Gustave Moreau

Les  tableaux  présentés  dans 'L’Œuvre' (1886)  de  Zola  ont  été  maintes  fois  commentés. Cependant  l’évolution  artistique  du  personnage  principal,  Claude  Lantier,  reste  peu explorée.  En  effet le  personnage  de  Zola  traverse  des  périodes  diverses  qui  peuvent  être clairement  définies :  naturalisme,  impressionnisme, réalisme  moderne  (actualisme)  et finalement  symbolisme.  Pourquoi  cette  évolution  artistique  de  l’artiste  imaginaire ?  Est-ce pour utiliser le roman comme extension de la critique d’art de l’auteur ou pour tracer une  histoire  de  l’art  de  son  époque ?  Est-ce  pour  marquer  la  décadence  héréditaire  et  le génie  incomplet  de  Lantier ?  Est-ce  par  soucis  réaliste  d’ancrer  son  personnage  dans  la réalité  artistique  de  son  temps ?  Est-ce  pour  se  donner  l’occasion  d’expérimenter différents types  d’écriture picturale ?  Ou est-ce  une  simple  excuse  pour  nourrir  un  débat essentiellement littéraire ? Nous nous proposons ici de revisiter et d’analyser ces tableaux inspirés  de  tableaux  réels  ou  complètement  imaginaires  pour  tenter  d’apporter  des éléments de réponses à ces questions. 

The paintings presented in Zola’s Masterpiece (1886) have been many times commented upon and analysed. However, the artistic evolution of the main character, Claude Lantier, has  attracted  very  little  attention.  Zola’s  character  goes  through  diverse  periods  that  can clearly  be  defined:  naturalism,  impressionism,  modern  realism  (‘actualism’)  and  finally symbolism. Why does Zola present this fictional artistic evolution to his readers ? Is it to use the novel as an extension of his art criticism or to portray contemporary art history ? Is it to show Lantier’s hereditary decadence and incomplete genius ? Is it a realist process to anchor his character in the artistic reality of his time ? Is it to experiment with different types  of  pictorial  writing  ?  Or  is  it  simply  an  excuse  to  fuel  what  is  a  mostly  literary debate? In this article we revisit and analyse the real or imaginary paintings presented by Zola to try to bring elements of answer to these questions.

The article reconsiders the genesis of Gustave Moreau’s Prométhée exposed at 1869 Paris Salon, focusing especially on its visual and literary sources from Antiquity to Renaissance Art. A"er a strong education in classics, Moreau traveled to Italy and had the chance to deepen his knowledge and understanding of Art History. Since then, as for his Prométhée, quotations from many celebrated masterpieces (from the I century B.C. Sigillo di Nerone in the Museo Borbonico, Naples, to the early 16th century Raphael’s ceiling frescoes in the Vatican) qualify his work of new interpretations: classical literature, Renaissance culture and Neo-Platonist theory melt with the concern for the role and the duty of the artist in his time, between the end of the Second Empire, the Franco-Prussian armistice and the Paris Commune. In Moreau’s view this is how history painting turns out epic and political and religious commitment enhance present with a neo-humanistic attitude.

Gustave Moreau was the first true symbolist painter and the idol of a successful and large circle of artists which instead of exploring nature delved into the world of mystery. It was a surprise when after 1880, at the peak of his success, he permanently retreated from public appearances, shutting himself away from the outside world to create works of art for himself. The pictorial effect of the works Moreau created in seclusion, away from the eyes of the public at which time he was able to ignore any outer respect displays far greater courage than his earlier pieces displayed to the public. A certain group of works found among the relaxed sketches and inventive technical experiments in Gustave Moreau’s studio museum comes as a real surprise to the visitor who sees it several generations after the artist died. The almost two hundred undated pictures are entitled in the inventory as “Sketches” and according to the artistic concepts of the 20th century they can be described as genuine abstract compositions.

Alcune note su Vittore Carpaccio e la pittura veneta 1. L'incerto interesse storiografico che ha contrassegnato lo studio dell'opera di Gustave Moreau lungo tutto il corso del XX secolo ha registrato indubbiamente un punto di svolta nell'importante mostra monografica, a cura di Jean Cassou, Jean Paladilhe e Ragnar von Holten, allestita nel 1961 al Musée du Louvre, su iniziativa dell'allora ministro della cultura francese André Malraux 1 . Fino a quel momento, dalle raffinate esegesi di Ary Renan ai devoti apprezzamenti di Georges Rouault, allievo prediletto dell'atelier di Moreau e primo conservatore della casa-museo di rue de la Rochefoucauld, erano prevalse letture agiografiche dell'artista, ancorché ricche di preziose testimonianze, idee e opinioni, direttamente desunte dalla consuetudine quotidiana di rapporti amicali e professionali molto intimi 2 . Tuttavia, il titolo scelto da Ragnar von Holten per il volume di studi che aveva preceduto di un anno l'esposizione parigina, L'Art fantastique di Gustave Moreau, non dissipava quell'aura di mistero solenne, e quasi inaccessibile, che caratterizzava la memoria del pittore 3 . Al contrario, nonostante gli indubbi meriti conquistati anche sul piano della più ortodossa filologia, della ricostruzione della biografia, del catalogo e della poetica dell'artista, la prova più evidente della sua persistente fortuna di pittore "fantastico" fu data, nello stesso torno di anni, dalla sua annessione nella celebre riedizione, nel 1965, del volume di André Breton, Le Surréalisme et la peinture (con un contributo datato 1961, a ridosso dunque della mostra al Louvre), e dall'inclusione di un suo dipinto e di sei acquerelli nella selezione di opere che curò Salvador Dalí nel 1967 per la mostra Hommage à Meissonier 4 .

In 1890, Gustave Moreau received the commission to create a painting that would ultimately become his last masterpiece. Secluded in his large studio on the Rue de la Rochefoucauld, accompanied only by a few faithful assistants and living out his last days alone (his mistress of twenty-five years having died the year the painting was begun...) Moreau became lost in the labyrinth of his own creation. The final result was an enigmatic opus, intriguing but bewildering. His admirers hailed him as a genius, while his critics branded him as an eccentric and recluse, a consumer of opium and hashish... Now, calling upon texts written by Moreau himself, the noted author L. Caruana elucidates the painting, offering a visual journey through its narrative, composition and philosophy. Through a close examination of the details and comparing them to the painting as a whole, Moreau’s vast allegory emerges – a timeless myth, Neo-Platonic and Gnostic in conception, of the soul’s separation from divinity, its entrapment in matter, and even its possible incarceration in the underworld. Yet, Moreau’s altarpiece also offers us a rare moment of revelation and redemption, an ascent to the higher realm where beauty, perfection and timeless archetypes eternally dwell. The second half of this brief study (elaborately illustrated in black and white) explores the painting’s evolution, offering photos of its different stages, identifying lines of armature and explaining the harmonic proportions underlying its composition. The artist’s working methods are examined – his use of plasticine models, photographs and live models – and the alterations (pentimenti) in the painting. Finally, Moreau’s own aspirations to extend Historical Painting into a higher kind of Spiritual and Allegorical Painting (which he called Le Grand Art) are revealed through original translations of the artist’s texts, including fragments of a self-written obituary (nécrologie).

Em Às avessas (1884), encontra-se o principal exemplo da tentativa de Huysmans de renovação do romance, promovendo uma ruptura com os movimentos anteriores e, especialmente, com o naturalismo. O decadentismo encontrou em des Esseintes a principal representação das peculiaridades desse movimento, dentre elas, o culto do artifício. Em seu retiro, onde o personagem procura afastar-se do mundo real e deter-se em seus sonhos e imaginação, revela-se esse culto. Nesse estudo, investigaremos as transposições de arte em Às avessas, particularmente, as referentes aos quadros Salomé e A Aparição, de Moreau, de forma a analisar como se manifesta o culto ao artificial nessas passagens. Observamos que as transposições dessas obras privilegiam aspectos que remetem ao artificial e à beleza como produto do toque da arte sobre a natureza. Procuram ainda evocar as imagens representadas e explorar as possibilidades da literatura de sugerir e provocar sensações a partir da apreciação da arte pictural.

Gustave Moreau, premier peintre symboliste à part entière, tout comme il devint l’idole des nombreux cercles artistiques qui, au lieu de s’attacher à l’observation de la nature, choisirent de se vouer à l’exploration du monde des mystères. Après 1880, au summum de son succès, l’artiste se retira du monde extérieur et de la vie publique, peignant pour son propre plaisir. Les effets picturaux obtenus dans les œuvres exécutées par l'artiste isolé du public, éloigné de toute contrainte extérieure, attestent d'une témérité largement supérieure à celle des compositions qui avaient auparavant rencontré le succès au Salon. Dans le musée-atelier de Gustave Moreau, certaines études d'une extraordinaire liberté, d'une grande nouveauté technique, surprennent encore, des décennies après la mort de l'artiste, les visiteurs qui viennent les découvrir. Il s'agit de peintures de petites dimensions et d'aquarelles aux couleurs flamboyantes dépourvues de sujet, éloignées de toute allusion thématique. Les œuvres qui composent cet ensemble comprenant près de deux-cent travaux non-datés, mentionnés dans l'inventaire en tant qu' « ébauches » peuvent être décrites, suivant les notions artistiques du XXe siècle, comme de véritables compositions abstraites.

Mostre. La rassegna «Pompei e l'Europa. 1748-1943», al museo archeologico di Napoli, racconta la fascinazione che la città sepolta dalla lava esercitò sugli artisti viaggiatori, nei secoli scorsi. E nell'Anfiteatro del sito, venti calchi di defunti sono stati racchiusi in una piramide ad effetto dall'architetto Francesco Venezia Una nube fuori dall'ordinario, simile alla silhouette di un pino che si slancia verticalmente per poi ramificarsi: è l'immagine dell'eruzione del Vesuvio che Plinio il Giovane affiderà a Tacito affinché la fama di suo zio Plinio il Vecchio -«deceduto nel disastro delle più incantevoli plaghe» -divenga imperitura. Il 79 d.C. è una data memorabile già per gli antichi. Il 24 agosto di quell'anno, Pompei, Ercolano, Stabia e Oplontis -luoghi ameni della Roma repubblicana e dell'impero -vengono travolte da un'implacabile pioggia di lapilli e ceneri. La danza dei fauni si ferma in punta di piedi mentre specchi finemente cesellati vanno in pezzi, infrangendo gli sguardi di Veneri ammalianti. Persino le dimore degli dèi soccombono alla furia del vulcano, il fato appone un malinconico sigillo sulla bellezza dei giardini in fiore. Bisognerà attendere il 1748 per veder riemergere dalla terra le tracce di quel funesto evento, a testimoniare che se la morte fu dolorosa, la grazia dell'arte sopravvisse per conquistare i posteri. Ed è proprio alla fascinazione che la scoperta fortuita delle metropoli vesuviane provocò tra XVIII e XX secolo su artisti e intellettuali, che è dedicata la mostra Pompei e l'Europa. 1748-1943 al Museo archeologico nazionale di Napoli (fino al 2 novembre). Promossa dalla Soprintendenza speciale per Pompei, Ercolano e Stabia e dalla Direzione Generale del Grande Progetto Pompei con il Man, la rassegna è organizzata da Electa e vanta il patrocinio di Expo 2015.

This text focuses on Joris-Karl Huysmans as an art critic and on his influence on the Czech environment. As during his lifetime, Huysmans’s critical work as well as his personal lifeunderwent significant transformations, his work found favorable response among several different opinion groups, which engaged in controversies with one another.
The circle associated with the Moderní revue (Modern Review) magazine presented Huysmans as a decadent and focused on his texts such as À rebours (1884). Of the Moderní revue circle, particularly Antonín Procházka’s and Karel Hlaváček’s texts featured inspiration by Huysmans. The Volné směry (Free Styles) magazine, on the other hand, perceived Huysmans as a naturalist and a defender of impressionism. Huysmans influenced particularly Miloš Jiránek and František Xaver Šalda; the latter wrote an extensive obituary of Huysmans. Huysmans was further mentioned in Rozhledy (Horizons), a periodical which voiced opinions which were less limited in breadth, and his conversion made him an attractive figure also for the Catholic Nový život (New Life) magazine, which however did not focus on his critical thought on art.
Generally speaking, Huysmans’s reviews were widely read in the Czech Lands, although their selection was limited. Czech art periodicals found his reviews interesting for his daring style and a broad range of themes, which also included little-known artists, caricatures and posters.

This essay explore the figure of the Amazon warrior woman in nineteenth-century literature. African and English women, including Queen Victoria, are both represented as “Amazons.” Colonizers are represented as Amazons, as are the colonized. According to the Victorian writers and artists surveyed here, the figure of the Amazon also transgresses distinctions between traditional male and female roles. She is a woman and yet also a soldier. Representations of the Amazon do not consistently or strictly adhere to the ways in which colonial ideology divided up the world into the powerful (white men) and the powerless (everyone else). The Amazon is a mobile archetype that appears, at times, to challenge the fixity of those boundaries. Some representations of the Amazon appear to endorse colonialism by showing, for example, that African Amazons need saving from their incivility. Representations of her extraordinary powers (martial and sexual) appear to offer an implicit critique of the assumptions about gender and race that underwrite colonial ideology. To modern critics, at least, these representations reveal some limits of colonial ideology within a body of colonial literature and art that otherwise seems to support colonialism.

Слика Уморни кентаур француског сликара симболисте Гистава
Мороа, која се чува у Народном музеју у Београду, биће анализирана кроз
визуру културних дешавања, идеја и проблема друштва западне Европе
крајем 19. века. Дела Гистава Мороа која проблематизују ово питање при-
казују ауторова размишљања о естетици и декаденцији, смрти, пролазности
и будућности уметности. Јунаци слике, кентаур и млади андрогени песник,
представљају дуалитет људске природе – акцију и статичност, тело и ум, жи-
вот и смрт. Песник је мртав, али његова рана није видљива – она је душевна и
вечна, у њој је садржано питање које мучи многе уметнике – каква је судбина
уметности након смрти њеног аутора. Сликар пружа оптимистичан закљу-
чак да је дело великог уметника трајније од његовог пропадљивог тела. Oно
је бесмртно и вечно.