Historicism and Decorative Arts Theory in Germany and Austria, 1851-1901
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Historicism and Decorative Arts Theory in Germany and Austria, 1851-1901 Eric Anderson Tuesday 6-8 pm Spring 2006 [email protected] In the second half of the nineteenth century, a wide-ranging movement to strengthen national art industries and improve the artistic quality of domestic interiors developed in Germany and Austria. At its heart was the belief that only by grappling with the past could modern designers meet the challenge of creating artistic environments suited to the new demands of a rapidly transforming society. From this conviction arose a rich theoretical discourse on historical forms and their relationship to the present. This course examines the concept of Historicism as it was developed in books, periodicals, and exhibition displays. What narratives of design history did theorists construct? How did they view the role of the decorative arts and the artistic interior in modern society? What were the social and artistic concerns underlying their arguments about the modern use of particular historical styles? General Reference: • Barry Bergdoll, European Architecture, 1750-1890 (Oxford, 2000) [C-H RESERVE / SUGGESTED PURCHASE] • Mitchell Schwarzer, German Architectural Theory and the Search for Modern Identity (New York, 1995) [PHOTOCOPY / PARSONS GIMBEL LIBRARY / NYU BOBST LIBRARY] • John Heskett, Design in Germany, 1870-1918 (London, 1986) [C-H RESERVE] • Stefan Muthesius, Das englische Vorbild: eine Studie zu der deutschen Reformbewegungen in Architektur, Wohnbau und Kunstgewerbe im späteren 19. Jahrhundert (Munich, 1974) [BOBST] • Heinrich Kreisel, Die Kunst des deutschen Möbels, v. 3: Georg Himmelheber, Klassizismus, Historismus, Jugendstil (Munich, 1973) [C-H RESERVE] • David Blackbourn, The Long Nineteenth Century: A History of Germany, 1780-1918. (New York, 1998) [BOBST] 1. Introduction: What’s the matter with Historicism? Modernism and the nineteenth-century domestic interior. Suggested background reading: • Schwarzer, German Architectural Theory: xi-32 2. What is Historicism? Required readings for discussion: • Henry Russel Hitchcock and Phillip Johnson, The International Style. (New York, 1996 [1932]), especially Ch 1 “Introduction: The Idea of Style” and Ch. 2 “History.” [PHOTOCOPY] • Nikolaus Pevsner, An Outline of European Architecture (Harmondsworth, 1943), “Romantic Movement, Historicism, and Modern Movement, 1760–1914,” 242-274 [PHOTOCOPY] • Siegfried Giedion, Mechanization Takes Command (New York, 1948), esp. 329-388 [C-H RESERVE / PHOTOCOPY] • Alan Colquhoun, “Three Kinds of Historicism” in Modernity and the Classical Tradition (Cambridge, Mass., 1989) [PHOTOCOPY] Additional definitions of historicism: • Concise Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, (London, 2000). “Historicism.” [PHOTOCOPY] • The Encyclopedia of Aesthetics (New York, 1998), “Historicism and Architecture,” 412-415 [PHOTOCOPY] • Grove Dictionary of Art Online, “Historicism.” [PHOTOCOPY] • Neil Levine, "Robert Venturi and ‘The Return of Historicism.’” In Keith Eggener, ed., American Architectural History: A Contemporary Reader (New York, 2004) 3. The Classical Paradigm and the Gothic Alternative in the 18 th Century. Zopf and Empire Furniture. Required readings for discussion: • Marc-Antoine Laugier, An Essay on Architecture (Los Angeles, 1977 [1753]), 1-38, 100-120 [PHOTOCOPY] • J. J. Winckelmann, Reflections on the Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks (London, 1999 [1755]) [PHOTOCOPY] • -----------------------, “Remarks on the Architecture of the Ancients” (1762). In David Irwin, ed. Winckelmann. Writings on Art. (London, 1972), 86-88 [PHOTOCOPY] • J. W. Goethe, “On German Architecture.” (1772) In Goethe on Art, ed. John Gage. (London, 1980): 103-112. [PHOTOCOPY] Suggested background reading: • Bergdoll, European Architecture, 1-41, 139-152 • Schwarzer, German Architectural Theory, 33-42, 48-50 • Daniel Purdy, The Tyranny of Elegance: Consumer Cosmopolitanism in the Era of Goethe (Baltimore, 1998) [BOBST] • Journal des Luxus und der Moden (Weimar, begun 1786) [NYPL] • Charles Percier and Pierre François Léonard Fontaine, Empire Stylebook of Interior Design: All 72 plates from the Recueil de Décorations Intérieures (New York, 1991 [1801]) 4. “In What Style Should We Build?” Theories of architectural development and the idea of a modern style in the 1830s and 1840s. Reading for discussion: • Heinrich Hübsch, “In What Style Should We Build?” (1828). In Wolfgang Herrmann, ed., In What Style Should We Build? The German Debate on Architectural Style (Santa Monica, 1992), 63-101 [C- H RESERVE / PHOTOCOPY] • Karl Friedrich Schinkel, selection from “Notes for a textbook on architecture” (ca. 1830) and “Notes for a textbook on architecture” (ca. 1835). In Harry Francis Mallgrave, ed., Architectural Theory v. 1 (Malden, MA, 2006), 412-415 [PHOTOCOPY] • C. A. Rosenthal, “In What Style Should We Build? (A Question Addressed to the Members of the Deutsche Architektenverein)” (1844). In Wolfgang Herrmann, ed. In What Style Should We Build? The German Debate on Architectural Style (Santa Monica, 1992): 113-123 [C-H RESERVE / PHOTOCOPY] • A. W. N. Pugin, The True Principles of Pointed Architecture (London, 1973 [1841]) [C-H RESERVE] • Journal für Möbelschreiner und Tapezirer (begun 1836) [C-H RARE BOOKS] Background reading: • Bergdoll, European Architecture, 152-205 • Schwarzer, German Architectural Theory, 42-48, 50-69 • Wolfgang Herrmann, “Introduction.” In What Style Should We Build? The German Debate on Architectural Style (Santa Monica, 1992), 1-63 • Barry Bergdoll, "Archaeology vs. History: Heinrich Hübsch's critique of Neoclassicism and the beginnings of Historicism in German Architectural Theory," Oxford Art Journal 5 (1983), 3-12 • Gerhart Egger, ed., Vienna in the Age of Schubert: The Biedermeier Interior 1815-1848. (London, 1979) • Georg Himmelheber, Biedermeier Furniture. (London, 1974). • Marianne Zweig. Zweites Rokoko: Innenräume und Hausrat in Wien um 1830-1860. (Vienna, 1924) 5. Gottfried Semper’s Historicism. Reading for discussion: • Gottfried Semper, selected writings in Harry Francis Mallgrave and Wolfgang Herrmann, eds., Gottfried Semper: The Four Elements of Architecture and Other Writings. (Cambridge, Engl.: 1989): 101-129, 168-173, 246-263 [C-H RESERVE / PHOTOCOPY] Background reading: • Bergdoll, European Architecture, 224-238 • Schwarzer, German Architectural Theory, 167-178 • Harry Francis Mallgrave, Gottfried Semper, Architect of the Nineteenth Century (New Haven, 1996) • Mari Hvattum, Gottfried Semper and the Problem of Historicism. (Cambridge, Engl., 2004) 6. Semper and Industrial Art at the Crystal Palace. Reading for dicussion: • Gottfried Semper, Science, Industry, and Art (1852) in Mallgrave and Herrmann, eds., The Four Elements of Architecture and Other Writings, 130-167 [C-H RESERVE / PHOTOCOPY] • Henry Cole, "Universal Infidelity in Principles of Design." Journal of Design 5 (1851): 158-61 [PHOTOCOPY] • Ralph Wornum, “The Exhibition as a Lesson in Taste” in The Crystal Palace Exhibition Illustrated Catalogue (New York, 1970 [1851]). I-XXII (end of volume). [C-H RESERVE / PHOTOCOPY] Background reading: • Bergdoll, European Architecture, 207-224 • Mari Hvattum, “'A Complete and Universal Collection': Gottfried Semper and the Great Exhibition,” in Mari Hvattum and Christian Hermansen, eds., Tracing Modernity: Manifestations of the Modern in Architecture and the City. (London, 2004) [PHOTOCOPY] 7. The birth of the German applied arts movement: Semper’s role in the Museum of Practical Art. The Austrian Museum and the German Industry Museum. Early design journals Readings for discussion: • Rudolf Eitelberger and Jakob von Falke, Statutes and Organization of the Austrian Museum (1864) [PHOTOCOPY] • Organization of the German Industry Museum, Berlin (1867) [PHOTOCOPY] • Henry Cole, et al. “General Classification,” “Formation of the Museum,” and Extracts Illustrating the Principles of Ornamental Art.” In A Catalogue of the Museum of Ornamental Art. (London, 1856): 5-8, 117-125 [PHOTOCOPY] • Gewerbehalle (Stuttgart, begun 1863) [selected issues in C-H RARE BOOKS] • Das Kunsthandwerk (Stuttgart, begun 1874) [selected issues in C-H RARE BOOKS] Background reading: • Schwarzer, “The Design Prototype as Artistic Boundary: Debates on History and Industry in Central European Applied Arts Museums, 1860 – 1900,” Design Issues 9 (Fall 1992) • Schwarzer, German Architectural Theory, 88-106 • Stefan Muthesius “Communications between Traders, Users and Artists: The Growth of German Language Serial Publications on Domestic Interior Decoration in the Later Nineteenth Century,” Journal of Design History 18 (2005), 7-20 • Peter Noever and Hanna Egger, eds., Kunst und Industrie: die Anfänge des Museums für Angewandte Kunst in Wien (Ostfildern-Ruit, 2000) 8. The birth of German domestic design reform: Jakob von Falke’s theory of the house. Readings for discussion: • Jakob von Falke, Art in the House (Boston, 1879 [1871]) Historical section (chs. I-IV), “General Critical Observations (ch. V), “Woman’s Aesthetic Mission (ch. X) [C-H RESERVE] • Robert Kerr, The Gentleman's House (London, 1972 [1864]), esp. 1-69 “A Sketch of the History and Development of Domestic Plan in England”; 356ff. [C-H RESERVE] Background reading: • Schwarzer, German Architectural Theory, 112-120 • Eva B Ottillinger, "Jakob von Falke (1825-1897) und die Theorie des Kunstgewerbes." Wiener Jahrbuch fuer Kunstgeschichte XLII (1989), 205-23 9. Ringstrasse Vienna: Culture, politics, and design. The 1873 World Exhibition. Reading for discussion: • Carl Schorske,