy.
In the early part of the twentieth
century, Austria had been just
starting to pick out her own voice and place in thought after years of being
more generally categorized and not given particular attention. Writers like Schnitzler and Bernhard,
painters like Klimt and Schiele broke boundaries and set an elaborate stage for
other painters and writers to ready themselves to take power, and Vienna became
once again an booming city with high cultural feats. Yet after Nazism broke loose, Vienna was a more barren
place, a land of suppression, and again took a place behind the artistic
achievements of other cities- art came to a low point. The power of Nazism of the people of
Austria just goes to reiterate the strength of the roles of the government and
surrounding area on the artwork and literature of Austria, who was tied down in
creativity by the birth of Hitler.
Though creative thought has since come out of Austria (writers like
Bachmann, Jelinek and Salten), her broken ties to the rest of creative Europe
held her back enormously, visible by the complete lack of Existentialism in
writing and paintings for years and years after it had become very popular in
countries Austria was at war with, like France. Even now, Austria is still tied to her past very heavily
with popular sculptors like Hrdlicka who made the sculpture of the kneeling
Jewish man. This only serves to
reiterate that Vienna will never be able to free herself from the mixed
blessings of being a product of religion, location and government- a quality
which has always marked her and the world as a whole.
Bibliography
Great Paintings from the Kunsthistorisches Museum,
Vienna, Vinzenz
Oberhammer. Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
Publishers: New York, 1978.
Art Through the Ages.
Horst de la Croix, Richard G. Tansey. Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc: New York, 1970
The City as a Work of Art. Donald J. Olsen.
Yale University Press: Connecticut, 1986.
Art. Austria Embassy.
www.austriaemb.org.au/culture/art.htm
Learn German- Vienna!. www.acilingua.com/aboutVienna/culture.htm
Homepage. YEPP
Seminar Vienna.
www.yepp.junge.oevp.at/index2.php?main=culture
Seisenegger, Jacob. www.http://www.kfki.hu/%7Earthp/html/s/seiseneg/
Ferdinand Raimund.
http://www.actilingua.com/AboutVienna/literature/ferdinand_raimund.htm
Franz Grillparzer http://www.actilingua.com/AboutVienna/literature/franz_grillparzer.htm
Georg Donnor. http://www.actilingua.com/AboutVienna/literature/georg_donner.htm