!!!Romantik
Romanticism: In the fine arts Vienna and its environs were the centre
of the Austrian Romantic movement. It was in particular painting in
which the spirit of Romanticism found its most lively expression in
Austria, while architecture and to an even greater extent sculpture
remained committed to the ideals of Classicism. While the latter
sought to emulate Antique art, the Romanticists increasingly turned to
the Middle Ages for their models.
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In architecture romanticising tendences can be detected in the
construction of castles and palaces in Historicist style and the love
of artificial ruins. Castle construction was in particular promoted by
the "Wildenstein Knights of the Blue Earth" (1790-1823), who
had their headquarters at Seebenstein. The principal work that emerged
from this early 19th century fascination with fortresses and castles
was Franzensburg Castle in the Park of Laxenburg (1797-1836, by M.
Riedl and F. Jaeger). The spirit of Romanticism is also present in
some later castles in English Gothic style, such as (1840-1877),
Hernstein (1856-1880) and Wolfsberg in Carinthia (1846-1853). Other,
older buildings were "Gothicised", such as Liechtenstein Castle (from
1808) and Greifenstein (1818).
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Most of these building projects went hand in hand with a refurbishment
of parks and gardens modelled on natural, romantic "English" landscape
gardens which were furnished with pavilions, temples and ruins.
Construction of artificial ruins actually found a significant older
(18th century) model in the Roman ruin in the Schoenbrunn Gardens,
which had been erected by J. F. Hetzendorf von Hohenberg in
1778. In the early years of the 19th century, the construction of
ruins was especially promoted by Prince Liechtenstein on his land in
the vicinity of Moedling (Schwarzer Turm, 1810, Amphitheater, 1810,
Pfefferbuechsel, 1818) and Seebenstein (Tuerkensturz, 1826).
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The influence of the Nazarenes is clearly seen in the churches built
by C. Roesner (such as the Erloeserkirche (Church of the Redeemer) in
the 3rd district of Vienna, 1834-1836, the Johann-Nepomuk church in
the 2nd district, 1841-1846, and Meidling parish church in the 12th
district, 1842-1845) as well as the Altlerchenfelder Kirche church
erected to plans by J. G. Mueller in the 7th district of Vienna
(1848-1861). Mueller's architecture and the frescoes by J. von
Fuehrich, L. Kupelwieser and others - the most important Nazarene
paintings in Austria- constitute one of the rare "total works of art"
(gesamtkunstwerk) of Romanticism and at the same time the transition
to the next phase, Historicism.
\\
Even though Austrian painting, and in particular landscape painting,
had always been imbued with an element of Romanticism, no Romantic
school in its own right established itself in Austria. One of the
leading pioneers of Romanticism in painting was J. A. Koch from
Tirol. As the champion of heroic-poetic landscape painting he
exercised considerable influence on the students at the Vienna Academy
in the early 19th century.
\\
In Austria the predominant influences on the Romantic movement were
derived from literature and music, and by a revived interest in
religion. At the same time, Romantic artists turned away from the
formal ideals of Classicism and concentrated on models found in
nature. Other important models were German 16th century painting and
the works of the High Renaissance in Italy.
\\
The new movement was largely confined in Austria to the members of the
Lukasbund and the Nazarenes and their intimate friends; initially it
was particularly popular with the German students at the Vienna
Academy (F. Overbeck, F. Pforr, J. and P. Veit, J. and L. F.
Schnorr von Carolsfeld, J. Wintergerst, brothers Ferdinand von
Olivier and Friedrich von Olivier, J. A. Heinrich, F. P.,
G. and H. Reinhold, J. A. Klein, J. C. Erhard and others).
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The most important Austrians in this circle were J. Sutter, J. E.
Scheffer von Leonhardshoff, W. A. Rieder, E. von Steinle,
J. v. Fuehrich, L. Kupelwieser and J. S. v. Hempel.
\\
Most of these artists followed the leading members of the Lukasbund to
Rome in order to study the principal works of the Italian High
Renaissance. A few of them remained in Rome, while most of them soon
returned to their home country.
\\
In Austria, the Nazarenes exercised great influence on religious art,
on painters of historical events and portrait painting. The painters
who drew their inspiration from history and religion (L. F.
Schnorr von Carolsfeld, J. von Fuehrich, J. P. Krafft and
others) were also attracted by motifs from the world of legends and
fairy tales. The chief representative of this latter line was
M. von Schwind, who achieved great success in Germany from 1828
onward.
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In Austrian landscape painting J. A. Koch continued to constitute
a major influence. Open-air painting became more and more popular.
Study and hiking tours brought painters into contact with the romantic
beauty of little-known regions. This was the time when the
Salzkammergut lake district and the area around the Schneeberg
mountain in Lower Austria was "discovered" by painters. Again it was
artists from Germany (the Olivier brothers, J. A. Klein,
J. C. Erhard, L. F. Schnorr von Carolsfeld, to mention only
a few) who greatly contributed to this development.
\\
The landscapes of the Biedermeier artists are also, at least partly,
imbued with the spirit of Romanticism. Examples are F. G.
Waldmueller, F. Steinfeld, T. Ender and A. Stifter.
\\
Romanticism, which never was a clearly defined movement in Austria,
soon gave way to the historicising imitative style of the
Gruenderzeit of the 2nd half of the 19th century.
\\
Romanticism in Austrian literature was especially promoted by the
brothers A. W. Schlegel and F. Schlegel, whose lectures in Vienna
laid the theoretical foundations for Romantic literature. A. W.
Schlegel's lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature ("Ueber
dramatische Kunst und Literatur") in 1808 and those of F.
Schlegel on the History of Old and New Literature ("Geschichte
der alten und neuen Literatur") in 1812 defined literature as the
essence of the intellectual and spiritual character of a nation, an
idea which had a tremendous impact on the international literary
scene. In 1812/13 he published the patriotic periodical
"Deutsches Museum" in Vienna. Vienna became the centre of
German Romanticism (Wiener Romantik) in the period 1811-1815, when in
the course of the fight against Napoleon the Habsburg Monarchy became
the stronghold of patriotic hopes and also attracted German authors
such as A. Mueller (1811-1815), C. Brentano (1813/14), Z. Werner
(1814-1823), J. Grimm (1814/15) and J. v. Eichendorff
(1810-1813), who was a frequent guest in the house of F. and Dorothea
Schlegel, where he became familiar with Romanticist thought. The
important writer and journalist K. A. Varnhagen von Ense, who
also attended the Vienna Congress, is another representative of
Romanticism worth mentioning. Under the influence of C. M.
Hofbauer, who was a close friend of the above-mentioned authors, the
religious aspect came to the fore after 1815. Catholic Romanticism
found its literary expression in the periodicals
"Friedensblaetter" and "Oelzweige", its Protestant
variant in the periodical "Janus", all published in Vienna.
\\
In music, the predominance of Italian styles and the specifically
Austrian developments in the Biedermeier epoch delayed the successful
introduction of Romanticism, which did not come into its own in
Austria until the second half of the century. In the field of sacred
music, the Classicist tradition was followed by the Cecilian reform
movement; with hardly any caesura. Romanticism experienced a unique
flowering in the lieder written by composers from F. (iee) Schubert
to J. Brahms and on to H. Wolf, G. Mahler and R. Strauss. In the
field of symphonic music L. van Beethoven is considered the last
musician of the Classicist tradition and the first of the Romantic
school; his works were seminal for F. Schubert, A. Bruckner, J. Brahms
and G. Mahler and their symphonic œuvre. A new direction in both
harmony and form was pursued in Romanticism by the Neudeutsche ("New
German") school, whose most important representative was R. Wagner;
Austrian composers at least partly associated with this trend were A.
Bruckner and F. Liszt; in their wake followed composers of late
Romanticism, such as R. Strauss, F. Schmidt, E. Wellesz, J. Marx
and others as well as the protagonists of atonality in the Vienna
School such as Schoenberg, A. Berg and A. Webern.
!Literature
Romantik in Oesterreich, exhibition catalogue, Salzburg
1959; R. Zinner, Romantik in Oesterreich 1965; Romantik und Realismus
in Oesterreich, exhibition catalogue, Laxenburg 1968; Von C. D.
Friedrich bis A. Menzel - Aquarelle und Zeichnungen der Romantik,
exhibition catalogue, Vienna 1990.
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