old masters of 1670:

reference to the Dutch golden age of painting, which art historians date the 17th century & which included Rembrandt (1606-69)

 

expiring art:

Spengler refers to the Faustian art of oil painting which is its final stage prior to terminal decline (late Autumn or Winter) after2000 AD

 

vertiginous:

adj. extremely high or steep; relating to or affected by vertigo.

 

Marees (unsteadiness): * see EndNote<A>

Marees had great difficulty finishing his art.  “I have caught myself believing that, each time I say this thing is done, I am never more than at the beginning.  An artwork is never properly finished." 

(Marees to Fiedler 11 June 1879, letter from Rome).  He admitted he sometimes re-worked a painting 50 to 80 times.  His main supporter, Conrad Fiedler, never fully believed in his genius.

 

Bocklin (unsteadiness): * see EndNote<B>

Unlike Marees, Bocklin achieved recognition by the time he was 30 & would have considerable impact on late 19th century German painters.  Spengler is probably using “unsteady” to describe his later years, when he produced his most famous work- the Isle of the Dead. 

 

Bruckner:

1824-96; Austrian composer, organist & music theorist best known for his symphonies, masses, Te Deum and motets.  His symphonies represent the final stage of Austro-German Romanticism given their rich harmonic language, strongly polyphonic character & considerable length.  His compositions helped to define musical radicalism, owing to their dissonances, unprepared modulations, and roving harmonies.  He was self-critical of his work & often reworked his compositions & there are several versions of many of his works.  His symphonies had detractors who pointed their large size and use of repetition as Bruckner’s tendency for revising (often with the assistance of colleagues) & finally his apparent indecision about which version he preferred.

 

Kleist (Shakespeare & Stendhal): * see EndNote<C>

1777-1811, German poet, dramatist, novelist, short story writer & journalist; his whole life was filled by a restless striving after ideal and illusory happiness, this is largely reflected in his work.  He committed suicide with his lover in 1811.  Spengler makes 2 points: first that Kleist used older models for his dramatic structures and secondly that he laboured furiously yet produced results that were not commensurate with the effort.

 

Stendhal:

1783-1842, Marie-Henri Beyle; French writer, works include The Red and the Black, 1830 &The Charterhouse of Parma, 1839; highly regarded for the acute analysis of his characters' psychology, considered one of the early and foremost practitioners of realism.  This is an attempt to represent familiar things as they are.  Such authors chose to depict every day and banal activities and experiences, instead of using a romanticized or similarly stylized presentation.

 

Hebbel:

1813-76, German dramatist, one of the most distinguished literary men of his day, famed for his historical and biblical dramas, he added a new psychological dimension to German drama and made use of Hegel’s concepts of history to dramatize conflicts in his historical tragedies.  He was concerned not so much with the individual aspects of the characters or events as with the historical process of change as it led to new moral values.  In Gyges und sein Ring (1854) he examines psychological motivation in ethical and religious terms, indicating how a Hegelian synthesis may emerge from antithetical views. The Hegelian system claimed to provide a unitary solution to all of the problems of philosophy.  So Hebbel aimed to find a single dramatic type to unify the earlier dramatic problems (“from Hamlet to Rosmersholm”).

 

Rosmersholm:

play, 1886 by Ibsen.  Rosmer's wife, Beata has committed suicide.  Rebecca (a friend of Beata) had moved into the family home (Rosmersholm); she & Rosmer are in love.  Rosmer, a respected pillar of the community, intends to support a reformist government but is opposed by Kroll (a brother in law) who threatens to expose Rosmer & Rebecca.  Rosmer feels guilty believing HE was responsible for his wife’s suicide.  He attempts to erase her memory & proposes marriage to Rebecca who rejects him.  Kroll accuse her of using Rosmer to further her political agenda.  She admits driving Beata to despair to increase her power over Rosmer.  She has fallen in love with Rosmer, but (owing to her guilt) cannot accept marriage.  She has also committed incest wither adopted father.  Neither Rsomer or Rebecca can accept guilt.  All trust is broken.  Rosmer asks Rebecca to commit suicide with him & their double suicide ends the play.  

 

The central image of the play is the White Horse of Rosmersholm, seen by the characters after the suicide of Beata.  It symbolizes the past that centres on Rosmer's dead wife, and haunts the survivors.  Its presence at their death’s represents their incapacity to "deal with" their memories.

 

Menzel:

1815-1905, German artist who, Spengler argues, took inspiration from the 17th century, the great age of oil painting & its masters (Rembrandt-1606-69, Claude Lorrain -1600-82, Van Goyen-1596–1656), combined it with the 18th (the Rococo of Watteau ,1684–1721) and 19th centuries (Realists, Impressionists,Delacroix-1798–1863, Courbet-1819–77,Manet-1832–83).  Some have labelled him a proto-impressionist" painter. 

see page 271 above

 

Leibl:

A German artist, Spengler argues, who took inspiration from the 17th century, the great age of oil painting & its masters (Rembrandt-1606-69, Claude Lorrain -1600-82, Van Goyen-1596–1656), combined it with the 18th (the Rococo of Watteau ,1684–1721) and 19th centuries (Realists, Impressionists,Delacroix-1798–1863, Courbet-1819–77,Manet-1832–83).

see page 244

 

Marees:

A German artist, Spengler argues, who took inspiration from the 17th century, the great age of oil painting & its masters (Rembrandt-1606-69, Claude Lorrain -1600-82, Van Goyen-1596–1656), combined it with the 18th (the Rococo of Watteau ,1684–1721) and 19th centuries (Realists, Impressionists,Delacroix-1798–1863, Courbet-1819–77,Manet-1832–83).

see page 244

 

Menzel (anticipated Manet): * see EndNote<D>

Manet’s senior by 17 years, his technical virtuosity & skill at capturing visual phenomena (such as the way in which we perceive background objects as unfocussed and blurred compared to foreground ones) attracted wide attention & anticipated some of the effects of French Impressionism by 30 years.

 

Leibl (as a Realist):* see EndNote<E>

In his mid-20s Leibl was influenced by the French Realist school.  In 1869 he was studying in Munich.  Around that time Courbet visited Munich to exhibit his art & made a considerable impression on many of the local artists by his demonstrations of alla prima painting directly from nature.  Advised by Courbet, Leibl went to Paris & was introduced to Manet.  Leibl’s work was in direct opposition to the Romantic naturalism then prevalent in Germany.  Like Courbet, his objective style was based on a direct, careful recording of nature, objects, figures, and situations. His most characteristic and popular works are from his “Holbein period,” about 1870–80 (e.g., Three Women in Church, 1878–82).

 

metaphysical browns and greens of the Old Masters:

see Chapter VII, page 251, 245,246, 247

 

Menzel (as Prussian Rococo): * see EndNote<F>

One of the finest examples of Prussian Rococo is Sanssouci (Potsdam, Berlin), the summer palace of Frederick the Great,designed/built by Knobelsdorff between 1745-47 to provide the King a private residence where he could relax away from the pomp & ceremony of Berlin.  It is the German answer to Versailles.  Sanssouci is in the more intimate Rococo style & is smaller than its French Baroque counterpart; like Versailles it is noted for its numerous temples and follies in the park.  Menzel painted a number of representations of this palace, the court & balls held there.

 

Marees (as Rubens): * see EndNote<G>

Marees spent more time working in Italy then Germany.  He was fascinated by Italy & wanted to find a new classicism, as an answer to French modernity and German nationalist art.  He painted over and over again nude bodies resting & interacting in an Arcadian landscape.

 

Leibl (Frau Gedon- as a Rembrandt's portraiture): * see EndNote<H>

Leibl's paintings reflected his admiration for the Dutch old masters.  After 1869 they, became looser in style, their subjects rendered with thickly brushed paint against dark backgrounds.

 

Leibl (etchings, affinity with Rembrandt): * see EndNote<I>

During the first half of the 1870s, Leibl executed a series of 19 etchings in a meticulous style. His charcoal drawings are conceived in great masses of light and shadow, blocked in as though he were using a brush and paint.

 

Marees (fails to capture Baroque style):

Baroque painting was self-confident, dynamic & used a realistic approach to depiction.  It was characterized by great drama, rich, deep colour, intense light & dark shadows.  It was meant to evoke emotion and passion.

 

If it is one thing Marees lacked it was confidence.  It is agreed that his work are those of painterly failure, convulsive and convoluted.  Created over decades in a process of never ending reworking, Marees constantly sought to forestall the moment of completion.  The material itself is near derelict.  His layering techniques, using oil & tempera comes across as out of control, unintentional.   Artistic manuals warned against such combinations but Marees ignored this!  Consequently his work hovers on the brink of material & representational collapse.  The paint is darkened and heavily cracked.  The paint surface begins decaying almost immediately after he abandoned them.  His paintings are not incomplete so much as over-finished, with a tortured duration.  Art critics recognize Marees as a great German modern painter, in which form &content have disintegrated.  In terms of comparing him with Baroque painting, such successful comparison is difficult to see. 

 

It would seem if anything Spengler’s judgment on Marees is much of an understatement:

“the mighty intention of the great Baroque style...he –was unable to force it into the world of painter's actuality.”

 

Géricault (affinity to Baroque): * See EndNote <J>

1791-1824, French painter and lithographer, known for The Raft of the Medusa. Died young, a pioneer of the Romantic movement.

 

Daumier (affinity to Baroque): * see EndNote<K>

1808-79, French printmaker, caricaturist, painter & sculptor, whose works offer commentary on social and political life in France in the 19th century.  A prolific draughtsman, he was best known for his caricatures of political figures & satires on the behaviour of his countrymen.  As a painter, Daumier was one of the pioneers of realistic subjects, which he treated with a point of view critical of class distinctions.  Like Courbet Daumier also suffered for his political views & served 6 months imprisonment for a caricature of the king.

 

belated:

coming or being after the customary, useful, or expected time; late, delayed, or detained: