DOI article:
Vybíral, Jindřich: Alfred Woltmann and the History of Contemporary Art
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.73804#0017
16
2. Friedrich Overbeck, Christ Blessing the Children, 1826 (engraving by Th. Langer). Phot, after: Zeitschrift fur bildende
Kunst 6, 1871
language of painting, since all that is depicted is a purely
pictorial phenomenon'.18
In his favoured artists, which included alongside the
previously mentioned names other Nazarenes such as Jo-
sef Fuhrich, Bonaventura Genelli, Alfred Rethel and Ju-
lius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, and the American sculptor
Erastus Dow Palmer, Woltmann prized their mastery of
composition and virtuosity of line, while tolerating the
underestimation of the expressive potential of colour by
these 'German Romans'. The 'high style, which for him
strove to grasp the highest ideas with the most essential
forms',19 should nonetheless do more than awaken the aes-
thetic experience of 'the beautiful'. For his admired Cor-
nelius, the same principle held true as for Michelangelo:
'The style of both is turned more toward the powerful and
the sublime than toward the purely beautiful.'20 Likewise,
18 Idem, 'Die Einkehr in das Volksthum' , in idem, Aus vier Jahrhun-
derten, pp. 317-344, here p. 321 (as in note 10) (Nicht Mittheilung
ist Sache des Bildes, sondern Darstellung); idem, 'Carstens', p. 185
(as in note 16) (alles Dargestellte ist zu reiner bildlicher Erschei-
nung).
19 Idem, 'Peter von Cornelius', Unsere Zeit, 1867, pp. 801-822, here
p. 821 (Malerei groEen Stils, welche die hochsten Ideen in bedeut-
samen Formen zu fassen strebt).
20 Ibidem, p. 802 (der Stil beider mehr dem Gewaltigen und Erhabe-
nen als dem rein Schbnen zustrebt).
in the work of sculptor Christian Daniel Rauch he ad-
mired, much like Friedrich Schlegel among Rauch's con-
temporaries, its 'force and solemnity'.21 From these state-
ments, we can infer that the beauty of classicist forms was
for Woltmann hardly the sole criterion of his evaluating
judgments; that an added condition for his positive recep-
tion of artworks was their intellectual depth and inclina-
tion towards higher, impersonal values. The sensual expe-
rience of art should, in the Enlightenment sense, form the
means toward the refinement of morals.
'He bore in himself that aesthetic ideality that Schil-
ler, in the same era, strove to express in his philosophical
poems, that same ideality that elevates the human above
time and the bounds of earth towards the pure Olympian
calm wherein all the contradictions of life find resolution,'
is how Woltmann expressed this quality in his lecture on
Carstens.22
21 Idem, 'Das Rauch-Museum' , p. 3 (as in note 17) (Kraft und Ernst).
See H. Locher, Kunstgeschichte als historische, p. 160 (as in note 5).
22 Idem, 'Carstens', p. 190 (as in note 16) (Er trug in sich jene asthe-
tische Idealitat, welche Schiller gleichzeitig in seinen philosophi-
schen Gedichten auszudrucken rang, jene Idealitat, die den Men-
schen uber die Zeit und die Schranken des Irdischen hinaushebt
zur heiteren olympischen Ruhe, in der alle Widerspruche des Le-
bens versohnt sind).
2. Friedrich Overbeck, Christ Blessing the Children, 1826 (engraving by Th. Langer). Phot, after: Zeitschrift fur bildende
Kunst 6, 1871
language of painting, since all that is depicted is a purely
pictorial phenomenon'.18
In his favoured artists, which included alongside the
previously mentioned names other Nazarenes such as Jo-
sef Fuhrich, Bonaventura Genelli, Alfred Rethel and Ju-
lius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, and the American sculptor
Erastus Dow Palmer, Woltmann prized their mastery of
composition and virtuosity of line, while tolerating the
underestimation of the expressive potential of colour by
these 'German Romans'. The 'high style, which for him
strove to grasp the highest ideas with the most essential
forms',19 should nonetheless do more than awaken the aes-
thetic experience of 'the beautiful'. For his admired Cor-
nelius, the same principle held true as for Michelangelo:
'The style of both is turned more toward the powerful and
the sublime than toward the purely beautiful.'20 Likewise,
18 Idem, 'Die Einkehr in das Volksthum' , in idem, Aus vier Jahrhun-
derten, pp. 317-344, here p. 321 (as in note 10) (Nicht Mittheilung
ist Sache des Bildes, sondern Darstellung); idem, 'Carstens', p. 185
(as in note 16) (alles Dargestellte ist zu reiner bildlicher Erschei-
nung).
19 Idem, 'Peter von Cornelius', Unsere Zeit, 1867, pp. 801-822, here
p. 821 (Malerei groEen Stils, welche die hochsten Ideen in bedeut-
samen Formen zu fassen strebt).
20 Ibidem, p. 802 (der Stil beider mehr dem Gewaltigen und Erhabe-
nen als dem rein Schbnen zustrebt).
in the work of sculptor Christian Daniel Rauch he ad-
mired, much like Friedrich Schlegel among Rauch's con-
temporaries, its 'force and solemnity'.21 From these state-
ments, we can infer that the beauty of classicist forms was
for Woltmann hardly the sole criterion of his evaluating
judgments; that an added condition for his positive recep-
tion of artworks was their intellectual depth and inclina-
tion towards higher, impersonal values. The sensual expe-
rience of art should, in the Enlightenment sense, form the
means toward the refinement of morals.
'He bore in himself that aesthetic ideality that Schil-
ler, in the same era, strove to express in his philosophical
poems, that same ideality that elevates the human above
time and the bounds of earth towards the pure Olympian
calm wherein all the contradictions of life find resolution,'
is how Woltmann expressed this quality in his lecture on
Carstens.22
21 Idem, 'Das Rauch-Museum' , p. 3 (as in note 17) (Kraft und Ernst).
See H. Locher, Kunstgeschichte als historische, p. 160 (as in note 5).
22 Idem, 'Carstens', p. 190 (as in note 16) (Er trug in sich jene asthe-
tische Idealitat, welche Schiller gleichzeitig in seinen philosophi-
schen Gedichten auszudrucken rang, jene Idealitat, die den Men-
schen uber die Zeit und die Schranken des Irdischen hinaushebt
zur heiteren olympischen Ruhe, in der alle Widerspruche des Le-
bens versohnt sind).