Airbrushed from Art History? (8)

Symbolism was an international movement and as a result the many Christian influences found within it also have strong international dimension.

In Belgium, Gustave van de Woestyne, Valerius de Saedeleer, George Minne and Alfons Dessenis formed the first 'generation' of the Latem School, which was followed shortly by a second group of artists - Albert Servaes, Frits van den Berghe, Constant Permeke, Léon de Smet and Gustave de Smet. Robert Hoozee writes in Belgian Art 1880 - 1914 that the "central idea of the little artists' colony was to search for a meaningful, spiritual art."

Like Maurice Denis, who was an influence on his work, van de Woestyne has been viewed as associating "the biblical message with the reality of an idealized rural world cut off from industrial society" (Cathérine Verleysen in Maurice Denis: Earthly Paradise). His work mixed "profound religious devotion with a realistic, sometimes mystical sensibility." George Minne was referred to on more than one occasion by critics as having a 'Gothic soul'. He drew inspiration for themes and forms from the Middle Ages and his entire oeuvre is imbued with religious feeling. Hoozee writes in Impressionism to Symbolism that Minne's work "captured perfectly the introverted spiritually expressive concerns of Symbolism, enclosed as they were within the elegant forms of Art Nouveau."

James Ensor is the greatest of the Belgian Symbolist painting truly visionary scenes and seeing himself often "in the midst of a hostile crowd, as a rejected Christ figure." This is an identification made by modern artists from Ensor and Gauguin onwards which can reflect both the isolation of artists in their suffering rejection or the sense of the god-like power to create possessed by artists. Ensor's biblically themed works such as The Entry of Christ into Brussels in 1889, in addition to their celebration of the artist as creator and unappreciated redeemer, also "create a grand, synthetic critique of contemporary politics, religion and society" which denounces "colonial policies, religious dogma, materialism, oppression, and deceit." (Michelle Facos, Symbolist Art in Context)

Jan Toorop was the oldest and most prominent of the Dutch symbolists and had many links with the Belgian movement. Robert Goldwater writes in Symbolism that the "mysticism of Toorop and [Johan] Thorn-Prikker" was a significant aspect of the "brief flowering of Dutch Symbolism." Toorop's early paintings are in the style of Ensor, he then works in a neo-impressionist style before his symbolist orientation begins to take hold. He draws on an eclectic range of iconography, including Javanese puppet figures, the flowing tresses of the Pre-Raphaelites, and Celtic interlace. All these elements come together in The Three Brides where Michael Gibson writes in Symbolism that:

"The central fiancée evokes an inward, superior and beautiful desire ... an ideal suffering ... The fiancée on the left symbolises spiritual suffering. She is the mystic fiancée, her eyes wide with fear ..." The bride on the right has "a materialistic and profane expression ..." and stands for the sensual world."

Gibson writes that "Thorn Prikker took Toorop's formalism a step further; the garland worn by The Bride echoes Christ's crown of thorns." He explained that "his basic intention [is] to fix ... the essence of things contained in general abstract concepts such as life, purity, mysticism, but also in the emotions of love, hate, depression." Goldwater writes that "his subjects are Christian, but like Maurice Denis, the best of whose early work has the same serene and lyric mood."

In Italy Symbolism was combined with Divisionism, the application of "pure colours directly onto the canvas in small dots, lines and threads" (Aurora Scotti Tosini in Radical Light). Giovanni Segantini's transcendent mountain scenes were often imbued with religious references while his "typically Symbolist dialectic of holy mother and fallen women" used "female characters who often represented the binary opposition of Mary and Eve" (Vivien Greene in Radical Light). "Guiseppe Pellizza da Volpeda was able to sustain his passion for socially conscious subjects while also using Symbolist imagery that was imbued with Christian motifs and was based on Italiam medieval and Renaissance prototypes." The Procession "re-enacts the powerful rituals of Catholicism" while The Mirror of Life "suggests biblical passages in which sheep symbolise the followers of Christ" in order to conceive the sheep of the scene as a metaphor for humanity.

For Gaetano Previati, "the most traditionally religious of the Divisionists," the Madonna and Child was a preferred theme realised most famously in Motherhood. "Previati sought to suggest the religious mysticism of his subject through the evocation of light, which radiates non-naturalistically from the figure of the Madonna in a diffused aureole" (Lara Pucci in Radical Light). "Previati's reinterpretation of Christian iconography and his efforts to reassign a spiritual meaning to art had a significant influence on the next generation [the Futurists]."

Yevgenia Petrova in From Russia portrays Mikhail Nesterov as one of "Russia's subtlest Symbolist artists":

"Nesterov devotes many of his paintings to people of the Church, remote from worldly vanity, immersed in the mysterious and rich world of spiritual quest. As a rule, the personages in Nestoerov's canvases are not portrait-like, having no concrete prototypes. They are symbols of the existence of a way of life, which rejects vanity and worldliness."

Petrova then describes the works of Mikhail Vrubel as "exhibiting a completely different kind of religiosity, rebellious in character, in keeping with the spirit of the Symbolist age":


"The thinking being tormented by good and evil, pride and sorrow, condemnation and revolt, strength of will and resignation to fate: this is the main theme of the mature Vrubel ... In his later years, Vrubel embodied his obsession with repentance in another masterpiece on a religious theme, Six-Winged Seraph."

This latter work "is perceived as an inner vision of the artist, to whom an angel has appeared to remind him of his high mission as one of the chosen, calling him to "inflame the hearts of people throughout the world", to arouse their spirits "from the trivia of the everyday, through sublime imagery"" (Valentina Knyazeva in From Russia).


Similarly, Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin's Virgin of Tender Mercy to Evil Hearts is "permeated with an energy of great spiritual force" which "acquires a special significance as the artist's heartfelt response to the tragic events taking place at the time [the First World War]" Galina Krechina in From Russia).

National identity was a significant element within Symbolism, particularly in Eastern Europe. For example, Piotr Kopszak and Andrzej Szczerski writing in Symbolist Art in Poland suggest that:

"At the turn of the twentieth century the debate arose among artists concerning the search for a distinctive Polish national style. Hopes for an assertion of national identity found their expression in paintings and sculptures related to Polish history and national myths, and the Romantic idea of Polish messianism. These works implied that the sufferings of Poles had a deeper, spiritual meaning and served to redeem Europe. Poland appeared as the 'Christ of Nations', modelled on the symbolism of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ: in Romantic literature for example, contemporary Poland was compared to the crucified Jesus Christ, especially by [Adam] Mickiewicz. In the fine arts, the religious iconography of crucifixion appeared in works dedicated to national uprisings, and the sacrifice of national heroes, or in visionary works, such as [Stanislaw] Wyspiański's Polonia."

Jósef Mehoffer was a "major representative of the Polish art scene around 1900" who "throughout his life turned to the Roman Catholic religion as a source of inspiration, and his profound knowledge of Christian iconography was unique among his contemporaries." "His works were particularly well known for their attractive aesthetic qualities, based on colour harmonies and ornamental arabesques." He executed numerous church decorations but these were "a source of intense debate, with traditionalists considering the boldly modern works of Mehoffer to be inappropriate." Kazimierz Sichulski was another whose diverse output "often conveyed deeper Symbolist and religious meanings" (Julia Dudkiewicz in Symbolist Art in Poland).

In Hungary two artist communities had great significance, as Gyöngyi Éri and Zsuzsa Jobbágyi write in A Golden Age. Károly Ferenczy became the leading figure of the Nagybánya Artists' Colony and painted "a series of Biblical paintings exemplifying his love of nature." The lyrical approach to nature of the Nagybánya Artists and their semi-religious attitude to art "were both features of international Symbolism and a comon aspect of the Central-European Stimmungsmalerei." It was Ferenczy "who first painted the type of harmonious compositions where colours dominate the design, and the atmosphere is full of tender lyricism" (Ilona Sármány-Parsons in A Golden Age).

The Gödöllő Colony was inspired by the philosophy of Leo Tolstoy by simplifying their own lives and popularising his teachings for the common good, seeking happiness in unity:

"The painting Ego sum via, veritas et vita (1903) by Aladár Körösföi Kriesch is one of the most perfect expressions of the purity of this Christian faith. It displays a mentality that sought and found the fullness of life in family togetherness. Körösföi painted it after the premature death of his first child. The composition (on the right side of which members of the Gödöllő settlement are recognizable) illustrates Christian compliance with the Divine will."

"Sándor Nagy's paintings and drawings also reflect the Gödöllő striving for the purification of the spirit ... Ave Myriam (c. 1903) ... is part of a series depicting the development of the artist's own life in its progress towards beauty and perfection. At the beginning of the cycle, the artist discovers the evangelical tenets then, finding a wife, experiences the joyous beauty of life and reaches fulfilment with the birth of a child."

Finally, Tivandar Csontváry Kosztka was a "strange, obsessed genius" who following a vision aged twenty-seven indicating that he would be greater than Raphael "painted huge, visionary works in such a subjective style that they were inaccessible to the general public." The Praying Saviour "with its depiction of Moses in the background and the rather spectral presence of the apostles at the bottom of the picture, belongs to a ... visionary period, as do Cedars of Lebanon (1907) and Riders on the Seashore (1909), in which the freize-like procession of figures enhances a sense of enchantment." With similar nationalistic tendencies to those of the Young Poland movement, Csontváry "believed that a national art would serve to legitimize the history of the Hungarians as a separate and independent people in the heart of Europe."

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Arvo Part - Magnificat.