Focus on Form J. J. Tikkanen, Giotto and Art Research in the 19Th Century SMYA 114 FFT ISBN 978-951-9057-65-1
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Johanna Vakkari Focus on Form J. J. Tikkanen, Giotto and Art Research in the 19th Century Giotto and Art Research Focus on Form J. Tikkanen, Focus on Form J. J. Tikkanen, Giotto and Art Research in the 19th Century SMYA 114 FFT 114 SMYA ISBN 978-951-9057-65-1 Johanna Vakkari Vammalan Kirjapaino Oy 2007 SUOMEN MUINAISMUISTOYHDISTYKSEN AIKAKAUSKIRJA FINSKA FORNMINNESFÖRENINGENS TIDSKRIFT 114 Focus on Form J. J. Tikkanen, Giotto and Art Research in the 19th Century Johanna Vakkari HELSINKI 007 Cover picture: J. J. Tikkanen, Giotto’s colour composition in Kiss of Judas, in the Cappella degli Scrovegni in Padua, 88. Toimittaja – Redaktör – Editor TORSTEN EDGREN English translation Jüri Kokkonen Image processing Jukka Ervamaa, Markku Lappalainen Copyright © by Johanna Vakkari and The Finnish Antiquarian Society ISBN 978-95-9057-65- ISSN 055-822 Vammalan Kirjapaino Oy Vammala 007 4 CONTENTS Preface and Acknowledgments ............................................................................................... 7 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 9 J. J. Tikkanen as an International Art Historian ............................................ 9 Earlier Research and Sources ....................................................................... 15 Working Methods ......................................................................................... 18 Main Concepts .............................................................................................. 19 The Structure of the Dissertation and its Objectives ................................... 24 Chapter I J. J. Tikkanen: Education and Art Historical Background ......................... 26 I.. Artistic and Scholarly Education ................................................................. 26 I.. The Beginnings of Art History in the Nordic Countries ............................. 38 From Aesthetics to Art History ........................................................ 38 Art History as an Academic Discipline ............................................ 4 C. G. Estlander and J. J. Tikkanen ................................................... 45 Chapter II J. J. Tikkanen in the Context of Giotto Studies ............................................. 47 II.. Why Giotto? ............................................................................................... 47 II.. Giotto in Art History before Tikkanen ....................................................... 5 ”Das künstlerische Können” and the Rebirth of Art: The Vasarian Tradition .................................................................... 5 From Carl Friedrich von Rumohr Until Tikkanen’s Close Predecessors ................................................................................ 57 II.. Tikkanen’s Dissertation .............................................................................. 6 Working Methods ............................................................................. 65 ”Giotto, Non-Giotto”........................................................................ 79 Giotto in the Framework of ”Stilgeschichte” ................................. 9 Chapter III J. J. Tikkanen and Formalist Art History ...................................................... 106 Chapter IV A Scholar with an Artist’s Eye ........................................................................ 117 List of Illustrations .................................................................................................................... 119 Bibliography .............................................................................................................................. 121 Index ........................................................................................................................................... 130 Appendix 1 J. J. Tikkanen: Der malerische Styl Giotto’s – Versuch zu einer Charakteristik desselben ....................................................... 135 Appendix 2 J. J. Tikkanen’s Publications ........................................................................... 190 5 ChapTER II J. J. TiKKANEN IN THE CONTEXT OF GIOTTO STUDIES In this chapter I analyse Tikkanen’s dissertation in re- Which, based on my module, rose right up to the stars. lation to previous research on Giotto and the approach- In a word, I am Giotto. To tell what has to be told, 89 es of art-historical scholarship in his own day. I also My name alone will deserve a lengthy panegyric. discuss the influence of 19th-century art on Tikkanen’s These lines alone, by Angelo Poliziano (454–494) interpretations of Giotto. With reference to Tikkanen’s on the pedestal of Giotto’s funerary monument in the correspondence and his sketchbooks, I investigate his Duomo of Florence, would be sufficient reason to reasons to undertake a study of Giotto, the questions choose Giotto as a subject of study in terms of the evo- posed by him, his specific subjects of study and the lution of artistic ability. This was namely the area that methods that he followed while working in Italy. The the 23-year-old Johan Jakob Tikkanen defined as his presentation of the tradition of Giotto studies begins own when writing from his first long tour abroad to his with the issue of the “rinascità”, the rebirth of art, for mentor C. G. Estlander: in its relationship with adherence to nature it is linked to Tikkanen’s core problem of “künstlerische Kön- With regard to my art-historical thinking, it found the fol- nen”, artistic ability. Therefore, the conception of Giot- lowing direction in Dresden. There are in general three to originating in the 4th century and subsequently ways to conceive of art history, the cultural-historical, the problematized by Vasari, in particular, is discussed aesthetic, and specifically the art-historical. The first stud- separately. A further entity is provided by the art-his- ies the need for the different forms of beauty in various torical tradition that began with Friedrich Rumohr, as periods (as based on the characteristic features of cul- tures), the second explores the greater or lesser aesthetic its problematic of redefining Giotto, with related issues justification of these forms, and finally the last one stud- of attribution, dating and style, differs fundamentally ies the development of artistic ability (the command of from the Vasarian approach. I apply the earlier research subject, nature and material), the struggle of art with tradition as a comparative framework for Tikkanen’s these great forces, from initial naïve dependency to final, dissertation. Another, to some degree more abstract, total supremacy.90 context is formed by the theoretical and methodologi- cal aims of art history in the period concerned. I seek Although these considerations were born before to demonstrate connections between them and Tikka- Tikkanen chose to try his luck one more time in art nen’s new form analysis. studies in Munich, he still subscribed to the same basic view a year later, when he finally opted for a career as an art historian. The scheme of three different art his- tories suggested by Tikkanen was naturally based on the way the field was defined at the European level. At II.. Why Giotto? the University of Helsinki, he had come to know re- search in aesthetics, philosophy, literature and art his- tory and, as far as his reading lists from his student I am the man through whom the extinct art of painting years suggest, he was familiar with these fields from came back to life. the authors of Antiquity through Kant and Schlegel to Whose hand was as controlled as it was fluent. the scholars of his own day, such as Vischer and Zim- My art was deficient in nothing that lies within nature. None was permitted to paint more or better. You may marvel at the superb tower, resounding with sa- cred music, 90 ”Hvad min konsthistoriska tankegång beträffar, tog han i Dresden följande riktning. Det finnes öfverhufvud tre olika sätt att uppfatta konsthistorien: ett kulturhistoriskt, ett estetiskt, ett 89 ”Ille ego sum, per quem pictura extincta revixit, / Cui specifikt konsthistoriskt. Det förstnämda undersöker tidernas quam recta manus, tam fuit et facilis. / Naturae deerat, nostrae behov af (efter kulturens olika lynne) olika former af skönhet, quod defuit arti. / Plus licuit nulli pingere, nec melius. / Miraris det andra det mer eller mindre estetiskt berättigade i dessa turrim egreriam sacro aere sonantem? / Haec quoque de modulo former, det sista den konstnärliga förmågans (att behärska crevit ad astra meo. / Denique sim lottus, quid opus fuit illa re- ämne, natur och material) utveckling, den konstnärliga kampen ferre? / Hoc nomen longi carminis instar erit.” – Vasari 994 med nämda stormakter, från den första naiva beroendet till den [1568�, 7. English translation: Giotto as a Historical 998, slutliga, absoluta suveräniteten.” – Letter from Tikkanen to 9–0. C. G. Estlander 6..88. SLSA 5.8. 47 mermann.9 Moreover, he was abreast of the debate on Tikkanen’s interest in the history of artistic talent is the relationship between cultural history and art histo- fundamentally related his own experiences, having ry that was still in progress in the late 9th century. viewed art since his youth also from the perspective of Tikkanen knew the works of Taine and in his letters to someone who creates art, thus being able to consider Estlander he often mentions his admiration of Burck- the activities of an artist also from within the process. hardt.9