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Chapter 4: Iconography and Symbolism in German Romanticism

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Chapter 4: Iconography and Symbolism in German Romanticism Chapter 4: Iconography and Symbolism in German Romanticism The Influence of Dutch Painters: Jakob van Ruisdael (1628 – 1682) Unlike his contemporaries Jakob van Ruisdael (already in the 17th century did not focus the exact reproduction of a specific landscape but painted self-designed fantasy-landscapes that were composed of different motifs. He used symbols that were distinct to the beholder. His paintings often show symbols of “vanitas” (which means “caducity”). So for example graves and graveyards and ruins show the decay and breakup of life. In his work “jewish cemetery” 1670/75) the tombs and ruins and the streaming water symbolise the dissolution of life and of human creation. In contrary to this the rainbow - for example - symbolises hope. C.D. Friedrich, the famous and maybe most important painter of early romanticism, learned to know those paintings of Ruisdael during his study in Dresden. Jakob van Ruisdael “Jewish cemetery” 1670-5 Symbolism in the Work of Caspar David Friedrich For C.D. Friedrich “the feeling of the artist is his ordinance” **. Therefore the landscapes in his paintings are “landscapes of mood” that are based on his individual feelings. He composes his landscapes by arranging important elements and motifs he “experienced” on his journeys. He quite often sketched these motifs by “sepia-technique” and lateron connected them in his studio according his liking. By the sheer subjectivity of this feeling C.D. Friedrich in contrary to Ruisdael not always creates a definite symbolism of the illustrated persons, items and even times of the day or of the seasons. The strong religiousity of C.D. Friedrich can be seen in the many symbols he uses that derive from Christian doctrine. Besides some of his works can also be interpreted in a political- sociological manner. 221 „Sea of Ice“ (1823/24) The painting „Sea of Ice“ by C. D, Friedrich originally had the title: „Wreck of Hope“. It wasn ´t the artists target to display a naturalistic polar- or ice-sea-landscape. The composition of the painting uses symmetry, with its top in form of the piled up ice-sheets that form the middle axis of the painting. The pike of the ice sheet point to a bright spot on the blue ceiling, the sun, the light which symbolises transcendency. Applied on the “path of life” the salvation through death is symbolised. C.D. Friedrich „Sea of Ice “ This already makes apparent the so-called “thought of eternity” that is mastered by simple, space-forming means, colour-perspective, disparities of dimensions and height of the painted elements that altogether form the impression of depth of space. In the foreground the ice-sheets are stacked in several layers that evocate the steps of a temple-ruin and therefore they spread a certain ceremoniousness. The relicts of a wrecked ship seem comparably tiny and like crushed by those immense pile of ice sheets that reminds of a tomb. This may symbolise the caducity of all earthly being, too. There can also be a political or social symbolism of the painting: Those stuck-together ice- sheets represent the icy, frozen political relationships in the times C.D. Friedrich lived. The ship as a symbol for freedom is buried under the mass of ice and therefore typifies hopelessness and resignation. The Paintings „Monk by the Sea“ and „Abbey in the Oakwood” (1810) This „couple“ of paintings shows entirely different motifs that are connected by their common picture-symbolism. The sketch of the composition “Abbey in the Oakwood” shows that in the middle of the painting the cross top of the churches portal is placed revealing eternity. This symbolism is reinforced by the placement of this cross and the ruins´ gothic window on the perpendicular bisector that forms an axis of reflexion. Symmetry in the sense of C.D. Friedrich symbolises eternity. The organisational principle of the sequence symbolises the run of time and therefore even caducity. In this painting this can be recognized in the bizarre grid of branches of the trees ordered in rows which together with the church-ruins seem like a wall that illustrates a kind of barrier between two different worlds. Even the contrast in brightness can be seen as a symbol: The 222 lower, darker third of the painting, the graveyard and the brighter, foggy background are two different zones symbolising the here and now and the hereafter. C.D. Friedrich “Abbey in the Oakwood” The funeral cortege therefore moves from the narrowness of the graveyard towards the longed- for but still foggy and unclear hereafter-world. The cross in the churches portal in this connection thus can be interpreted as a symbol of transition and hope. The painting “Monk by the Sea” can be seen as prolongation of the mentioned “Abbey in the Oakwood” which was placed right above this picture in the first exposition. The monk – maybe the person carried in the funeral cortege – after passing his “portal of death” is standing alone face to the endless sea, the infinity of space and eternity. In a first – later painted over – version of this painting there were still a couple of sailing ships visible. In the work of C.D. Friedrich they often symbolise the travel through life, the path of life. Ships anchoring at the harbour symbolise the end of life, the death. C.D. Friedrich, “Monk by the Sea” 223 Philipp Otto Runge The Morning (1. Version), 1808, (OIL ON?) Canvas , 109 × 85,5 cm. Hamburg, Kunsthalle. Despite his early death at 33 Philipp Otto Runge counts among the major painters of German Romanticism. His masterpiece is the cycle „The times of Day“. Since the end of 1808 Runge was occupied with the subjects of Morning and Evening, Day and Night which he developed as counterparts in substance and form. Initially he made four drawings, then, around 1806, four large-scale engravings to be transferred to a number of paintings in 1808. In the first version of “The Morning” representation strongly orientates by the central axis. To increase the effect of reality Runge applies a picture-within-a-picture method. The symmetry of the iconic frame as well as the framed is almost perfect. In the centre Aurora, the godess of rosy dawn, hovers frontally above the sea. She signifies the victory of sunlight over the pitchblack of night. On the sepals of a lily above her three embracing child couples are seated, an allegory of Trinity. Moreover the lily symbolizes the divine light. On a meadow beneath children on both sides are kneeling on clouds, paying homage to the new-born. 224 A black sun (solar eclipse) refers to the darkness of the night, symbolizing death. Runge has written copiously about the role of landscape in painting, and developed from colour theory and his deeply rooted Christian faith an al-pervading artistic concept. It was his intention to create the cycle with monumental paintings, architecture, poetry, and music as a Romantic “complete artwork”. He did not succeed. Runge died on December 2, 1810 in Hamburg. Adolph Menzel The Flattening-Mill (Modern Cyclopes),187 5 158 x 254 cm, Berlin, Staatliche Museen, Nationalgaleri e „The flattening-Mill“ is of particular interest as the iconic subject, prepared after long research and in many sketches, remains singular in Menzel’s oeuvre and may be seen as the starting- point of a new form of historical painting in Germany. Menzel then was one of the most renowned German painters when he began to work on the project without any commission. We gaze into a huge factory hall where the only sources of light seem to be the blazing furnace- fires. Groups of workers rough-casting the liquid iron diagonally lead us into the pictorial space. Submerged in dense smoke they fulfill their exhausting task. Even short breaks and the change of shifts take place here; in the foreground a small group has gathered for a meal, protected only by an improvised screen from the machines’ heat. On the left-hand side some men have a wash after work while others pass them, pulling heavy-loaded trucks. The artist leads us into a different world testifying that it still takes human beings to serve the machines with sheer physical force. It is not an easy task the workers fulfil in the glorified Industrial Age. Menzel surely had become aware of the social tensions during his on-the-spot studies. The multitude of figures, the big wheels and technical particularities reveals a minutely detailed composition which combines the pictorial elements and thus leads the beholder The painter dispenses with the superficial heroism of the workers but still makes them the picture’s major subject, not by having them handle idealized, monumental machines but by representing the real circumstances. The workers are perceived as a group, it is not the single person who counts but the entirety they form. The synchronicity of several actions within a painting is a traditional stylistic means to create a narrative. Here it serves to present a snapshot which in its intensity reveals a new perspective on the era of industrialization just about to begin, an era euphorically welcome at the time but to be judged more objectively only many years later. 225 Chapter 5: Iconography and Symbolism in Contemporary Arts Max Liebermann Twelve year old Jesus at the Temple (1887) 149 x 130 Oil on Canvas, Hamburg, Kunsthalle Religious historical paintings do not belong to Max Liebermanns major interests. Still in 1879 he adopted the genre for the first time of his own volition. The subject: Twelve year-old Jesus at the Temple among the Scribes. The introduction of this painting to the International Art Exhibition in Munich 1879 caused a scandal.
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