DOI issue:
Nr. 2-3
DOI article:Białostocki, Jan: Art, politics, and national independence
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18864#0057
of bourgeois taste. Art was surviving in the attics of the bohemę, but it almost preferred to die than
to surrender and to enter the service to the authority. Courbet declined to accept the order
obtained by entreaty of a friendly Director of Fine Arts, manifesting in this way, and declaring
it in a special statement, that no authority, no state, no office is competent to appreciate an
artist.
Historical painting in France, in Prussia, in Austria was supported by state commissions
and — as an instrument of political propaganda —• it had to serve the purposes of the state.
In 1866 Robert Eitelberger, the first professor of art history in Vienna has written : "Historical
painting and sculpture are called to propagate the idea of the state and the Austrian historical
gallery would fit better the tasks of a gallery of modern pictures than a collection of oil paintings,
landscapes, genre-pictures and other modern works, which how much good in themselves, can
only indirectly touch upon the vital interests of a mighty state"3.
In the consciousness of artists, patrons and critics of art in 19th century historical painting
was that field of art in which an artist in an easiest and most complete way, falls into dependence
from the state and its interests which have nothing to do with the aims of art. These aims of art
were conceived in purely aesthetic terms; the devotion to them brought about masterpieces,
sometimes however it contributed to exclude artists from belonging to such great human
communities as nations, with whom the state was too unambiguously identified.
The track of great art in 19th century ran beyond state and it progressed in disregaid of
any authority to which the most distinguished artists were opposed and adamant. Art —• as
once formulated by Werner Hofmann — created an image of "earthly paradise", of a utopian
aesthetic world, to the construction of which contributed one after the other generations of 19th
century artists.
3. R. Eitelberger, "Eine OsterTeichische Geschichtsgalerie" in his Gesammclte kunslhistorisehe Schriften, II, Wien, 1879
p. 68, quoted by E. Yancsa, see footnotc 8.
2. J. Malczewski, Sunday in Siberian minę, 1882, Warsaw, Muzeum Narodowe
47
to surrender and to enter the service to the authority. Courbet declined to accept the order
obtained by entreaty of a friendly Director of Fine Arts, manifesting in this way, and declaring
it in a special statement, that no authority, no state, no office is competent to appreciate an
artist.
Historical painting in France, in Prussia, in Austria was supported by state commissions
and — as an instrument of political propaganda —• it had to serve the purposes of the state.
In 1866 Robert Eitelberger, the first professor of art history in Vienna has written : "Historical
painting and sculpture are called to propagate the idea of the state and the Austrian historical
gallery would fit better the tasks of a gallery of modern pictures than a collection of oil paintings,
landscapes, genre-pictures and other modern works, which how much good in themselves, can
only indirectly touch upon the vital interests of a mighty state"3.
In the consciousness of artists, patrons and critics of art in 19th century historical painting
was that field of art in which an artist in an easiest and most complete way, falls into dependence
from the state and its interests which have nothing to do with the aims of art. These aims of art
were conceived in purely aesthetic terms; the devotion to them brought about masterpieces,
sometimes however it contributed to exclude artists from belonging to such great human
communities as nations, with whom the state was too unambiguously identified.
The track of great art in 19th century ran beyond state and it progressed in disregaid of
any authority to which the most distinguished artists were opposed and adamant. Art —• as
once formulated by Werner Hofmann — created an image of "earthly paradise", of a utopian
aesthetic world, to the construction of which contributed one after the other generations of 19th
century artists.
3. R. Eitelberger, "Eine OsterTeichische Geschichtsgalerie" in his Gesammclte kunslhistorisehe Schriften, II, Wien, 1879
p. 68, quoted by E. Yancsa, see footnotc 8.
2. J. Malczewski, Sunday in Siberian minę, 1882, Warsaw, Muzeum Narodowe
47