Late-medieval wood sculptures as materialized saints : The embodiment of Saint Anne in Northern Europe

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Tartu Ülikooli kunstiajalooõpetuse moderniseerimisest ja kollektsioonide rollist kunstiajaloo professori valimistel aastatel 1919–1921

Modernizing the teaching of art history at the University of Tartu and on the importance of collections in the election process of the first professor of art history in the years 1919-1921 Eero Kangor, MA, Estonian Academy of Arts   The changes in the teaching of art history at the European universities were the product of the modernization of the society in the 19th and the first half of the 20th century. In Estonia these changes were connected to the national movement of both Estonians and Baltic Germans as well as the Russification of the University of Tartu. In 1919 the University was re-established as the national university with the ambition to give the best possible education for the future specialists of all fields of occupation in the Estonian Republic. The article focuses on the election process of the professor of art history at the University of Tartu during the years 1919-1921 and attempts to analyze this in the Northern European context. It develops from the academic background of the candidates and the experts involved in this process to reveal their possible interests directed to the position in Tartu. On the other hand the political situation in Estonia, the material conditions and possibilities but also the ideological preferences of the administration of the University of Tartu have to be born in mind. The election of the professor of art history effected the professionalization of art history and with this the new interpretations given to the arts of “all times” that were created and that had remained in the Estonian territory. More generally it influenced the acceptance of this art heritage as an object of the Estonian (national) art historiography. The work with art heritage assumed a more systematic knowledge about it and required the formulation of new special collections that were to be deposited at the Art History cabinet of the University of Tartu. In the art historiography of this period the medieval art was an active field of heated debates that engaged a lot of many ambitious and talented German and Swedish art historians. Their attention centered on the importance of the medieval Hanseatic League and its member cities and more generally the Baltic Sea as a space and medium of artistic influences. Until the 1920s medieval art in the territory of the Estonian Republic had been studied by the Baltic German art historians as part of the so-called Baltic art. Similarly the object of Estonian art was only the creation of Estonian artists from the mid-19th century onwards. None of this was of interest to the scholars at the University of Tartu where the academic study was exclusively involved with the problems of classical art. At the time of Russification in the last quarter of the 19th century the city of Tartu (then Dorpat) was renamed “Jurjew” and followed by the renaming of the university and adding “Imperial” to it. The classical studies of the antique art where part of imperial discourse and possessed likewise importance in the British, Austro-Hungarian and Prussian Empire. For the new nation-states established after the collapse of the Russian and Austro-Hungarian Empires, this discourse had no relevance. The founders of the Estonian national university in Tartu took the Scandinavian univesities as an example which also meant the ineluctable inclination to the ideology attached to it. As a result the chair of aesthetics and general art history was established in 1919. At the same time it could not be ignored that the University of Tartu had been a Baltic German institution since 1802 and possessed not only an internationally renowned prestige in classical archaeology but also a remarkable collection of Antique art. During the First World War this collection had been evacuated to the Russian Voronezh University and self-evidently it was the duty of the university administrators to get back its assets. This is the background for considering the Baltic German classical archeologist Oskar Waldhauer as one of the candidates for the chair of art history. The Faculty of Philosophy that was in charge of the election process might have hoped to achieve a quicker solution to the problems of the art collections when electing Waldhauer as the professor. As I have tried to present in my article it was in conflict with first the progressive mindset and the modernization efforts of the university administrators and the pursuit to approach the Scandinavian examples. At this time a significant change was taking place at the Scandinavian universities in the study and teaching of art history with the decreasing attention to antique art and aesthetic problems. Instead of the study of classical texts much importance was given to the meticulous study of the art objects, to stylistic generalizations and an attempt to chart the cultural geographical migration of the art motives in the Baltic Sea region. This meant a totally different approach to art heritage and effected the formulation of new kinds of specialist collections, e.g. photo-collections that required notable financial support. From the correspondence with the candidates it can be concluded that it was not easy to attract foreign professors to the newly established Republic because the university could not offer sufficient financial and institutional support that was anticipated by the candidates. For the candidates it was important to have modern equipment and the special collections (books, photos and artefacts) for teaching art history, on the other hand, the professor could become a pioneer in research on the heritage of Estonia. The help of the most renowned scholars in Germany and Scandinavia were contacted as experts to find the candidates: Fritz Knapp (1874—1938), Martin Wackernagel (1881—1962), Wilhelm Worringer (1881—1965), Helge Kjellin (1885—1984), Kurt Gerstenberg (1886—1968), Onni Okkoneni (1886—1962) and Erwin Panofsky (1892—1968). Only four of them actually considered to accept the offer (Knapp, Gerstenberg, Kjellin and Wackernagel). The reason for the dominance of German candidates was first that in Germany there were enough professional art historians at that time. There was a surplus of scholars who looked for a stable job as the inflation during the 1920s affected foremost the German academic community. However, the the University of Tartu had a cautionary standpoint towards the German candidates and the attitude towards (Baltic) Germans was also generally negative in Estonia. Unlike in Germany there was scarcity of professional art historians in Scandinavia and Finland. Though Estonian archaeology could profit from the Finnish scholars Aarne Michaël Tallgren and general history from Arno Rafael Cederberg there was less opportunity to provide the southern nation-relatives with a professor in art history. On the other hand the concept of Baltic-Nordic Art Region put forward by the Swede Johnny Roosval could profit remarkably from the work of a disciple doing research on Estonian Middle Age art heritage. It is clear from the correspondence with Roosval that he made an effort to support his countryman Kjellin’s candidacy. Kjellin’s mission actually turned out to be successful in establishing that at least the Western-Estonian Medieval Churches have strong connections with the art of Gotland. Finally, the Faculty of Philosophy elected the internationally renowned though notorious Strzygowski as the first professor of art history at the University of Tartu. At this time Strzygowski was already a professor in Vienna and Åbo (Finland). Estonian art history students could have profited from his inarguably strong methodological teaching but his ideological inclination would certainly have been undesirable. Strzygowski seems to have rejected the chair because of practical reasons. This meant that the second in election — Kjellin — was given a chance to develop Estonian art history study. One of Kjellin’s first jobs was the establishment of the research collections at the Art History cabinet. For this he organised research trips with his student to the medieval land churches, the cloisters, castles, fortressess and the old towns in Estonia and also northern Latvia. During his time in Estonia (1922-24) he could not publish any research on this material until 1928 when his monograph on the Karja Church in Saaremaa appeared. This received a sharp critique by other scholars mainly because of overinfluencing the artistic influences from Gotland. This was achieved by matching the material with the Roosval’s conception of the Baltic-Nordic art region, but not convincingly enough. More important of this was that with his monograph Kjellin managed to open up a debate on Estonian medieval art heritage and make its study tempting for the Estonian researchers and in the long run this meant the integration of this heritage to Estonian art. This research profited greatly from the research collections established by Kjellin during his time in Tartu.

'Projecting the future in German art historiography of the nineteenth century: Franz Kugler, Karl Schnaase, and Gottfried Semper'

In the mid-nineteenth century Franz Kugler and Karl Schnaase decisively shaped the conception of art history as a discipline. Both explored connections between art of former epochs and that of the present. They understood the art of their day to be the result of a tradition of modernity based on the Renaissance and pointing into the future. Schnaase took an evolutionistic view similar to that of the architect Gottfried Semper: both advised against planning a programmatic new style. For Semper, the potential of new developments lay in the continuation of design patterns inherited from the earliest humans

”Formernes genkomst”

Den första gången termen landskapsarkitektur förefaller ha förekommit i skrift var under sent 1820-tal. Efter hand kom begreppet att användas av allt fler, vilket ledde till en successiv etablering. Denna etablering dröjde dock norröver och det var först under det förra seklet som yrket på riktigt befästes i Sverige i samband med en handfull arkitekter. Sven-Ingvar Andersson är en av de förgrundsgestalter som kanske har haft störst påverkan på landskapsarkitekturen i Sverige men även i Skandinavien. Detta arbete ämnar undersöka vad som är kännetecknade för det formspråk som präglar ett flertal av de projekt som Andersson har skapat, vilka likheter och skillnader som går att urskilja. Arbetet präglas av de tre landskapsarkitekturhistoriska fallstudierna som har genomförts. Inom ramen för dessa fallstudier har ytterligare en metod framtagen av landskapsarkitekten Simon Bell applicerats för att möjliggöra en analys och abstraktion av de visuella element som den fysiska miljön består av. Utöver de undersökningar av Gustav Adolfs Torg i Malmö, Lunds Centralstation och Sankt Hans Torv i Köpenhamn som fallstudierna präglas av har andra så kallade referensprojekt undersökts i och med arbetets litteraturstudie. Detta har ansetts fördelaktigt i och med att det har möjliggjort en bredare analys av det formspråk som präglar Sven-Ingvar Anderssons konstnärskap. Kännetecknande för arbetets fallstudier var att alla tre platser präglas av linjer i olika utsträckning. Enligt Simon Bell består den fysiska miljön av så kallade ”basic elements” och punkten, linjen, ytan samt volymen utgör dessa beståndsdelar. Olika effekter, såsom riktning och orientering, är särskilt märkbara i samband med dessa linjer. Även andra, till synes motstridiga, effekter såsom enhetlighet och variation förefaller vara resultat av hur dessa linjer har kombinerats. En sparsam användning av växtmaterial präglar projekten och växtlighet har framförallt använts i form av punktinsatser. Den mest iögonfallande användningen av växter är de trädgrupper som accentuerar den axel som karaktäriserar stationsområdets huvudgata i Lund. Dessa medför en subtil men homogen rytm på platsen. Det är anmärkningsvärt hur ett antal motiv och mönster har använts i ett relativt stort antal projekt. Dessa motiv är återkommande, både bland fallstudierna och referensprojekten, oberoende av typologi och år av färdigställande men med vissa variationer. Materialiseringen av dessa former, alltså genom vilket eller vilka material dessa former manifesteras, skiljer sig dock från projekt till projekt. Ellipsen, mer eller mindre parallella linjer som överlappar varandra och medför abstrakta motiv samt rutnätmotivet är de motiv och mönster som i dessa projekt förefaller vara mest iögonfallande och karaktäristiskt för Sven-Ingvar Anderssons formspråk.The term landscape architecture seems to have been used for the first time in the 1820s. Gradually it was used to a greater extent, which eventually led to its establishment. This so-called establishment of the term was however delayed in Scandinavia and the profession of landscape architecture was not fully recognized in Sweden until the 20th century during a time when a small but prolific group of architects were active. Sven-Ingvar Andersson was one of these architects who arguably had the most profound impact not just considering the landscape architecture in Sweden but in Scandinavia as a whole during his lifetime. The intention with this paper is to investigate the characteristics of the landscape architect that is Sven-Ingvar Andersson, and especially the forms that make up the projects and designs he created. What similarities and differences are distinguishable when comparing these projects? The landscape architectural case studies constitute the main component of the work that has been carried out. Yet another method has been utilized with the case studies as its methodical framework and is created by the landscape architect Simon Bell. Bell elaborates in his book Elements of Visual Design in the Landscape how the visual elements, which make up the physical environment, can be abstracted and analysed. Other than the investigations of Gustav Adolfs Torg in Malmö, Lunds Centralstation and Sankt Hans Torv in Copenhagen which have been subjects to the recently mentioned case studies other so-called reference projects have been examined within the literature study. This approach has been considered favorable in order to broaden the analysis of the design created by Andersson. Lines was a shared feature by all sites involved in the case studies. The physical environment constitutes of “basic elements” according to Simon Bell and the point, line, plane and volume represents these elements. Numerous effects, especially direction and orientation, are noticeable in relation to the lines observable on these sites. Other seemingly contradictory aspects such as unity and variation are obvious effects due to the combination of lines. Plants have been scarcely used on all sites and the most conspicuous use is arguably the groups of trees, which accentuate the main street’s axis in Lund. These groups implicate a subtle but homogenous rhythm. It is noteworthy how a certain number of motifs and patterns reoccur in relatively many projects. These motifs reoccur both among the case study projects and the reference projects, among projects characterised by different typologies and among projects finished both early and late in Anderssons carrier. The materialization of these forms does however differ from project to project. The ellipse, more or less parallel lines that overlap and create abstract patterns and the grid pattern constitute the motifs and patterns which appear to be the most apparent and characteristic visual features created by Sven-Ingvar Andersson

Configuring Virtue: The Emergence of Abstraction, Allegoresis and Emblem in Swedish Figural Sculpture of the Seventeenth Century

This article concerns evidence of Renaissance cultural forms findingpurchase in the visual arts of early-modern Sweden, specifically as expressed in the figural sculpture of the seventeenth century. Traceableto stylistic innovations introduced by migrant stone-carvers from theNetherlands, new thematic elements from the realm of humanistic abstraction became established tropes within the native sculptural tradition.Taking figural representations of the Cardinal and Theological Virtuesas an area of particular focus, the article demonstrates how these traditional topoi were for the first time naturalized as familiar elements inthe decorative programmes of churches and memorial chapels. Theirdeployment in such contexts can be seen as evidence of a widening ofthe visual repertoire in the light of European cultural developments,and a new consciousness of the rhetorical power of persuasio amongthe commissioning patrons of such works from the emerging politicaland cultural elite

Centralskolan för konstflit - berättelse över skolans verksamhet under dess 62:dra arbetsår 1936-1937

Sisältää tietoja mm. opettajista ja opiskelijoista, lahjoituksista, opiskelijoiden määristä, opetusohjelmasta, valmistuneista opiskelijoista, myönnetyistä avustuksista ja palkinnoista sekä näytteitä oppilastöistä

Det 24. Nordiska Ikonografiska Symposiet

Rapport från det 24. nordiska ikonografiska symposiet som avhölls i Birgittaklostret i Tallinn den 28–31 augusti 2014. Temat för symposiet var ”Att presentera sig själv. Visuella manifestationer av donatorer, ägare och konstnärer under medeltid och efterreformatorisk tid”. Innehåller en lista med föredrag och föredragshållare.De nordiska ikonografiska symposierna ar​rangeras sedan 1968 vartannat år av de nordiska länderna enligt ett rullande schema

Taideteollinen oppilaitos vuosikertomus 1963-1964 - Konstindustriella läroverket årsberättelse 1963-1964

Julkaisu on kaksikielinen: suomi ja ruotsi. Sisältää tietoja mm. opettajista ja opiskelijoista, opiskelijoiden määristä, opetusohjelmasta, valmistuneista opiskelijoista, myönnetyistä avustuksista ja palkinnoista

Luettelo kirjoista, jotka myydään Bibliofiilien seura ry:n järjestämässä kirjahuutokaupassa Balderin juhlasalissa Aleksanterinkatu 12, sunnuntaina, joulukuun 10 pnä 1972 klo 13 alkaen

Moniste

Centralskolan för konstflit - läseåret 1905-1906

Sisältää tietoja mm. opettajista, opiskelijoiden määristä ja valmistuneista opiskelijoista sekä opetusohjelmasta, myönnetyistä avustuksista ja palkinnoista