Artificial wool
Artistic want is an art-historical term that was first introduced into the scientific discussion by Heinrich Brunn in 1856 . The term describes the characteristic and at the same time the limit of aesthetic design of an epoch (see also Art Style ) and its peculiar, inner design drive. Accordingly, every epoch of human development strives for a unique and non-repeatable form of design, whereby design is to be understood in the broadest sense. From an art historical point of view, therefore, evaluating one epoch against another is out of the question. As a result, the conception of the will to art by the Viennese School , but especially through the effectiveness of Alois Riegl, became one of the central points of reference in opposition to the classical conception of art and the writing of art history. This proceeded almost uniformly from leading art eras and treated others as unequal predecessors, epigones or as eras of decay.
Characteristic for the break with traditional art history is the scientific equation of masterpiece or cultural monument with the simplest products of the handicraft as well as the fundamental refusal to distinguish epochs of decay from heyday, which should have its positive abolition in artistic will. Just like the distinction between mastery and epigone or pupil, the differentiation between heyday and decay has been one of the foundations of classical art appreciation since antiquity. It can be found in the introduction to Book 35 of the Natural History of Pliny , as it was later in the modern conception of Greek art by Giorgio Vasari , and later by Johann Joachim Winckelmann . The Greek art of the 5th century and the art of the High Renaissance were considered authoritative and classical art epochs until well into the 19th century. In contrast to these, the art of the Roman Empire and the art of the Baroque age were seen as epigonal and unequal. Individual examinations of works of art and art monuments were based on relevant schools, masters and masterpieces. According to this point of view, these contained a universal demand for their own, for every other epoch and every other cultural area. Here is an example of the representation and evaluation of late antiquity as a decay time by Jacob Burckhardt :
“... a degeneration of the race at this time, at least in the higher classes, is undeniable. ... art provides irrefutable proof in innumerable monuments, including those that do not allow an excuse due to the artist's clumsiness. In most of the portraits of this time there is partly a natural ugliness, partly something pathological, scrofulous, bloated or sunken. Grave monuments, coins, mosaics, the bottoms of drinking glasses - everything agrees. … Yes, perhaps more than the portraits in general, the actual ideal figures of the time in question, in which the artists want to put down what is generally valid, express the deterioration of the human type of that time. "
Heinrich Brunn derived the fundamentally new conception of art as a result of his studies of antiquity:
“If we summarize what we have noticed about the advantages and the shortcomings of Egyptian art, we must not dare to claim that the Egyptians could not have educated differently and better, but that they did not want to educate differently. For what reason? We will only recognize this by looking at the rest of the conditions in Egyptian life. "
This was the first time that research contradicted the classical conception of the flowering and decay of all culture in principle. With his "Spätrömische Kunstindustrie" (Late Roman Art Industry), Alois Riegl presented the first significant individual study of artistic desire in 1901. In this work, Riegl also significantly coined the term late antiquity .
Riegl expands the Brunnian conception in the sense of a modern art philosophy. For this he takes a general and timeless hedonism as a starting point in the development of man . All art of every era should be viewed from this hedonistic perspective. Riegl writes:
“All human will is directed towards the satisfactory shaping of his relationship to the world [...]. The visual artistic will regulates the relationship of the human being to the sensually perceptible appearance of things: it expresses the way in which the human being wants to see the things shaped or colored ... The character of this will is determined by what we mean by the respective Worldview ... name: in religion, philosophy, science, also state and law ... "
The idea that there were unequal artistic epochs in design is thus undermined. Against the demand for an ideal and timeless rule of art, which dominates one culture or one epoch more and another less, one should now assume a desire for art, which restricts the possibilities or claims of art criticism in general. Riegl's intention differs significantly from that of his specialist colleagues, because:
"It should be shown in this book that the Vienna Genesis also signifies progress and nothing but progress from the standpoint of a universal historical view of the development of art as a whole compared to Flavian-Trajan art."
This Rieglian conception of artistic will as part and even motor of a timeless higher development in the fine arts remained isolated in research. In contrast, in addition to other conceptions that were discussed in the years after 1900, the artistic will for the scientification of the subject and thus for the alignment of art history with historical studies became influential . According to a thesis Konrad Hoffmann : "allows the principle of" artistic volition "the analytical placement of every imaginable art product in systematic development historical point of view, with the professionally trained in science and technology efficiency and transparency of a flexible experimental design." Looking back, called the Kunstwollen a revolution in Basic questions of art history even when there have been significant differences in its interpretation.
Today the term artistic will as such has a relatively subordinate meaning. It is often used trivially. In the specialist literature it appears more in the context of self-reflection or as a milestone in the history of art historiography itself. The meaning of the break with art history associated with the term, especially since Winckelmann , is quite different , whereby the concept of artistic desire must be recognized as a pioneer . Ernst Gombrich , in his book "Art and Progress" , in retrospect marks the break of modern art history with tradition, sharply bordering on ideology: "Every student knows in the first year that Michelangelo is not better than Giotto, but only different" (1978). Similar to Georg Simmel in the sense of a creed: “I don't believe in imperfect religions, any more than I believe in imperfect art styles. ... But if they are completely religion at all, they are also perfect religion, just like the painting of the Trecento, even if it shows no shadows, no natural movement, no perspective, yet is as perfect art as the later art, which possesses all of this. Giotto wanted something different from Raffael or Velasquez. And if something is at all perfect as art in the sense that no other motifs than artistic form the work, if raw-sensual impulses, attachment to the accidentally real, tendencies from other areas of interest no longer emerge in the image - then every artistic desire is everyone's equivalent to others. One can only speak of perfection or imperfection insofar as the individual genius is greater or less. "
criticism
As a result, Panofsky's interpretation and his alternative conception of iconology, which was directed against artistic will, became more important than anyone else . Other important critics of that era include researchers such as Heinrich Wölfflin and Ernst Heidrich . Wölfflin sticks to the idea of a classical art, but extends the concept of the classical. For Wölfflin, classical art means “the pursuit of a three-dimensional, tectonic, clear and well-thought-out worldview” and “the completely clear, absolutely tangible form”. Epochs of classical art are cyclically followed by epochs that have their identity in concealment and ambiguity, as Wölfflin exemplifies using the sequence of the Baroque on the Renaissance era. The autonomy of each individual epoch through a desire for art would thus be fundamentally relativized and the reference to the design of the respective previous period would be tied closer again.
literature
- Alois Riegl: The late Roman art industry. 2 volumes. 1901 and 1923 (new edition: Gebr. Mann, 2000, ISBN 978-3786123422 ).
- Andrea Reichenberger: Riegl's “Kunstwollen”. Attempt to reconsider. Academia Verlag, Sankt Augustin 2003, ISBN 3-89665-252-4 .
- Andrea Reichenberger: “Artistic desire” - Riegl's plea for the freedom of art. In: Critical Reports . Issue 1, 2003, pp. 69-85 ( online ).