Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T18:10:03.653Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

From Potemkin Village to the Estrangement of Vision: Baroque Culture and Modernity in Austria before and after 1918

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2016

Matthew Rampley
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The artistic and cultural life of Austria after World War I has often been presented in a gloomy light. As one contributor to a recent multivolume history of Austrian art commented, “the era between the two world wars is for long periods a time of indecision and fragmentation, of stagnation and loss of orientation … the 20 years of the First Republic of 1918–1938 did not provide a unified or convincing image.” For many this sense of disorientation and stagnation is symbolized poignantly by the deaths in 1918 of three leading creative figures of the modern period, Otto Wagner, Gustav Klimt, and Egon Schiele, two of whom succumbed to the influenza epidemic of that year. According to this view, war not only led to the collapse of the Habsburg monarchy (and a dramatic political caesura), it also caused or, at the very least coincided with, a profound interruption to artistic life and brought Vienna's cultural preeminence in central Europe to an end. The inhabitants of the newly constituted Austrian Republic were forced to contend with significant challenges as to how they might relate to the recent past. On the one hand, some—including, most famously, Stefan Zweig—sought refuge in a twilight world of nostalgic memory; others, such as Adolf Loos, used the events of 1918 as the opportunity to advance a distinctively modernist agenda that sought to create maximum distance from the Habsburg monarchy.

Type
Articles
Information
Austrian History Yearbook , Volume 47 , April 2016 , pp. 167 - 187
Copyright
Copyright © Center for Austrian Studies, University of Minnesota 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Wieland Schmied, “Die Malerei: Die Zwischenkriegszeit,” in Geschichte der bildenden Kunst in Österreich, vol. 6, 20. Jahrhundert, ed. Schmied (Munich, 2002), 68–104, at 68.

2 Recent analyses of the exhibition include Udovički-Selb, Danilo, “Facing Hitler's Pavilion: The Uses of Modernity in the Soviet Pavilion at the 1937 Paris International Exhibition,” Journal of Contemporary History 47, no. 1 (2012): 13–47 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Karen Fiss, “In Hitler's Salon: The German Pavilion at the 1937 Paris Exposition Internationale,” in Art, Culture and Media under the Third Reich, ed. Richard A. Etlin (Chicago, 2002), 316–42.

3 The pavilion is discussed in Ulrike Felber, Elke Krasny, and Christian Rapp, “Der Großglockner in Paris: Österreich auf der Weltausstellung Paris 1937,” in Smart Exports: Österreich auf den Weltausstellungen 1851–2000 (Vienna, 2000), 130–41.

4 Eve Blau, The Architecture of Red Vienna 1919–1934 (Cambridge, MA, 1999); Helmut Weihsmann, Das rote Wien: Sozialdemokratische Architektur und Kommunalpolitik, 1919–1934, 2nd ed. (Vienna, 2002).

5 On Boeckl see Agnes Husslein-Arco, ed., Herbert Boeckl (Vienna, 2009).

6 Hans Tietze, “Die Reaktion in der Kunst” (1925), in Hans Tietze, Lebendige Kunstwissenschaft: Texte 1910–1954, ed. Almut Krapf-Weiler (Vienna, 2007), 130–35, at 132.

7 See Matthew Rampley, “Baroque Art and Architecture: A Contested Legacy,” in The Vienna School of Art History: Empire and the Politics of Scholarship (University Park, PA, 2013), 95–115; Andreas Nierhaus, “Höfisch und Österreichisch: Zur Architektur des Neobarock in Wien,” in Barock, ein Ort des Gedächtnisses: Interpretament der Moderne/Postmoderne, eds., Moritz Csáky, Federico Celestini, and Ulrich Tragatschnig (Vienna, 2007), 79–100.

8 Werner Telesko, eds., Die Wiener Hofburg 1835–1918: Der Ausbau der Residenz vom Vormärz bis zum Ende des “Kaiserforums” (Vienna, 2012).

9 József Sisa, “Hungarian Architecture from 1849 to 1900,” in The Architecture of Historic Hungary, ed. Dora Wiebenson and József Sisa, 173–210, at 182–84 (Cambridge, MA, 1998).

10 Gerhard M. Dienes, ed., Fellner und Helmer: Theaterarchitekten Mitteleuropas; 1870–1920, exh. cat. (Graz, 2001); Hans-Christoph Hoffmann, Die Theaterbauten von Fellner und Helmer (Munich, 1966).

11 For a more extensive account of neobaroque and historicism in general see Ákos Moravánszky, Competing Visions: Aesthetic Invention and Social Imagination in Central European Architecture, 1867–1918 (Cambridge, MA, 1998), 63–104.

12 Elisabeth Springer, “Biographische Skizze zu Albert Ilg (1847–1896),” in Fischer von Erlach und die Wiener Barocktradition, ed. Friedrich Polleroß (Vienna, 1995), 319–44; Stachel, Peter, “‘Vollkommen passende Gefässe’ und ‘Gefässe fremder Form’: Die Kritik des Kunsthistorikers Albert Ilg (1847–1896) an der Architektur der Wiener Ringstrasse, ihr identitätspolitischer Hintergrund und ihre kunstpolitischen Auswirkungen,” East Central Europe 33, nos. 1–2 (2006): 267–88CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem, “Albert Ilg und die ‘Erfindung’ des Barocks als österreichischer ‘Nationalstil,’” in Barock, ein Ort des Gedächtnisses, ed. Csáky, Celestini, and Tragatschnig, 101–52; Francesca Torello, “Engaging the Past: Albert Ilg's Die Zukunft des Barockstils,” in The Baroque in Architectural Culture, 1880–1980, eds. Andrew Leach, John Macarthur, and Maarten Delbeke (Farnham, 2015), 13–27.

13 Albert Ilg, Die Zukunft des Barockstils: Eine Kunstepistel von Bernini dem Jüngeren (Vienna, 1880).

14 Ibid, 17.

15 Ibid.

16 Ibid, 30.

17 Ibid.

18 Ibid, 7.

19 Albert Ilg, Die Fischer von Erlach: Leben und Werke Joh. Bernh. Fischer's von Erlach des Vaters (Vienna, 1895).

20 Albert Ilg, “Die Barocke,” in Kunstgeschichtliche Charakterbilder aus Österreich-Ungarn, ed. Ilg (Vienna, 1893), 259–308, at 262.

21 Julius Meier-Graefe, Die Weltausstellung in Paris 1900 (Paris, 1900), 51–53.

22 Köstlin, August, “Das Neue Wien,” Allgemeine Bauzeitung 40 (1885): 1–4 Google Scholar; Jakob von Falke, “Wesen und Grenzen des Barockstils,” in Geschichte des Geschmacks im Mittelalter und andere Studien auf dem Gebiete der Kunst und Kultur (Berlin, 1892), 211–42, at 213–14.

23 Adolf Loos, “Die potemkinsche Stadt” (1898), in Sämtliche Schriften, 2 vols., ed. Franz Glück (Vienna, 1962), 1:153–56, at 153–54.

24 Hans Tietze, Wien, 2nd ed. (Leipzig, 1923), 291.

25 Anon., “Der Hofpavillon der Wiener Stadtbahn,” Ver Sacrum: Mitteilungen der Vereinigung Künstler Österreichs 2, no. 8 (1899): 3–13 Google Scholar, at 5; Josef Strzygowski, Die bildende Kunst der Gegenwart: Ein Büchlein für Jedermann (Leipzig, 1907), 15. Hans Tietze also recognized the depth of Wagner's early engagement with the baroque, although he sought to distance Wagner's later work from baroque historicizing. See Tietze, Otto Wagner (Vienna, 1922).

26 Adolf Loos, “Ornament und Verbrechen” (1908), in Sämtliche Schriften, 1:276–88.

27 Ludwig Hevesi, Oesterreichische Kunst im 19. Jahrhundert, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1903).

28 Adolf Loos, “Der Staat und die Kunst” (1919), in Sämtliche Schriften, 1:352–54.

29 Eva Michel, “Große Vergangenheit: Das Barock und die österreichische Identitätskonstruktion in der Zwischenkriegszeit,” in Kampf um die Stadt: Politik, Kunst und Alltag um 1930, ed. Wolfgang Kos (Vienna, 2010), 230–34; and idem, “Barock von 1918 bis 1938: Katalysator und Legitimation der österreichischen Moderne,” in Barock since 1630, exh. cat., eds. Agnes Husslein-Arco, Georg Lechner, and Alexander Klee (Vienna, 2013), 66–77.

30 Hans Tietze, Wien, 147.

31 Cited in Michel, “Grosse Vergangenheit,” 230–31.

32 Ibid., 231.

33 Hermann Bahr, cited in Daviau, Donald G., “Hermann Bahr as Director of the Burgtheater,” German Quarterly 32, no. 1 (1959): 11–21 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 18.

34 Anon., Das Barockmuseum im unteren Belvedere: Verzeichnis der Kunstwerke (Vienna, 1923).

35 According to the information provided in Franz Martin Haberditzl, Das Barockmuseum im unteren Belvedere (Vienna, 1934).

36 Hans Tietze, “Das Wiener Barockmuseum” (1924), in Lebendige Kunstwissenschaft 1910–54, 123–29, at 126–27.

37 Ibid, 127.

38 Eduard Stepan, ed., Wiener Museen (Vienna, 1925), viii.

39 Max Dvořák, “Zur Entwicklungsgeschichte der barocken Deckenmalerei” (1919), in Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Kunstgeschichte, ed. Johannes Wilde and Karl M. Swoboda (Munich, 1929), 227–41.

40 Hans Sedlmayr, Fischer von Erlach der ältere (Munich, 1925); idem, Die Architektur Borrominis (Berlin, 1930).

41 Hans Sedlmayr, Österreichische Barockarchitektur, 1690–1740 (Vienna, 1930).

42 Hans Sedlmayr, “Die politische Bedeutung des deutschen Barock” (1938), in Epochen und Werke: Gesammelte Schriften zur Kunstgeschichte, vol. 2 (Vienna, 1960), 140–56.

43 Michael Steinberg, Austria as Theater and Ideology: The Meaning of the Salzburg Festival, 2nd ed. (Ithaca, 2000), 23.

44 Riegl, Alois, “Salzburgs Stellung in der Kunstgeschichte,” Mittheilungen der Gesellschaft für Salzburger Landeskunde 45 (1905): 1–22 Google Scholar.

45 Hans Tietze, Die Zukunft der Wiener Museen (Vienna, 1923), 12.

46 Josef Nadler, Literaturgeschichte der deutschen Stämme und Landschaften, 4 vols. (Regensburg, 1912–28).

47 Hugo von Hofmannsthal, “Die Salzburger Festspiele” (1919), in Essays, Reden und Vorträge (Berlin, 2013), 179–82.

48 As Hofmannsthal claimed, “The land of Salzburg is the heart of the heart of Europe. It lies halfway between Switzerland and the Slavic lands, halfway between Germany of the north and Lombardic Italy; it lies in the center between north and south, between mountain and plain, between the heroic and the idyllic; its building lies between town and country, between ancient and modern, between princely baroque and the sweet eternally rustic. Mozart is the expression of all of this. Central Europe has no finer place; Mozart was destined to be born here.” Ibid, 181.

49 Hans Stiftegger (Brecka), Geliebte Scholle: Bauerngeschichten (Vienna, 1930); Guido Zernatto, Sinnlose Stadt: Roman eines einfachen Menschen (Leipzig, 1934).

50 Andrew Barker, “The Politics of Austrian Literature, 1927–1956,” in A History of Austrian Literature 1918–2000, ed. Katrin Kohl and Ritchie Robertson, 107–26 (Rochester, 2006).

51 See Peter Grupp, Faszination Berg: Die Geschichte des Alpinismus (Vienna, 2008).

52 Christian Rapp, “Schnelle Neue Alpen: Schnappschüsse der Moderne aus Österreichs Bergen,” in Kampf um die Stadt, ed. Kos, 122–29.

53 Poglayen-Neuhall, Stephan, “Anton Faistauer,” trans. Hernady, Lucy T., Parnassus 10, no. 6 (1938): 26–27 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 26.

54 Hellmut Lorenz, “Barocke Kunst in Österreich: Facetten einer Epoche,” in Geschichte der bildenden Kunst in Österreich, vol. 4, Barock, ed. Lorenz (Vienna, 1999), 11–16, at 13.

55 Dimendberg, Edward, “The Will to Motorization: Cinema, Highways and Modernity; for Wolf Donner, in Memoriam,” October 73 (1995): 93–137 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 108.

56 Franz Schausberger, “Mythos und Symbol: Die Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse im autoritären Ständestaat,” in Die Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse: Erbe und Auftrag, eds. Johannes Hörl and Dietmar Schöndorfer, 101–29 (Vienna, 2015).

57 Rudolf von Eitelberger, “Die Kunst-Entwicklung des heutigen Wien” (1877), in Gesammelte Kunsthistorische Schriften, vol. 1, Kunst und Künstler Wiens (Vienna, 1879), 1–36, at 30.

58 Karl von Lützow, “Wiens architektonische Entwicklung: Die Wiener Architektur des XIX. Jahrhundert,” in Die Österreichisch-ungarische Monarchie in Wort und Bild: Wien und Niederösterreich, part 1, Wien (Vienna, 1886), 70–90, at 70.

59 Laurence Cole and Daniel L. Unowsky, eds., The Limits of Loyalty: Imperial Symbolism, Popular Allegiances, and State Patriotism in the Late Habsburg Monarchy (New York and Oxford, 2007).

60 On the history of the Burgtheater in the interwar period see Robert Pyrah, Burgtheater and Austrian Identity: Theatre and Cultural Politics in Vienna, 1918–38 (London, 2007).

61 Giger, Andreas, “Tradition in Post World-War-I Vienna: The Role of the Vienna State Opera from 1919–1924,” International Review of Aesthetics and the Sociology of Music 28, no. 2 (1997): 189–211 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

62 See Riegl's lectures on The Origins of Baroque Art in Rome, trans. and ed. Andrew Hopkins and Arnold Witte (Los Angeles, 2010). The lectures delivered in the 1890s were first published as Alois Riegl, Die Entstehung der Barockkunst in Rom: Akademische Vorlesungen, ed. Arthur Burda and Max Dvořák (Vienna, 1908).

63 Max Dvořák, “On El Greco and Mannerism,” in The History of Art as the History of Ideas, trans. John Hardy (London, 1984), 97–108.

64 On the rediscovery of El Greco see Beat Wismer and Michael Scholz-Hänsel, eds., El Greco und die Moderne, exh. cat. (Ostfildern, 2012).

65 Dvořák, “On El Greco and Mannerism,” 105.

66 Ibid, 108.

67 Dvořák, “Zur Entwicklungsgeschichte der barocken Deckenmalerei Wiens,” 241.

68 See, for example, Rampley, Matthew, “Max Dvořák: Art History and the Crisis of Modernity,” Art History 26, no. 3 (2003): 214–37CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 220–23.

69 On Reinhardt's ideas in this regard see Michael Patterson, “Populism versus Elitism in Max Reinhardt's Austrian Productions of the 1920s,” in The Great Tradition and Its Legacy: The Evolution of Dramatic and Musical Theater in Austria and Central Europe, ed. Michael Cherlin, Halina Filipowicz, and Richard L. Rudolph, 72–81 (New York, 2003).

70 The major text in this regard was Sedlmayr's study Die Entstehung der Kathedrale (Zurich, 1950), in which he interpreted the Gothic cathedral as a mystical Gesamtkunstwerk. As Hans Belting observed in Die Deutschen und Ihre Kunst (Munich, 1992), after World War II the Holy Roman Empire was a politically acceptable surrogate for both the lost Habsburg Empire and the idea of a greater German Reich. See Belting, The Germans and Their Art: A Troublesome Relationship, trans. Scott Kleager (New Haven and London, 1998).

71 Hans Sedlmayr, Verlust der Mitte: Die bildende Kunst des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts als Symptom und Symbol der Zeit (Salzburg, 1948).

72 Ibid., 227.

73 “This is the meaning of the baroque. Scornful hatred of life that recognises its folly and transcends it as meaningless, unreal, empty appearance, but then enjoys it again as empty appearance, with the inexpressible tenderness and fear of the artist who knows that it is just a matter of play, but who also knows that play is the only serious thing there is.” Hermann Bahr, Wien (Stuttgart, 1906), 62.

74 Hans Sedlmayr, “Bruegel's Macchia” (1934), trans. Frederick Schwartz, in The Vienna School Reader: Politics and Art Historical Method in the 1930s, ed. Christopher S. Wood (New York, 2000), 323–76.

75 Vittorio Imbriani, Critica d'arte e prose narrative, ed. Gino Doria (Bari, 1937). The term was already being used by Vasari in the sixteenth century; Imbriani gave new life to the concept as part of the Italian response to Impressionism in the 1860s. See Albert Boime, The Art of the Macchia and the Risorgimento: Representing Culture and Nationalism in Nineteenth-century Italy (Chicago, 1993).

76 Sedlmayr, “Bruegel's Macchia,” 342.

77 Ibid, 354.

78 Walter Benjamin, The Origin of German Tragic Drama (Ursprung des deutschen Trauerspiels, 1928), trans. John Osborne (London, 2009).

79 Walter Benjamin, “The Rigorous Study of Art” (1934) in Selected Writings, vol. 2, part 2, 1931–1934, ed., Michael Jennings, Howard Eiland, and Gary Smith (Cambridge, MA, 1999), 666–72.

80 Howard Caygill, “Walter Benjamin's Concept of Allegory,” in The Cambridge Companion to Allegory, eds. Rita Copeland and Peter T. Struck (Cambridge, 2010), 241–53.