Csornay Boldizsár - Dobos Zsuzsa - Varga Ágota - Zakariás János szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 97. (Budapest, 2002)

The Year 2002

cific natural forms, elements of landscape that might later be incorporated into a painting. In more finished drawings, like Foggy Morning, he treated the themes for which he is best known in a manner quite close to that of his paintings. 3. Landscape Drawings The Romantic era witnessed an extraordinary blossoming of landscape as an independent genre. Landscapes gradually became liberated from the models that had emerged in 17th century Italy and dominated art for a long time. Characteristic of the "heroic landscape" was a stage-like setting with tiny figures dressed in the antique style. Increasingly, artists discovered the actual phenomena of the Northern European and Italian landscapes. On walking tours, which they often undertook in groups, they made outdoor sketches from nature of both complete panoramas and individual trees or cliff formations. Sometimes they also coloured these on the spot so as to communicate an authentic impression. Their desire for authenticity can also be seen in their exact dating of their works; this was sometimes even accompanied by a place reference. By no means did all artists capture nature after the same fashion. They used a great diversity of techniques ranging from pencil to watercolour. A striking feature is that many of their drawings appear to be unfinished, or are at least not completely coloured. Representing fragments is a typical characteristic of Romanticism, and the frequent presence of ruins in Romantic drawings and paintings is not the least consequence of this. These drawings did not just serve as raw material for larger compositions. Numerous artists exclusively produced drawings and no oil paintings at all. 4. History and fairy tale The newly awakened interest in national history, myth and fairytale was an important aspect of Romanticism. The numerous illustrations relating to the Niebelunglied (the medieval German epic), the Reformation and well-known fairytales such as Cinderella are the fruits of that interest. Book illustration was an important field of activity, as this art form meant a wide distribution of artists' compositions. The Nazarenes in particular, an association of students from the Academy in Vienna, who in a kind of peaceful revolution had rejected their teachers and headed for Rome, concentrated their energies on illustrating the Bible and the legends of the saints. Inspired by the philosophies of Wackenroder, Friedrich Schlegel, Novalis and others, the group sought a renewal of Christian art based on German Gothic and Italian Quattrocento principles. The Nazarenes never arrived at a common style, but their work nevertheless had a recognizable identity. Reflecting the group's collective sources, their drawings and paintings shared a medievalizing linearity and two-dimensionality as well as graceful surface patterns. Moritz von Schwind provides a transition between Romanticism and Biedermeier. He was a second-generation Nazarene, who spent most of his professional life in Munich. Schwind's immensely popular pictures of poetical subjects from German folk tales and folk songs feature nymphs, gnomes, hermits and fairies cavorting in forest glades. 5. Italy For many Romantic artists, the journey to Italy constituted a pivotal experience in their lives. Like their colleagues from other parts of Europe, German-speaking artists got together in smaller groups not only to draw, but also to socialise. They all had one