The Press. — London, England, 1858-11-20 00:00:00

1134 fittraturt. Geschichte der bildenden Kiinste im 19-ten Jahr hundert (History of the Fine Arts in the Nineteenth Century). By Dr. Anton Springer. London : Nutt. ARE we of this most positive age really "assist ing" (as our % ivacious neighbours vivaciously express it) at a third meridian era of Art ? Does Manchester under Sir John Potter represent the cyclic prototype of Florence under the Medici? Ought J. W. R. Turner to rank as the greatest artistic genius the world has ever produced— chrome yellow as an essential element of the sublime—and John Ruskin as sublimity's heaven anointed expounder ? To these questions we confess ourselves disposed to return rather a ne gative than a positive answer. That contempo rary art, with multiplied germs of vitality, pos sesses increased chances of progress, we do not dispute. But we doubt that this progress has yet taken its place among the things that are. To us it seems still, even in Art's transcendental element, to be groping in semi-darkness—pain fully struggling towards the light. And if we come to the practical question—if we take man for man and picture for picture—may we not pronounce him passably bold who shall assert that the nineteenth century can ever trump such hands as our own Hogarths, Reynoldses, Gains boroughs, and Wilsons, or France's Vernets, Greuzes, Guerins, and Drouais ? Dr. Anton Spring er seems little less sceptical than ourselves in th above particular. His book opens with a doubt, and closes with a doubt : If we consider (he says in his Introduction) what actually lies finished before as, we must certainly admit that it would be just as well to recommend a more mode rate estimate of the importance of modern art, and a less pompons exaltation of the present over the past. That our (7 German) artists produce better things than their pieifecessors of the eighteenth, and in part of the seven teenth century also—that our feeling fit form has under gone a wholesome purification—and that the position of the time arts is becoming daily higher and better—no un prejn,lioell person will deny But we cannot see any suf ficient ground for the assertion that a new artistic era falls in o it day, and that future art-history must place in these times the expiration of one of its epochs and the com mencement of another. And again, in his less complimentary perora tion : The men who is acquainted with human nature feels n o anxiety ah Int the future of Art, because c nivince,l of th perennial vitality of Art's source, the Imagination. Ae greater misgiving assails us when we think of the artists of the present day, who oftentimes, Heaven pity them ! cherish scarcely a higher estimate of their vocation than the grossest of its despisers, and who, by their igno r ince both of the true character of the age and of the true essence of that vocation, protract beyond measure the critical and vacillatiti, conditinn of modern art. It will be seen, from these brief extracts, that Dr. Springer has the merit of being neither a pessimist nor an optimist. His book, indeed, is distinguished by its judicious moderation, and would, if only a little more free from the national nebulosity of thought and language, be a really and practically valuable contribution to the esthetic literature of the day. When a foreign work of this comprehensive class falls into our hands, there are two sections of it which always claim from us special atten tion: that in which the author treats of his own country, and that in which he appreciates ours. In the one we have a right to look for copious ness and accuracy of information; in the other for impartiality of judgment. To expect both these qualifications in either case, is to expect much; but, of the two, their combination is certainly more easily found in the latter than in the former. Modern German art holds up two names in pre-eminent conspicuousness —the names of Over beck and of Cornelius. Each of these men is the founder of a school: overbeck, of the " _Naza renes "—closely allied to our Pre-Raphaelites; Cornelius, of the " Idealists." Theoretically speaking, the Nazarenes and the Idealists start from opposite premises, although in practice they arrive at many similar conclusions. The former hold that Art should be the exclusive handmaiden of Religion. For then the medieval works of Beato Angelico and his contemporaries present the embodied esthetic ideal. Hence (as must ever be the case where we embody the ideal) all independence of creation is denounced THE PRESS, NOVEMBER 20, 1858. as heretical, and even the form itself the crude, half-developed form of that heaven-rapt childhood of Art, has received a sacramental consecration and passed into the calm immutability of dogma. It need scarcely be added that the glorious legacies of Paganism arc exorcised as unclean things by the followers of this intolerant art religion, whose logical pressure early forced its enthusiastic apostle into the open arms of Rome. The " Idealists" start from principles in many respects antagonistic to the above. Art, with them, is essentially the exponent of the poetic principle wherever it exists. If she loves to consecrate herself to religious contemplation, it is only because this principle meets her there in abundant purity. All exclusiveness is, however, foreign to her nature, and the range of her sub jects is endless and diversified as the Universe itself. Moreover,— Overbeck and his friends make it a flied rule never in any way to allow a prominent place, in their productions, to the individuality of the artist. They renounce all deeper independence of operation, in order to avoid estrangement from their models. With Cornelius, on the contrary, the richly and puissantly organized personality forms the starting point of all artistic creation. Not that he obtru sively strains after a sithjective manner. His earnest aim is rather to penetrate into the essence of the represented idea; directing his course towards an ideal goal, and hence most readily sympathizing with the antique. Nowhere, however, does he abandon himself to a mere surface imita- tion, or play the slave to hit models. In every case perfect independence is preserved in the choice of form, and where he seems to reproduce, it is only that an internal and it pressure, it is only that his own nature has guided him to the resumption of the elder type. Remote, however, as are their theoretical points de depart, these two schools manifest a certain technical approximation which is very remark able. Both alike sacrifice the material to the spiritual element of Art. In both alike the laws of form and colour are neglected, in favour of idea and expression. That Overbeck and his school should fall into this error, follows directly from their acknow ledged principles, as above stated. Where the great original, Nature, is systematically set aside, and the study of anatomy is denounced as in decorous and obscene, colour and form must inevitably degenerate, either into weazen abor tions, or, at the very best, into mere symbols, more or less proximate, of what they are meant to represent. The pious horror of anatomy which distinguishes this school, and seems shared to the full by our English Pre-Raphaelites, is a senti ment which only with exceptional natures can emanate from anything but innate coarseness of mind. That Overbeck himself is one of these exceptional natures, no one will for a moment deny; and we esteem it a privilege to be able, from kiersonal experience, to endorse our author's following remarks upon the painter of the " Triumph of Religion " He who has ever had the opportunity of contemplating the semi beatified (halbverkliirg) old man in his studio at the Palazzo Cenci, must be well convinced that in Over beck these views have condensed themselves into a most profound personal feeling. His very lineaments have assumed something of the set of an artistic type, and, as he is sail in his youth to have reminded one of Raphael, he meets us now, in his later years, as a perfect exemplar of the art-loving monk of the middle ages. Overbeck's piety is not meant to replace his skill as an artist; it is rather the source of his best and moat brilliant productions. Not only in his pictures does he imitate the beati624 Fiesole—his nature itself has receind a kindred impre:s. The origin, then, of the technical defects in the works of Overbeck and his school, is, literally, a sort of pious disdain for form and colour, as the baser corporeal elements of art! It is a kind of esthetic mortification of the flesh,—a pictorial asceticism which—when we consider that the incorporation of an idea is the first and absolute condition of art's very existence—we may safely leave to the tender mercies of our readers. Although free from this fanatical scorn for the material, the Idealists and their leader are be trayed into no less flagrant shortcomings by their excessive worship of the spiritual. The techni calities of art are exposed, with them, not to con tempt but to neglect : The works of Cornelius (says Dr. Springer) are only appreciable by the aristocracy of education. He who seeks in painting the gratification of the eye will not comprehend this great master's fame. His power over his materials lea►es, also, much to be desired. Cornelius canna paint in oils, and even his Frescoes are executed by other hands. Further on we are told that this painter—who " in Munich had not only won the repute of the " first German artist of the day, but actually "passed for one of the greatest masters of any " age "—commits constant oho egaihet the MU, alphabet of art; is a monotonous colourist, a feeble chiaroscurist, and executes figures, " nine " heads high and more, with forms modelled " neither after nature nor in consonance with the " traditionary ideal." Nevertheless Dr. Springer assures us that " in the gift of designing poems— "in the power of developing profound thoughts " through grand series of figures spread over a " vast extent of space, Cornelius is unrivalled. " The union of the poet, the philosopher, awl the "painter, forms his imposing attribute;" and "if "he outrages nature now an d th en, i t is only " because he subordinates the form to the idea" The practical result of this idea-worship is amusing as well as instructive:— Wi t ho u t preliminary anti accurate study ; without a knowledge of the superstructure of thought on which the compositions of Corneliaa rest, their comprehension is impossible. It sounds like irony —bat it is, comparatively speaking, true, that tho perusal of the programme which sets forth the purport of these pictorial cycles affords scarcely less enjoyment than their actual inspection. Putting all this together, we arrive at the fol lowing rather singular conclusions with regard to the German type-artist under review. Cornelius is unquestionably one of the greatest masters of any age. He and Michael Angelo are indeed congenial spirits (geistesverwandt). The fact that his pictures require a preliminary course of metaphysics, and the study of an abstruse Pro gramme, before anybody can make out what they mean, is only an additional proof of his profound genius. Poetry and Philosophy combine to elevate him to this sublime artistic position, ana the trifling circumstance that he is unable either to draw or to paint does not in any way detract from his claims to fill it. It is, we see from this, in the highest sphere— the sphere of absolute Idealism, where matter dissolves into " mere appearance," and thought consolidates into " objective reality.'—that the type-artist sits enthroned. To our grovelling English sense, this theory of artistic excellence looks rather queer, but, Teutonically and trans cendentally speaking, it is doubtless all right. Once upon ground like this, we take off our shoes and reverentially make an exit as noiseless as rapid. At the same time we will venture to remark, that there is nothing but rigorous con sistency in the fact that a country whose literary men are superior to style and composition, should produce artists sublimated above form and colour. It would be erroneous, however, to suppose that this outré Idealism is a universal charac teristic of the really remarkable art-movement in Germany. On the contrary, a very pecep tible realistic tendency has manifested itself there during the last few years, and especially since the convulsions of 1848 shook the country out of its dreamy state of transcendental abstraction. The most remarkable representative of this ten dency is the historical painter, Karl Friedrich Lessing. Lessing is one of those rare excep tional natures in whom progressive development seems to be the being's law. His early reputation was won as a disciple of the Dusseldorf; or sen timental, school, during his connection with which he produced a series of cabinet pictures distin guished by s strongly romantic imagination. As the social atmosphere around him gradually mo dified itself; he seized its altered spirit, with rare sagacity, and gave it expression in pictures so completely distinct from his first style (" Huss a the Stake," " Luther Burning the Papal Bull," &c. &c.) that Dusseldorf excommunicated him, and a break up of the school, properly so called, was the ultimate result. A similar heresy has already penetrated into the ranks of the Idealists, through the agency of Wilhelm Kaulbach, whose inimitable illustrations of " Reinke Fuchs" are familiar to everybody. Even in sculpture itself — apparently, of all branches of art, the least sensitive to contemporary influences—this realistic movement (initiated by Rauch, and ably carried out by Rietschel, Kiss, Drake, and many others) has declared itself; chiefly in the art- sc hool of Berlin. Passing over an elaborate, and, on the whole, impartial survey of Belgian and French art, ice shall close this paper with a few of Dr. Springer s remarks on " die Kunstbestrebungen in Mg' land " : The position of the tine arts in England (he 911311 off us a peculiar spectacle. Great originality, and yet F rea , m°33tonY a manifold conformity in the prerallol? manner, and let no school ; a local charsoter impres9. eLI ult . o ‘ eltrema .listinotness, and yet no artiatio unity . "414 of 139 country are 99 919147 rectotaied t" I