Geological Heritage in the Finnish Landscape Art
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GEOLOGICAL HERITAGE IN THE FINNISH LANDSCAPE ART Kaisa-Maria Remes | Geologist, Saimaa Geopark The author of the article, Kaisa-Maria Remes (M.Sc), works as a geologist at the Saimaa Geopark Association and is interested in cultural heritage in addition to geology. This article combines these two areas of interest to highlight how to view landscape paintings from a geological perspective. Cover image: Ferdinand von Wright (1822-1906): Fighting Capercaillies, 1886 (124x188.5 cm), Ateneum Art Museum. Photo: Finnish National Gallery. 2 What is the Finnish soul landscape and does it convey the geological features of the landscape? Finnish landscape art, whether it be late 19th century landscape paintings or more recent photographic works, has depicted lakes, sparkling rapids, rocky cliffs, winding esker ridges, erratic boulders and bouldery insides of the woods. Many of the works also quite accurately depict the geology of the subject being illustrated, even if the artist did not intentionally attempt to do so. So geological heritage is irrevocably part of our landscape art, when we can only look at it in the eyes of a geologist. Geological heritage – the story of the melting water flowing under the ancient glacier. Then the relation- landscape ship between man and geology becomes apparent. We have taken advantage of the bedrock in the construction or quarrying channels, So what does geological heritage really mean? Cultural and natural and since ancient times have travelled along esker ridges and ice- destinations become part of our shared heritage when they are un- marginal formations. derstood and interpreted so (UNESCO World Heritage Center, 2019). In other words, we humans define what cultural and natural heritage In Finland, the rise of landscape painting into one of the most po- are. It involves what we want to preserve for future generations and pular subjects of the late 19th century art was partly influenced by a what we want to tell about our accomplishments and the wonders of colored edition of Zachris Topelius’s Finland framstäldt i teckningar, nature. Geological heritage can be different sites and areas of terrain published in the 1845-52, which presents the eight provinces of and bedrock. In addition to the World Heritage Program, the United Finland with 120 lithographs. The book was reprinted in 1995 (Klinge Nation’s Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization UNESCO & Reitala, 1995). From the Saimaa Geopark’s sites the book illustrates has a program for the protection and conservation of geologically Imatra rapids, Savitaipale and Porrassalmi. For example, lithography important areas of international importance (UNESCO Global Geo- of the Savitaipale church and its surroundings illustrates the geology parks, 2019), in which Saimaa Geopark from Finland is pursuing. The of the area - the smoothly sloping terrain of the Second Salpausselkä geological natural heritage is expressed by landscape paintings and and its associated esker system, and the lake’s back, spotted by esker on the spot in the Saimaa Geopark area, for example, by the sparks islands, play a major role with the church in the work. The Ateneum of the Imatra rapids and the surrounding rocky cliffs (Figure 1). Art Museum’s collections contain a sketch of this lithography (Figure 2). Lithographic prints were made in Biedermeyer style, which was already old-fashioned at the time of publication. New winds began to blow in Finnish landscape painting in the 1850s, when Werner Holmberg began his career in Düsseldorf and created a new frame- work for presenting the Finnish landscape (Klinge & Reitala, 1995: 11). Figure 2. Pehr Adolf Kruskopf (1805-1852): Landscape from Savitaipale, sketch (18.5x40 cm), Ateneum Art Museum. Photo: Finnish National Figure 1. August Weger (1823-1892): According to a painting Imatra by Gallery. B. Lindholm. Illustration for ”En resa i Finland” photo 7 - 1874. Ateneum Art Museum. Photo: Finnish National Gallery. Werner Holmberg travelled to Düsseldorf in the early summer of 1853. The city was famous for its art academy, which Holmberg, however, Traditionally, it may have been thought that landscape paintings could not attend because of the landscape painting class was al- do not tell a story like historical paintings. However, the landscapes ready full. Thus, Holmberg was a private student of the Academy’s have their own story to tell. The understanding of geological heritage professor, Hans Guden. At the Düsseldorf Art Academy, nature was places the landscape in a real time perspective, that is, a whole new considered a teacher. This meant that students’ summers were level of interpretation is created as we understand the geological spent on sketching trips and winters in studios where oil paintings processes in the environment. If, in interpreting the landscape, we were made from summer sketches. The sketches resulted in carefully take into account also the geological dimension in addition to the composed works that did not slavishly portray a particular landscape. cultural heritage of our human activities, traces of time can extend During the 1860s, Paris began to attract Finnish artists. It became back billions of years. Thus, a viewer or experiencer of illustrated or the most popular travel and study destination, and the authority of true scenery of the rocky cliffs will have the opportunity to ”see” Düsseldorf began to decline. In the 1870s, Düsseldorf was gradually the formation of the rock, deep in the earth’s crust billions of years overshadowed by Paris. (Lukkarinen & Pennonen, 2017) ago and when admiring esker islands to understand the power of 3 Finnish landscape and its interpreters valued, the glacial theory of the Swiss Louis Agassiz was published in geology. It was strongly opposed in the beginning. In Finland, The reason for the softly undulating and smoothed outlook of the the opponents’ front included philosopher and social activist J.V. Finnish landscape lies in geology. The landscape is based on an- Snellman and geologist N.G. Nordenskiöld, who, at the excavation cient bedrock, for example the oldest rocks of the Saimaa Geopark site of the Saimaa Canal, during the study of the structure of the bedrock, ie the mica gneiss, were created about 1.9 billion years ago First Salpausselkä ice-marginal formation, declared that it cannot when sand and clay sediments deposited on the bottom of the an- be glacial in origin (Rainio, 2004). At that time, the pressurized ice cient sea were compressed together in mountain-folding and trans- flow and the water masses of the glacial melting stage were not formed into mica gneiss after being subjected to high pressure and yet known, so esker ridges, ice-marginal formations and potholes temperatures. There are even older rocks elsewhere in Finland - the were not considered to be the result of the work of hard and rigid oldest rock in Finland and the European Union is the 3.5 billion year glaciers alone. Gradually, however, the ice age theory was accepted old Siurua gneiss of Pudasjärvi (Geological Survey of Finland, 2019). and continues to guide the ideas of geologists studying quaterna- ry deposits. However, the extent to which it has influenced artists During the millions of years after the bedrock formation, weathering cannot be defined without research. occurred, and the high mountain range eroded until during the last glacial period about 20,000 years ago, the continental ice sheet The conditions were favourable for Finnish landscape painting in first cleared the bedrock from excess rock material and later, as the 1860s and 1870s. Domestic subjects were popular and corners the glacier melted about 13,000-10,000 years ago, different kinds of the country seemed to be waiting for artists to capture the uni- of soils covering the bedrock were deposited. It is possible to think queness of the landscape (Reitala, 1989). At that time it was popular that the geological time scale of Saimaa Geopark and at the same to depict various universally valid Finnish landscapes. The following time the whole of Finland is like a very thick book, with thousands of three images feature landscape paintings from the late 19th century pages scattered to dust, leaving only the front and back covers of that attempt to express this ideal Finnish landscape (Figures 3-5). the book. With this scaling, a brief postscript at the back cover of the The geological story of the landscape described above is transmitted book could mark the human life. More information on the evolution with varying degrees of accuracy. The main aspiration of the artists of the Finnish bedrock can be found, for example, in the publication has been to express the atmosphere and patriotism conveyed by Precambrian geology of Finland: key to the evolution of the Fennos- the landscape, and the exact geological features of the landscape candian shield (Lehtinen et al., 2005) and the origin of the Finnish have not been so important. soil and its various formations, eg esker ridges in the book named Jääkaudet (Koivisto, 2004). Werner Holmberg, the painter of the landscape painting in Figure 3, is considered a pioneer in Finnish landscape art. His artistic career Geology has been a discipline for only a couple of hundred years. ended already in 1860, when Holmberg died at the age of 29, of pul- However, texts describing the characteristics of Finnish soil began monary tuberculosis. Holmberg made several masterpieces during to appear already in the 18th century. They describe boulders and his short artistic career and served as a role model for many later esker ridges as well as different soil types, but no attempt is made Finnish landscape painters. Holmberg spent most of his career in to explain the deposition of different formations or geological pro- Düsseldorf, and the romanticized image of the rugged Central Eu- cesses (Rainio, 2004). The actual first theories describing the origin ropean mountain landscape is reflected in many of his works.