ernst gombrich - power and glory ii (ch. 22)

8/17/2019 Ernst Gombrich - Power and Glory II (Ch. 22)

1/9

22

POWER

AND

GLORY:

II

Prance Germany

and

Austria late seventeenth

and

early

eighteenth

centuries

It

was not

only

the Roman Church

that

had

discovered

the power of

art

to

impress

and overwhelm.

The kings and princes

of

seventeenth

century Europe were

equally

anxious to

display

their nllght and

thus

to

increase

their hold

on

the

nllnds

of the people. They, too, wanted

to appear s

beings

of

a different

kind,

lifted

by

divine

right

above the

comn1on

run of

n1cn.

This

applies

particularly to

the

most powerful

ruler

of

he

latter

part

of

the

seventeenth

century Louis

XIV

of

France

in

whose

political

programtne

the

display

and

splendour

of

royalty was deliberately used.

It

is surely no

accident that

Louis XIV

invited Bernini to

Paris

to

help

with the

designing

of

his palace.

This

grandiose

project never

materialized

but another

of

Louis

XIV s

palaces

became the very symbol of

his imn1ense

power. This

was

the

palace ofVersailles

which

was built

round about r66o-8o Jigure 291.

Versailles is so

huge

that

no

photograph

can

give an

adequate

idea

of

its appearance:

There

arc

no fewer than 23 windows looking

towards

the

park

in each

storey.

The

park

itself

with

its avenues

of

clipped

trees its urns and statuary _figure

292

and its terraces

and

lakes

extends

over

miles

of

countryside.

It

is

in

its

immensity rather

than

in

its

decorative

detail

that

Versailles is

B a t : ~ q u e

Its architects

were mainly intent

on grouping

the

enorn10us n1asses

of the

building

into

clearly distinct wings

and

giving each wing the

appearance

of

nobility

and

grandeur.

They

accentuated the middle

of

the

tnain storey

by

a

row of

Ionic colunms

carrying an

entablature with

rows

of

statues on

top,

and flanked this

effective

centre-piece with

decorations

of

a similar kind.

With

a

simple con1bination

ofpure

Renaissance

fonns, they would

hardly

have succeeded in breaking the

111onotony

of

so vast a f:tyade

but with

the

help

of

statues urns

and

trophies

they produced

a certain

amount

of

variety. It is in buildings like these therefore

that one can

best

appreciate

the true function

and

purpose ofBaroque

forms.

Had

the

designers ofVersailles

been

a little

rnore daring

than

they

were,

and

used n1ore

unorthodox

means

of

articulating

and

grouping the

enormous

building they

might have been

even

more

successful.


2/9

448 POWER ND G LORY :

29

1

Louis k n Jules

H ardouin M;msMt

The palace

ersailles

,

uearl nris, lli5s R2

Baroque

p:1lacl


3/9

n

gnrdrus

n

·rsni les

441)

1

t·group to th ·

ri

ht is

)

or

he LJ.uco

f . l ~ t IO i

u

n

•

6

9

FRAN

C E,

GEIIMANY

AND

AUSTRIA

1 1

T

E SE VENTEENTH AN D Y

EIGIITHNTII

C:ENTlJIIIfS

It

was Oilly-

H th

e n

ex

t generati

on

that this lesson was

compl

etely

absorbed by the arc

hi

tects of the period. For the Roman churches and

French

castles of he Ba

roque

style fir

ed

the imagination of the age.

Every

minor

ptinceling in southern Germany

wa

nted to have his Versailles;

every sm all

mo n

astery in Austria or in Spain wanted to c

omp

ete with the

impressive splendour

ofBorromin

i s and Dernini

s

designs. The pe ri od

round about 17 is

one

of the greatest

pe

riods ofarchitect

ur

e; and not of

architec

tu r

e alone.

Th

ese cas

tl

es and church

es

w ere not simply planned

as

buildings - all the arts had to contribute to the effect ofa fantastic and

artificial world. Wh ole towns

were

used like stage settings, stretches

of

co un try were transfor

med int

o gardens, brooks into ca

sca

des. Arti

sts

were

given free rein to plan to their hearts content and to translate their mo st

wllikely visions

in t

o sto ne and gilt stucco. Often the mo ney ran out before

their plans became reality,

but what

was c

ompleted

of his outburst

of


4/9

45

I OWER AND


5/9

451

195

1

von

1hltlcb r:mdt

o\jOltl ll ll

1)1

cntzcnhof

er

\ o irmsr

rltr

cnsrlr

c ~ m m

e r s f e l d n

nuum

1

, t IJ

4

l-lt

iiNC

E,

M N Y

AN D

AUSTRIA

, LATE

S E V ~ N

A

Nil Ei\

1\L Y G

l T I ENTH CENTU

I\IES

ext

ravagant crea

tion

transfom1ed the face

of

many a

town

and landscape

of Catholic Europe. It was particularly in Austria, l3ohem.ia and southern

Germany that the ideas

of h

e Italian and Fr

ench

Baroque

were

fused

into the bold

es

t and most

co

nsistent style.

Figure 293

shows the palace

which

th

e Austrian architect, Luc

as

von

Hil

debrandt (1668

-1

745), built

in Vienna for Marlborough s ally, Prince Eugene ofSavoy. T he palace

stands on a hill, and seems to

hover

lightly over a terraced garden with

fcmntains and clipped hedges. Hildebrandt h

as

gro

up

ed it

cl

early into

seven different parts, rem.iniscent ofgarden pavilions: a

fiv

e-w indowed

centre-piece bulging forward, flanked by two wings

of

only slightly lesser

height, and this group in turn flanked by a lower part and four turret-like

corner pavilions, wh i

ch

fi·amc the whole building.

The

central pavilion

and the co rner-pieces arc the most richly decorated parts, and th e

building forms an intticate pattern, which is neverthele

ss

completely clear

and lucid in its outline.

Tlus

lucidity is n

ot at

all disturbed by the fi:eak ish

and

grotesque

ornament

that Hildebrandt employed in the details of the

deco ration, the pilasters tapeting

offdownward

s, the broken and scro

ll

y

pe

diment

s

over

the windows, and the statues and trophies

li

ning the roof.

lt is

on

ly when we e

nt

er the

building that w e feel the full

impact

of

this fantastic sty

le of

deco ra

tion. 1 igur 294

shows

the entrance hall

ofPtin

ce

Eugene s palace, and F ~ g u r e 295

a

sta ir

case ofa German castle

designed by llildebrandt. We

cannot

do ju

stice to these

in tetiors unl

ess

we visualize

them in usc - on a day when

the owner was givi ng a feast or

holding a reception, when the

lamps we re li t and men and

women

in

the gay and stately

fashions of the time arrived to

mount

the

se

stairs. At such a

moment

, the

co

ntrast

between

the dark, unlit streets of the

time, reek ing

of

dirt and

squalor, a

nd

the radiant fairy

wo rld

of

the nobleman s

dwelling must have been

ovetw hclming.


6/9

45 POWER AND GLORY:

The buildings of the C hu rch made usc ofsimilar striking effects. Pigure

296 sh

ows

the Austrian monastery ofMclk , on th e D anu be. As

one

comes

do

wn

the

river, this monastery,

wi th

its

cu po l

a and i

ts

strangely shaped

tower

s

stands

on the

hill like some

unreal

a

pp

ari ti

on.

It was

bu

ilt

by

a local

builder

called Jakob

Prandtauer

(died 1726) and decorated by

some

of he

Italian travelling 11irtuosi who

were eve

r ready

with ne

w

id

eas

and

designs

from the vast store ofBaroqu e patterns. How we

ll

these humble artists

had

learnt

the difficult art ofgroup

in

g and organizing a

building to

give

the

appearance

of

stateliness

without mono

to

ny

The

y

were

also careful to

g

raduat

e

the decoration, and to

use

the more extravagant

forms sparingly,

but all the more effectively, in

the

par ts of the building they wanted to

throw in to relief.

In th e

in t

e rior, h

owever, they

cast offall restraint. E

ven

Berni ni or

Borromini

in

their

most exuberant moods would never

h

ave gone

quite

so fa

r. Once

more

we must

imagine w h

at

i t m

eant for

a simple

Aust

rian

pea sant to leave his rmhousc and en ter thi s strange wondcrland,fi


7/9


8/9

454 POWER AND

GLOil

V:

I I

envelops you and stops all qu

es

tioning. You feel you are in a world where

our

rules

and

standards simply do not apply.

One can understand that north of he Alps, no less than in Italy, the

individual arts were swe

pt

into this orgy of decoration and lost much of

their independent importance.

Th

ere were of course, painters and

sc

ulptor

s

of

distinction in

the

period

round

about

1700

but

perhaps there

was onJy one master whose art

com

pares with the great leading painters

of the first halfof the seventeenth cen

tur

y. Tllis master was Antoine

Watteau

1684- 1721 ).

Watteau came from a part of Flanders which had

been conquered by France a few years before his birth, and he settled in

Paris,

where

he died

at the

age

of hir

ty-seven. H e,

too

, designed int

erior

decorations for the cas tles of he nobility, to provide the appropriate

background

for the festivals and pageant ies

of

court society. l3ut it

would

seem as if he actual festivities had

not

satisfied the imagination of the artist.

H e began to paint his own visions ofa life divorced from all hardship and

triviality, a drea

m-lif

e

of

gay picnics in fairy parks where it never rains, of

musical parties where all ladies are beautiful and all lovers graceful, a society

in wh ich all are dressed in sparkling silk

without

looking showy, and

where the life of he shepherds and sheph erdesses seems to be a succession

of

nlinuets. From such a description one

might

get the impression that the

9R

Antoine Wattcau

Fetr ;

pMk

c. 9

Oil

un canvas. 27 6 X

93

l l l

so\ 4 ) 76 in;

Wallace

oll

ect

io

n

Lontlou


9/9

455

G

ERMANY

AND A U STRIA LATE S V ~ N A N D EARLY

EIGIHU

UNT H

C:

t

N

I

Art

uuder roynl

pnrrounge: Louis X

1/

s tiug

th

e oynl

Gobeliu

s Fnao

ry ill

667

Tap

es

t

ry

Mm c de

Vcnailles

art ofWatteau is over-prec

iou

s a

nd

artificia

l.

For many, it has

co

me to

reflect

the

taste of he French aristocracy of the early eighteenth century

which

is known as Rococo: the fashi

on

for dainty col

ou

rs and delicate

d

eco

ration which succee

ded

th

e

mo r

e robust taste of the Baroque period,

a

nd

w

hi

ch

ex

pr

essed

it

s

elf

n gay fi-ivolity.

But

Watteau was far

too

great an

artist to be a mere

exponen

t of he f shions ofh is time. Rather it was he

w

ho se dr

eams and ideals helped to

mould

the

fas

hion

we

call Rococo.

Just

as Va nDyck had helped

to

create the idea of the gentlemanly case we

associate with the Cavaliers, pag

e 405 Jigure

262 so Wattcau has emiched

our

store

of m

aginat

ion

by his vision

of

grace

ful

gallantry.

Figure 298 shows his picture ofa gatheting in a park.

Th

ere

is

nothing of

the noisy gaiety of an Steen s revelries, page 428 _/igure 278 in tllis scene ; a

sweet and almost melancholy calm prevails. These young men and

wo

men

just sit and dream, play with flo wers or gaze at each other. Th e light dances

on their shimmering dresses, and trans

fi

gures the

co

pse i

nt

o an

ear

thly

paradise.

The

qualities o

fWatteau

s

art, the delicacy

ofhis

brush

wo

rk

and the refinem

ent

of his c

olour harm

onies are n

ot

easily revealed in

reproductions. His inunensely sensitive paintings and drawings mu st really

be seen and enjoyed in the originaL Like Rubens, w hom he admired,

Watt

ea

u

co

uld

co

nvey the impression ofliving, palpitating flesh through

a mere w hiff

of

chalk or

co

lour.

But

the

moo

d

ofllis

studies is

as

diff

eren

t

from Rubens s

as

his paintings are from j an Steen s.

Th

ere is a touch of

sa

dn

ess in these visions

ofbe

auty wllich

is

difficult to describe or define ,

but w

hi

ch li fts Watteau s art beyond

th

e sphere of me re sk ill an d prettiness .

Watteau was a sick man, who died of consumption at an early age. Per

hap

s

it was his awareness

of

the transi

ence of

bea

ut

y w

hi

ch gave to Ius art that

intensity which no ne of his many adnlirers and imitators could equaL

ernst gombrich - power and glory ii (ch. 22)

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