DOI issue:
No. 127 (September, 1907)
DOI article:Bentz, F.: The Mannheim tercentenary exhibition
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.28252#0207
The Mannheim Tercentenary Exhibition
“ HESSIAN PEASANTS ”
figured brocade, the furniture, cabinets, etc., being
ebony, while the broad decorated cornice and ceiling
are gold. In contrast to this black groundwork
the cabinet pictures gain a peculiar sparkling
quality, the dark bronze of the busts (there is
nothing white in the room) helping to accentuate
the brilliant patches of colour. The room by Hierl-
Deronco has a wall-covering of violet purple moire
silk, with a deeper shade on skirting board and
floor, a rich gold ceiling, a Greek couch in bur-
nished gold and violet. The result of this daring
experiment is that the pictures, with only two
exceptions, are rendered muddy. For purposes of
splendour of colour the nude has always been the
grand objective, so that the large nude Diana is
fittingly hung in this pagan blaze of purple and
gold.
Here I am prompted to ask why so many artists,
BY KARL BANTZER
of what is known as the advanced school, are so
infatuated by ugliness ? This mental warp is on
the increase, and has spread to all countries; if it
were confined to the German race alone it could
be better understood, for in the Teutonic charac-
ter there is an odd love of the grotesquely ugly.
Bocklin amused himself, after any great effort to
work out a specially beautiful combination, by
modelling the most hideous faces; reproductions
of them are used as keystones over doors and
windows, and their contortions interest the man
in the street in every town in South Germany.
It is the photographic papers now which have
got hold of the phrase “Art is Nature seen through
a temperament,” but very much work possesses
no trace of temperament beyond the elemental
and primitive. In any work of really high art,
there ought to be a poetic aim, “ the capacity to
191
“ HESSIAN PEASANTS ”
figured brocade, the furniture, cabinets, etc., being
ebony, while the broad decorated cornice and ceiling
are gold. In contrast to this black groundwork
the cabinet pictures gain a peculiar sparkling
quality, the dark bronze of the busts (there is
nothing white in the room) helping to accentuate
the brilliant patches of colour. The room by Hierl-
Deronco has a wall-covering of violet purple moire
silk, with a deeper shade on skirting board and
floor, a rich gold ceiling, a Greek couch in bur-
nished gold and violet. The result of this daring
experiment is that the pictures, with only two
exceptions, are rendered muddy. For purposes of
splendour of colour the nude has always been the
grand objective, so that the large nude Diana is
fittingly hung in this pagan blaze of purple and
gold.
Here I am prompted to ask why so many artists,
BY KARL BANTZER
of what is known as the advanced school, are so
infatuated by ugliness ? This mental warp is on
the increase, and has spread to all countries; if it
were confined to the German race alone it could
be better understood, for in the Teutonic charac-
ter there is an odd love of the grotesquely ugly.
Bocklin amused himself, after any great effort to
work out a specially beautiful combination, by
modelling the most hideous faces; reproductions
of them are used as keystones over doors and
windows, and their contortions interest the man
in the street in every town in South Germany.
It is the photographic papers now which have
got hold of the phrase “Art is Nature seen through
a temperament,” but very much work possesses
no trace of temperament beyond the elemental
and primitive. In any work of really high art,
there ought to be a poetic aim, “ the capacity to
191