Nagy Ildikó szerk.: Nagybánya művészete, Kiállítás a nagybányai művésztelep alapításának 100. évfordulója alkalmából (A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai 1996/1)

Sinkó Katalin: Az alapítók biblikus képei és a századvég antihistorizmusa

of a historical style suiting the needs of the Church. The basis for the selection of style was the historicizing concept of religious art. For some critics, Gothic was the primary style for religious art. From the Church's point of view there were doubts about the suitability of the "Renaissanceism" for the expression of religious themes. Among those rejecting "Renaissance-ism" were the representatives of the neo-idealist schools, including the monastic artists of Beuron. Their art was based on the presumption of an abstract and timeless concept of beauty. Rather than simply being a choice among historical styles, Historicism also implies a concept of history. Historicism was never limited to the depiction of events from the distant past according to the requirements of historical authenticity; it also meant identification with the heroes of the past and an emphasis on historical continuity. Thus in connection with the debates on Historicism, the following question arose: whether in the depiction of Biblical figures, such as Jesus, the artist should try to reconstruct the given historical milieu or rather recreate the heros and god-figures in the shapes and forms in which tradition and faith had implanted them in people's imagination? Is it the historical Jesus or the Biblical Jesus that they should represent? The change of artistic concept at the turn of the century can be best captured in the rejection of Historicism, or even in manifested anti-Historicism. Both in intellectual life and in views on religious art, the rejection of historicism acquired growing importance. Not only was Historicism criticized by the churches, but developments in modern art were also running against it. The major figures and tendencies of modern Biblical painting opposed to Historicism must be discussed next, with special regard to those artists, whose influence on the founders of the Nagybánya colony can reasonably be assumed. THE ANTI-HISTORICISM OF THE MODERN ARTISTS Referring to a short story by Thomas Mann published in 1901, Peter Klauss Schuster gave the witty title "München leuchtete" to one of his catalogue-books, in which he discussed the late-nineteenth-century attempt to renew religious art in Munich. The short story entitled "Gladius Dei", is about an iconoclastic attempt. When interpreted in a broader sense, the iconoclastic rage evoked by the genre scenes, or "sacred" scenes degraded into genre pictures, enjoying success at the Glaspalast exhibitions (so accurately portrayed by Thomas Mann) help us understand the efforts of Hollósy and his circle to create a new, morally acceptable, natural and sincere art. We have every reason to believe that it was this often mentioned yet never thoroughly explored moral motivation which initially provided the binding force for the Hollósy studio, and then for the founders of the Nagybánya colony. They were not the only artists in Munich to demand artistic morality, since the religious respect for nature and art which bound the members of Wilhelm Leibl's circle was also of this kind. Leibl's circle, as Eberhard Ruhmer pointed out, never had a thorough theory of art, only a theory of the artist, which concerned the principles of the execution of works of art. The abovementioned ethics of art were more important to them. The artists devoted to pure painterliness rejected all forms of Historicism, portraying in their pictures the world and the existential weight of the present. The rejection of Historicism - or to use Herbert Schandelbach's expression describing the conceptual changes of the period, the "loss of history" (Geschichtsverlust) - affected the foundations of the expectations in connection with the representation of historical themes. The growing importance of the present and the rejection of the requisites of Historicism can be detected even in pictures which are likely to be perceived, at a first and superficial glance, as examples of the Biblical orientation movements, when in fact they differ from the later precisely in their conception of time. While the dilemma in the background of the debates - i.e. whether it is the historical Jesus or the Jesusimage of the religious communities and tradition that the artists should try to depict - could not be resolved by the 1890s, the emphasis began to shift towards the latter view. Fritz von Uhde also participated in the attempt to define the Christ-figure of the late nineteenth century; he was invited to take part in the exhibition, in which nine artists appointed by Consul Theodor Bierck showed their representations of Christ. The nine artists were Ferdinand Brütt, Artur Kampf, Karl Narr, Gabriel Max, Franz Skarbina, Franz Stuck, Hans Thoma, Fritz von Uhde and Ernst Zimmerman. The works shown at this exhibition also prove that the artists of the 1890s represented the figure of the Redeemer disconnected from the historical and the Biblical figure and unrestrained by theological traditions. In a large number of (non-ecclesiastical) works made around that time the painters attempted to transform Christ's person into a symbol of western culture or the hero of historical-philosophical and existential teachings. Of the modern works of historical-philosophical conception, we would, at this point, only like to mention some of the paintings of Max Klinger. His Crucifixion made between 1883 and 1890 was first shown to the public in 1893 at an exhibition in Berlin. On the right side of his picture, Jesus is nailed to a cross, which is shown from a side view and at a rather low height; his mother, together with John and the fainting Magdalene, is at the centre; and Christ's critics and judges - the ecclesiastic figures of Klinger's own age - occupy the left side of the painting. John's facial features resemble Beethoven's, who epitomized the "genius" in Klinger's mythology. In his work executed in the late 1890s entitled Christ on the Olympus, Klinger placed Christ's person