baroque painting at nuremberg

8/12/2019 Baroque Painting at Nuremberg

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Baroque Painting at NurembergAuthor(s): Eberhard WiegandSource: The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 65, No. 381 (Dec., 1934), pp. 282-284Published by: The Burlington Magazine Publications Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/866064.

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B ROQUE P INTING T NUREM ERGBY EBERHARD WIEGANDITH the opening,in September ast,ofthe gallery of GermanicBaroque andRococo painting, an attempt has beenmade by a German museum for thefirsttime to bring togethera collection

illustrating, not only the artistic merit, but also thehistory of the development of a period of Germanart which has alwaysbeen treated rathernegligentlyboth by fate and by connoisseurs. The event is allthe more welcome as the other museums have eitherconfined themselves to a limited local sphere, likethe BaroqueMuseum at Vienna, or their collectionsare composed of works long in their possessionandassembledby chance.In the beginning, fate was not very propitious toGerman Baroque painting. The sound and vitalnatural tradition was interruptedby the disappear-ance of so many artistsat the time of the Reformationand, in theirplace, came international courtpainterswho pandered exclusively to the artistic taste of anupper class very small in size. The fatal separationbetween craftsmanship and art began. But thefundamental cause of this development was that,with the Reformation, other spiritualforcescame tothe fore. In general, pictorial art gave way beforemusic, philosophy and poetry. Within the world ofart itself, the centre of gravity shifted ; architecturebecame once more the strongest manifestation ofGerman artistic endeavour; then sculpture, and,,finally, painting.The beginning of German Baroque painting fromwhich so much was hoped and expected, especiallyfrom the work of Elsheimerand Liss, came to a sud-den end with the early death of these two artists,and, in the subsequentperiod, the inner uncertaintyof German art after the confusion of the ThirtyYears' War, allowed the national art to be largelyinfluenced by that of the neighbouring countries.Only gradually during the eighteenth century didthe art of painting take on a character of its own,destinedlater on to assumeever broaderand greaterproportions, until it developed a final brilliance.But this late culmination is difficult to show in amuseum. It is bound to architecture. Artists suchas Holzer, Maulbertsch and Gtinther were obligedto content themselves with sketches and hastydesigns which are extremely well worth studying.Whoever really wishes to know them must turn totheir frescoes.

The collection comprises the period from I600-I8oo. There are also a few pictures of the earlynineteenth century in which the tradition of theeighteenth century still survives. A beginning ismade by a few sound and, in the best sense of theword, bourgeois painters, such as M. Krodel theYounger and G. Flegel. In their social and artistic

status, they are still attached to the craftsman'stradition,but the freshnessand force of theirpicturesand their direct outlook and lively powers of re-presentationlead straightto the Baroque. It is JanLiss who carriesus right into the middle of the HighBaroque. He was an artist of exuberant vitalitywho spent his time in painting and riotous living.Liss represents the freedom which was becomingmore and more characteristic of artists in theirwork. He was born in Holstein and studied at theGoltzii Manier at Haarlem; he then went toVenice, where he died young of plague. Untilrecently, Liss was regarded as belonging to theVenetian School of Baroque painting, but, in hispersonal and palpable manner, and in the positiveway he carriedout the detail work, his art differedjust as much from the more decorative and expan-sive art of a Feti, as it surpassed n vitality, coloursensibility and freedom his Haarlem fellow-pupilsand their genre painting-for instance, a Brouweror a Buyteweech. It is as if, in his spaciouscompositions, full of movement, and in the brightflickering colours, we have an anticipation ofthe later Rococo painting. His picture, PeasantsFighting PLATE , A], a bold, diagonal composition,saturated in form and colour with the freedom andpower of the fully developed Baroque, is quite inthe spirit of North German art, indeed, one mightalmost say in the spirit of P. Brueghelthe Elder.The representativesof the academies, Sandrart,Preissler,Schonfeld and painters such as Roos andothers, had much ado to assert themselves againstJan Liss. They were respectable,sound portraitists,the painters of edifying events and allegories. Theacademy replaced the guild, but lacked the vitalorganic tradition. In the gallery, there is anastonishingly life-like portrait by the rather con-ventional animal-painter,J. H. Roos, the father ofthe family of artists. In a yellow leather coat, witha crimson and white scarf and black feathered hat,an officerstands before a dark background. Fresh,both in technique and colour, is the great animalpiece by his son Ph. P. Roos.In conformity with the absolutism of the time,the turn of the eighteenth century saw the creationof a stately series of portraitswhich show, not onlywhat the painter saw, but also how the sitterswanted to be seen. First came the representativeportraits of princes, imbued with the style of theFrench Court, as exemplified by M. Meytens theYounger. Luxurious garments, orders, theatricalgestures, architectural and landscape backgroundsdistract the attention from the personality of thesitter. The human and individual disappear behindthe pomp, the pose and the decor. But, in time, therewas an inclination towards a more varied and less

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A-PEASANTS FIGHTING, BY JAN LISS. ABOUT 1620. CANVAS, 67 BY 83 cM.

B-FRAU VON RAUMER, BY JOHANN FRIEDRICH AUGUST C-DUKE LEOPOLD FRANZ VON ANHALT-DESSAUTISCHBEIN. 1798. CANVAS, 71.5 BY 58 cM. BY JOHANN GEORG ZIESENIS. 1768-1769. CANVAS,126 BY 95 CM.(ALL IN THE GERMANISCHES NATIONALMUSEUM, NUREMBERG)

PLATE I. BAROQUE PAINTING AT NUREMBERG



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BaroquePaintingat Nurembergtheatrical conception. It is true that the usualaccessories and gestures are retained by Ziesenisin his excellent portrait of Duke LeopoldFranz vonAnhalt-Dessau [PLATEI, C], done entirely in tonesof red and yellow, but the prince does not appearas a ruler but as a weary, carelessly posed gentleman.The portraits by Pesne, Desmarees and Joh. Val.Tischbein the Elder afford further examples of theconception. A fundamental change only occurredin the second half of the century. It was a reversionfrom the rich, official type to a more simple, morepersonal style. Outwardly, the change was expressedin the costume. Instead of the gala dress, intendedto enhance the sitter, we have the simple coat.Above all, the bourgeois portrait gained more andmore in importance. From the point of view of arthistory, it represented a victory over the Frenchprototype. It is significant that the two greatportrait painters, A. Graff and F. August Tischbein,although both court painters, give us the impressionof ordinary bourgeois painters. Graff was objectiveand sought to be true to nature; consciously orunconsciously, in his late period, his art approachedthat of Rembrandt in his early days. F. AugustTischbein was different. He was the only painterwho can bear comparison with the great contem-porary English portraitists. While Graffendeavouredto grasp the character of his sitters, Tischbein wasmore superficial. His portraits have grace, smilingfreshness and courtly reserve, and these character-istics of the late Rococo are emphasized by a delicate,light grey colour and tone, in which Leibel andCourbet appear to have been anticipated. [PLATEI, B]. The series of portraits ends with the work ofAmerling, Abel, Edlinger and Kriiger. The frontiersof the eighteenth century are passed and theBiedermaier period begins.

A whole room is devoted to designs for wall paint-ings and altarpieces which only represent a smallportion of the widespread activity in South Germany.Austria is represented especially by Maulbertschand Kremserschmidt. Except for one panel portrait,the work of Maulbertsch is seen only in sketches.He shows us a world of many original aspects,ingenious, bold and full of pictorial emphasis. And,in spite of his virtuosity, his religious themes aregiven with deep feeling, realized and heightened bya chiaroscuro which is not a mere foil designed tobring out contrasts, but a place full of mysteries[PLATEII]. Kremserschmidt is more temperamental,more sensitive and less versatile. His Bacchanal(1790)in theme and composition is a concession toclassicism, but its picturesque fluency and intangiblelight effects are, as it were, a protest against thissevere linear style.In Bavaria we have, besides Munich, the AugsburgAcademy. Johann Holzer was the most importantartist of this group. Together with the design for theceiling of the gallery in the Castle of WUirzburg,which was never carried out, we have the design forhis most important work, the destroyed frescoes inMiinster-Schwarzach. The architectural back-grounds, as shown in his earlier design for Wurzburg,and in Gunther's sketch have almost disappeared,and the motive and grouping have dissolved into awhirl and rush of figures and clouds which fill upthe space of the cupola. The whole freshness of thefirst conception, with all its intimacy and freedom ofdesign and colour lives in these works which are,however, only an echo of those great creationswhich welded architecture, painting, sculpture anddecoration into one composite unity and formed abrilliant close to the mighty Baroque period inGermany.SHORTER NOTICES

A VAN DYCK DRAWING OF ANNE, COUN-TESS OF NORTHUMBERLAND.-The drawingsby Van Dyck preserved in the Print Room of theBritish Museum include a good many of the separatefigure studies, done in black chalk on faded blue paper,which were his favourite means of indicating the posethat a sitter's body and draperies were to take in anensuing oil portrait. Most of these drawings have arecognized connexion with an oil-painting, and bearthe sitter's name. A few still remain unidentified,growing however yearly fewer, as increasing photo-graphic records bring corresponding paintings to light.This year one more name has been restored. Adrawing hitherto called A Lady Unknown,Hind 67,purchased I895, No. 9.15.I072, from the SpencerWellesley, and Malcolm collections [PLATEA], is nowseen to have a definite connexion with the figure of LadyAnne Cecil, Countess of Northumberland, first wifeof Algernon, the Ioth Earl (16o2-1668) as she is seenwith him and their little daughter in the group paintedby Van Dyck,x now belonging to the Earl's descendant,Lord Leconfield, at Petworth House, Sussex. We are

indebted to Lord Leconfield for his kind permission topublish here, for the first time, this family group[PLATE B]. The addition of a scarf to the lady'scostume, and an alteration in the position of her leftarm, rather obscure the connexion, yet it can be clearlyseen. The direct frontalposition of her body (a positionrare in Van Dyck's work), the turn of her head, theopen-square neck, its border and little bow, the string-laced bodice, the tabs below her waist, the heavy foldof skirt below her right arm, and the direction of thatarm, all correspondand are alike.The differencein the pose of her left arm raises variousquestions, the following one especially. Did VanDyck execute first a single-figure painting in all pointslike our drawing? and then merely repeat it withalterations when he came to do the group ? We cannotthink so, for no such single-figure painting can befound in either her own or her husband's family, which,

1 LIONEL CUST : Van Dyck, [9goo], Catalogue, Series VI, No. 146,p. 279 ; COLLINSAKER : Catalogue f thepicturesat PetworthHouse.Privately printed, Medici Society [1920], p. 30, with photograph.Old catalogue number, 289.

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